Welcome to part 1 of a series on “Moving to Orlando”. In this series, we share our journey of Moving from WA State to Orlando Florida from concept to completion. In this episode, we over exactly How We Decided We’re Moving to Florida.
Hi, I am Cindy — Hi, I am Mike
Moving to Florida
(Mike) Census data shows that 1,000 people move to Florida every day, this series will be informational for those considering moving to Florida.
About Mike and Cindy (Mike)
We are empty nesters in or 50’s, married over 31 years. We have two girls that are grown and on their own now. We both grew up and met each other in the Portland, OR area. We have lived in Long Beach, WA for the last 25 years.
We have been to Walt Disney World on vacation 15 times in the last 25 years. Disney is Cindy’s Disney happy place, her sister and her niece both work at the Disneyland Resort, and we have been on many Disneyland / Disney World trips with her parents as well. We like Disney.
The idea to Move to Orlando
The idea to Move to Orlando (Cindy)
All of our family moved away from the town we currently live in. I was diagnosed with Colon Cancer in 2016. I had a surgery and they said there was only a two percent chance it would come back. In early 2018 I found out it did come back, I had Stage 4 Colon Cancer that spread to the liver and lymph nodes. I had to go on six months of intense chemo treatments. I had a successful 5-hour surgery in November 2018 and I am currently on follow up chemo, just for good measure. For the last year, we have been driving four hours each way, every three weeks, for my Cancer care. We have lots of driving time together, where we talk about our life goals. I gave Mike hints the last couple of years that I wanted to move somewhere warmer.
(Mike) After a Disney trip in June 2018, I said to Cindy “Let’s move to Orlando”. Cindy said yes right away! But, I am more analytical, even though it was my idea, it took me SIX months to agree to it! LOL. It took that much time figuring out the following: Where do we work, Where do we live, What about our family, and How do we get there?
Where do we work? (mike)
The where do we work part was very hard, it took us five months to figure it out! For most people it will be (find a job or transfer a current job to Florida) for us, we decided to start a new tourism-related business near the Disney World Parks. We will add more details in a later video about our new business. This is just part 1 of a series “Moving to Orlando”.
So Cindy is surviving Stage 4 cancer, we’re selling our house in WA state, moving 3,500 miles across the country, and we’re starting a new start-up business in Orlando. There are FOUR LIFE CHANGING things HAPPENING all at once! Are we NUTS? Leave a comment below our video if you think we are nuts, or if you want to encourage us.
(Mike) If you are considering moving to Orlando or your just curious how it will work out for us, be sure to subscribe, hit that notification bell so you will not miss any of the upcoming episodes of our “Moving to Orlando” series.
Where do we live? (Mike)
Where do we live? For us it’s three things:
- We’ll have to work near the Disney World Parks.
- We’ll have to live near where we work (or up to a 1/2 hour away).
- We want to live close to Disney World Parks for our own playtime enjoyment.
Have you heard of the kitchen working triangle principle? you know, the fridge, the sink, and the stove all need to be close together. In a similar way, we want a Work-Live-Play triangle principle: our work, our home, and the Disney Parks all close together. I’ve been looking at towns like Winter Garden, Clermont, Davenport, and Kissimmee. We can talk about that more in an upcoming episode.
What about our family? (Cindy)
What about our family? We have been married 31 years, we are now empty nesters, our kids are grown, moved out, done with college, working in their careers. So, we have a 3000 sq foot house and it’s just the two of us now. Were rattlin around in here!. Hey, all of our family is at least two hours away by car or by plane. The visit frequency won’t change. We can visit them, they can visit us. Plus it easy to call or chat online any of the week.
How do we get there? (Mike)
How do we get there? Right now we are still living in WA State, our house is for sale, and I am still working until the house sells.
Before the move:
This is how we prepared for selling our house and moving our stuff 3,500 miles to Florida: The best advice we have is thin it out, stage your house for the sale, take as little as you need when you move. So, we purged lots of stuff from our house; we gave some to goodwill, six large loads of it! We had garage sales, put some stuff in storage to take later on when we move, and we gave some stuff away.
After the house sells we are moving right away. We are driving our SUV, with two big labrador dogs and two cats. It will take 7 or 8 days to get to Orlando from WA. We will stay at hotels along the way that allow pets.
To move our stuff, we considered pods vs uHaul vs a moving co. and we decided to use uPack (its a tractor-trailer they drop off, you have three days to pack it, then they pick it up, they drive it, once there you have three days to unload it, and they can even store it for some time if you need that too.
We will have an episode where we go over all the pros and cons of moving with pods vs uHaul vs moving co. vs uPack. (WOW) and we plan to vlog how we fit the dogs and cats in the car, even our test drives around the neighborhood. Wish us luck.
Tune in next week where the topic will be the “Pros and Cons of Moving to Orlando”. Also, we plan on having a Moving to Orlando Q & A video later in the series, so if you are considering moving to Orlando, or have moved there and want to share any tips for us, please comment down below so we can respond to your questions and comments. If you made it his far in the video, thanks!
Making the Magical Move to Orlando
Are you considering a move to Orlando? Do you want to know the Pros and Cons of Living in Florida? Talk with others about Moving to Orlando Florida. Where to Live, Work, and Play. Join our FaceBook group: Making the Magical Move to Orlando. You are invited to join the group to ask questions and share insight, even if you have already moved there.
Be sure to subscribe to the Moving to Orlando video on YouTube, and hit that notification bell so you will not miss any of the upcoming episodes. Thank you for watching the video. “See you in the Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”.
Episode 2: Moving to Orlando – Pros and Cons of Living in Florida
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