We've decided: We're moving to Florida!

[jwfla422]

Some things you'll find out about driving in the Orlando area.

1. There is a magnetic force field in the area that makes all auto turn signals inoperative.
2. MERGE means GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY. They will just force you off the road if you don't let them in.
3. There must be one heck of a prize for getting to the red light the fastest, everyone is trying to get the prize.
4. Almost no one (including some police officers strangely enough) can tell you what the blue lights on the traffic signals mean.

Just a side not, road construction takes twice as long as other states. The Orlando area has to be the underground pipe capital of the US.

SOOO TRUE about the turn signal comment, that magnetic force field stretches all the way down to South FL as well and most of the police cars have this same issue which is sad... ...and the race to the red light, imagine the amount of gas they would ALL save if they just coast...

Driving in Orlando is similar to South FL and that may the toughest part to get used to (after 25 yrs I still can't get used to it)!! Forget about the hurricanes, heat/humidity stuff...it's the driving that really is the "MAJOR" adjustment!! (but a serious side note, watch out for the red light runners, it's become a disease here...they are the worst and I can vouch for that as my dh was very lucky a few years back when a red light runner totaled his truck, he was very lucky to have just sustained minor injuries from that awful incident..we believe the cab of the F-150 truck he was in saved his life!) I just advise to ALWAYS look both ways first when the light turns green before you proceed into an intersection.

 

[LindaG4458]

We have vacationed in FL for years and bought a condo in Vero Beach 12 years ago. We arrived yesterday from NH and are waiting for the moving van to bring all of our stuff on Friday or Saturday. It was time to make the move and we don't think we will regret it.

Upstate NH is great if you are athletic and like outdoor activities in all seasons. We will miss some things, but the health care accessibility is much better here. Plus the resident passes to Disney are reasonably priced .

 

[ethanwa]

Well, welcome to FL, and I hope you are happy here! But let me just say that we would LOOOOOOOVE to live in Seattle, if we could afford it. Too bad we couldn't have done a house-swap or something. I guess the seaweed really IS always greener in somebody else's lake!

Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but I think for us we are looking for a change after 30+ years. Time to try something new.

If you don't mind me asking, why would you want to move to Seattle?

 

[chobie]

I moved from Seattle to Florda 8 years ago. I had lived here before, though, and my family is mostly here. My husband is a native Washingtonian and he adjusted quite well to Florida. The summer months can be brutal but the rest is beautiful.

November through April when you're sitting outside in shorts you will be happy. I would rather the bad weather be bad because of heat and humidity rather than grey and cold.

Yes, the northwest is beautiful, but the several months of non-stop cold-grey-drizzle is depressing. It was just on the news recently that a Bellingham school closed so the kids could enjoy a rare sunny day.

Everything people say about Florida drivers is true, though. The thing I miss the most about Seattle is polite driving.

 

[NY Disney fan]

Great things about being a FL resident:
- Annual Passes makes sense
- Discounts Discounts Discounts!!
- You can drive to Port Canaval in a jiffy to take the Disney cruise
- and because of this can become a Platinum Castaway member in no time!
- Become a gator expert

 

[CupcakeKelly]

I am very envious of you! I have lived in Boston suburbs my whole life and would love to move to somewhere warmer. I was so close to convincing DH to move, and then my FIL got a little tipsy and started blabbering on about how afraid he is that his kids are going to leave him all alone (MIL and FIL split up about 8 years ago). After that, the guilt was too much for DH and he stopped considering it completely

 

[nhpooh]

In my world it's 72 degrees all summer long. 72 in my house, 72 in my car and 72 inside wherever we go!



It's actually the opposite of NH. In NH we stayed in during the cold winter and played in the summer. Here we play outside in the winter and try to stay inside in the summer.

This is what I tell people all the time when I say I want to live in Florida. They say oh no the heat would kill me, but really I like it and as you said you stay inside in summer and outside in the winter. We stay inside in the winter here and outside in the summer. One thing is our summers are very short and some days lately it's as hot and humid as down there.

 

[TheAviator]

It is also my dream as well as my plan to eventually move to Florida, although I will want to be in a beach town, not Orlando. I am in the camp that has no idea how anyone would NOT want to move to Florida. When I talk about this and occasionally run across someone like that, that would rather stay in Arkansas or somewhere I'm like really why? To me the heat in Florida is nothing. I"m used to hot summers, Florida would actually be more of a moderate climate for me. What's not to like, beach, palm trees, beautiful clear water, beach shops, beach bars, bikinis, easy going lifestyle, warm weather, and did I say the beach?

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Congrats! I want to move to Florida so bad after the kids are out of school in 5 years but my husband says no way.

He actually wants to move more towards the midwest and closer to his family in MN. And I say no way to that - snow? Ewwww. never again.

So I guess Georgia is where we'll be staying. LOL

 

[Feralpeg]

As people have mentioned, drivers in the Orlando area are terrible...very aggressive. If you don't speed, you'll get run over. There is one exception, as mentioned by another poster, DO NOT SPEED IN WINDERMERE!

I can't stress this enough. The police in Windermere don't have a lot to do except watch for speeders. When the speed limit says 25 mph, they mean 25 mph. Don't try going 30.

Part of the main street of Windermere is a 25 mph zone. The rest is 30 mph. I can't even begin to tell you how many people I see stopped for speeding in Windermere. They are very, very serious about enforcing the speed limits.

I also like Yellow Dog Eats in Gotha although it needs more seating!

 

[bound4wdw]

We are in nearly the same situation as you. We are planning on moving before school starts down there in August. Want to be in Orlando but DW doesn't have an immediate opportunity with her company, and want to be in the Windermere area. Considering Jacksonville beach, or northeast Tampa also, just to ease into the Orlando area when opportunity arises. All low crime, and good school areas.

 

[hopemax]

Good luck and congrats!

In 2005, my parents moved from Bellingham, WA to Winter Garden (well, the first year they lived in an apartment in Orlando, but you get the idea). For the most part they love it. However, there are times my Mom misses the mountains and the evergreens.

The only thing I would caution is that the West Coast lifestyle can be pretty different than other places. My Dad used to talk about how "old" our family living in the Mid-West seemed to him, compared to people of a similar age in Washington. And Florida has some of that as well. This can show up in terms of politics, education, activities, making choices outside of comfort zones and other things. My parents are on the conservative end of the political spectrum but even they had a hard time having to throw away the newspaper and cat food cans because they only had Plastic recycling. Stuff like that, be prepared for.

Also, in Winter Garden my parents can hear the loudest booms of the MK fireworks, so you will definitely hear them in Windermere.

 

[glammadiva]

Good luck. Sounds like you have the right attitude to make it down here! Just remain flexible and remember living here is a lot different from visiting here. Wont hurt to brush up on your Spanish either. Especially when you visit Miami!

 

[11290]

FERALPEG:

Is that little ice cream shop just north of the roundabout on the east side of the street still there? Haven't been through Widermere for quite awhile (go out 528 to I4 now) but used to stop there on my way to work in the summers several years ago. Good ice cream.

 

[horseshowmom]

Yes, the northwest is beautiful, but the several months of non-stop cold-grey-drizzle is depressing. It was just on the news recently that a Bellingham school closed so the kids could enjoy a rare sunny day.

Have to love that! We get out for snow days, and they got out for a sun day!

We will miss some things, but the health care accessibility is much better here.

That's what my parents say. They've been retired to Florida for about 20 years and would come "home" in their motorhome each summer. They've recently bought another house here to have more room and are splitting the year about half here and half there.

One thing that they really miss is the access to excellent healthcare for senior citizens (which won't matter that much to the OP! ). Mother says that the doctors here treat you like you're "old" while the medical personnel there don't. They're more accustomed to seeing active senior citizens, I think.

 

[OhMari]

The difference between the extreme heat in Florida and the winters, at least you can still go out, early in the mornings and in the evenings. We are stuck in our houses all winter from November to May. We had the coldest, ice, snowy winter this year in Wisconsin. One morning, I had so much snow on my car, I figured I might as well walk to work. I literally walked through 3 ft of snow 2 blocks to work. With every foot step I took, I was screaming, "Why do I live here!" I could be loosing my job within the next year, and I am seriously thinking of being a snow-bird. I don't think I would live around Orlando though, I would move more north to the Gainsville area.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Interesting, I think I'd have more fun in CO than FL

 

[Jaya]

When we moved to Orlando 35 years ago from the frozen north, all our friends wailed "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAND ALL THAT HEAT AND HUMIDITY???"

Well, I've never had to shovel two feet of heat and humidity off my driveway; I've never had to scrape an inch of heat and humidity off my windshield; I've never had to drive 5 mph because the roads were covered with heat and humidity; my roof has never collapsed from three feet of heat and humidity; I've never slipped on the heat and humidity on the sidewalk and broken my tailbone; and my water pipes have never burst from the heat and humidity.

That usually shuts them up real fast....

 

[horseshowmom]

When we moved to Orlando 35 years ago from the frozen north, all our friends wailed "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAND ALL THAT HEAT AND HUMIDITY???"

Well, I've never had to shovel two feet of heat and humidity off my driveway; I've never had to scrape an inch of heat and humidity off my windshield; I've never had to drive 5 mph because the roads were covered with heat and humidity; my roof has never collapsed from three feet of heat and humidity; I've never slipped on the heat and humidity on the sidewalk and broken my tailbone; and my water pipes have never burst from the heat and humidity.

That usually shuts them up real fast....

 

[BlovesC]

If you don't mind me asking, why would you want to move to Seattle?

Weather, culture, religion, and politics are some of my reasons. I won't really elaborate, since that would likely get me into trouble. But I feel like 99% of the people I've met down here, however lovely they are, fall into one very narrow 'type' that I have nothing in common with.

And I hear you on the change of pace! I was 27 when I left my home state for the first time to come here, and I don't regret that at all. It's been fun living near Disney, but I need so much more than that. There's nothing wrong with trying different areas of the US on for size.