move to florida | Wishes And Pixie Dust

November 5, 2013
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

The Place You Call Home

One of the biggest questions facing us when we decided to make the move was where we wanted to live. We had narrowed down the city, but needed to decide between renting a house and an apartment. We selected the apartment, and this post will talk about where we are with that.

One of our readers had commented that it doesn’t matter where you live, as long as you are near Walt Disney World. Well, not quite. There are a lot of areas we would never move to, even if it meant being close to the Mouse. We wanted to live in a similar community setting as we had in Wisconsin, and while Clermont doesn’t quite fit the bill with that, it is a very nice area to live in.

Overall we have been satisfied with our apartment: the office and maintenance staff are wonderful to work with, and it is nice to live in a place where we don’t need to worry about lawn care, or pool care or pest preventative treatments. Over the past few months, however, we have been contemplating moving into a rental home due to a few different reasons. We are hesitant, however, because we have heard horror stories regarding a few rentals here, and we don’t want to move from a good situation into a bad one. It would also need to make financial sense; ie, we might pay lower rent, but we may have other expenses that we don’t here that would mean an increase in monies paid out.

So right now we’re kind of on the fence about it. We currently have bad neighbor issues, but we’ve also had that experience when living in a house in Wisconsin, so moving doesn’t necessarily erase that issue. We also would love more living space, as we lost approximately 700 square feet when we moved here. We would love to find a four bedroom home here to rent, with the extra bedroom being designated as a guest bedroom/den area/craft room. We don’t believe the electricity bill would rise significantly with more living space, as we need to run the air conditioner here more often than normal, as all our windows face only one direction, and unless its a fairly cool day, it doesn’t cool off the house significantly with no cross ventilation.

We have no regrets for moving into the apartments, as it provided security for us knowing that we had a relatively nice place to live. Once we left our house in Wisconsin, we were technically homeless until we arrived in Florida, and that is an unsettling feeling to have, even though we knew it to be temporary. Even if we do not make the move in 2014, we both feel that it be a change that will eventually occur, as we don’t anticipate apartment living for the rest of our lives in Florida.

November 4, 2013
by Disney Mark 1 Comment

Introducing the Wishes And Pixie Dust Beacon

We have launched our own daily online Disney Newspaper, “Wishes And Pixie Dust Beacon”. This will be a daily compilation of the prior day’s news on all things Disney; entertainment, technology, video, Park news, etc. Please visit the link below and subscribe to receive an email each day to the newest copy. The paper will update every day at 12:00pm ET. Please let us know what you think!

Wishes And Pixie Dust Beacon

November 3, 2013
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

Bucket List: #51-100

This is a continuation of our post from yesterday: another 50 items that made it to our bucket list before our move, and what we have accomplished so far. Our comments are in blue following the line item.

51. Enjoying the streetmosphere entertainment. We love Mulch, Sweat & Shears at the Studios. If you haven’t been able to catch their act yet, you must. Go do it. 🙂

52. Festival of the Masters Not yet. The weather didn’t cooperate last year.

53. Going to the Night of Joy We have not yet attended but definitely want to. This is another example of the noise level being way too loud for Ben.

54. Flower and Garden Festival Neither of us is into gardening a lot, but we enjoy walking through Epcot during Flower & Garden and taking it all in.

55. Holidays Around the World at Epcot We have not purposefully stopped and listened, but we have heard bits and pieces as we’ve walked through World Showcase. We’ve especially heard the Norway rendition quite a bit, as we passed it on the way to Candlelight Processional.

56. Sounds Like Summer at Epcot We have not attended yet.

57. The Candlelight Processional Last year Catie was part of an honor choir with Candlelight Processional and performed at Disney four separate days. We also attended one time after Christmas so that Catie could see it from a non-performer point of view. The narrators we’ve heard have been Neal Patrick Harris, Geena Davis, Amy Grant, Andy Garcia, and Jodi Benson. This year she will be performing once, again with narrator Neal Patrick Harris. I’m sure we will see it a few more times beside. We consider this a new tradition for us at Christmas time. It is absolutely beautiful and brings forth the true spirit of the season.

58. Finding a good Friday fish fry! No, we’ve found a place that may have potential, Wolfy’s in Leesburg, but we haven’t checked it out yet. Friday fish frys are just not the thing down here.

59. Visiting the Kennedy Space Center We went for the first time this March, and plan to go back in December when Nick and Jess visit. It really is a place where you want to be there early in the morning and stay until close, and then you still don’t see everything. We are looking forward to seeing the new Atlantis and Angry Birds exhibits.

60. Riding TTA during Wishes No, we haven’t done this since moving here.

61. Sit at each of the Parks and take time to “people watch” On occasion, especially when we’re at the Parks at close- it’s simply easier to let all the people pass before we head out.

62. MLB Spring Training No.

63. Pick a fresh Florida orange from a tree No, still would love to do this. We do pass orange groves on the way to Disney and love the smell!

64. Go swimming on a warm December day Ben & Catie have– two years ago they were swimming in the pool on Christmas Eve day

65. Enjoy a “work at home day” with Craig Petermann at Epcot No, the Internet connection is not reliable enough.

66. Take a family Christmas picture at WDW I don’t think we have a family picture, but we do have several shots of us separately. Something to make sure to do this year.

67. Earn all the Gowalla WDW stamps and pins Gowalla is no longer around.

68. Be one of “those people” checking in all over Lake Buena Vista with Foursquare Of course.

69. Move in to our new apartment in Clermont Yes!

70. Find the best pizza places in the area Stone Creek Pizza in Clermont, Napolis in Minneola are two of our faves.

71. Our first Saturday library visit to our new “home” library Yes, and we go every Saturday, though we still prefer our library back home in Wisconsin.

72. Stroll the Boardwalk Not yet.

73. Share a Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream with the family It’s definitely going to happen sometime!

74. Wild Africa Trek at AK No

75. Pirates and Pals Fireworks No not as of yet.

76. Backstage Magic Tour No.

77. Family Magic Tour No.

78. Get a haircut at The Harmony Barbershop on Main Street USA No, not yet.

79. The Pirates League with Ben No

80. Keys to the Kingdom Tour No

81. Walk through Fort Wilderness Campgrounds at Christmas to see the campers’ decorations This year, maybe!

82. See a University of Florida football game No

83. Stay in the Magic Kingdom until the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the peace No

84. Orange Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day No

85. Have a holiday sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich Believe it or not, we have not done this yet. We were going to last year, and then the place was absolutely mobbed. Poor timing on our part- but never went back later. Now they are available year round so there is just no excuse!

86. Have a diabetic friendly treat at Babycakes No not yet.

87. Go to Butterfly World No but I’m sure the kids would love it.

88. Swim with the manatees No but still think this would be awesome.

89. Explore Florida’s state parks We have not been in one yet 😦 Though we did find out recently that Lake Louisa rents out cabins to stay in, so this may be a possibility in the near future!

90. Visit the Everglades allligator farm http://www.everglades.com/ Nope

91. Hearing the word blizzard and knows it only refers to a waterpark or a DQ dessert! The nearest DQ to us is in Mount Dora, which is approximately a 30 minute drive from us. And no, we haven’t been to Blizzard Beach yet. But yes, it is wonderful not having to worry about snowy weather!

92. Go to Port Canaveral and watch the Disney ships leave port No but we want to do this. Actually we want to be on the Disney ship leaving the port……

93. Finding all of the local arts and crafts shows and fairs. We have not done this, but there is one coming up November 23-24 in Winter Garden that we may check out.

94. Getting to see the White Sox play in Tampa Bay. No

95. Being able to get more exercise by taking walks and biking the trails of Lake County year-round. No bikes yet, I’m not sure we will as Clermont is very hilly, but we do love taking walks around the area.

96. Enjoying the scenery of Florida, knowing that it will stay green year round, and not become brown and dead for six months out of the year. Yes, this is nice not seeing the deadness of winter, but we do miss the autumn colors.

97. Enjoy a hot dog at Casey’s whenever we want one BEST. HOT. DOGS. EVER.

98. Sit at Cosmic Ray’s and enjoy an entire Sunny Eclipse show You know, this was a must-do every vacation trip, but we have not been in there since we moved.

99. Take a yearly family picture in front of Cinderella Castle. We’re not consistent with this.

100. A family picture and mini-celebration immediately after we cross the Florida state line on our way to becoming Florida residents! We did not take a family pic, but there was great excitement in the car from the Florida state line all the way to Clermont!

So that’s our update to our bucket list. We could probably even make a new one, as we can think of additions to it that we didn’t include. What’s our your bucket list?

October 16, 2013
by Disney Mark 5 Comments

Our Experience With Disney’s DAS Card

Ever since the rumours started a few months back that Disney would soon be changing the Guest Assistance Card (GAC) program to a new system or doing away with it altogether, we’ve been waiting for the official word to come. A few weeks ago that word came and the GAC was set to change over to the new Disability Access Service (DAS) effective October 9th. You can find Disney’s official statement and FAQ on the program at this link. Our first visit to a Park under the new program was this past Saturday, October 12th. Here is our experience at the Magic Kingdom.

We started our day with a stop at Guest Services at City Hall. The line was shorter than we typically encounter and we were met at the door by a very nice CM, Vas, who brought us inside. He asked a few questions on Ben’s needs and began filling out a form on his iPad entering this info. He used the iPad to take Ben’s photo and then went behind the desk to pick up the printed DAS card. They are no longer hand-printed, they are printed out using the info supplied to the CM, the Guest’s photo, the issuing Park and the time frame the card will be good for. Vas explained that as Annual Passholders we could only get the card for 14 days. He told us this was due to the fact that Disney is still testing and refining the process and they want to be able to make changes as needed. He also went over the program in detail explaining how the card works. We take the card to the Fastpass entrance of any attraction where the CM will note the current time, the wait time and the return time on the back of the card. The return time is based on the current wait time minus 10 minutes. So if the current time is 3:00pm and the wait time is 30 minutes, the return time will be 3:20pm. We can return any time after that return time, there is no time limit as with a Fastpass. We also learned that if we are given a return time and decide to skip that attraction, we have to go back to that attraction and have the return time crossed out, even if we don’t ride, before we can get a new one at another attraction.

Next we had Re-Entry Passes (sometimes referred to as Re-admittance or Re-ad cards) explained. If a Guest has a cognitive disability that could cause melt-downs when waiting to board or re-ride a favourite attraction, Disney will issue Re-Entry Passes to allow for immediate use of the Fastpass queue to enter. These look like and are used just as Fastpass tickets (photo below). We were issued 1 pass apiece for 3 attractions, a total of 12 passes for the 4 of us.

We entered the Magic Kingdom and decided to first get a set of Fastpasses for one attraction to plan around. We got these for Winnie the Pooh and also received a set for Mickey’s Philharmagic. Our plan was to get a DAS return time, enjoy Mickey and then go forward from there. Jen went to get a DAS time at Under The Sea. The CM was confused at first, it seemed this was the first one she had done, but quickly had the card filled out. We were given a 30-minute return time and then went into Philharmagic using those Fastpasses. After enjoying the show we walked over to Under the Sea and arrived just at our return time. We entered through the Fastpass queue where the CM crossed out the entry and let us enter. We showed the DAS card again at the second CM and entered in.

After riding Under the Sea we still had some time before we could use our Pooh Fastpasses so we used the Re-entry Passes to ride Barnstormer. To use these passes we do need to show the DAS card as well, although the CM at Barnstormer didn’t ask to see it. We were asked to see it when using the passes at Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear however. Afterwards we used our ‘regular’ Fastpasses at Pooh and then moved to Tomorrowland where we used the Re-entry Passes at Space Mountain and Buzz and also rode TTA. At this point my energy was spent for the day and we headed home.

Overall our experience was very positive. The CMs were all helpful and everything worked smoothly for us Saturday. With good planning; by using Fastpasses (and Fastpass+ once available), the Re-entry Passes and the DAS card this program should work out well for our particular needs. We can see how this program might still need refinement for families coming on vacations and for those families with different needs. It does work differently for those needing extra accommodations, such as using strollers as wheelchairs, etc., as well.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Please let us know if you have any questions and we’ll do our best to help answer for you. Please feel free to comment below or reach out to us on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Resources:
Services for Guests with Cognitive Disabilities

Guide for Guests with Cognitive Disabilities

Social Story Video: DAS vs. GAC (Courtesy of John Saccheri of BigFatPanda.com)

Disability Access Service Card Guide

Disability Assistance Service FAQ

Services for Guests with Disabilities

Guides for Guests with Disabilities
Available at Guest Relations, these guides can also be downloaded in a printable format for each theme park:
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Go back

Your message has been sent

July 22, 2013
by wishesandpixiedust 6 Comments

Help us Celebrate!

It’s hard to believe that two years has passed since we first left Wisconsin! But it has, and here we are. We wanted to mark the day with a giveaway for our readers, as without your support and friendship we don’t believe we would have been successful in achieving our dream. We intend to blog later about how life is 2 years later, but for now, we are giving you the chance to win!

Thanks to the gracious folks at PassPorter, we are giving away two books: PassPorters’s Walt Disney World 2013 and PassPorter’s Disney Cruise Line and its Ports of Call.

But…. we were at the Emporium in Magic Kingdom, and we thought wouldn’t it be cool to add a couple extras?

How does a $10 Disney Gift Card Sound?