Would/Have you moved to FL (in part) for WDW?

DisneyJunkie

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sometimes I go back and forth in my thoughts on moving to Florida to be closer to WDW. If I did ever move down there, I could honestly see being closer to WDW as being one of the main reasons and I'd most likely be there fairly often. On the other hand, the excitement and anticipation I always feel for an upcoming WDW trip is a "high" that can't easily be duplicated, and I'd probably lose that if I was in a position of "well I can just go over anytime I want".

Have any of you who have moved to or within Florida done so with WDW being a good part of the reason?
 
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orlando678-

Well-Known Member
I have always dreamed of moving to Florida. I love Universal and Walt Disney World and I think it will never grow old for me. You just have to keep finding ways to experience new things. Also since Orlando theme parks grow and change fast, there shouldnt be any problems.
 
I live relatively close to the parks (an hour and thirty minutes away), but I'm planning on moving there after I finish up college. WDW is mostly the big reason why I want to move there.
 

sfeinst

Member
I understand the excitement level idea. But my last trip, I got sick mid-vacation. If I lived in Florida near WDW, I could have said, that's it, I'm going home, I'll come back in a week or two. Or, OK, bad trip, but I can go back pretty quick again because I live right there. So moving to Florida for WDW is definitely high on my mind.
 

Seanual757

Well-Known Member
I moved to Central Florida 30 years ago with my parents, my wife and I now live a quick 20 minutes away driving down the 429 to Western Way :) . I was never a Disney person until I met my wife. She has always loved Disney (never went much as a child she was born and raised in Florida) she finally convinced me to buy waterpark passes 6 years ago and we never looked back we purchased annual passes, and finally DVC @ GFV this past March (we stay @ Disney 4-6 times a year). Now we hit the parks 2+ times a month. For us it’s cheap entertainment for the 3 kids and they love going they act like it’s the 1st time they have ever been.
 

DisneyJunkie

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I moved to Central Florida 30 years ago with my parents, my wife and I now live a quick 20 minutes away driving down the 429 to Western Way :) . I was never a Disney person until I met my wife. She has always loved Disney (never went much as a child she was born and raised in Florida) she finally convinced me to buy waterpark passes 6 years ago and we never looked back we purchased annual passes, and finally DVC @ GFV this past March (we stay @ Disney 4-6 times a year). Now we hit the parks 2+ times a month. For us it’s cheap entertainment for the 3 kids and they love going they act like it’s the 1st time they have ever been.

That's pretty interesting. So living just 20 minutes away, do you feel it's worth being in the DVC?
 

belledream

Well-Known Member
I always joke and dream about it, but then I run into 2 problems:
1. I couldn't be far away from my family. Just too many good times to miss.
2. If I went every weekend 'just because', would it feel special anymore? I know I know it goes against the "I wish I could live here foreverrr" mentality. It's all very confusing. :p

For now, our dream is to retire at Golden Oaks. ;)
 

OliveMcFly

Well-Known Member
I moved from PA to Orlando in January of 2007 just to work at Disney. I spent 7.5 years with WDW and 6 years with Universal. It was an incredible experience to perform for both parks. After I graduated college I moved back to PA to be closer to Philly and NYC for work.
 

jloucks

Well-Known Member
I am toying with the idea of getting an apartment for about a year (or two) near there and just spending an entire year pretty much living at WDW and Uni. I can 'early' retire at 48 if I want. That notion of spending a year over there is a huge carrot.

Hmm,, been a long time since I have lived in an apartment. Can you get 6 month leases? Cause that would be better. Snowbird there oct-march and vacate for the summer crowds. I love WDW but I dislove Crowds and heat more. =P
 

jloucks

Well-Known Member
2. If I went every weekend 'just because', would it feel special anymore? I know I know it goes against the "I wish I could live here foreverrr" mentality. It's all very confusing. :p

For now, our dream is to retire at Golden Oaks. ;)

I suspect you are 100% correct.

Reminds me of my mother in law. She loved cruises. Loved 'em! So she thought, I'll just book the same cruise 8 weeks straight! After 4, she was quite done.

Too much of a good thing can be a problem.

Except with Dr Pepper. ...and money. ...and vacation time. ...and banjo concerts.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
I see myself living near the parks when I'm old.

Sadly, I have no idea how the parks will look in 40 years, but I hope they have some semblance of today's parks.

This is a possibility for me as well, although it would be sooner than 40 years LOL. I'll be 44 in a couple of weeks.

In a similar scenario, I moved from New Jersey to South Florida about 18 years ago. My main reason was because I loved the beach so much in NJ, and you only got 2 months of it at best. I moved for the beach and the weather (no snow, and I hate being cold.)

I love South Florida, and I fully appreciate the weather (even with the hurricanes) but - I pretty much stopped going to the beach after the first few years. I go when we have out of town guests. But I don't generally go because you always think "it will be there tomorrow."

Plus, when you are on vacation, you are on vacation. When you are not on vacation in a vacation area, it's different. When you do have out of town guests, you have to remind them sometimes they are on vacation but you are not, and you can't keep up with all they want to do LOL.

Now, don't get me wrong, while we don't go to the beach, we can still go out in the pool in our own backyard almost year-round. This is where I belong to live.

We have considered eventually retiring either to the Keys or to the Disney area. I could easily see myself working at WDW, especially for the perks. The thing is, Orlando itself is not cute. I know there are nice areas here and there, but I've spent extensive amounts of time there, and overall, not the nicest place to live. I would look outside the WDW area most likely, unless Celebration is affordable.

When you live somewhere touristy, you are less likely to put up with the barriers you know you have to deal with on vacation. For example: just the parking situation near the beach is enough to keep me in my backyard. If I were on vacation, it would be an expected inconvenience and expense. I live 10 minutes from the beach but it can take 20 minutes to park. So I could see living near WDW and thinking hmmm...go eat at Be Our Guest or our local restaurant? Well, if I have to go through the whole parking routine at WDW, it might be easier to just go more often to our local place. No wading through children and strollers, no (sigh) tourists - you'll be surprised how quickly you start talking about tourists that way LOL.
 

sfeinst

Member
I suspect you are 100% correct.

Reminds me of my mother in law. She loved cruises. Loved 'em! So she thought, I'll just book the same cruise 8 weeks straight! After 4, she was quite done.

Too much of a good thing can be a problem.

Except with Dr Pepper. ...and money. ...and vacation time. ...and banjo concerts.

True, but living close, you do have the option of not going as well and splitting it out to monthly or every 2 months. Living far away, tougher ot go multiple times a year. I would move close and go quarterly and be happy.
 

Seanual757

Well-Known Member
Without a doubt it’s well worth it, nothing beats being able to go to the park and then back to your hotel to swim, eat, and enjoy the activities Disney offers. Honestly for the value of what Disney offers and what our passes cost it’s cheap entertainment. The value of Disney’s services are well above any hotel in the Orlando area. We have 3 small kids 7, 6, and 13 months Disney are our vacations as it’s too much of a hassle to travel out of town (we will be heading to Hawaii once out 13 month old is 4-5 years old.


What we love about it is leaving our busy daily life at home and enjoy the dream at Disney no phones, computers, work, ect… just our time with the family and have no worries at all.


Once we saw how much money we have spent in the past 3 years staying at Disney ( half the cost of our DVC membership of 200 pts.) it just made sense to go DVC. We will have 3 stays this year for DVC, and in March a week at GFV 2 rooms. If we added up those costs I am $1800 away from my total DVC membership and we will stay again July 4th weekend in 2016, and then New year’s 2016 so by the end of next year we would have paid for DVC in 4 years’ worth of stays.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
I am toying with the idea of getting an apartment for about a year (or two) near there and just spending an entire year pretty much living at WDW and Uni. I can 'early' retire at 48 if I want. That notion of spending a year over there is a huge carrot.

Hmm,, been a long time since I have lived in an apartment. Can you get 6 month leases? Cause that would be better. Snowbird there oct-march and vacate for the summer crowds. I love WDW but I dislove Crowds and heat more. =P

I think this is a better idea than a permanent move. It's a temporary indulgence.

I once traveled around the country for nearly four years. Some places I stayed a few days, some a few months. I loved that experience of getting to know a place for a few months. I almost moved to Vegas as a result of that trip. The thing is, you don't have to look at everything as a "for the rest of your life" proposition. You can just do things for a time. It can expose you to so many new ideas and ways of seeing people and the world. (Of course, some of this can depend on your family scenario and/or marital status. This was all when I was single.)
 

danyoung56

Well-Known Member
I will be retiring in about 6 years, and I plan to move from Dallas to the Orlando area and spend my retirement driving boats for Disney. The only downer in this plan is the weather - it's freakin' HOT in Orlando! But then it's pretty hot here in Dallas. My routine now is to be outside as much as possible, and to mentally adjust my attitude from "freakin' HOT" to "it's not so bad". I'll let you know how I'm doing as retirement approaches!
 

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