With the girls working for the Walt Disney Company since 2012, and us owning the house that they were living in, things changed dramatically for us. We intended to “retire” into that house somewhere down the road, but we didn’t think that road would come so soon. Holidays were difficult without our family and the winters were brutal in Chicago. Finally in 2015, we made the move south. Madeline quickly got a job at Walt Disney World, until the pandemic of 2020, when she was furloughed. That was only a few months after we moved to Kissimmee so that her commute to work would be much shorter. The furlough lasted from May of 2020 until March of 2021, but she is now back on the payroll.

Living here has given us easier access to all the hot vacation spots in Florida (see “The Rest of Florida” for some of those trips.) It also gave us access to spending all day or just a few hours doing something around the area.

Orlando & central Florida 2016-

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2016

Now that we live in Orlando, we spend lots of time at WDW for various reasons: date days, 10k runs, MLB Spring Training, dinners, or just really anything. We did vacation a week in a Marriott Vacation Club resort in Orlando for our 30th Anniversary, though, in which we spent a lot of time at Disney with our friends. Orlando has a number of other entertainment venues that can be fun, so we intend to try out many of them. Tampa is just a stone’s throw away, too, and there are lots of things to do there.

2017

Certainly the highlight of the year was the wedding of Alicia & Mel in April. Although it was not a Disney wedding, there were Disney elements to it, but I still gave it its own page. Return to the Home page and look for the link towards the right center.

Other than that, we did do a few other things in the immediate area this year.

2018

Lots of visitors to the area early in the year. One of our favorite visits was when Amanda & Jacob came just a few months before their baby was due. Jacob had not been here since he was a little kid, so everything was pretty much new to him. Some or all of us spent time in every park with them.

Dana also gave Madeline and I her longest tour: Backstage Magic, which involved many behind-the-scenes areas.

2019

We did a number of things in the area besides just Disney stuff, although that did encompass a lot of our activities. We went to St. Pete one weekend to visit the Dali Museum. We went to Clearwater later in the year to visit with Gecelyn and family. We also watched a number of shows at the Dr. Phillip’s Center. At Disney, we had sneak previews of the new Galaxy’s Edge section at Hollywood Studios and rode the new Skyliner.

2020

This was a horribly sad year for Central Florida. The Coronavirus pandemic shut down Disney and the other parks for more than 3 months. Once they opened, they were totally different. It became the year of the mask, social distancing, and limited attractions. The theatre was shut down for nearly the whole year. Travel restrictions and scares stopped friends from visiting. It was a year we wanted to just forget, but we had to make the best of it, and so we did.

2021

The vaccine for Covid was out at the beginning of the year, but things certainly weren’t back to normal. Getting into a Disney park was by reservation only, and it was difficult to coordinate my annual pass with Madeline’s free passes. We were both fully vaccinated by April and the world started to get somewhat back to normal in the summer.

2022

Life pretty much got back to normal this year, although the threat of Covid hitting you at any time was still a real possibility. We spent time at Bay Lake Tower in January, the Bungalows in May, and Port Orleans in September. Gecelyn and Jose came to town in July.

2023

The year began with Splash Mountain closing and Tron finally opening at Magic Kingdom. There were a couple of other Cast previews during the year as well. We had two staycations during the year and went off for a few days in the Tampa area as well. Of course, it’s Orlando, so people often come in to visit the area and us, too. Myles enjoyed the parks during the year and Amaya even went to a couple and rode her first ride. We also saw a season of Broadway shows at the Dr. Phillips Center.