#DiDeAd countdown

So what, sez you, is up with the former Disney Debate Adventure, subsequently the former #DDA, and finally the live and kicking #DiDeAd?

It is now seven days until liftoff. The hotels and flights are booked, arrangements have been made to get to the airport (by those of us who need such arrangements), and we’ve begun getting the final stuff from our travel agent, the wonderfully helpful Jan, who actually gets all of my jokes. At the chez we’re trying to decide whether to go with carry-on or dump-on, knowing that the Disney Magical Express (aka the bus) will pick up the luggage in Orlando and plop it into our rooms for us, but on the other hand, no one is traveling with much more than a couple of tee shirts and some unmentionables. I’ve got more gear (camera stuff, iPad, phone, chargers, etc.) than anything else, and that’s all carry-on by default.

As for the schedule, that’s been polished until it glistens and gleams. Using the Unofficial Guide touring plans (with the updates to cover the couple of specifics when we’re there, like the lights out at “it’s a small world”), we know how to do the parks efficiently, and my guess is that there will be plenty of time for moseying and personal quests as well as hitting all the attractions. Of course, some we don’t have to hit, because we don’t have any little kids. I’ll go into some specifics over the next few days to fill in the time before we go.

The real issue has been the mix of cultures embarking on the journey. Or, to put it another way, O’C is nuts, and I’m not, although he has a different spin on this particular point. We created a listserver for the participants early on, and at the beginning it was all things like which park when and what restaurants everyone preferred, the sort of things normal people might discuss, the sort of things I usually decide for the family (with Kt to advise and consent) and subsequently dictate. But lately we’ve gotten into the meta nature of fanny packs, the advisability of wearing scratch-and-sniff hats with ears, and theremin-playing cats. Needless to say, I am against all three of these. I’m especially against the idea that we’d get our names sewn onto the scratch-and-sniff hats. If I did have to wear a scratch-and-sniff hat with ears, I assure you I’d put someone else’s name on it to confuse the media. I don’t think it will happen, thank God, but if it does, I’ll be the guy in the hat that says “Bietz.” What I’m looking for is a hat I can wear every day, after we come home, so ears and scratch-and-sniff are out. A chapeau for the day job, so to speak. No one at the DJ wears scratch-and-sniff hats with ears, I assure you. No one even comes close. What we haven’t discussed lately is the whole Cinderella’s autograph type thing, which I guess O’C will go off and do during the personal quest times, knowing that the rest of us do not share his belief in her divinity. If he could ride Star Tours with Cinderella while wearing a Mickey Ears hat and clutching his plush Darth Vader, I think he’d be in O’C nirvana. Since it is, this being a magical place, possible that it might happen, as I mentioned before, I’m bringing my camera. And of course, we’ll be tweeting the whole thing while we’re there with the #DiDeAd tag. We’ve already started, actually.

Anyhow, seven days until Bon Voyage. If you’re not tired of this yet, you will be soon enough. You’ll be longing for more discussion of case disclosure!