One year ago today I made my first post here on the site, publicly announcing… we were a little crazy! Twelve months later that diagnosis has only been confirmed — with maybe the two biggest proofs being us having made our first official research trip to the area without even visiting a single park, and with our apparent willingness to pay Disney while we exercise!
Writing this blog has helped make the idea we’re moving to Disney seem more real since it’s still so far away. But I have to admit, just a year later the move seems scarily soon! Every time I look around the house and think of the things we need to do prepare it for an eventual sale, three years suddenly feels like no time at all!
Thanks for following along with us so far! I know right now this is mostly just a journal of our thoughts. But hopefully one day it will be more useful to others who are considering following us down to the magic!
407 > 689
While doing some online research recently, I came across a story about the iconic Orlando 407 area code running out of phone numbers within the year and a new one (689) slated to be used for new numbers starting in June. In yet another sign that maybe my sanity needs to be checked, I felt a little sad that I might not have the same area code as Walt Disney World when we’re ready to move! So I went ahead and got an Orlando number!
How? Google Voice. The service lets you sign up for a real phone number that you can use to make calls using an app, via the web, or by forwarding to your actual phone. You can choose what city you want the number to originate from, which is how I secured three 407 numbers (for my cell, my wife’s cell, and our home). Right now any calls to them simply forward to our actual phones. And we’re not giving the number out yet. But when we’re ready, we can port our Google Voice number to our real phone accounts making the virtual number our permanent number.
If you think that’s a lot of hassle for something as minor as an area code, we weren’t done! Google Voice also lets you search their inventory of phone numbers, which allows you to choose which of their numbers you want. You can search by numbers or letter and words… So not only did we get our 407 numbers, they also spell out fun Disney related words and dates! That’s not something I would share when giving out the number, but it’s a fun bit of magic just for us!
“I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!”
Our older child graduated from high school two weeks ago. As someone born into the digital age, she wasn’t too enthusiastic about the idea of physical graduation invitations, especially since so many of them went to friends and extended family she didn’t know very well. Writing out addresses by hand on paper envelopes, then buying stamps and sticking them on, then walking to the mailbox to send them off! What’s the point? Her attitude changed once checks started rolling in! Most were in the $20 range and she was very excited about that. She started making plans to maybe get a camera. Then she got the checks from both sets of grandparents. They were very generous. The poor kid was overwhelmed! After a few days of not knowing what to do with so much cash, she finally got an idea…
“You just graduated from high school. What are you going to do next?”
Yep, she wanted to go to Disney World! That wasn’t a huge surprise coming from someone whose senior quote in her yearbook was a line from Journey Into Imagination. This time, however, she wanted to go by herself! It’s a scary thing for a parent to think about their child (yes, “child”, even if you are 18!) driving ten hours away, staying in a hotel for two nights without you, then driving back another ten hours. But she’s a good kid. And we knew it would be a great learning experience for her, and an even more amazing memory. So we considered it.
She budgeted it all out with what she had received and brought us her plan. It was very doable — except for one thing. The hotel she’d found online was $30 a night. Sure, a good bargain! But probably not the kind of place you want to trust with your little girl on her first solo trip! After some more discussions we agreed to let her go — with a little extra money from us to supplement what she had budgeted to put her in one of Disney’s All-Star resorts.
Mom and dad tried to keep our stressing out while she was gone to a minimum, and (other than some minor freaking out when her phone’s GPS stopped working for two hours) we made it through! She ended up having a wonderful trip that I’m sure she’ll never forget.
MORE MOVING STORIES
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the “Moving Stories” link in the sidebar. It features of list of articles from others who have already made the move discussing their story. And if you have already seen it, be sure to check back occasionally as I update the page as I find more! Today I’ve added four articles: Todd Perlmutter at TouringPlans.com discusses “Moving to the Mouse”; and Angela Dahlgren, also at TouringPlans.com, has a three part report about two women (Julia Mascardo and Natalie Reinert) and their experiences “Relocating To Florida“.
