All right, enough of this debate nonsense.
The DisAd14 is myself and spouse, my cousin (a veteran of the DiDeAd), my daughter and her recently acquired spouse (he’s first-time Disney), Kaz, O’C and JV. Eight people is quite a crowd, and it’s a pretty disparate group at that. I mean, I know that right now you’re trying to imagine JV with Mickey Mouse ears and for some reason failing to have the picture form in your mind. (Actually, none of us are of the mouse ears persuasion, but I’ll at least wear a WDW t-shirt. JV refuses to wear any writing of any sort on his clothes, so there you are.) We scheduled for August when everyone could make it and there was a reasonable hotel discount, as that counts as off-season for most people, as schools around the country are already back in session, and we don’t start until after Labor Day. Needless to say, in certain areas of the debate community, the existence of this trip is looked on with something akin to complete disbelief. I think the quick take is the unlikelihood of a bunch of debate coaches actually liking one another, and then secondly, the unlikelihood of a bunch of non debate coaches putting up for a week with a bunch of debate coaches. But yes, we do like each other, as witnessed by our enjoyment not only of our shared tab rooms but all the meals and whatnot surrounding them. We even occasionally get together when there isn’t a tournament anywhere near us. And we don’t talk about debate on the trip: it virtually never came up on the DiDeAd, nor will it on the DisAd. Why would it? It’s off season, and you’re in a totally set-off world, created to remove you from the daily woes and wiles. Give in to it, and enjoy it. If we wanted to talk about debate, we could argue with each other on the coaches’ listserver.
A cold shiver goes up my spine at the very idea.
A lot of thought went into the early planning, especially with me and Kate and O’C, as the seasoned veterans. One key thing this time was the need to go to Universal. Last time we didn’t, and only Kaz got to see the Harry Potter stuff. This time there’s not only Hogwarts but Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express, both presumably opening any minute. We’re ready for this stuff now. Plus there’s plenty of other new Universal stuff worth seeing, and plenty worth revisiting (e.g., is Spiderman still the best dark ride on the planet?). Originally we set aside a day for Universal in the middle of WDW, but giving it some thought, it seemed to make sense to actually stay at Universal for a couple of days. First of all, if you stay at one of their hotels, you get early access to the parks (and Harry), bypassing some serious line-age as a result. And second, you get instant back door access to everything else other than Harry, meaning for all practical purposes, no lines. I figure about a day and a half will do it, including two mornings, one starting at Hogwarts and the other at Gringotts.
After that, it was simply a matter of adjusting the days at WDW in a reasonable fashion, allowing sleep a couple of mornings (although, let’s face it, you don’t go to WDW to sleep). And then arguing over which meals where. Et cetera.
I know. Either you wish you were going, or you can’t imagine a worse fate, including the coaches’ listserver. There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t. And those who can’t wait for the DisAd, and those can’t wait long enough. So it goes.
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