College Program participants can come from all over the world, and sometimes the transition to moving to Florida is as simply as a road trip or it’s much more complicated. Since I was moving from California to Florida, my situation was the complicated kind, and I had to be strategic. The easiest route for me to get across the country would be air travel. By choosing to fly that meant I could only bring a certain amount of things with me. Additionally, this was also only a temporary move. It took four suitcases, a 10 hour plane ride, a little shopping and a lot of mailing small items via snail-mail to successfully move myself across the country. Here’s how I did it.

The game plan was this: My parents and I decided that since we had never been to Disney World, we would go a week early to see all four parks and Disney Springs. This way, I could get the lay of the land and we could have a vacation after a long time being in quarantine. We would spend the first five days vacationing and then get we spend a day before the big move to shop and gather items together of what I could possibly need. While I wouldn’t know exactly what I needed until I moved in, but we figured we would still try to be prepared as much as we could.

My dad booked a flight through Southwest from SFO to MCO, it was a ten-hour flight with a stop in Chicago. The reason he picked Southwest was because they have an amazing checked baggage policy. Not only do you get one carry on and a personal item but you can bring two checked bags without being charged. Since there was three of us, that means we each could bring three suitcases and one personal item.

This policy still gave me a limit on how much I could bring, so whatever I couldn’t take on the flight I would just purchase there or mail over. I tried not to mail too much because it costs money every time to mail out a package and that adds up. So I only mailed if it was necessary. I also made some Amazon purchases that were sent to my new apartment once I got my mailing information.

I was able to fit most of my essentials in four suitcases, and two personal bags. What I ended up bringing with me was mostly clothes, toiletries, cleaning products (because of the pandemic), electronics like my laptop and iPad, earbuds, books to read, Disney essentials (like my ears and pins), my college program documents and other personal items I couldn’t re-buy. I tried to be minimal since I wasn’t sure how much space I would get, and I knew I probably would do some souvenir shopping once I was there.

We stayed at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort which wasn’t too far from my soon-to-be housing at Flamingo Crossing. Since it was close enough, we didn’t have to worry too much about Disney Park traffic on actual move-in day. Once we went through all the parks, we rented a car so we could move outside the Disney Bubble with ease. We took a day to get items we thought I would need right away like Bedding, pillows, towels, more bathroom products like face cream, hand soap, medications, Kleenex, Clorox, shampoo and conditioner. We did take a lot of toiletries from the hotel. I couldn’t buy everything just yet because I needed to see what my roommate situation was and what they had already. Depending on what the apartment situation was after moving in I would be able to get stuff like food and other items I may need.

I didn’t realize how cold Florida can get in January. It was freezing so I also went to the store for warm clothes. I didn’t need that much cause Florida is normally hot the rest of the year it would just be for only cold occasions. So, if your move-in date is within the months of December to February, be prepared for possible cold weather, and pack for it. Yes, Florida is mostly warm the rest of the time but when it does get cold, it’s freezing.

On move-in day, I discovered I had apartment full of roommates and stuff, so I didn’t really have to buy too much except my own personal food to fill my cabinets and space in the fridge. I also bought myself a Brita because well, I didn’t know how much I could trust the tap water. My roommates mentioned having stomach issues from the tap water and that freaked me out for the rest of the program. The water was probably fine, but I didn’t want to risk it.

Once I officially got my mailing information, my parents sent things I may have forgotten or sent me things via Amazon. My parents were able to help me Day One, move all of my suitcases and purchases, which made the transition smooth. Then I had a good amount of time after onboarding to unpack and settle in. Getting to Florida really wasn’t that bad as I thought it would be. Moving out was a different story.