The Town that Mickey Built

Celebration, FL (taken with my cool Panorama option on my iPhone)

Everybody is familiar with Disney Land, Disney World, and Epcot, but did you know that in the '90s Disney built a town?  It's called Celebration and it's just south of the gates to Central Florida's Magic Kingdom.

Downtown Celebration

The idea was to build a master-planned community with the perfection of the Disney product.  The style is early 20th century.  According to Zillow.com, which measures real estate value, housing prices run from condos for $200,000 to single family homes in the millions.

Porches grace most of the single family homes.

  The community has a golf course, lots of parks, and churches (the Sunday evening Catholic Mass is contemporary, and it ROCKS...) in addition to its downtown area.  Stetson University also has a campus within the confines of the community.  You won't find gas stations or grocery stores, but you will find a bakery for dogs (Riley's favorite haunt).

At first glance, a visitor might think of that movie, "The Stepford Wives."  Everything IS pretty orderly. I was reminded of the play, "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder.  This is a place where people walk to go out to dinner and they talk to their neighbors.  People are genuinely friendly here.  Whether you're in line at the post office or the theatre, the locals will engage in conversation.

Post Office

Theatre

It's not all perfect, however. On a recent trip we noticed a marked change in downtown once the high school lets out for the day.  Hoards of teens make their way, on skateboards, to the brick paved streets of downtown Celebration.  It quickly puts a damper on strolling along tree-lined streets wishing for a bygone era.  The facade may change, but the problems of modern communities remain the same.

Never fear, however.  Unlike "Our Town" of Thorton's imagination, Disney Imagineers were savvy enough to include a Starbucks: it's the anecdote for anything that ails you.

Don't even think about the perfect town without a Starbucks.