Safe family neighborhoods near Disney?

[JessicaW1234]

Are there good swim teams in the wind mere area?

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

is anything north of 50 basically undesirable? or is it so far from Disney that it doesn't matter?

 

[MickeyMinnie1971]

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[MickeyMinnie1971]

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[harbin]

We are moving down in July! This thread has been very helpful! We are looking at Winter Park, Windermere, and Celebration. Can anyone recommend good preschools in the area? We have an 8 year old (going in to 4th grade), and a four year old. I think I have a good handle on elementary schools but not so sure about preschools. Sorry if I missed it in the other posts in this thread. We can't wait to make Orlando our permanent home!

 

[Traveliz]

Isn't one of the entrances to Keene's Pointe on 535 in what you are you referring to as "Winder near"? Is that the area you are referring to? It seems like I pass by that subdivision all the time and there are cars lined up waiting to get through the gate.

Yes, that is the "back" entrance and the ones that any of the vendors, landscapers, construction has to use so that explains the line. Residents can skip that line as there is another lane open for them.

Liz

 

[MickeyMinnie1971]

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[staceyeileen]

is anything north of 50 basically undesirable? or is it so far from Disney that it doesn't matter?

Depends where on 50 you're talking about. Pine Hills? Yes, undesirable.

 

[staceyeileen]

For school info, here are a few resources for folks looking to move here.

VPK Readiness ratings (pre-schools that participate in the free Voluntary Pre-K program. Most preschools participate.)
https://vpk.fldoe.org/InfoPages/ReportCriteria.aspx

2014 Public School grades (K-12)
http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/xls/1314/SGbasic_2014.xls

 

[VictoriaT]

Glad you are enjoying it and found a great place to live! Thanks for all the information on this thread; it is our goal to move down to Orlando in a few years as well.

 

[clc053103]

Isn't one of the entrances to Keene's Pointe on 535 in what you are you referring to as "Winder near"? Is that the area you are referring to? It seems like I pass by that subdivision all the time and there are cars lined up waiting to get through the gate.

Yes KP is in Winder near (which I understand to be Windermere zip code areas that aren't in Windermere proper). I was referring to the new construction as that is what friends in the Horizon West area call where they live- should have clarified. I am very attracted to Horizon West's concept- just had not found a neighborhood that suited us. though I just found a Pulte neighborhood over the weekend that had great floor plans, it is further south and I believe an Orlando zip code- yet it's still Horizon West I think!

 

[Princess Melody]

I just read through this entire thread- so helpful! We are moving down for DH's job by June, and have been down to try to find a house. We are focusing on Keene's Pointe in Windermere, but this thread makes me want to check out Winter Garden area! We did look in Winder"near" areas but it was not our style. DH is commuting to Celebration.

My parents lived in Keene's Pointe for a while. Nice neighborhood but for the $ you may as well look at Celebration. Keene's Pointe has so many rules, restrictions, and hidden costs! (Ie nobody is allowed to cut their own lawn. You have to use a specific lawn service & have it cut on certain days according to a schedule whether it really needs it or not & the service they require you to use is $$$.) Just something to keep in mind. They couldn't stand all the ridiculous rules & restrictions & eventually moved to a neighborhood down the road that they love & allows them to truly own their own property vs dealing with all the Keenes Pointe restrictions & costs. The homeowner's fee was ridiculously high too. I'm honestly glad they moved too. Even though I am their daughter & live about 20 min away I was not allowed to have a gate key. I had to go through the guest entrance & was given the 3rd degree at the guard shack every single time even though I had the same last name, was on the visitor's list, & visited frequently. Yes I suppose it is very safe but I never felt welcomed. A lot of places refused to deliver there because of all their silly rules so forget about easily ordering a pizza or anything like that.

 

[clc053103]

My parents lived in Keene's Pointe for a while. Nice neighborhood but for the $ you may as well look at Celebration. Keene's Pointe has so many rules, restrictions, and hidden costs! (Ie nobody is allowed to cut their own lawn. You have to use a specific lawn service & have it cut on certain days according to a schedule whether it really needs it or not & the service they require you to use is $$$.) Just something to keep in mind. They couldn't stand all the ridiculous rules & restrictions & eventually moved to a neighborhood down the road that they love & allows them to truly own their own property vs dealing with all the Keenes Pointe restrictions & costs. The homeowner's fee was ridiculously high too. I'm honestly glad they moved too. Even though I am their daughter & live about 20 min away I was not allowed to have a gate key. I had to go through the guest entrance & was given the 3rd degree at the guard shack every single time even though I had the same last name, was on the visitor's list, & visited frequently. Yes I suppose it is very safe but I never felt welcomed. A lot of places refused to deliver there because of all their silly rules so forget about easily ordering a pizza or anything like that.

I think only certain neighborhoods have the mandatory unified lawn service. But I should ask for every home. We are golfers, and that is what is really draws us to the neighborhood. Good point on the guards. We've been in and out enough to see some guards are a little more friendly than others- never thought about a pizza delivery though! Dh isn't as enchanted by Celebration as I am- but I haven't given up totally on that dream. I appreciate the feedback- we are nearing decision time so it is very helpful!

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

this is probably a strange question but DH wants me to ask - aside from not knowing your neighbors - what are the downsides to living in an area that allows short term rentals?

 

[OKW Lover]

this is probably a strange question but DH wants me to ask - aside from not knowing your neighbors - what are the downsides to living in an area that allows short term rentals?

In general you're surrounded by people who are only here to vacation. Some of them do it rather loudly at all hours of the day. Sure you will get some good families, but over the course of 52 weeks you'll also get a couple of inconsiderate ones.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

In general you're surrounded by people who are only here to vacation. Some of them do it rather loudly at all hours of the day. Sure you will get some good families, but over the course of 52 weeks you'll also get a couple of inconsiderate ones.

That's what I was thinking! Glad to hear I wasn't far off base.

 

[delmar411]

this is probably a strange question but DH wants me to ask - aside from not knowing your neighbors - what are the downsides to living in an area that allows short term rentals?

We live in a neighborhood of approx 90% vacation rentals. Very few full time residents.
The only issues we have run into is that sometimes people are overly loud past bedtimes on school nights. But really it is rarely an issue. We have lived here nearly 2 years and normally it is really quiet and peaceful. I worry that we make too much noise as a family, like homework arguments, sibling fights, etc.

 

[tecdavidt]

We moved to Keenes Pointe from Providence (the Providence gated community in the Davenport zipcode but with the public course) August 2015. We do not have to use the same lawn people as everyone else. We have seen many different vendors in the community providing the same services. We find the HOA fees normal. We also joined the country club, my husband is a golfer, and we love it. If you draw a line from our home from the MK castle we are 3.5 miles away. This means, we can see Wishes, and hear the fireworks as they are shot up into the air. We are close to Publix, a pharmacy, and in 15 minutes we are at Winter Garden Village location this is where the Super Target is located as well as many other national chains. Love the area. We timed our trip to the Grand Floridian Cafe for lunch one day, 15 min. from our garage to in front of the resort for valet parking. (we get it free with our AP--we did not get the FL resident AP because we did not want block out dates.) We quickly learned, the different towns are all close.

We found the home prices in KP lower than in Celebration per sq ft. Celebration for us is too congested. The homes in Celebration, in our opinion, are on top of each other. Ironically, our Realty team is based out of Celebration. They too acknowledged Celebration is expensive and they live there.

Windermere is a tiny town or maybe village is a better term. It has the old Florida look. Most developments surrounding Windermere may have the Windermere zipcode, or as one moves closer to Winter Garden on 535, a Winter Garden Zip. The Pulte development we pass on Reams Road has an Orlando zipcode, across the street is a Beezer (sp?) development and a Meritage development with Windermere zipcodes and all three of these are not gated. There are many brand new developments north, northeast and northwest of Disney it is crazy just in the last year. Keenes Pointe still has lots for sale to build on. Our home was an existing home. If you like golf, want to join a country club, Keenes Pt., Isleworth, and Bay Hill all touch north of Disney. If you can afford Isleworth you might be looking at Golden Oak too .

We have learned, south of Disney, vacation rental areas are plenty, which means weekly renters. North of Disney has more fulltime owners. The key to getting around the metro area is to learn the back roads.

As far as the gate at KP being tight, yes it is. We can add guest to our permanent gate list, they tell the guard their name, address where they are headed and show their drivers license. The gate at our home in Providence Golf community was just as tight. It works.

The nice part for us, we are not retired yet but we do get down to the house every 6 weeks for about 12 night stay each trip. We own DVC so if we want to see the parks we plan a DVC stay. If we forget something at the house, no problem, we are close. The trip after Christmas we could hear the fireworks exploding from Illuminations! It is the best of both worlds.

This is the second time I posted to this thread, the first time we were living at Providence! DH wanted the country club and north of Disney. Myself, I was fine south of Disney. We could hear Wishes faintly exploding if we turned our pool waterfall off. Now we hear those fireworks shoot up then explode and we walk over to the lake (3 lots away) we can watch those fireworks! Love it.

Kathy & Dave

 

[mj512]

This thread made me miss Clermont, we lived there for a few years. We're now over on the Space Coast near Melbourne. We really like Clermont though and would move back there if the opportunity presented itself.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

We live in a neighborhood of approx 90% vacation rentals. Very few full time residents.
The only issues we have run into is that sometimes people are overly loud past bedtimes on school nights. But really it is rarely an issue. We have lived here nearly 2 years and normally it is really quiet and peaceful. I worry that we make too much noise as a family, like homework arguments, sibling fights, etc.

that's good news - DH really wants to look at Clermont in the Four Corners area....