Epilogue
That’s Life

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It honestly seems like so long ago now that we left Orange County behind and moved back to Boulder, but there are a few things I figured I might as well reflect upon in case anyone else is considering following in our footsteps and moving to Disneyland (even if temporarily).

First, the pros. We loved being so close to the parks and being able to go incredibly often. Tracy and I averaged 2-3 days in the park per week for more than a year, and that was awesome! While it’s hard to claim that we got the chance to do everything at least once (because there’s just so much to do at Disneyland), it was great to never have to worry about rushing around and getting stuff done—which I feel like inevitably happens when you’re vacationing to the Disney parks. Instead, we could sometimes spend days doing almost no attractions and others just focusing on a single land. We also ate meals from the vast majority of the onsite restaurants and found all of our favorites.

Orange County in general has a variety of attractions that go beyond the theme park milieu. We explored various beach towns several times, made it up to L.A. a handful of times, and almost made it all the way down to San Diego once. There are all sorts of places you can go shopping in almost every city across the county, and plenty of good restaurants (even if the focus is generally more on chains than locally-owned places). Of course, the weather was fantastic 10 months out of the year, and it only became less than ideal during the crazy heatwaves of August and September.

Now, of course, everything wasn’t perfect. Here are my thoughts on the cons of living by Disneyland (most of which are related to the area rather than the resort itself—though not everything is perfect at Disneyland all the time). For one, I think we really showed up when Disneyland had switched from a place that was frequented primarily by locals to a true vacation destination. The parks are always crowded at this point (there’s no such thing as an off-season), and their smaller footprint does start to become an issue—especially when talking about traffic around the resort, the pain of parking, and the difficulty of maneuvering through small walkways.

Outside the parks, everything you hear about Orange County is true. Traffic sucks, and finding parking is even worse—no matter where you are trying to go at any given time. The cost of living is high and only getting higher. O.C. has a similar urban-sprawl vibe as L.A. (only on a smaller scale), so it can feel like you’re trapped in your little region of the county unless you’re willing to make a full day trip somewhere else. We also found it hard to make friends and meet people—especially fellow Disney fans. I feel like we might have had slightly skewed expectations thinking about the vast numbers of people who move to Florida to be near Walt Disney World. It seems like they all get to know fellow Disneyphiles and become friends because of their love for the parks. We experienced that a little bit in Orange County, but it seems like we were some of the only people who had ever really moved to the area specifically to be near Disneyland. If more Florida locals visit the WDW parks with their “Disney friends,” it seems like California locals visit the parks with their regular friends (which I think contributed to it being difficult to get to know new people).

It’s interesting thinking about how we had the idea of trying to work at Disneyland in mind when we moved to CA. In the end, I’m glad that didn’t come to fruition. We got to talk to a number of different cast members when they were off-duty, and the general attitude we got from them was that it’s difficult (borderline impossible) to make a legit career out of being a CM. They almost universally told us that the lack of hours in the first three years makes it difficult for anyone to work there unless they start in high school or college and don’t need to support themselves during those years. The pay just doesn’t align at all with the cost of living either, and it’s truly nutty to imagine trying to support yourself in Orange County at $9 per hour.

While it was mostly personal stuff that took us away from California, I can say that I’m glad we left. On the other hand, I’m also very glad we had the experience. I think any Disney nuts will benefit from living near the theme parks for at least a little while. It opens up opportunities you can never have living elsewhere, and it allows you to immerse yourself in the magic while still leading something of a “regular” life.

If you made it through this full “life report,” I definitely want to thank you! From the DISBoards to this blog and through the better part of 200 posts, it was fun sharing our CA lives with you all. I hope you’ll continue to read updates about our various trips to WDW, Disneyland, cruises, and the like. Our adventures certainly haven’t slowed even though we moved back to CO!

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