*Tired of the Midwest, need to relocate to Florida, please help!!*

[Meyerkord4]

Just came back from our dream vacation to WDW Jan. 2015 and the family and I are ready for a move to Florida, preferable in between Orlando and Tampa! We're over the winters here in Chicago. Our boys are 6 and 2, I think this is the best time to go as soon as my 6 yr old is done with Kindergarten in June 2015. My husband is a Chef and my dream is to work for Disney, some way, some how. Can anyone PLEASE give us some advice, tips, recommendations? They'd be greatly appreciated! Probably looking to rent until we can get settled in. Thanks in advance!

Monica

 

[*pixie*dust*]

Check out some of the threads on the Community Board. There are "Moving to Florida" threads that pop up there often. People will often come back from a great vacation and decide that they think they want to move.

Some things to consider, that come up on nearly every moving thread are: Florida has a poor job market with low pay, the public school system is poor, crime is really high and insurance is outrageous.

Personally, the biggest thing that I would worry about is that, now, WDW is my happy vacation place and living there would probably take some of the joy out of visits. I tend to romanticize things and would be really disappointed to have WDW be anything less than magical for me. Work, laundry, school and the "business" of normal life would a totally different experience than visiting for a week or two for pure fun.

 

[staceyrhood]

Hi! I moved here 14 years ago to be by Disney...and just LOVE it! We are in Celebration (Disney's town) we have a great K/8 school (my son is in 2nd grade there) and are 8 minutes to the MK. My in laws are in the Tampa area (Palm Harbor), it takes about 1 1/2 hrs to get to their house. We are about 20 minutes to Orlando. I would guess half way would be the Lakeland area, which is nice and about 30 minutes from here on I4 West. We go to Disney often, about 3-4 times a month, sometimes more. Like the previous poster said you do have to be careful where you look, there are some very bad schools around and property taxes are high as well as insurance. I hope this helps...feel free to message me with any questions

 

[buzznina]

We did it for 18 years and when we decided to start a family, it was not the area we really wanted to be at, especially for schools and daycare We found we either had to pay for private school or moving to an area with the better schools but the houses were outside our income.

 

[Meyerkord4]

Thanks everyone! Still researching, wish there were more responses though!

 

[Minnesota!]

check out http://www.city-data.com/forum/florida/ - so much info!

 

[glassslippergirl]

I'm a life-long Floridian who couldn't imagine living elsewhere. It's 72 degrees and sunny right now, and we're going to the beach this weekend.

Don't worry about getting tired of Disney. I grew up with regular trips and want to go even more as an adult. You might want to look further into the idea of Disney employment. Make sure that there is availability of the kind of job you'd be interested in. Also are the hours and pay conducive to your lifestyle? As I understand, a lot of Disney employment is part time, and heme parks definitely do not keep bankers hours.

When you move to Florida, Be prepared for some culture shock. Public schools are hit and miss at best, and as a Florida teacher, I would recommend home school or private school if you can. Avoid magnet programs altogether.

Housing is pretty expensive. Be prepared to pay more for rent than you would expect. All kinds of insurance will cost more, too. When you buy a house, you'll be shocked at the cost of your homeowners insurance. You may find yourself over-dressed for a while. People wear less formal clothing everywhere, and they wear generally less clothing. You'll probably have to shift your ideas for the best time of year to do family activities outside. Up north, that's in the summer. But in Florida, all of the best community activities like fairs, carnivals, art shows are happening right now. Depending on your background, you may or may not be surprised by the amount of Spanish spoken. If you are bilingual, that will be a definite plus for getting a job. You may also come to wonder how you ever got along without Publix.

Good luck.

 

[HopperFan]

Start some googling, there are quite a few bloggers that include information on moving to Orlando area. Offhand ....
http://takingthefloridaplunge.com/ and a bunch of contributing stories about moving there http://takingthefloridaplunge.com/category/florida-plunge/others-stories/.

 

[tzeitel]

I worked at WDW for 5 years, DH was a chef there for 13. Once we had DD we had to leave. I was not going to have DD go to school there and the sketchy parts of town were getting bigger. And if you think your vacation was little warm prepare yourself for year round sweating. I would take a shower before going to work, the moment I stepped outside our place I would be sweating and could feel my hair expanding from the humidity! Celebration is nice, super nice and expensive. It is the Disney town where reservations is located and it really looks like a postcard. We miss working at WDW but not living in Central Florida Maybe if we did not have DD we would have stuck around longer but not sure how much longer.

 

[North of Mouse]

Check out some of the threads on the Community Board. There are "Moving to Florida" threads that pop up there often. People will often come back from a great vacation and decide that they think they want to move.

Some things to consider, that come up on nearly every moving thread are: Florida has a poor job market with low pay, the public school system is poor, crime is really high and insurance is outrageous.

Personally, the biggest thing that I would worry about is that, now, WDW is my happy vacation place and living there would probably take some of the joy out of visits. I tend to romanticize things and would be really disappointed to have WDW be anything less than magical for me. Work, laundry, school and the "business" of normal life would a totally different experience than visiting for a week or two for pure fun.

I agree with this 100%!! Emotions run high when you are there, but living there, 'life' returns! Also, see you are from IL and the heat for most of the year will probably have you longing for the snow!! I am deep south and love the heat, but that's always been my life - could never take northern winters. Good luck though, but I would suggest going down in height of summer to get the 'feel'!!

Also, as pp said, job opportunities are not the best, lots of schools below par, and home insurances are 'steep'!!

Just noticed that you said you just got back from Disney, hope you realize this is one of the best times of the year in the deep south, and the reality really hits starting sometimes by the end of Mar. early April. There will still be nice days, but the heat is definitely coming in by that time, depending on the year, of course.

 

[udflyer00]

Hi Monica,

I'm from Ohio and Love Disney, and I share your dream of working there someday... However we have 4 kids (13, 10, 8, & 6) and the majority of our family all live in the same town. Since our kids are involved in activities we depend on a lot of help from grandparents and our siblings for transportation help as my wife and I both work. My mom and brother live in Tampa, but at 90 minutes away you can't exactly ask them for help picking up from school or taking to a practice so we'd really be on an island. My wife says we can move if she can be a stay at home mom, but I don't think we could do that comfortably with 4 kids in Orlando as our house price would go up to get a nice place to fit us all...

I still dream about it, and every now and then apply for IT jobs in Orlando to try and get a job down there, but I think having an Ohio address on my resume excludes me from a lot of postings because why would they interview me from Ohio when I'm sure there are tons of locals there that have similar credentials. So I'm come to accept that we probably won't get to move until the kids are grown and moved along because the odds of them living in the same city as us as adults is probably pretty slim unfortunately. For my wife's parents I feel they are super lucky that both girls put roots down in the same city as they have 7 grandkids they can see whenever they want. For us with 4 kids, I think that's going to be really hard. So it's sad, but I've come to accept it a bit... (I may still apply for jobs and maybe I'll hook that one that'll pay me so much we just can't afford to turn it down.. )

You'll have to let us know if you make it down there...

 

[tzolkin]

DH and I grew up in FL and both have no desire to return.

We spent the last 15 years (since college) in the Syracuse, NY area. While we didn't love that either (it's the snowiest US city and we were obviously not accustomed to that weather growing up), we both felt it was better than FL. We recently moved and put a great deal of thought and research into it. (We did not move for a job, so we were open to going anywhere.) We decided on NC and are wonderfully happy here-- have found a sense of community, the kids are thriving in school, and the weather is great.

I know a few people from HS who have stayed in FL and love it (my brother and his family live in the Tampa area), but most seem much happier scattered around the US.

I'm not telling you that you shouldn't move to FL (it may turn out to be exactly what would meek you most happy), I'm just urging you to do your research and give it lots of thought.

 

[sparklysparky]

We just purchased our home in August '13 from a couple that decided to move to Disney. She was a teacher, he was in IT and they visited Disney 8+ times a year! She now works in the parks and he is WFH at his IT job. They have no kids so they don't worry about school and seem to be very happy.

Every time we visit WDW, I imagine living at Disney as my husband manages restaurants but I can't ever see us actually doing it. Kudos to you for even seriously contemplating following your dream. Just make sure the rose colored just-back-from-vacation glasses are set down and you are making the best decision for your family. Good luck!

 

[udflyer00]

any new updates from the OP?? Really curious of their thoughts on everything. I really think we won't be moving South until after the kids are out of the nest.. lol