? Disney Welcome Center in Ocala is it still there

[patches07]

My DH will be at WDW in Sept this will be our first trip driving and would like to know if the WDW welcome center is still open.

1996-CB
2003-off sight
2005-POP
2007-POR

 

[Tinkerboy00]

Oh, I don't know. I remember it, but I'm not sure if it's still there, and I drive alot from Orlando to Gainesville.

 

[thebecka]

Here is the information on the Welcome Center:

8723 International Dr, Orlando, 32819 - (407) 363-5871

We got our WDW Tickets there and then just added additional non-expire days onto the tickets before we left since we are going back in July. We also got tickets for the Dixie Stampede there as well. We had great seats for less than you would pay at the door.

Have an awesome trip!!

 

[Seahunt]

Nope not in Ocala anymore - the Disney/AAA Welcome Center in Ocala closed in 2005 - here's a news report from August 2005:

After 18 years, Mickey and Minnie are scampering out of Ocala.
The Disney Information Center, located just off Interstate 75 and State Road 200, will close next week, Disney officials confirmed Friday.

The Internet age reduced the number of Disney visitors using the center, said company spokeswoman Andrea Finger.

"When we opened the center 18 years ago, it was part of our marketing strategy," she said. "With all of the advances in technology, guests increasingly have access. Most guests have all the information they need about Walt Disney World before they begin travel."

The center will close at the end of the business day Aug. 13, Finger said. The center's 16 employees - nine full-time and seven part-time - will be offered jobs at the Orlando theme parks, she added.

"We hope that they will stay with us," she said. "There were a good number of the cast members who were part of the opening team in 1987."

Finger declined to discuss how many visitors use the center each year, saying Disney doesn't release attendance numbers for any of its properties.

Ocala resident Laurie Garcia went to the center Friday afternoon to pick up theme park tickets and maps. She and her family were headed to Orlando today.

"That's really sad. I'm really sad about that," she said when told of the center's closing.

Garcia moved from the Chicago area to Ocala last September. She said she'd visited the center "three or four" times since then.

"I come here because it's more convenient" to get tickets, she said. "I'll have to drive to Disney or do it online, and I don't like doing things online."

The center's closing won't affect the local economy, said Jo Salyers, chair of the county's Tourism Development Council.

"I don't think it really had any impact," she said. "Their mission was really to pull people away."

According to Finger, Disney owns the property. But that could not be immediately confirmed through Marion County property records.

After the center closes, the property will be sold, Finger said.
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[davidlw]

Gosh I am sad that it is closing. We always stopped there on our way to WDW and it got us in the mood to see the Mouse. Bummer

 

[Tinkerboy00]

I didn't think I had seen it anymore. Thought maybe I was going crazy and just had missed it.

 

[mickey mouse lover]

We miss this place tremendously. We felt like we started our vacation when
we stopped there. Now, it's so sad to pass by and not see Mickey.