KathyRN137
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,882
Pre-Trip #17
A Nerd's Guide to Multiple-Choice
Looks like it won’t be long now! Visit any retail establishment today and what will you see? Notebooks, pencil cases, backpacks, and lunch boxes. SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!
They’re on display at Target. At the supermarket. At the drug store. Yesterday, I even found them at the Disney Store! It can only mean one thing, kids: Back to School Time is just around the corner!
Back to school already. Where has the summer gone?
I have a little confession to make.
I am a nerd. I have always been a nerd. And now, I have become a WDW nerd. I am a trip report-reading, ADR-changing, ziplock-bag-packing, DIS-nerd. I’ve got my Crocs and my baggallini. All I need now is a lime-green pocket protector.
I admit that when I was young nerd, I loved to go shopping for my school supplies! Forget January 1st. To a kid like me, September was the real start of the "new" year. There was always something so fresh and exciting about the beginning of a new term!
There was mystery! What would the new teacher be like? Would she give lots of homework? There was suspense! Would my two best friends be in the same class with me? Or would the mean, popular girls be in my class instead? There was drama! Would that awful playground bully still get his kicks from stealing jump ropes and hopscotch potsies from us girls? Or had he turned over a new leaf?
Turning over a new leaf. I suppose that at one time or another, we all long for a fresh start, a new beginning. That was what really made shopping for those school supplies so much fun. Nothing quite represented the limitless possibilities of the new term like a pile of blank notebooks and a box full of freshly sharpened pencils!
Oh…..and I thought my Partridge Family lunchbox was pretty neat, too!
Of course, I wasn’t quite looking forward to homework the way I was looking forward to having lunch with David Cassidy every day. And then, there were tests. Tests were annoying because studying for them took time away from reading and playing with friends.
“Do you have any tests tomorrow?” my mother would ask me when I came home from school. If the answer was “yes”, then all bets were off. I was expected to go straight to my room to study for the rest of the night, taking only a small break for dinner.
Naturally, since I was a nerd who enjoyed school, I became fairly good at taking tests. I suppose one could say that I developed mad test-taking skilz:
*Always try to get to bed early the night before your test.
*Always eat a good breakfast the morning of your test.
*Always come prepared with two pencils and a good eraser.
*Always write your name on the test before you do anything else.
*Always read the question completely. Twice.
*Always mark a question you can’t answer, skip it, and go back to it later.
*Always check to make sure you answered all the questions after you have finished.
*Always stick with your first instinct; don’t go back to change your answers.
(Told ‘ya.
N-E-R-D!)
I never had a problem following any of the above axioms….except, perhaps, that last one! Occasionally, I found it difficult to stick with my first answer and not second-guess myself. Through experience I soon found that when I did, I usually got the question wrong! Especially, it seemed, on multiple-choice questions.
A good multiple-choice question will usually have one or two choices that are fairly obvious wrong answers and two choices that are both pretty much right. The trick is to choose the one that is the “most right.” This is why the 50/50 help line was never of much use on Who Wants to be a Millionaire
If you found yourself torn between two choices, those would always be the two they left on the board!
So what, you may ask yourself, other than a brief reference to a now-defunct attraction, does all this have to do with planning a trip to WDW?? Well, this post is actually not as off-topic as you may think.
A couple of weeks ago, WDW announced a few changes to the park hours for November. It seems as though the bean-counters have collected enough data to predict big crowds
for Jersey Week, so the folks in Operations have decided to extend the regular park hours. There will be two SpectroMagic Parades (8pm, 10 pm) three nights that week at the MK, and D-MGM will give double performances of Fantasmic (7pm, 8:30pm) on three of our seven nights as well. Hmmmm….
Choices, choices. Multiple choices!
My knee-jerk reaction upon receipt of this important information was to pull up the good old Operational Plan and give in the once-over. It’s not as though I hadn’t already been over and over our touring itinerary multiple times with a fine-toothed comb….but, that was back in May/June!! Now I found myself bubbling over with renewed planning enthusiasm:
“Just look at all the extra hours! Hey! If I switch our D-MGM night from Sunday to Thursday, we can see Fantasmic at 8:30 instead of at 7:00! Ooh, and then if we do AK for the entire day Sunday, it closes at 7:00 instead of 5:00! Wow, think of all the extra rides we can get on EE! And the MK is open on our last night until midnight! Woo-hoo!
Now, all I have to do is call Disney Dining and see if I can switch…”
Do you see where this is going?
When I tell you that I spent countless hours researching, creating, and editing our original Operational Plan, I am not exaggerating. Like many of you, I made, then cancelled, then re-made upteen numbers of ADRs until I was able to blend them in perfectly with “the plan.” And now, two months later, I was considering tearing it all up and starting over
just because of the addition of a few extra park hours and parades.
The temptation to alter the plan was very great, but something held me back. For a week, I kept telling myself, “I really should call DD and see if we can switch dinner at 50’s PTC to Thursday”, but I never did. Perhaps it was just laziness. Perhaps it was that I was too busy now that the kids were done with school and day camp. Or perhaps it was the constant sight of all those lovely new school supplies that I had been encountering at every turn. It must have triggered old memories of classes and homework and tests.
I had schooled myself through travel guides, the Internet, and most importantly, through our past experiences at WDW. I had spent many hours studying and doing my homework; the end result was our current itinerary. And now, here was the test. Do I second-guess myself and go back to change my original answers?
To make my decision, I went back and re-read the questions. I had made our plan the way I had for a reason. Not to squeeze in as many attractions as possible. Not to have my family wake up early every morning and stay out late every night. Not to do more, more, more until we were completely wiped out from burning the candle at both ends.
I had the needs of my family to consider. The autistic child should not get over-stimulated. He and his sister should not get over-tired. The elderly aunt should not get overwhelmed. The hard-working husband should not get over-scheduled.
And as for me? Well, this DIS-nerd mom should not get over-obsessed with trying to see and do it all.
So I took a lesson from my school days and decided to pay attention to my gut feelings and stick with my first choice. The Operational Plan stays as is.
But, I may have to go back to the Disney Store and pick up that Tinkerbell pencil case….
Kathy
A Nerd's Guide to Multiple-Choice
Looks like it won’t be long now! Visit any retail establishment today and what will you see? Notebooks, pencil cases, backpacks, and lunch boxes. SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!
They’re on display at Target. At the supermarket. At the drug store. Yesterday, I even found them at the Disney Store! It can only mean one thing, kids: Back to School Time is just around the corner!Back to school already. Where has the summer gone?
I have a little confession to make.
I am a nerd. I have always been a nerd. And now, I have become a WDW nerd. I am a trip report-reading, ADR-changing, ziplock-bag-packing, DIS-nerd. I’ve got my Crocs and my baggallini. All I need now is a lime-green pocket protector.
I admit that when I was young nerd, I loved to go shopping for my school supplies! Forget January 1st. To a kid like me, September was the real start of the "new" year. There was always something so fresh and exciting about the beginning of a new term!
There was mystery! What would the new teacher be like? Would she give lots of homework? There was suspense! Would my two best friends be in the same class with me? Or would the mean, popular girls be in my class instead? There was drama! Would that awful playground bully still get his kicks from stealing jump ropes and hopscotch potsies from us girls? Or had he turned over a new leaf?
Turning over a new leaf. I suppose that at one time or another, we all long for a fresh start, a new beginning. That was what really made shopping for those school supplies so much fun. Nothing quite represented the limitless possibilities of the new term like a pile of blank notebooks and a box full of freshly sharpened pencils!
Oh…..and I thought my Partridge Family lunchbox was pretty neat, too!
Of course, I wasn’t quite looking forward to homework the way I was looking forward to having lunch with David Cassidy every day. And then, there were tests. Tests were annoying because studying for them took time away from reading and playing with friends.
“Do you have any tests tomorrow?” my mother would ask me when I came home from school. If the answer was “yes”, then all bets were off. I was expected to go straight to my room to study for the rest of the night, taking only a small break for dinner.
Naturally, since I was a nerd who enjoyed school, I became fairly good at taking tests. I suppose one could say that I developed mad test-taking skilz:
*Always try to get to bed early the night before your test.
*Always eat a good breakfast the morning of your test.
*Always come prepared with two pencils and a good eraser.
*Always write your name on the test before you do anything else.
*Always read the question completely. Twice.
*Always mark a question you can’t answer, skip it, and go back to it later.
*Always check to make sure you answered all the questions after you have finished.
*Always stick with your first instinct; don’t go back to change your answers.
(Told ‘ya.
N-E-R-D!)I never had a problem following any of the above axioms….except, perhaps, that last one! Occasionally, I found it difficult to stick with my first answer and not second-guess myself. Through experience I soon found that when I did, I usually got the question wrong! Especially, it seemed, on multiple-choice questions.
A good multiple-choice question will usually have one or two choices that are fairly obvious wrong answers and two choices that are both pretty much right. The trick is to choose the one that is the “most right.” This is why the 50/50 help line was never of much use on Who Wants to be a Millionaire
If you found yourself torn between two choices, those would always be the two they left on the board! So what, you may ask yourself, other than a brief reference to a now-defunct attraction, does all this have to do with planning a trip to WDW?? Well, this post is actually not as off-topic as you may think.
*********************************
A couple of weeks ago, WDW announced a few changes to the park hours for November. It seems as though the bean-counters have collected enough data to predict big crowds
for Jersey Week, so the folks in Operations have decided to extend the regular park hours. There will be two SpectroMagic Parades (8pm, 10 pm) three nights that week at the MK, and D-MGM will give double performances of Fantasmic (7pm, 8:30pm) on three of our seven nights as well. Hmmmm….Choices, choices. Multiple choices!
My knee-jerk reaction upon receipt of this important information was to pull up the good old Operational Plan and give in the once-over. It’s not as though I hadn’t already been over and over our touring itinerary multiple times with a fine-toothed comb….but, that was back in May/June!! Now I found myself bubbling over with renewed planning enthusiasm:
“Just look at all the extra hours! Hey! If I switch our D-MGM night from Sunday to Thursday, we can see Fantasmic at 8:30 instead of at 7:00! Ooh, and then if we do AK for the entire day Sunday, it closes at 7:00 instead of 5:00! Wow, think of all the extra rides we can get on EE! And the MK is open on our last night until midnight! Woo-hoo!
Now, all I have to do is call Disney Dining and see if I can switch…”Do you see where this is going?
When I tell you that I spent countless hours researching, creating, and editing our original Operational Plan, I am not exaggerating. Like many of you, I made, then cancelled, then re-made upteen numbers of ADRs until I was able to blend them in perfectly with “the plan.” And now, two months later, I was considering tearing it all up and starting over
just because of the addition of a few extra park hours and parades. The temptation to alter the plan was very great, but something held me back. For a week, I kept telling myself, “I really should call DD and see if we can switch dinner at 50’s PTC to Thursday”, but I never did. Perhaps it was just laziness. Perhaps it was that I was too busy now that the kids were done with school and day camp. Or perhaps it was the constant sight of all those lovely new school supplies that I had been encountering at every turn. It must have triggered old memories of classes and homework and tests.
I had schooled myself through travel guides, the Internet, and most importantly, through our past experiences at WDW. I had spent many hours studying and doing my homework; the end result was our current itinerary. And now, here was the test. Do I second-guess myself and go back to change my original answers?
To make my decision, I went back and re-read the questions. I had made our plan the way I had for a reason. Not to squeeze in as many attractions as possible. Not to have my family wake up early every morning and stay out late every night. Not to do more, more, more until we were completely wiped out from burning the candle at both ends.
I had the needs of my family to consider. The autistic child should not get over-stimulated. He and his sister should not get over-tired. The elderly aunt should not get overwhelmed. The hard-working husband should not get over-scheduled.
And as for me? Well, this DIS-nerd mom should not get over-obsessed with trying to see and do it all.
So I took a lesson from my school days and decided to pay attention to my gut feelings and stick with my first choice. The Operational Plan stays as is.
But, I may have to go back to the Disney Store and pick up that Tinkerbell pencil case….
Kathy
I won't be holding my breath!
Kathy. We are leaving for WDW on Tuesday so I don't know how catching up I will be able to do tomorrow with all the last minute errands to run, but I will defintely catch up when we get back
Thanks for sharing in happy tears!
"Da doo run run run, Da doo run run!" Have a super-great trip! 
He had the coolest hair... ah... the good old days of feathered hair...
I'm devastated that the Village People will be there after we're gone 
wash the dishes...but for the most part as I now suffer from sore butt-diser withdrawl soon. 
