Relocating to WDW?

[Feralpeg]

As far as he has heard there is a hiring freeze. Disney just laid off a ton of people. I know they need over 5500 hourly people but I guess the ones that get paid more they cut.

The lady that live on one side of me is in the marketing division. She seems to love it, although she travels a lot. Tell your husband to look at the careers section on the Disney website. They have open professional positions listed there.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

As far as he has heard there is a hiring freeze. Disney just laid off a ton of people. I know they need over 5500 hourly people but I guess the ones that get paid more they cut.

Rats!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I've been trying to convince Disney to pay me 60 grand a year for putting on a Mickey Suit. But sadly, they haven't seen the light and recognized the brilliance of my master plan.

1) Sounds reasonable to me.
2) But, maybe you have to be a little moe flexible.
3) For 60-grand, you might have to look like Minnie, too.

 

[GrandFloridian4]

I've found we don't do the parks the way we used to do them when on vacation. For instance, the other day, DD and I decided to go to MK to ride POTC. We did a leisurely walk around MK, rode POTC, had lunch and went home. It was great. We had a very good time, but we were ready to go home because it was very hot. We often just go for a stroll around one of the parks and dinner. Sometimes, we decide to go commando through a park, but not often.

That's exactly the way we do the parks also, and it makes it much more enjoyable & less stressful for us. Planning & looking forward to a vacation at WDW was wonderful, also, but we definitely enjoy ourselves much more being able to come & go more freely. We love to be able to just run down for the EPCOT concert series & get to meet some wonderful people while waiting in line, most of whom turn out to be locals like ourselves doing the same thing. Sometimes we wonder what we ever did to alleviate our boredom prior to moving here a few years ago, since we tend to spend so much time running down to WDW whenever there's some 'down time'.

We still enjoy escaping from 'the everyday' & staying on-site & do it occasionally, whenever there's a good deal offered to passholders. Even though we live close by, we don't feel like we do when we're staying at a resort.

 

[Mai Ku Tiki]

Aloha!

The way it seems to me is this... We live 10 min from the Atlantic on Jersey Shore in the midst of some beautiful countryside. I should be satisfied, right? The thing is ...the 20 GOOD days of summer at beach are TOO CROWDED. Then there's WINTER! After shoveling & de-icing...What else is there to do??? Well, let's see...the movies...the mall...the mall...did I mention THE MALLS???

You get the picture! I say, if DISNEYWORLD or FLORIDA or PALM TREES make your (our) heart sing, go for it! And much LOVE to those who followed their hearts and their dreams

Save me a seat on the WEDWAY PEOPLEMOVER...I'll get there soon one way or another!
~Rose~

 

[makinorlando]

I've found we don't do the parks the way we used to do them when on vacation. For instance, the other day, DD and I decided to go to MK to ride POTC. We did a leisurely walk around MK, rode POTC, had lunch and went home. It was great. We had a very good time, but we were ready to go home because it was very hot.

We often just go for a stroll around one of the parks and dinner. Sometimes, we decide to go commando through a park, but not often. Because we have the time, we do just what we want and really take our time to look for the details and to talk to people.

Because I go to DTD so often, I know many of the CMs. It's like family.

I agree with Safetymom and Peg....DD and I will just go to the parks for a couple of hours and then come home - it's nice to have that option. We love to just go for dinner or breakfast, ride a ride or two and come home. It has lost no magic for me....I am still seeing things in the parks that I didn't notice before - you can take time to look at things from different perspectives!

Being at Sea World this week (Disney next week) with family that is visiting I don't know how folks do it this time of year "commando"!! My mother who is with us is 82 - so I worry about her and the heat, and my Great nephew is not accustomed to "touring" parks like DD is - so it's easier to go for short visits - three times to SW to see everything! (If the storms clear up today!)

I know it's not for everyone, but I know I have no regrets.

 

[PatriciaH]

The lady that live on one side of me is in the marketing division. She seems to love it, although she travels a lot. Tell your husband to look at the careers section on the Disney website. They have open professional positions listed there.

They post positions but they are not hiring for them. Disney is strange like that sometimes. Can't hurt to try though!

 

[Suflay1]

Oh, I have enjoyed so much reading these posts. I live in the Florida Panhandle and all my family is in Oregon/Washington. When I retire next year I'm torn between trying to move out west, or staying here where I've lived for 25 years. Ideally, I'd love to become a snowbird and spend summers in Oregon and winters in Florida. It takes us 6-7 hours to drive to Orlando, and airline service between here and Oregon is very expensive, so maybe relocating to central Florida would be the best compromise. Airfares are much cheaper from Orlando to the west coast, and I'm sure family would come visit us if it were cheaper and also a fun destination for them. We could hop on a plane and fly west and bunk with relatives during late summer (hurricane season), then they could leave the cold and rain behind and spend a few winter months with us. Now if I could just figure out what to do with my dog!

 

[PatriciaH]

Aloha!

The way it seems to me is this... We live 10 min from the Atlantic on Jersey Shore in the midst of some beautiful countryside. I should be satisfied, right? The thing is ...the 20 GOOD days of summer at beach are TOO CROWDED. Then there's WINTER! After shoveling & de-icing...What else is there to do??? Well, let's see...the movies...the mall...the mall...did I mention THE MALLS???

This is what we said. When the weather was nice we hiked, biked, etc.. but it was sooooo boring in the winter. We snowshoed but that gets old after a while. So it is movies or the mall or Sams Club-all the time I think there is lot more to to here in Florida and we even used to go to Boston and NYC a lot!

 

[nhpooh]

This is what we said. When the weather was nice we hiked, biked, etc.. but it was sooooo boring in the winter. We snowshoed but that gets old after a while. So it is movies or the mall or Sams Club-all the time I think there is lot more to to here in Florida and we even used to go to Boston and NYC a lot!

You can only spend so much time at the malls, and the money does run out. This is what my DH and I say, if we were in Florida we could or would be outside. Not always going to the malls or Sams.

 

[IM Goofy 2]

My Dh and I live in Philadelphia. For the last 6 months we have been looking into moving to Florida. We both hate cold weather. We are looking into the areas south of West Palm Beach. However we have become discouraged by the reports of increasing property insurance rates (if you can get insurance at all), as well as people getting dropped by their companies even if they haven't filed a claim. Can anyone shed some light on this situation?

 

[Feralpeg]

My Dh and I live in Philadelphia. For the last 6 months we have been looking into moving to Florida. We both hate cold weather. We are looking into the areas south of West Palm Beach. However we have become discouraged by the reports of increasing property insurance rates (if you can get insurance at all), as well as people getting dropped by their companies even if they haven't filed a claim. Can anyone shed some light on this situation?

I don't know anything about south Florida. I've heard some stories on the news about insurance rates going up and people getting dropped by their insurance companies. My insurance has not increased since I moved to Florida two years ago.

 

[Micca]

I would love to live within driving distance of WDW. I hope someday we will

 

[Luv2Roam]

I have heard some counties insurance rates are increasing. We live in Orange Co, and ours has not been anything I would consider unusual. Insurance rates have gone up no matter where I have lived.
And recently Allstate offered for us to go to a $500 deductible on our hurricane insurance, with not much of an increase. I took it! (We did have 2%.)

 

[iwynlea]

Wow -- what a GREAT thread! I want to say thanks to all of you who have posted information about living in or moving to Orlando...this is very helpful to DH and I as we begin looking at property and jobs.

We fell in love with Orlando on our honeymoon. Yes, WDW helps, but we just really like what we've seen of the area, and although homes go for WAAAY more than they do here (we have a 4/2 house in TX which we bought for 150k), property taxes are actually less than here!

DH graduates college (he's 31 years old, not your traditional student!) in December, and we're hoping to move to Orlando area Jan/Feb, or once we find jobs and a place to live. I'm more worried about a job than a house or apartment...and about selling our house here in Texas. We're going to do a lot of looking around when we're down for vacation in October, and we're hoping for some job interviews, too.

If anyone has any advice on jobs or good areas to live, feel free to PM me...I need all the help I can get!

Erica

 

[Metro West]

I moved from Virginia 2.5 years ago and I have no plans to move again. I love living near Universal (about 15 mins) and WDW (about 40 mins) for obvious reasons.

 

[David R]

Orlando was recently listed in the top 5 places in the country to get a job. Of course they didn't say what kind of job it was. Obviously it is easier to get a job in the hospitality industry (restaurants, hotels and theme parks) than say, IT (my field of work.)

As a word of warning, you may have heard that Metrowest is a nice area, and it was, but it's becoming more and more dangerous due to crime. I live nearby (by Universal) and while I love the area (I can be riding Spiderman at IOA soon after I leave my front door or be at WDW in 10-15 mintues) I plan on buying a place after Christmas and I'll be looking elsewhere in the city.

 

[flortlebap]

As a word of warning, you may have heard that Metrowest is a nice area, and it was, but it's becoming more and more dangerous due to crime.

So where *is* a nice area? We want to move to somewhere in the US, this would be a nice optino and our budget would be around 350k. Can you get much for that? Bearing in mind I'm a clueless newbie who's been living in England since the beginning of time...

 

[GrandFloridian4]

When we moved from the northeast we hooked up with a realtor that had also been from there (a referral from our local realtor) & she really understood what we wanted. She actually directed us away from the parks & city area, even though we expressed a desire to live fairly close to them. Boy, was she right! The traffic is horrendous in those areas & of course, the crime is higher. She told us to get out of the "touristy" areas.

One of the nicest (& most growing areas) is to the west of Orlando & a lot of people that work in the parks seem to live that way, also. Yes, property has skyrocketed in the past several years, but you still get more for your money out that way & the areas to live in seem to be more conducive to raising families.

 

[PatriciaH]

Dr. Phillips (near Universal and around lots of restaurants) is nice, Celebration (but you will probably only get a condo for $350,000), Clermont, Windemere, Reunion (expensive and lots of vacation homes though), near Champions Gate looks nice. There are some nice places that look pretty country in back of Champions Gate yet it is close to WDW. Some areas near Tampa look beautiful but they are doing a lot of construction on I-4 towards that direction and traffic can be bad. I have heard Auburndale is nice and like country. My parents loved Mount Dora but it is a bit further. Added-Independence in back of the Magic Kingdom looks nice but the homes went way up.