From a fellow Floridian who grew up in central Florida (New Smyrna Beach, 20+ years), and spent time in south Florida (Pompano Beach, < 1 year), as well, I can say you will definitely want to buy a nice heavy coat for the winter months.
The traffic here is definitely worse than Orlando, and in my opinion, a little worse than Miami. Orlando has more main roads and highways with less overall congestion. Miami has the same problem Philadelphia has where there are only a couple of good ways to get from one side of the city to the other without actually driving through the city.
From my experience, you will not find anything like the Lake Nona area (not sure about Pembroke) anywhere inside or in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia. The closest you might get are the far western suburbs around West Chester and Downingtown, but even these will probably not have the same feel for you. At least they did not for me. They are fine areas, but a little cost-prohibitive for my family for the time being with only a single source of income.
There is the equivalent of a Super Target in the Bustleton area of the far Northeast Philadelphia. My wife and I are also big fans of Target and shop there often. It's probably one of the cleanest Target stores that I have ever been in.
The Bustleton area also has relatively quick access to a number of malls, including the Franklin Mills mall, which is sizable, plenty of restaurants, some newer construction, and lots of families. The area is, I believe, considered among the safer of those inside the city limits. My wife is a stay-at-home mom and has never expressed feeling unsafe in our apartment in the Bustleton area, or when walking around the neighborhood.
You may already have experienced some of the Northeast attitude coming from the snowbirds in and around central and south Florida. I honestly think that, for the most part, people will be more friendly in Philadelphia until you hit the road in your car. I often joke with my wife that the reason Florida has so many bad drivers is that a lot of them come from the Northeast, Michigan, and Chicago.
It's pretty easy to strike up a friendly conversation with someone you've never met here, but that same person will flip you off and cuss you out if you try to merge into their lane.
Back to Bustleton, there are some pretty nice apartments in the area, and I can recommend a few from very recent dealings with apartment managers, doing walkthroughs, driving through at night and on the weekend, etc. It's also very convenient to I-95, Roosevelt Blvd, and the PA turnpike.
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They can keep their house in redneckville and their $8 an hour jobs.
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