By D23 Team
On Friday, September 23, more than 30 D23 Gold Members and guests gathered at the top level of Disney’s Contemporary Resort for an intimate luncheon celebrating the 45th anniversary of Walt Disney World Resort. Although Disney Legend Bill Sullivan was unable to join the event as originally planned (his appearance will be rescheduled), guests explored the history of the resort with five Disney notables, whose combined service totals more than 100 years of making magic at the “Vacation Kingdom of the World!”
As D23 Members entered the elegant Napa Room—which offered a spectacular panoramic view of Magic Kingdom Park—they were greeted by 2015–16 Walt Disney World Ambassadors Caitlin Busscher and Nathaniel Palma and D23’s Steven Vagnini, who each hosted question-and-answer sessions with special guests Dwight Dorr (operations manager and one of the longest-serving cast members at The Walt Disney Company), Barry Jacobson (general manager, Golden Oak), and Jason Grandt (art director, Walt Disney Imagineering).
Dwight Dorr, who began his career at Disneyland in 1959 and moved to Central Florida in 1971 to open Walt Disney World, recalled the 16–18-hour days spent preparing the property for Opening Day. “Most of our time was spent totally on site, working with 8,000 construction workers,” he remembered vividly. “One of my first times out here, there was no water in the lagoon. There were just earth movers bringing in the white sand. And it was impressive.” Dwight also had the chance to work closely with Bill “Sully” Sullivan throughout his career. “I learned a lot from Bill and lost a lot of weight working for him!” Dwight continued. “But it was for the right reasons, and we were learning. I still see Sully, although sometimes he still thinks I work for him!”
Barry Jacobson—whose career took him from a lifeguard in 1977 to his current role as general manager of Golden Oak, the private residential community at Walt Disney World—revealed that Dwight was his first general manager. Later participating in the openings of Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Barry revealed that his favorite Disney moment took place a few years later, in 2009. “To watch how proud our cast is about making magic—about all the aspects of The Walt Disney Company—all of that culminated in the D23 Expo,” he said. “I think working on that was the highlight of my Disney career.”
As part of his conversation, Jason Grandt recalled his early childhood visits to Walt Disney World and the reasons why he wanted to become a Disney Imagineer. “If you came as a kid to Disney and now work in Imagineering, you probably fall into one of two buckets,” he explained. “The first is the kid that went on all the attractions and figured out how they were built, analyzing everything. The second is the kid like me that was just totally amazed by everything! I never flew on an airplane until I was 20, so while riding If You Had Wings, I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is what it’s like! This is the gateway to the world!’ And it had never dawned on me that people actually built this stuff. And that’s what I wanted to do.”
After the Q&A session, D23 Members enjoyed a scrumptious, three-course meal with the special guests, asking them questions about their career and sharing stories about their experiences at the world-famous resort destination. After a group photo overlooking Magic Kingdom Park, each guest was presented with a special gift—a commemorative print of early Walt Disney World concept art by Imagineer George McGinnis, produced in partnership with the Walt Disney Imagineering Art Library.
