Moving | Wishes And Pixie Dust

May 22, 2013
by Disney Mark 3 Comments

Getting To Know – Winter Park

For this entry in our ‘Getting to Know’ series on the places you can look at moving to in Florida, we have information on Winter Park from Beatrice Feeney. We are very happy to have Bea’s information on this area of Central Florida.

We live in Winter Park. I believe it is the PERFECT neighborhood for us, but not for everyone. For us, we needed a nice neighborhood close to work. My hubby & I have had good experiences finding jobs in the Altamonte Springs area, north Orlando area – and that has been very convenient to home. Our area on the Lynx Bus System that services the Orlando area – I don’t know the schedules or how things are done, but for someone who needs transportation, that could be very useful.

I must warn people who move here to be closer to Disney that if you live on the north side of Orlando, you either have to deal with TRAFFIC on I-4 or Toll Roads. We have tried both. I can get from home to EPCOT (22 miles) in 45 minutes or sometimes it takes an hour and a half to get into the parks because you go 16 mph on the highway for 15 miles.

If you want to move to a great community with a lot of FUN activities around your HOME then Winter Park truly is a GREAT place! There are always activities for holidays in Central Park – free music, free outdoor movie to relax in the park with neighbors and friends. We’ve been to free events for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, Christmas Parade…it truly is a wonderful town to call home.

I also want to share that we don’t have kids, but have heard that around our area in Winter Park and Maitland there are good schools – I’m sorry that I can’t help too much more in that area. (Mark’s note: School info has been added below.)

Our Realtor has been amazing with questions as we were new to the area and he was one of the FIRST non-Disney Florida friends. He continues to keep in touch and helps us anytime we ask, as he has lived here all his life. That sort of trust in a Realtor is something that I have never found with anyone else. He helped us find both the house & neighborhood that was perfect for us. Just remember, if you want to be able to go to Disney every day after work, this may be a bit too far but it’s not too far to go weekly.

I hope some of this information is helpful to you – but if I can give you other information or help in any way, just let me know & I will be happy to help!

You can reach out to Bea via Facebook: www.facebook.com/beatrice.feeney. Bea also authors a great blog you should all check out at adisneygirlinorlando.blogspot.com.

Some Places of Interest in Winter Park

Full Sail University

Rollins College

Crealde School of Art

Amtrak Station

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, which houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass.

For more information on Winter Park, please visit the links below.

http://cityofwinterpark.org/Pages/Government.aspx (City of Winter Park)

http://www.wppl.org/ (Winter Park Library)

http://www.communityexplore.com/winterparkfl/ (Explore Winter Park)

http://www.wphistory.org/ (Winter Park Historical Association)

http://www.winterpark.org/ (Chamber of Commerce)

Winter Park Area School Info

2012 Public School Grades
School Types: 1 = elementary; 2 = middle; 3 = high; 4 = combination

School Name	2012 Points	Scale	Grade – 2012	School Type
LAKEMONT ELEMENTARY	593	800	A	01
GLENRIDGE MIDDLE	641	900	A	02
BROOKSHIRE ELEMENTARY	641	800	A	01
ALOMA ELEMENTARY	559	800	A	01
WINTER PARK HIGH	1244	1600	A	03
LAKE HOWELL HIGH SCHOOL	1120	1600	A	03

https://www.ocps.net (Orange County Schools)

https://www.ocps.net/Students/Pages/SchoolDirectory.aspx (Orange County School Directory)

https://www.ocps.net/Parents/Pages/FindaSchool.aspx (Orange County Schools – Find a School)

Winter Park Private Schools:

St. Margaret Mary Catholic School

The Geneva School

The Parke House Academy

Trinity Preparatory School

May 16, 2013
by wishesandpixiedust 9 Comments

Review: PassPorter’s Travel Guide to WDW and GIVEAWAY!

Are you planning a trip to Walt Disney World? If so, you may realize that you need a little help in planning it. There are an assortment of books available at your local retailer to help you with this, but the focus of today’s post will be on the PassPorter’s Walt Disney World 2013 travel guide.

We are so pleased to be reviewing this book as this is our go-to travel guide. It has accompanied us on each vacation to Walt Disney World, and it is the guide we recommend to people who are looking at purchasing a travel book. There are other very worthy Walt Disney World travel books which we have also purchased in the past, but if you can only buy one, we highly recommend The PassPorter.

The PassPorter is divided into several different sections, including planning pages, travel pages, resort stays, touring pages, dining, Disney magic pages, and bonus features. We will look at each section briefly.

The planning pages offers ideas on how to get in the Disney mood, how best to use the PassPorter, budget guidelines and worksheets, and money saving ideas. It is a great starting point if you’ve never visited Walt Disney World, and a good reference guide for those who are more familiar with what Walt Disney World has to offer.

The travel section highlights the best times to travel (if you can be flexible with your travel dates), the different modes of travel, Disney’s Magical Express, and travel worksheets (including a packing checklist). We found the packing checklist to be extremely helpful in preparing for our vacations.

The resort stays section encompasses 91 pages and is filled with information regarding the different resorts, how to choose a resort, and specific details pertinent to that resort. There is an aerial view of each resort so you can see the layout, dining and entertainment options, and prices and contact information.

The touring pages offers a detailed examination of each park, including information on how to arrive at the park from your resort, the different amenities that Disney provides to its guests in the park, and tips to navigate the parks. Two of the best features in this section include a foldable color map of the park, and a detailed section describing and rating the different attractions and shows that are available in each park. If you’re wondering if your child can handle a particular attraction, you can find that out in this section. It proved invaluable to us during our first trip.

The dining section outlines the benefits of the Disney Dining Plan and how it works, how to make a reservation (ADR), information on character dining and special dining opportunities, as well as providing descriptions and ratings for all of your dining options on Disney property.

The Disney magic pages outline the extras you can do at Walt Disney World, including backstage passes; children’s tours, parties and activities; classes and educational programs; treasure hunts, hidden mickeys and much more.

The bonus features are what truly make this travel guide stand out from the rest. Additional colorized maps are found here, as well as an elastic band that wraps around the book to keep it securely closed. It offers plenty of areas for personalization, including a place to store phone numbers, and features PassPockets, which offers an absolutely awesome way to record your Disney vacation by providing an area where you can list your ADRs, attractions you plan to visit, memories of your day, a budget and expenses listing, AND a pocket which allows you store your Disney momentos, receipts, etc! It’s like a travel guide and travel journal all in one!

Please feel free to visit the PassPorter website for more information.
http://www.passporter.com/home-of-disney-world-cruise-travel-tips-planning-articles-photos.html

We are pleased to announce that PassPorter has graciously given us copies to give away to our readers! We will be staggering the giveaways over the next month, so please check back often for your chance to win! Our first giveaway will be a spiral-bound copy of PassPorter’s 2013 Walt Disney World travel guide; please click below and fill out the Rafflecopter widget to enter! The Giveaway starts at 12:00am ET tonight!

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

February 25, 2013
by Disney Mark 1 Comment

New Feature Coming

We have had many requests for information that is more specific to areas that people can move to; quite a few of recent as many out there look to follow their dreams to move to FL. Now, Jen and I have been looking to do this for a while but we had a challenge. Do we just drive through cities and towns and report back what we see? We felt this would leave you short on actual info as you’d ‘see’ the area but not ‘experience’ it. So, we’ve reached out to many of our local friends and asked if they’d like to provide a short piece for us based on their personal experiences. How is the shopping? How are the schools? How is the traffic? How are the people and local conveniences? We know this is what we’d like to have had and now we’re looking to bring it to you. Watch for these pieces to be posted over the coming weeks and if you have a personal story you’d like to share, please let us know.

Mark and Jen

September 29, 2012
by wishesandpixiedust Leave a comment

Apartment Living

The end of October marks the end of our current lease, and the beginning of our new one. We have always lived in a house, both in Illinois and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin we were so fortunate to have an absolutely fantastic landlord, and the last house we vacated, well, we really had a problem leaving! It was the best house we have ever lived in, and we were voluntarily leaving it and heading into the unknown. There are still times now when I really miss it, but I also realize that it is way too big for us now, as we have a lot less “stuff”.

We are generally happy with the apartment complex we chose, and apartment living in general. Maintenance is fabulous with responding to service requests, even with items such as changing the fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen, and providing air filters for the air conditioning unit! These are things that we had always taken care of ourselves. It is also so nice not to have to put forth the time and energy into maintaining the lawn and landscaping.

Recently we have started talking about making the move into a rental home, for a few reasons. One, we miss the ability to grill whenever we wish. Yes, there are both charcoal and gas grills available, but it requires a walk to the pool area and the hope that no one is using the grill at the moment. Two, we miss our outside decorations for Christmas. We had quite the extensive display in Wisconsin, but only chose to move two to Florida: our countdown clock and Rudolph. And three, we really could use a larger living space. There are purchases we’d like to make but we really have no available space to place them in. We really have to think out what we buy. Not to mention the seasonal dilemma of where to place the Christmas tree. In general I think one loses some privacy living in an apartment, and we’d really like to gain that back.

We don’t, however, foresee this happening prior to 2014: our lease is up shortly before Thanksgiving 2013, and we have no desire to move over the holidays. We have so been there, done that, and no desire to do it again! There is also the question of the extra expenses required to maintain a rental home, including lawn care, pest control (we currently pay $1 a month for pest control, and I KNOW that would significantly increase), possibility of purchasing a washer & dryer (included in our apartment), and pool maintenance. I think we would need to find a rental home that offers a significant savings over the amount of rent we pay, and of course it would need to be in the same school district for our children, as we refuse to have our daughter switch schools half way through. Yes, there is school choice, but there is always the possibility it could be rejected, and we’re not willing to take the risk. She needs the stability of staying at the same school with her friends.

We have no regrets about the decision to move into an apartment, and we really feel fortunate as the office staff really does cater to its residents, but we also recognize that this is probably not a long term situation for our family. We will stay in the area as we love Clermont and what it has to offer.

July 25, 2012
by wishesandpixiedust Leave a comment

Arrival Day!

Facebook status one year ago : “Today we get to Florida. I got to remember I’m not dreaming.”. –Ben just said this morning. What a perfect way to start our post for our final day of travelling!

9:57 A.M. Woo hop! @ Georgia/Florida State Line I-75

10:17 A.M. I’m at Florida Welcome Center in Jennings, FL

12:34 P.M. I’m at I75 & Turnpike Interchange in Oxford, FL

12:44 P.M. Driving down the Florida Turnpike singing songs from The Princess & The Frog soundtrack-life doesn’t get any better than this!

12:47 PM pure joy!

(This was in response from an earlier tweet we received:

9:59 A.M. so, did it feel amazing driving across that state line!!??)

12:49 P.M. I’m at Okahumpka Service Plaza in FL

12:51 P.M. Ben: palm trees make me happy

12:53 P.M. Just entered Lake County! Woo hoo!

1:03 P.M. 13 min !

1:06 P.M. The excitement level in this car is AWESOME!!!!!!!

1:11 P.M. We see Citrus Tower!

Waiting in the lobby as we take care of the paperwork for our apartment:

3:57 P.M. I’m at Golden Corral in Clermont, FL

4:01 P.M. Our apartment is absolutely amazing. Will put a blog up tonight with pictures. Eating a late lunch/early dinner and then off to shop.

4:38 P.M. I’m at Target Supercenter in Clermont, FL

It was absolutely amazing to have gone through this journey from Wisconsin to Florida! If you were to ask us: was it worth it? We would unequivocally answer YES!, if only for the experience. We’ll elaborate further in a separate post, but we will say that if you have a dream, don’t be afraid to pursue it. It is better to have attempted and succeeded/failed, then to be filled with a life of regrets and “what ifs”.

Happy Dreaming!