Lake Buena Vista: the Heart of Florida’s Disney Empire

If you are going to be known mostly as a mailing address, you might as well have the most famous mailing address in the world. Lake Buena Vista is where the Walt Disney World Resort picks up its mail. Although Disney World is synonymous with Orlando, the four theme parks are physically situated in Bay City, located to the southwest of the Central Florida metropolis. In the 1960s, when Walt Disney bought this land, he was given the authority to create company-controlled municipalities for the theme parks and the employees and administration. Hence, Lake Buena Vista. The name coincides with the street in Burbank, California, where the Disney Company makes its corporate headquarters.

Planning a visit? Stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.

Today, several major attractions have spilled out from Walt Disney World in Bay City into Lake Buena Vista, including one theme park. Typhoon Lagoon, the second of the Disney water extravaganzas, is the most visited water park in the world, despite being closed in November and December. DisneyQuest, a multi-story indoor interactive theme park designed as a prototype for large urban cities, is also found in Lake Buena Vista. One of the Disney resort’s four golf courses, the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course, is located in the community, certified by Audubon International as a Cooperative Wildlife Sanctuary.

Over the years, the employee residences morphed into resort facilities. The Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, originally built to service the Disneyites, was transformed into Disney Village, a complex of outdoor shopping and dining spots open to the public for no admission. Entertainment can be enjoyed throughout the Disney Village. Stand on the decks of The Empress Lilly, a full-size replica of a 19th century Mississippi River paddleboat, or check out La Nouba, which presents Cirque du Soleil shows in a custom-built downtown theater.

Real cruises launch on the Disney-created Sassagoula River with a fleet of 15 boats from the fictional Sassagoula Steamboat Company. Not everything in Lake Buena Vista comes stamped with a Disney imprimatur. The Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores offer outlet shopping from designer names with convenient storefront parking. Of course, the outlets are across the street from the city proper.