Retiring to Disney World

[tomerin]

yes to work at WDW. yes one mans dream, well that one man here on long island anyway.

well this may be a reality instead of a dream. my wife is seemingly changing her tune about moving to florida whan it is time for me to retire in 4 years. as soon as my youngest graduated from West Virginia University. in fact he has already spoken to me about the possibility of him doing an intenship at the World!!

i do have extensive retail exoerience and with that goes customer service and my wife has the same so it can happen

 

[Jakesmom1]

Our dream also. Fun to see how many others share our dream.

We moved down to Florida from Long Island, NY four years ago. We live in Ormond Beach, about 1 hour from WDW. Originaly we thought we could commute (did in LI) but really a hassle here. Soooooo my DS is 14 and has 4 more years of school. Cant move him again, wouldnt feel right about it, but when he graduates high school, we are going to be moving closer to Orlando and hopefully work at the mouse house.

 

[Finally08]

So wait, am I the only one who is holding out for a position as a Princess?

But seriously...when we were there I chatted with an older gentlemen in the gift shop at the AK Hotel. He told me how he and his wife just loved all things Disney, so they decided to move there when they retired and work there - and then they could travel and vacation elsewhere. But he said it didn't work out that way...they just love it too much to even care about going elsewhere so they still spend every vacation there at WDW. Made me want to apply for a job!

(I'd really REALLY like to be a costumed character though...seriously)

 

[Ashes8380]

I met a lovely retired couple at dinner in Alfredo's one night. They retired to WDW and loved it.

 

[perla75]

We don't live in the immediate Orlando area, but I can tell you that "affordable" housing and Orlando don't necessarily go together.

Wow, I guess that's all relative to where you live now. Just for fun, I went onto Craigslist to see what house rentals go for in the Disney area. We currently live in Boston & compared to us, WDW area housing is so cheap!!! For the same price that we currently pay for our tiny old 1 BR apt, we could get an entire 4 BR, 2BA house with a garage AND be down the road from the Mouse!!
If I could bear Florida heat year round, I would move in a second!!

I'm assuming salaries must be MUCH less in that area compared to the East Coast though, right?

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
Four years till retirement and hoping to work part time at WDW. We would go to Florida for about 3 months, leaving after Christmas and coming home about the end of March. I hope we would be able to rent something for that amount of time.

 

[Harambe]

Wow, I guess that's all relative to where you live now. Just for fun, I went onto Craigslist to see what house rentals go for in the Disney area. We currently live in Boston & compared to us, WDW area housing is so cheap!!! For the same price that we currently pay for our tiny old 1 BR apt, we could get an entire 4 BR, 2BA house with a garage AND be down the road from the Mouse!!
If I could bear Florida heat year round, I would move in a second!!

I'm assuming salaries must be MUCH less in that area compared to the East Coast though, right?

Yes - but you've hit the nail on the head! You can't look at Florida income and see it as SOOOO much less than here in Boston, because income/expenses are relative. Boston economy is ridiculous as far as house prices, etc, so salaries are large to accomodate.

Florida is still "reasonably priced" - of course that does not include a vacation to WDW

 

[nitstalker]

Does working for "Reedy Creek" carry the same bennies? (IE admission to parks, etc) I have thought about once the kids are a little older taking a job with Reedy Creek Emergency Services (firefighter or 911 dispatcher)

 

[thecapells]

What does it take to get signed as a CM in EPCOT World Showcase? Do you simply need to be a citizen of the country and willing to work in the gift shops?

 

[EpcotMatt2]

Not ready to "retire" yet, only in my late 30's, but definitely considering moving down to Orlando & working at the World when the kids graduate high school. Obviously it's not a wealthy lifestyle I'm expecting, but experiencing the economy the way it is & the unfortunate world of layoffs, I've come to truly realize money doesn't always buy happiness{I can't believe I actually just said that}. At this point, I'm willing to earn less monetarily knowing that I'll be working somewhere that I love. And like I always tell my DW, how cool will it be to instead of saying "Let's go to Applebee's or Friday's for dinner," instead saying "Let's go to Pecos Bill's or get some Fish & Chips at UK for dinner." Or instead of, "I have to run to the Mall to get a few things," we can say "Let's run over to Mousegears to pick up a few things."

 

[mom2jcc]

So subbing

 

[arielchickenofthesea]

We are retired (young at 54 and 44 yrs old, YAY for great investments!!!!!) and we want to do the move to Florida and work part time at WDW thing as well. We have to sell the house here first and because the Real Estate market is so bad, it looks like we will have to wait til the Real Estate market turns around. Could be awhile before we can do it. But we do plan on it and look forward to the day we live in Paradise and work for the mouse. I cannot wait to move and be there.

We were there in May and looked at property and checked out the area around Orlando and WDW. There are some nice developments going in and it looks like we could swing building a new house after we sell this one. Just a matter of time....Or we could keep this place on the market and move down there and rent for awhile to make sure this is what we want to do. There are several options and we have to explore the best one for us.

Well see ya'll there!

ariel

 

[sfbank]

It is great to be among friends! I always tease DH about this but he knows that I really do want to do this someday. We are in our 30s right now so it will be awhile. Living in Iowa you would think we would get a place down in Florida and escape in the winter to work but ours will be vice versa to coincide with hunting season. I may try to move him but I have to compromise a little. I would be working in the summer heat! DD has decided that she wants to become a veterinarian and work at Animal Kingdom-works for me! She of couse is only 10 so that may change 20 times before she is out of high school. My newphew is attending Cordon Blue Cooking School this year and wants to do his internship next summer at Disney!! I am finally getting some of my family to come around Here's to all of the future CMs!!!

 

[Snoozan]

I talk about doing the winters in FL, especially after this last one here in Mass., once we retire - I'm hoping within 10 years. My dream job would be working the front desk/concierge desk at one of the resorts. I love BWV and could so do that job! I've got years of customer service skills and just ask my DH, I love to talk! It's nice reading about other's plans - gives me some ideas on how we might be able to swing it. I've even gotten my DH addicted to WDW so I'm sure it would be an easy sell to get him to winter with me in FL! I've told him for YEARS that the first year I'm retired, I'm NOT staying in New England for winters - just want like 3-4 months "down south".

 

[rutgers1]

My wife and I are teachers, and we are already talking about staying down in Disney for entire summers when our kids are in high school, with the whole family getting jobs down there (What is the minimum age to work at DW?). But even if that doesn't work out, we would like to work seasonally down there upon retirement, or upon the graduation of our children. My goal would be to work for the Disney Vacation Club.

 

[WDSearcher]

What does it take to get signed as a CM in EPCOT World Showcase? Do you simply need to be a citizen of the country and willing to work in the gift shops?

The CMs who work at the World Showcase countries are part of a special program -- they are hired directly from those countries on special visas and are there for six months to a year, depending on the visa. You can't just apply through normal channels to be part of that group. They do have specific requirements and a contract of sorts.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Moving this to the ThemeParks Community board..

Thanks!

Knox

 

[iuki]

Like mentioned, it is Arise. I have looked into this and may apply and go through the training. They are a contractor of WDW for ADRs when the "regular" lines are overloaded. People work from their own in-home office and work at times that fit into their schedule (maybe an hour here or there). It is my understanding you are paid per call and not hourly. So, you pretty much control how much or little you are paid. If possible, moonpie85 could you PM me when you are finished with all your training and let me know it is really worth it? Thanks.

If others are interested, here's a link to their website: http://www.arise.com/Content/default.asp

- Jennifer

Thanks for the info. I checked it out and am unable to work with their computer requirements. Their system is not compatible with Windows VISTA and with my ISP which is MSN. Their system is also incompatibe with AOL, Protegy, Netzero, and some other ISPs.

iuki

 

[DISHUD]

Last year while riding up front with the monorail pilot, we were making small talk, and he told us that he was a retired supervisor from Ohio, after moving to central Florida he put his application in, requested transportation, and the next thing he new he was being trained on monorails.

And by the way he also said he loves every minute of it.

 

[HappyDisneyMemories]

My husband and I have talked a lot about doing this but leaving family would be hard. I couldn't do it if we were a long way from our children.

I looked into Arise but we have wireless internet and that's not currently allowed.

Very interesting thread! Good luck to all who dream of making the move!