We have had quite a few visitors to our vacation place in Celebration FL over the last few weeks.  Everyone is interested in the unique “Town that Disney Built”.  

I’ve found that people from different parts of Florida like to compare what their towns & clubhouses have to keep retirees busy & entertained. On the ‘highly desired’ list are pools / water parks, golf courses, tennis / pickleball courts, fitness centers, book clubs, theme nights, music / concerts, arts & crafts, game nights, and cultural activities.

People will rave that “Our development hosted a big Super Bowl party!” or post “My clubhouse hosted a delightful Italian wine tasting!”  or share “Our neighborhood book club just read the best new novel.” People love activities that are social, educational, and fun.

Our town of Celebration has a lot of nice amenities, too – and our neighborhood within the town has a snazzy clubhouse with a nice restaurant, pool / hot tub, fitness center, and a monthly calendar of full of activities. I’d say the town matches up with any other development that I’ve heard of (except pickleball!).

That said, where Celebration really shines is that we are also connected to the sprawling Walt Disney World Resort. It’s just a 3 mile ride from Celebration to the Walt Disney World Main Gate (with no traffic or stop lights). 

His big is Walt Disney World? It’s 25,000 acres with 4 world-class theme parks, 25 resorts, multiple shopping districts, and enough activities to keep their 58 million visitors busy throughout the year. Living within the ‘Disney World Bubble’ means we can tap into all of the activities they offer to everyone visiting – in the theme parks and across the resort. Our annual passes run just $25-$80/month – while day visitors pay almost $200/day.

Here are some examples of the activities we’ve done recently:  Today we went to Animal Kingdom and did a behind-the-scenes, up-close tour with their African elephants. On Friday, we had a cocktail mixology lesson in a luxurious lounge at their Grand Floridian Hotel.  Earlier last week, we went to the EPCOT Festival of the Arts and saw Disney’s Broadway stars (flown down from NYC) to perform an evening concert.  On Valentine’s Day, we have tickets to the exclusive WDW Cirque du Soleil show at Disney Springs.  

There is a Celebration Social Club that organizes ‘field trips’ to events like these for folks in our town.  From ‘Monorail Pub Crawls’ to ‘Dueling Piano Sing-Alongs’ to ‘Fireworks Pontoon Cruises’, there are lots of people from Celebration driving over to WDW for social fun.  Next Saturday, there is a ’Sip & Stroll’ of Disney’s Boardwalk finishing at a wine bar that we’re going to with a couple other dozen people from Celebration.

Retirees have lots of things to keep them busy in this day & age.  Like you, we enjoy a simple ‘trivia night’ at our local brewery / clubhouse with neighbors. Still, I have to say we really love being able to zip over to the world’s largest vacation resort and tapping into all of the fun that people around the world come here to enjoy!  

What are some of the unique & entertaining activities that you get to enjoy where you live?

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