Can anyone offer some advice?

[candyman9585]

Hi everyone!! I need some advice, you see, i live in NJ and i love love love everything Disney. I love WDW most of all. The time is coming round soon when i'll be done with school and i will be moving. Where to, is my problem. I would love more than anything to live in WDW :animwink: lol, but seeing how that's not possible, i'm thinking about moving to the Orlando area, or somewhere closer to WDW than NJ. Now the problem i have, is, i'm scared that living so close to WDW and having the ability to go as often as i please, might in some way take away from the magic that is WDW. :brick: As things have been going, i've been visiting WDW about twice a year, and it never lets me down, and i seem to be staying longer every time i go b/c i can't get enough. I'm just scared to death that if i move down south more Disney will become something that isn't as amazing as i view it now. I can say the same as when i go into the city (NY) it's just buildings and shops to me, but then i see all the tourists looking around in awe and taking pictures and videos left and right, as if they've never seen a building before, or a retail store, and i'm sure some of you are going to read this and disagree with me b/c you're "that" tourist that i see all the time, which is fine, i know where you're coming from. But that's how it is with everyone that's somewhere they haven't been, or been to in a while. If one of you were to comment from L.A. saying i take NY for granted i would just say the same to you, b/c i've never been to L.A. and i would be "that" tourist if i were there. I hope i'm making the least bit of sense. I have a hard time gathering my thoughts and making sense some times. But can ANYone help shine some light my way. Whether it's just an opinion, or if you've actually gone through this yourself, i'd appreciate it so much. Well i hope you all have a magical day!!

 

[slappy magoo]

No offense, but what is it exactly that you'd like to do for a living? Is it an industry that exists/thrives in the Orlando area? I'd be more worried about that than whether or not living close to WDW will make it lose the magic. If you're working hard, you'll probably apppreciate living near WDW because, while you'll be going more often than you would living in NJ, it probably won't be an every day thing, you know?

 

[Mori Anne]

I agree with the above. You really need to see the jobs in the area first. Then, you need to figure out if you can get a decent enough job to support yourself, and your disney habbits. I am a military family and we move around a lot. Cost of living is so different everywhere you go. You will not enjoy moving to/around WDW if you do so and don't have enough money to even get INTO WDW.

But, if you so find a job that suits you, and you make enough money, than I don't see why the magic will fizzle out. Besides, since you are 21, you can always hang out at Pleasure Island. I can't image being 21 and getting sick of PI.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Enjoy life a little while you can - there's plenty of time ahead to settle down and get a real job. Move to Orlando, pick up any type of work that will support your Disney cravings for a while

 

[svickersart]

I asume, since you are 21 when you say your getting out of school soon you mean college. You can always consider a career with Disney. They always have positions avalible in Florida and I believe you get free admission to the parks as a CM. I plan on moving to Florida at some point myself, maybe looking into a job with Disney and I'm 40. I love the area and its time for a change. If I knew what I do now at 18 I would have gone then. I dont think WDW or DL would lose thier magic living close and going a lot. There are annual passholders that go almost daily and dont get bored, and just because your close doesnt mean you have to go all the time. Good luck on what ever you choose to do.
Steve

 

[Stitch_626_UK]

I can't image being 21 and getting sick of PI.

I could never ever get sick of PI either, its like a home to me! and the bucket drinks are like my family!

 

[figment1985]

Dude I am in the SAME boat! My fiancee and I finish school and are getting married within a year and we really want to move to that area. I imagine the cost of living there is a lot. I would be more worried about spending lots of money at Disney, aside from just ticket costs. Kinda sucks to have such an expensive obsession, ya know?

Let me know if you figure it out.

 

[Maleficent98]

The Magic of Disney

Well, I moved to Orlando in 98 to work at WDW. I have always loved Disney growing up and I wanted to work there one day so with 3 yrs of hotel experience under my belt I moved to Orlando. It was great! The pay at Disney to start off is not the greatest but there is always over time to be had. A cast member gets into all the parks for free and there are discounts to everything else. I went into the parks all the time, not so much in the summer due to the hot weather but the water parks were great to do in the summer. Disney has a lot of opportunity for it's cast members to move up in the business and explore different roles. I started out as a front desk hostess at the Contemporary then moved to concierge after a few months on the front desk from there I went to the Yacht & Beach Club as a itinerary planner. I then made the move to the Grand Floridian concierge after a couple of years because I missed working at a magic Kingdom resort. Working at Disney is a great experience and I enjoyed the 6 years that I was a cast member. So my suggestion is to just move to Orlando and get a job a Disney! Life is short so make the most of it and HAVE FUN!!:sohappy:

 

[Maleficent98]

The Magic of Disney

Well, I moved to Orlando in 98 to work at WDW. I have always loved Disney growing up and I wanted to work there one day so with 3 yrs of hotel experience under my belt I moved to Orlando. It was great! The pay at Disney to start off is not the greatest but there is always over time to be had. A cast member gets into all the parks for free and there are discounts to everything else. I went into the parks all the time, not so much in the summer due to the hot weather but the water parks were great to do in the summer. Disney has a lot of opportunity for it's cast members to move up in the business and explore different roles. I started out as a front desk hostess at the Contemporary then moved to concierge after a few months on the front desk from there I went to the Yacht & Beach Club as a itinerary planner. I then made the move to the Grand Floridian concierge after a couple of years because I missed working at a magic Kingdom resort. Working at Disney is a great experience and I enjoyed the 6 years that I was a cast member. So my suggestion is to just move to Orlando and get a job a Disney! Life is short so make the most of it and HAVE FUN!!:sohappy:

 

[candyman9585]

hmm...

wow...thanks everyone for the thoughts. it's nice knowing how nice everyone on these boards are. and hearing all your different stories, and your advice really means soo much to me. I have considered the possibilty of working at WDW, very much so. That too is a deciding factor for me in all of this. Like just being able to work there and make people happy every day is definitely something i would love doing for a living. But where i am right now in my life is like a roadblock. :brick: I'm majoring in engineering sciences at NJIT and i work for the building dept. of my town. I mean, where can i get with that? My slate up til now includes 2 yrs @ an ice cream parlor:slurp: , 3 yrs as an activities asst. in a nursing home, a two month stint at borders, and now 2 yrs. going at the building dept. I just need to sit down look things over and just make some decisions i guess. Like really re-evaluate my life. ugh. i just feel like i'm no where every time i try to think things out. and anytime something goes wrong i always make the worst out of the situation and just wonder why bother sometimes. and it's over the dumbest things, but i can't stop myself from doing it. oh well. now that the semester is coming to an end, and i'll be in WDW in two weeks for two weeks, i'm going to start investigating and start finding stuff out. Get some info on whatever jobs i can, and stuff like that i guess. So hoping i haven't bummed everyone out with my sob story, thanks again to all of you who have posted. it means very much to me.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

I could never ever get sick of PI either, its like a home to me! and the bucket drinks are like my family!

Try working @ PI, you'd be sick of it soon enough! :hurl:

 

[KaliSplash]

I fully understand your concern. I have thoughts like that as I look down the road a few years, which in my case would be retirement.
I kid my wife that I married her because she lived an hour from Disney World and 10 minutes from the Space Center. The reality is, most of her relatives complain constantly about the tourists and traffic and so forth and don't go to the parks except when they have to escort an out-of-towner.
That said, fortunately my wife shares the magic and so we go at least once a year and love it.
But I think you are right to consider whether proximity will rub off some of the majic. Certainly there are members on these boards who live in the area and go daily and love it. You could be like them.
But there are many people who come to take for granted what they have immediately available. One of my wife's sisters who lived right outside DC went to the Air and Space Museum for the first time, when?, when my wife and I took her.
I also wonder whether working at WDW would completely erase the magic. I'm sure you see the comments from time to time about cast members who don't seem to care. If you're working at Cosmic Ray's, getting the burgers and fries ready is not that much different from doing it at McDonalds.
How excited can you be when you say boo to guest number 3,654 for the day as you load doom buggies.
And what about when you find out all about the very pedestrian buildings behind the facades that create magic for us. (this is one reason i've never taken a 'backstage' tour and probably won't.)
I don't know that I've helped you with anything, but you are wise to consider. Living in South Carolina, its just far enough away that it's a big deal when you get to go.
But as you will read, there are people on these boards who go daily and love it.
Think carefully and good luck!

 

[sbkline]

I totally agree with the OP's point and I see exactly where he is coming from. Living in Central Illinois, it takes 18 or 19 hours to drive there, so it is only a once a year (if that) treat. I've commented many times that if I were to move, I wouldn't want to move to Florida. The old phrase "it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there" comes to mind. Not only do you have the hurricaine threat and astonomically hight real estate prices, compared to the midwest, but the OP's view is the view I share as well. I'm afraid that having WDW in my "backyard" so to speak would take away the magic and living in Florida would totally ruin that excitement of taking a week off work and road tripping to Florida. It's something special enough that I want to keep that way...special. A treat that I don't get to experience everyday.

My opinion is that I wouldn't mind living several hours closer like, say, Tennessee or Georgia. 9 or 10 hours closer so that I can go more often, but still far enough away where it is a road trip which requires planning and vacation time from work. In other words, far enough away that it doesn't become common place and routine, yet close enough that I could go maybe 2 or 3 times a year instead of only one.

But someone else had a good point as well...that if your sole decision to move is based on WDW, then your priorities are messed up. You still have to have a job to provide you with money to pay for living and for a car to take you to WDW, as well as to pay for your visit to WDW. So you first need to make sure you have a satisfactory job, and then hope that this job can bring you a little closer to WDW. But if I were you, I wouldn't move to Florida. Maybe the Virginias or Carolinas, or Georgia. Much closer, but still far enough away to be able to adequately appreciate it when you do go.

 

[CleveRocks]

I grew up in Philadelphia (the actual city, not the suburbs) , about 90 minutes from the shore (to me, that's Atlantic City and thereabouts). I always loved the beach. As a kid, I was lucky to make it there even once a summer for a daytime trip with my parents. To me, it wasn't just going into the water, or sitting on the beach under a warm sun. It was the smell of the salt air, the fresh breeze, the sound of the surf, the vast expanse of nothingness on the horizon, the poetic idea of being on the very bleeding edge of the continent, and even that fishy low-tide odor in the air. So even as a kid I dreamed of being at the shore, but never for a minute thought of actually living there as a possibility ... it was just a dream.

My wife always felt the same way. We met as teenagers in Philadelphia, and joked that we should marry and that after a good life we should retire and move to the shore.

Well, fast forward to us in our late 20s and early 30s, living outside of Cleveland, Ohio, about a 10-hour drive from the shore. My wife was 2 years into a 3-year job contract, and we were trying to decide where to live the rest of our lives and start to have kids and raise a family -- we were married about 6 years by that point. Cleveland would have been a lovely place to stay. We thought of taking an adventure like a coupla years in Alaska, or in a Southwestern U.S. Indian reservation, but we decided that our future kids should be able to see and know their extended family, all of whom live in the Philly area. But we just didn't want to return to Philadelphia or its suburbs.

Then it hit me -- WE COULD LIVE AT THE SHORE! The more I thought about it, I realized that some people actually live there all year 'round, that it's not simply a summer tourist destination. I had maintained occasional contact with my former employer all along. I set up a meeting in Philly and flew in to discuss my future with the company, and proposed an expansion beyond the immediate Philly area to the shore, with me running it. They loved the idea. Then I helped my wife figure out possible employers for her in that area. She got an interview, she flew in, she got the job, and we moved a few months later. That was 8.5 years ago.

Eight and a half years later, I'm STILL THRILLED about living at the shore. All those things I wrote in the first paragraph, they STILL excite me about the shore. The shore hasn't lost its magic for me. Every day when I drive home from work and am at the crest of a bridge (over the bay) looking at my island and the endless expanse of ocean beyond it, I STILL can't believe that I actually live on an island and have the beach a few blocks away from me whenever I want it. Some of my passions are jogging and bike riding on the boardwalk, so I get to see the ocean pretty regularly, year 'round. And on warm-ish December days like we've been having, it's STILL a thrill to walk on a deserted beach and have it almost all to myself. The few other people I see are just as glad to be there as I am.

Sure, I dislike most of the aspects of tourist season, but I also secretly like the fact that I live in a place that people crave to be at (in the summer).

People I meet through work, as well as old Philly acquaintances, usually hit me with the same comment when they learn I live at the shore. "You're so lucky," they say. I reply that it's not luck at all, it's a decision my wife and I made. We had a dream and we made it happen through some pretty boring and pedestrian planning. My KIDS are lucky that they were born here and live here, but my wife and I are here through a series of decisions, not through luck.

So that's my experience.

Just make sure that if you move near the Mouse, that you can earn a living. WDW is a very expensive place, and if your passion is to play there as often as possible, you have to be able to afford it.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Big-Bad-Dave]

What a wonderful story Cleverocks! You have inspired me to take a long look at my first 30 years and decide what to do with the next 30. Thanks!!!!

 

[ZambeziZelda]

You could always do a College Program the semester after you graduate. Kind of give you a taste of living in Orlando.

I know that, for me personally, living near Disney World, going every single day (whether for work or play) thrilled me as much a yearly vacation. I was in Orlando for nearly 4 months before my termination, and now that I'm back in Seattle, I'm actually pretty homesick- and I was never homesick for Seattle, lol.

 

[CleveRocks]

What a wonderful story Cleverocks! You have inspired me to take a long look at my first 30 years and decide what to do with the next 30. Thanks!!!!

And thanks for making my day with your comments!:wave: