Thursday, September 19, 2013

Dream It, Do It!

          We should move to Orlando.  My husband made this observation after we were both sad to leave Walt Disney World on one of our trips a few years ago.  At the time, we were heading down to Florida about once a month. We talked about how exciting it would be to move and how awesome it would be to go to the theme parks whenever we wanted to do so.  This conversation happened about three years ago, and as I am typing this article, I am sitting in my house in Orlando, Florida.
            When we first decided to move to Florida, we saw this goal as just a dream; it was far too difficult, and it felt like it would never happen.  We had to do lots of work on our house in Louisiana to get it in shape to sell.  We had an older home, so it needed some extra attention.   We worked on the yard, added a fence, gutted and re-did two bathrooms and the kitchen, installed new carpet, painted and pressure washed the outside of the house, painted the inside of the house, filled up a POD, and spent hours cleaning and arranging everything before we could put the house on the market.  Not only did we have to do physical work to our house, but we also had to make the personal decision to move to Florida.  I am a teacher, so it was really hard to leave the school at which I had been teaching and face moving to Florida without a job.  My husband is a software developer, so we are very lucky in that he can keep his job and work from home.  We had to decide to move despite leaving many friends and family in Louisiana.  This was not an easy process, but everyone was so supportive because they wanted to see us live out our dream.  Luckily, my brother does live in Florida, so we do have some family near to us.  Overall, this has been a painful process, but it has been worth all of the hard work.
            After we dealt with the house as well as making the final decision to move, we had to list our house for sale.  Once we put our house on the market, we felt like we had made a huge step; we were really going to do this thing.  However, our enthusiasm soon waned when we had many people come to look at our house, but no one wanted to buy it.  The market in Louisiana is still struggling, and there were so many houses for sale in our neighborhood, that we could tell that this was a buyers’ market.  So, we waited, prayed, and buried St. Joseph statues (four of them), but no one made an offer.  Then, we had one offer; but it fell through.  This was a huge blow to us, and it really made us question our decision to move.  Maybe, this wasn’t supposed to happen for us.  However, just when we thought that all hope was lost, we got an offer on our house, which at that point had been on the market for a year.  After some negotiating, we were able to get our house sold, and we also could begin the process of searching for a house in Florida.
            Now, we knew that we wanted to live as close to Disney as possible, and we really wanted to live in a neighborhood called Thornhill, which is right behind the Magic Kingdom.  You can hear the train whistle and the ferryboats from this neighborhood.  You can even see Wishes every night.  This is where we wanted to live!  When we were done with selling our house, we decided to take a trip down to Orlando in order look at some houses.  The week before our trip, we noticed that one house in Thornhill was for sale; we were so excited to see this house.  However, just a few days before our trip, the house was listed as under contract.  Again, we were so upset; we really wanted that neighborhood, and we kept seeing houses go up for sale, but it was never at a time when we could actually purchase the house.  Just when we had given up hope, the house in Thornhill came back on the market because the financing fell through on the other offer.  We visited the house with our real estate agent, and I knew that this was my house from the moment that we walked in.  We have a porch, and we can see Wishes every night, and we can hear all of the Magic Kingdom noises when the neighborhood is really quiet in the morning and at night.  After viewing the house twice, we put in an offer, and we were in competition with a few other families; however, our offer was selected, and we were able to move forward with the process of purchasing the house.
            We have worked so hard to get here, and I can truly say that we are blessed.  Without the support of our friends and family, we could have never done this.  My husband has also been so strong throughout this whole process, and our teamwork has made our dream come true.  So, if you want to move to Orlando because you cannot get enough of the Mouse, you can do it if you are ready to work really hard and keep moving forward despite the hardships that may get in your way.  Since we have moved here, we have been to one of the theme parks for a little while for the past few nights, and it has been surreal to leave my house and head to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic just because we feel like seeing the show. 
            My next challenge will be to apply at Disney and become a cast member.  My current job is chief box unpacker, and when we are all moved in, I will apply!  Some people might think that we are crazy for moving to Orlando, but we are happy here, and that is all that matters.  So, “all of your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them,” are some Disney words of wisdom that come to mind in light of our current move.  Until next time, have a magical day, and keep moving forward!



Thursday, September 5, 2013

Not Your Everyday Park Hopper



Have you every wondered if you could make it to all four parks at Walt Disney World in one day?  Well, it is possible if you are ready to run and do a lot of park hopping.  Recently, the team at www.parkeology.com took the plunge with their epic WDW47 event where they rode every attraction in all four parks in one day.  This was amazing, and many others have also attempted similar challenges.  My brother, Brian Creel, who runs a site called www.modernerdom.com , decided to take it upon himself to attempt to experience 15 different attractions in all four theme parks last Saturday, and with a little help from yours truly, he was quite successful. 
Brian started his day by going to Epcot to ride one of the attractions with the longest wait times across property, Soarin’.  The decision to go to Epcot first had to be carefully thought out because there are also other rides with equally long wait times throughout the other three parks.  Brian arrived at Epcot well before rope drop, and he sprinted to Soarin’, entered the standby line, and didn’t actually have to wait that long.  After soaring over California, Brian’s next target was to head to Hollywood Studios in order to snag the coveted Toy Story Midway Mania fastpass.  Now, Brian is a local, so he just drove to all of the respective parks; he did not use Disney transportation.  Although Brian arrived at the Studios shortly after park opening, his fastpass for Toy Story was for well after 6 pm that evening. 
Next on the list was Magic Kingdom.  After arriving at this park, Brian went to Peter Pan and procured a fastpass for later that day.  While he was waiting for his time to come up, he rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as well as Splash Mountain.  The theme park gods were definitely smiling down on him because he didn’t really have to wait very long for these attractions.  Normally, Splash commands a pretty substantial wait time.  After these Frontierland favorites were accomplished, Brian rushed back to Fantasyland to take flight over London.  After his trip to the Magic Kingdom, Brian still had to go to Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and back to the Magic Kingdom to finish up a few rides there.
When he arrived at Animal Kingdom, Brian decided to head to Dinosaur to get a fastpass, and then he went to Kilimanjaro Safari to take in the sights.  After the safari, it was time for the single rider line on Everest, then on to Dinosaur.  And with that, Animal Kingdom was finished.  However, there was no time to dilly or dally because Brian had to go back to Epcot and tackle a few more attractions there. 
Back at Epcot, Brian went on the Maelstrom, Grand Fiesta Tour, and Spaceship Earth.  None of these attractions had too much of a wait, so he was able to knock them out fairly quickly.  Time was of the utmost importance because he still had to head back to the Studios to complete a few more attractions there as well as go back to the Magic Kingdom to finish up what he had left.  The entire time he was running around, I was helping long distance style from Louisiana.  I would have loved to be there with him, but alas, I could not.  However, I did have access to the My Disney Experience application on my iphone, so I was able to let him know wait times and fastpass windows that would work best for his target attractions.
After Epcot, the Studios came next, and Brian rode Star Tours, the Great Movie Ride as well as Toy Story.  At this point, he was exhausted, but he still had to make it back to the Magic Kingdom.  After a quick jaunt over to the Magic Kingdom, Brian rode Winnie the Pooh, Space Mountain, the Tiki Room, and he even had time to enjoy Wishes.  Needless to say, this was a very full day, but it seemed like so much fun!  Being a local and an annual passholder, Brian has the privilege of going to the parks whenever he wants.  Setting these types of challenges can make going to the theme parks fun and exciting even if you have already visited hundreds of times.  We are moving down to Florida at the end of the month, and my husband and I cannot wait to engage in this type of theme park challenge.  Until next time, have a magical day, and keep moving forward!