Celbration, FL

[BCVOwner2002]

One thing I remember about the school when we were there years ago (actually when it opened) was that there were children from surrounding communities who would be attending the school too. I don't know if this is still the way it is but I'm sure someone will provide more information. Annmarie

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by BCVOwner2002
One thing I remember about the school when we were there years ago (actually when it opened) was that there were children from surrounding communities who would be attending the school too. I don't know if this is still the way it is but I'm sure someone will provide more information. Annmarie

Yes, it's still this way, but from everything I've learned, it's nothing like busing (I apologize if that's not the politically correct term...I don't know what it's called elsewhere). For the high school at least, the kids will come from a certain geographic area (Celebration and a surrounding area). I don't know if that is how they are doing the elementary school enrollment too, so maybe someone else can speak to that. I don't have any issues w/the schools drawing from other neighborhoods/towns than Celebration. Around here, there are entire towns share high schools with other towns I am hoping for an explanation of why the overall testing scores aren't as high as I'd hope for, though. I do have an issue with that.

 

[FLeisure]

If anyone wants a homebuyers package mailing out to them, I can help. Just let me know.

 

[msdis]

These questions and answers are great. We just booked a week next month to come down and get some answers. Celebration touring, again, is tops on the list as well as other communities in the area. We can send out all the resumes in the world and wait for an opening but unless we are sure of where we want to live it doesn't matter.

More questions:

Will one of the open house people give us a copy of the "rules"?

There is a leash law; dogs only or cats too? Dogs are free to roam on your property? How about the parks? Can they play frisbee and ball in the parks or off limits to dogs? As you can see this is a big deal with me.

Did all of you line up jobs before you moved or after? Wondering if employers frown upon people moving from out of state because of the issues involved with moving. We are in an ok position to move w/o jobs but certainly not to move into a Celebration home AND have no jobs. DH thinks we should buy a house then quit here and move so that the loan is secured. (I'm in finance so to speak, I would lose it if someone else said that to me)

What about the person who thought the land is leased from Disney? False, I hope.

The comments about still enjoying Disney and being so close was nice to hear. We are DVC owners too and DH wondered the same thing about being TOO close. My thoughts were that we would enjoy it MORE. I can just imagine a friday night going to a resort for dinner or shopping at the world's in Epcot. A leisure visit instead of commando(still). Eggleboo-did you give up your DVC?

Once again, thanks to all the experts here, your insight is SO valuable!

 

[Eggleboo]

Nope, still own our DVC points and aren't giving them up yet. We are going to wait a few years, hang on to them and then our daughters will probably use them. We are using our points this year to go on the Disney Cruise. It will be nice to fly down to Orlando, go to the condo in Celebration for a few days, take the drive down to the cruise line, go on the cruise, come back to our condo. As you know rooms inside Disney are so expensive now. Do you realize a two bedroom would cost almost $1,000 at certain times of the year. We do stay inside maybe one night on special occasions. (i.e. Mickey Christmas Party). It's like my husband and I get to go on a date! Anyway....this is the reason we aren't selling our points. We think it's just a better value to give them to our adult daughters when they are finished with college. Enjoy your tour and make sure you understand as much as you can before signing on the dotted line. Best of luck, Lynn

 

[msdis]

I was hoping you didn't give up your DVC. You are so right about the cost of rooms on property. I figured we would use ours for weekends or HH or VB or the cruise. I think if I were closer we would enjoy it even more. Little doses but a lot more often.

 

[hAm53]

I know that this thread's mostly about houses, but what are the apartments like in Celebration. As two 24 yr olds, we're not really in a position to buy a house. We took a look at different apartment sites linked off the main Celebration sites, and found a some pretty cool places that are a lot nicer than our current place.
As a physical therapist, my girlfriend won't really have a hard time getting a job, and I could find someplace (even its at a gift shop in EPCOT), and we'd still be making more than what we're bringing in currently. We really don't wanna spend another winter shoveling the snow off our cars, like the couple other Mass people that have posted earlier.
Thanks.
~Chris

 

[chrissyk]

Originally posted by hAm53
I know that this thread's mostly about houses, but what are the apartments like in Celebration. As two 24 yr olds, we're not really in a position to buy a house. We took a look at different apartment sites linked off the main Celebration sites, and found a some pretty cool places that are a lot nicer than our current place.
As a physical therapist, my girlfriend won't really have a hard time getting a job, and I could find someplace (even its at a gift shop in EPCOT), and we'd still be making more than what we're bringing in currently. We really don't wanna spend another winter shoveling the snow off our cars, like the couple other Mass people that have posted earlier.
Thanks.
~Chris

Chris, you might be surprized at what you could afford to buy! Houses there don't cost what they do up here (although they are expensive for the area). You can get a house for in the $200's there! You could get a townhouse starting in the low $200's or a garden-style for even less DH and I bought this house when we were 23...the worst part was scraping up the downpayment (a whopping 3% down, LOL!). After that, the mortgage payment was less than our rent was. After the mortgage deduction, we came out way ahead over renting. Besides, it's nice to pay your own mortgage rather than somebody else's Don't rule out buying...if you can scrape up 3% down and qualify for the mortgage, you could do it!

 

[PatriciaH]

The apartments in Celebration are really nice. We liked Centergate because we would have our own entrance and garage. It was $825/month for a 1 bedroom and then they offered it on special for less-$775 I think. Hunters Creek had nice apartments also with screened in balconies. The nicest we saw was Mirasol though. Wow! I would not mind living in those apartments. The cheapest was around $1,100 a month though but it was 1100 sf. Check out www.mirasolatcelebration.com

 

[hAm53]

We liked Centergate because we would have our own entrance and garage. It was $825/month for a 1 bedroom and then they offered it on special for less-$775 I think.

Granted we were only look at pics on the 'net, but we like Centergate the best as well. Heck, $775 is only 175 more than we're paying right now. When we looked at Marisol yesterday, we liked it the best, but not for the price

 

[UKDEB]

Originally posted by FLeisure
sometimes you can be guilty of doing nothing...

For me and my family however, it's the best thing we have ever done.

Dh and I often talk of moving to Florida, but we imagine the reality would be far different from the fantasy.

FLeisure - when did you move to Kissimmee from the UK, and in what circumstances? Had you been vacationing there and fell in love with the place? Did you do it over a period of time, or did you just 'go for it'? I know there's a lot of red tape. I'd be extremely appreciative of any advice you're willing to share.

 

[FLeisure]

Debbie,
It's a long story but one not untypical of a lot of people out here from UK. Basically we had been vacationing in Florida 2 or 3 times a year since early 90's and decided to buy our first house here in 1996.

Once the house was built we spent the next 14-15 months coming back and forth and renting it out to cover some of the cost. During that time we had established a fairly big business in the UK and this was becoming more and more a pain in la derriere ! Frankly, we grew sick of the problems business life in the UK brings you and of employing people who stole from us. It's improtant to recognise that we had some great people but overall we grew more and more depressed when we left Florida to return to UK. So it was time to ponder a move.

We then came over for a 6 week stay to see if we could stomach the heat in the Summer. After 3 weeks of that our decision was made. We then had to start looking for a business to buy as we wanted an income from day one and for a school for the kids. We had considered starting a business from scratch and keeping our UK business to qualify for an L visa but decided it was in for a penny in for a pound and went the E route ! Fortunately we found a great school and a suitable business after only a week and then it was over to sorting the paperwork out re: immigration.

The immigration and visa part was an absolute pain and it really comes back to one thing IMO....whichever immigration officer's desk it falls on and what mood he or she is in ! Anyway, after 6 months of hassle and paperwork going back and forward our visa was granted and we moved here a month later.

Have to say that taking over a business in esentially a foreign country wasn't as bad as we thought it might be and we think we chose well as our business has now doubled in size and employs some truly wonderful people. In that we have been lucky and that is one of the reasons we have grown. Having said that, we still want to be a family business and one that is small enough to take the extra steps that makes folks want to come back, time and time again. So far, it's proved a successful benchmark and as I said earlier, one that we wish we'd done years earlier.

If you are considering this then the best advice I can give is to stick at it and be prepared to work extremely hard. If you do that you'll be OK but over the time we've been here we've seen many folks give up because they couldn't make it work. They were fed up with the hassle of immigration in some cases and in others they simply couldn't get the business to pay what they needed.

The other thing I would say, is get involved in things. It makes you feel like you belong and that you are actually giving something back. My wife teaches Sunday school and is heavily involved in some aspects of the church whilst I get involved as President of a HOA and with various other business groups such as Central Florida Property Managers Association, etc.

If you need any other advice....just ask !

 

[UKDEB]

Thanks for being so open. Friends of friends sold everything they owned a couple of years back to buy a landscape gardening business in Orlando. The business wasn't the success they'd been led to believe and they lost everything. It's good to hear a success story to balance things up.