Moving to Florida for the parks.. am I crazy?

[macraven]

Well a few glitches here and there but you now live in the land of sunshine for most of the year

Sweet!

 

[Stratman50th]

I think I would be happiest somewhere that is 75 year round. I see your points, but i've also never fell down because I slipped on the heat or had my car slide off the road because the road was covered in heat. I've also never shoveled heat out of my driveway to get my car out.

 

[Stratman50th]

Well, to get it out of the way up front, we didn't move here because of Disney in any way, shape or form. In fact, as far as I was concerned, I'd never return after 2012.
So why? First we intended to move south to retire (from MD) because we wanted nice weather. No cold or snow. We looked at several states based on weather and how the economy-tax situation looked to retire in. Florida finally won out. It didn't hurt that a lot of my family are from here, and still live here. Lastly we have an RV and like to travel. The neighborhood we built in is an over 55, gated, RV community. I have a house with an attached garage that we park our RV in. It's ready to go whenever we are.
We hadn't planned on making a move for several years but about 8 years ago my job went full remote. I could live anywhere in the contiguous 48. So we moved our plans forward by 10 years or so. We still work, but at least we made it to our geographical retirement goal. The last bit of family up north is moving down in a couple years when they retire. Our friends would rather come visit us in Florida than have us come up there, and that's fine by us.
Our HOA dues are about $1,700 a year. That pays for grass cutting on the property. Two clubhouses with pools at each. The 24/7 guard at the gate, and a 21' pontoon boat that's free for the residents to check out. There's other amenities that I can't think of off the top of my head. About 3/4 of the population jump in their RVs around April or May, and come back around October-November so we have the place to ourselves all summer.
Back to Disney briefly. We had some friends talk us into going over to Fort Wilderness a couple of times several years ago. We did love it even though it was very expensive. No parks but that was ok. last time we went was in Oct. 2020. Admittedly it was during their (Disney's) COVID period but it was our last trip. Too many other places to see and do. We do still love living here though!

 

[seven dwarfs]

I was just thinking about the update to this thread. I hope the original person lets us know how she is doing in winter place. Thanks for the update either way. It is good to see others point of view!!!

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

I was just thinking about the update to this thread. I hope the original person lets us know how she is doing in winter place. Thanks for the update either way. It is good to see others point of view!!!

Still loving central Florida. I find myself going to the parks 2-3 days a week now, instead of the 5+ when I first moved down. The magic has not changed.. I just go less frequently.

 

[thinkerbell]

Still loving central Florida. I find myself going to the parks 2-3 days a week now, instead of the 5+ when I first moved down. The magic has not changed.. I just go less frequently.

Glad to hear you are enjoying living near Disney. Did you start a YouTube channel like you wanted to do? We would love to watch it.

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

Glad to hear you are enjoying living near Disney. Did you start a YouTube channel like you wanted to do? We would love to watch it.

The YouTube never kicked off, but I am active on Instagram! I will message you my username (I believe it’s against the rules here to advertise).

 

[seven dwarfs]

Still loving central Florida. I find myself going to the parks 2-3 days a week now, instead of the 5+ when I first moved down. The magic has not changed.. I just go less frequently.

How do you like where you choose to live?