The Walt Disney Company's expansive Orlando theme park empire will reportedly begin accepting Apple's fast-growing mobile payments system this week, while Disneyland Resort in California is expected to follow suit next year.
The rollout will begin with Walt Disney World stores, restaurants, bars, and ticket booths that have stationary payment terminals, according to WDWMagic. Areas where staff use portable terminals to accept payments will follow, though the timetable remains unknown.
Walt Disney World is the most popular vacation destination in the world, drawing more than 50 million visitors each year. The much smaller Disneyland Resort in California is in second place with over 20 million people passing through its gates annually.
Disney's theme parks --Â including those in Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo --Â generated $14.1 billion in revenue for the company in 2013. Combined with the sheer volume of transactions that the parks process on a yearly basis, they could quickly become one of Apple Pay's top merchants.
The parks, along with Disney's retail stores, were announced as part of the first round of Apple Pay partners in September.
Apple and Disney have a long history of close collaboration, beginning with a film distribution agreement for Toy Story --Â created by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs's Pixar studio --Â in 1995. Disney then bought Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006, granting Jobs 138 million shares of Disney stock, or 7.5 percent of the company, in the process.