“Celebration” is a town you would only stumble upon by accident.

When you get to Joe’s Crab Shack on Highway 192 (look out for the American water tower, turn into Celebration Avenue. Carry on until you reach the centre (look out for Sun Trust Bank), parking is plentiful and free.
 
In November 1996, 350 people became the first residents of Celebration.

Built on mosquito-ridden swamp land in Osceola County. The original houses are of traditional design, with clapboard exteriors, pastel colours, front porches and picket fences.

When walking down Market Street, you could believe that you were on Main Street in Magic Kingdom, it copies a typical Midwestern American street in the early 1900’s, complete with ice cream parlour, theatre and sweet shop, oops sorry that should read candy store.
 
People do greet each other in the street, cars travel very slowly and children play with gay abandon. The cafes and restaurants offer better quality fair than the average Florida eating establishments, and when the locals say “Have a nice day” you could almost believe that they are sincere.

During the mid 1960’s Uncle Walt’s vision of the future was EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), The EPCOT we visit today is far removed from the original idea, so Celebration has gone someway to address this. There is a state of the art hospital, software companies and an innovative, techno-friendly school.

Would I like to live here? There are a lot of covenants in the way that the property must be presented. Some would say that they are too strict (no surprise to some of us who own property in Florida) trash only out at a certain time of day, grass to be kept tidy, no noise after 21.00 and on it goes.

Yes it suits me, I like the tidy way of life, the friendly neighbors, but I can understand why it would not suite all of the people all of the time. The main reason I will not live here (apart from the visa restrictions) is the cost, not only for the property but taxes, community fee’s etc. keep me away.

But please do go and visit. It costs nothing to walk and sit and hopefully you will leave knowing that there is a nicer part of the Orlando area.