One of the most common misconceptions I’ve run into when talking about Walt Disney World is the size of it. The Disney company owns over 43 square miles of land just outside Orlando, Florida – that’s over 27,000 acres or 110 square kilometers. It’s basically the size of San Francisco. In comparison, Disneyland in Anaheim, California covers about 500 acres.

By the numbers:

• Four theme parks – Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios
• Two water parks – Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach
• Four golf courses and two mini-golf courses (Interesting fact: one of the golf courses was used for PGA Tours in the past, and this year will be part of the Senior PGA Tour – it’s a nice course!)
• Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney, is a shopping and entertainment district (movie theaters, restaurants, etc)
• 27 Disney-owned hotels on property – five value resorts, four moderate resorts, eight deluxe resorts, one campground and nine Disney Vacation Club resorts
• It requires almost 75,000 employees (known as cast members) to run everything – working in hotels, restaurants, operating rides, driving buses, etc