Villa Game Rooms

Renting an off property villa can during your next Disney Vacation can be a great way to save money while giving everyone space.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rental property, nor do I wish to own any. I am just a customer and enthusiast who likes helping others.

Many (but not all) of the full house villas will come with a game room. A game room is when the owner uses the garage for some kind of game. The game might be a pool table, air hockey, foosball, ping pong, dart board, or any combination of these items. There might also be furniture, such as a couch.

We need to set some expectations about these game rooms. To begin with, this is a garage. Typically, this is where the Air Conditioner/heat is, hot water tank, and various items used to maintain the house (ladders, tools, paint cans, etc). Some owners will paint the garage and hang decorations. Regardless of how nice they make it? It is a garage!

Next, keep in mind that this is a garage (have I said that enough times?). Garages are not heated when cold
nor cooled when warm. It is not air conditioned and it will be very warn on hot days. You can get some relief by opening the garage door.

Finally, game rooms get a lot of abuse from sugared up kids and adults with too much beverage. It isn't surprising if the games are in some kind of minor disrepair.

Have I set your expectations? Do you think a game room will be fun now that you know this? Heck yes! Game rooms are a blast! My kids love the game room and no day was ever complete without some kind of family championship.

Indian Creek Review

We have rented one story 4 bedroom pool house villas in Indian Creek in 2013 and 2014 and we have loved it. Indian Creek is in the Formosa Gardens general area near West Gate, just miles from Animal Kingdom. It is not a gated community. The neighborhood is usually quiet as none of the villas are rented every day, and the renters usually spend all day at Disney. There are a handful of permanent residents, but not many. Nearly all the houses have lawns that are well maintained, usually by a landscaping company.

The neighborhood is split in half by a highway, and connected with a large bridge. Unless the villa backs to the highway, you'll never know the highway is there. In the summer, you'll awake many mornings to hot air balloons flying overhead. Depending on where your villa is located, you can see the Disney fireworks in the distance in the evening.

The location is excellent. From driveway to walking through the gates at Animal Kingdom is 15 minutes. The neighborhood is minutes away from Rt. 192, which has almost ever imaginable restaurant and store on it. You'll find The Market grocery store very close, but the store is too expensive. Drive west on 192 and you'll find a Target and Publix. A little further and there is a Walmart on Rt. 27. This area is very close to Celebration, the town built by Disney. In fact, the neighborhood is part of the Celebration school district.

There are two parks, one on each side of the bridge. Each has a playground and an open area. One park has basketball courts, tennis courts, and large open fields. There are two large retention ponds with walking paths. The neighborhood has a combination of palm trees and some kind of tree that drops acorns plus a few fruit trees. There is plenty of wild life: large birds, turtles, and geckos. This is Florida, so, there are plenty of bugs, nevertheless, I never had a problem with bugs while walking around the neighborhood.  You'll want to ask your Villa owner about their extermination practices - if the practices are good, you shouldn't have a problem with bugs inside either.

As with all Villas, buyer be ware. You really need to check the villa owner as every house can be different. This review is only concerned with the Indian Creek neighborhood.

I have several links where you can experience Indian Creek too. This is a link looking out the front window of the villa, or, at the pool. This is a great way to see what the neighborhood is like:
http://original.livestream.com/palmtreetv

The next link goes to a video for jogging around Indian Creek. Unfortunately, I shot most of the video during garbage day, so, there are garbage cans at the curb. That is usually not the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yaynfRn204

Indian Creek gets a huge high rating from me. I hope to stay there again very soon!

The Disney Checklist

We have put together a checklist each year to prepare for our Florida trips:

We are behind schedule this year, but, this is our standard approach.

T Minus 13 weeks

 Buy trading pins online

T Minus 12 weeks

Disney Restaurant Reservations

T Minus 11 weeks

Plan the drive home 

 reservations for drive home

T Minus 10 weeks

Plan any day trips outside of Disney

T Minus 9 weeks    

Plan a day trip to go to a beach

T Minus 8 weeks

Plan what groceries we will be buying

Plan the morning checklist to get us up and out each day

 What rides do we want to ride: Magic Kingdom

T Minus 7 weeks

Get the park schedules (open, close, parades, etc)

What rides do we want to ride: Epcot

T Minus 6 weeks

Plan a day-by-day, park-by-park plan for the Itinerary 

What rides do we want to ride: Hollywood Studios

T Minus 5 weeks

Clothes shopping

Water shoes: clean up or buy new?

What rides do we want to ride: Animal Kingdom

T Minus 4 weeks

Backup and empty all of the cameras

Buy video games for the drive

 Get a TripTik from AAA

Our shoes OK? Or order new?

T Minus 3 weeks

Check our Disney card reward points

Print the packing list 

 Print the itinerary 

Decide what DVDs we will take with us

T Minus 2 weeks

Hair cuts for everyone

Refill all prescriptions

Van oil change and checkup

Check the weather for the trip

Buy snacks for the drive down

T Minus 1 week

 Pack, pack, and more packing!

2015 Florida Trip Update

We received some terrible news today. Last year we rented a beautiful pool house at an affordable price. We hoped to rent it again however we were late at making our reservation. We learned today that our villa isn't available!

Picking a villa is a lot of work for us because we put a lot of work into our decision and we are very careful to make sure we are working with a legit owner.

With only eight weeks before we leave? This is not good! We need to find some place that is open for five weeks!

Stay tuned for more updates.

Living Disney Blog

I am reading a new blog (new to me) named Http://livingdisney.co

When I read a blog, I like to go to the beginning and read forward. Whose ever idea it was to design blog pages to be read backwards is missing the point! This blog starts in early 2012 with almost daily entries. Reading it is like reading a book on my favorite subject: living at Disney!

The story starts with two sisters living together in North Carolina. Between them they have three children from donated sperm. They want to get out of North Carolina because they are concerned about the pollution. Unable to decide on a place to go to, they decide to move to the Greatest Place On Earth: Disney World! They are both stay at home Mom's who home school and run a day care (they call it being a Nanny). They also make money blogging and ebaying Disney merchandise.

I have only made it to May 2012 (they are very prolific writers). The blog is stuffed full of pictures. Many of the entries so far are what you would expect from anyone who might be on vacation visiting Disney. But very quickly, they dive into tips and details that can only come from being able to spend a lot of time in the parks.

The entries I like the most are the "Flash Backs". This is when we travel back in time to 2009 to read journal entries. This is when the sisters decided to make their move, their reasons why, the necessary planning, and all the challenges.

My favorite "chapters"/blog entries so far discussed the decision to rent a 4 bedroom townhouse in a resort community in Davenport (an area not far from Kissimmee and Celebration). I find that deciding where to move to is one of the most difficult decisions to make, so I enjoy hearing the experiences of others.

My interest is about learning what life is like living next to Disney. For me, I am less interested in the special tips for buying things at the German bakery. I'll discover those things after I move there. I want to know what life will be like - what is great and what isn't? This blog has a little of everything. And so my second favorite was reading how they went to Tampa for their son's birthday and all the things there were to do in Tampa. I liked that entry because I believe that moving to Disney means more than just Disney. There is an entire state with fun and exciting things to experience! That entry was no let down.

I am going to continue reading my way through this blog. I hope you'll join me. Just please take my advice: go to the 2012 entries and begin reading the blog from the start.

Planning the 2015 Florida Trip

We have visited Florida every summer since 2011. This summer is going to be no exception. Unfortunately, we leave in ten weeks and we have done nothing to prepare for it! We haven't even picked a house to rent yet, much less rented one. We know we'll be in Florida for the month of July, but, beyond that? Nothing is planned. 

We need to get moving on this if it is really going to happen!

This year's theme is going to be: Small Budget. I have set a budget for the trip down and back, and staying in Florida. The budget will not allow us to renew our Disney annual passes (which expires on July 9), which is OK. To force us to really experience the Florida life style, we can't run to the parks every evening. I'm sure if we moved to Florida someday, at the beginning we would go to the parks all the time, but as life became busy and the parks became less appealing, we would find other interests as well. 

So, this trip will be Disney filled up until July 9. Afterwards, we'll have Downtown Disney and the resorts. But we want to explore the beaches and some of the other things around the area too. A person can't just live on Disney alone! OK, maybe they could. But life would be much more rewarding if it was filled with many things.

That's our plan. Now, we just have to put those plans into motion.

Working at Disney

Want to work at Disney some day? I have though that someday I might retire and go work at the Disney World parks. I just read this report from All Ears: http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2012/07/getting_a_job_at_walt_disney_w.html

I found several items very interesting the the article:

1. Full time is 32 hours per week, and includes 

health care benefit. However, there aren't very 

many full time jobs handed out.

2. You may have to get a less desirable job for

 the first six months. Afterward, you can apply

For something better.

3. Be ready to stand on your feet for 8 hours 

per day

4. Be ready to work nights, weekends, and 

Holidays.

The dream of interacting with happy and 

excited guests all day might not be a dream

Held by all the 65,000 Disney employees.

But I can hope that someday the dream 

Might come true for me.