What It’s Really Like To Live Inside Disney World: Woman Who Resides in the Theme Park Lifts the Lid on Her ‘Magical’ Lifestyle

A woman who lives in a home located inside the Disney World resort in Orlando, FL, has opened up about what it’s really like to reside in the Magic Kingdom.

Angie Bellemare from Canada is a Disney-obsessed influencer who splits her time between a property in her home country and a Florida neighborhood called Golden Oak. The neighborhood is located in the northeast corner of Disney World, just a few minutes from Animal Kingdom.

Described as a “one of a kind luxury community,” Golden Oak is “designed for families with an acute affinity for Disney,” offering 81 home sites where property prices range from $1.5 million to $20 million.

The gated neighborhood boasts a wealth of luxury amenities in addition to its close proximity to the theme park. They include a spa and a golf course, as well as a private club.

Residents also have access to the amenities of the onsite Four Seasons Resort, including parking.

Bellemare, who regularly documents her Disney World outings on her social media accounts, has shared a glimpse of what life is really like in the luxury gated neighborhood.

She explains in one of her YouTube videos that their home in Disney World was custom-built for her and her husband, Andre. They designed almost every element of the property, from the Mickey Mouse–shaped shrubbery overlooking their swimming pool to a screened porch with a fireplace and a TV, she notes.

While Bellemare has a few nods to the beloved Disney icon inside her property, the homes in Golden Oak are by no means gimmicky, she insists, sharing that she is often asked if her house is “Mickey Mouse-shaped” when she tells people where she lives.

“We just value the company of Disney. We don’t need characters hanging from the roof,” she said. “I’m sure there are some people in the neighborhood who have that, but it’s not [just about] being a Disney nerd—it’s the idea of having a quality home.”

The content creator began looking for her “dream home” in Florida in the early 2010s, revealing in a 2019 YouTube video that living on resort property had been something they’d been thinking about for “the past six or seven years.”

Bellemare and her husband then discovered that they could actually build a custom property in the Golden Oak neighborhood. The couple were Disney fanatics and couldn’t imagine anywhere more perfect to buy a home.

“It was a massive dream-big goal,” she explained. The houses they were initially looking at had starting prices of around $2 million, but then soared to around $3 million by the time they set their minds to finding a property.

“It was always our North Star, the thing that we wanted,” she shared. One of her YouTube followers invited her to view properties in Golden Oak in May 2017, describing it as being the moment that “made it real.”

When she went to view the homes, Bellemare recalled how “safe and secure” the neighborhood seemed and that she had to “go through two gates” to see the homes inside.

Although she was captivated by the community, the YouTuber admitted to feeling “overwhelmed” viewing the homes. Each of the properties was custom-built, with a huge number of options “from a Mickey Mouse statue to Mickey details on the railings.”

Bellemare heaped praise on the team at Disney, noting that she and her husband had to put in a lot of work to ensure that they’d be able to afford their Golden Oak property and thanking the staff they worked with “for really giving us the time of day.”

They visited the neighborhood multiple times, and finally in January 2018, they happened upon what she now describes as her “dream home” in one of the newest areas in Golden Oak.

For the following months, the duo “did everything they could” to secure their down payment before the lot could be snapped up by someone else.

By 2019, the pair had purchased their “empty lot” and started construction on their home. They moved into the home in July 2021.

Sharing the finished design in a YouTube video, Bellemare revealed that the couple wanted to create a “beachy vibe” inside their cottage in a drastic move away from the loud and colorful aesthetic Disney World is known for.

However, throughout her home are subtle nods to her love of the parks—and of Mickey Mouse in particular. They include a wrought-iron Mickey Mouse in the air vents, logos on her plates, and, of course, a Mickey Mouse topiary water feature in the pool.

Bellemare has shared regular decor updates with her followers, along with daily vlogs of her life in the Disney World resort.

A recent video captured her typical daily routine, which began with green juice and coffee before she and her partner drove the 4 minutes to the parks, where they were able to snag a plum parking spot at Saratoga Springs, where spaces are reserved for residents.

Inside Disney Springs, the duo shop before the crowds arrive and manage to score a pre-season Nightmare Before Christmas Lego set.

Bellemare notes that their ability to visit the parks early in the day is a huge advantage when it comes to snagging popular merchandise. 

Bellemare was there before Halloween and purchased quite a bit of decor, including big Mickey Mouse pumpkins and rare Disney-themed Halloween treasures. Then they “hauled over as quickly as possible” to the boardwalk with plans to go to Epcot.

“So we just walk down the boardwalk” she says.

The couple then do a full-flight tasting in a tequila class and, while tipsy, go to buy Disney-themed T-shirts and sweaters from a new collection that dropped.

They return home in the afternoon for a break, sorting through their purchases and lounging by the pool, before heading back to Epcot in the evening.

“Disney adulting, you can probably do this with four people also,” she says.

That night, they had a date night at the Italian pavilion inside Epcot and showed off a “little hidden gem” of a wine bar.

“I say ‘hidden’ because a lot of people don’t know it’s there for food and wine, but this spot is nestled in Italia, and it’s in the wine cellar,” Bellemare explained.

After an Italian dinner at Tutto Gusto, they stepped outside where they watched fireworks without a crowd.

“You step outside during fireworks and you’re alone,” she explained. “See, there’s nobody around me. So it was a little like magical moment between Andre and I were just completely alone watching the fireworks and it was just amazing. It’s like these little moments of Disney magic.”

The two “closed down the place like we always do” and then took a “walk around the world” before returning home for the evening.

“I love it,” she says of living in the “Most Magical Place on Earth.”

While Bellemare and her spouse opted to live in Golden Oak, there are a few other neighborhoods in the Disney World resort that offer more affordable housing options.

Currently, the median price of homes in Walt Disney World Resort is $528,000. Other neighborhoods that are popular are Plantation Park, Margaritaville Resort Orlando, Windsor Hills, and Keenes Pointe.