Careful planning is important - but verify

I carefully planned for the upcoming Disneyworld Marathon weekend. Lists of what and how many clothes, accessories, and OTC meds to bring, driving times, stops on the way, contingency for bathroom breaks, how much cash, and everything else required to get me down there and back, all in order to be sure to arrive well before the 8pm close of the registration/Expo on Thursday. I never did receive my registration information this year (I moved in June and I suspect it did not get forwarded correctly), so my registration will take longer than usual.

Yes, careful planning is important.
but so is verification, and from first sources where possible, not just re-reading the checklists for typos.

So here I am, the night before I'm supposed to drive down to Orlando, looking at the emails from Disney and reading the website, and I'm pondering the meaning of the website countdown clock saying "10 days" till the race. How can it be 10 days till the race when it is January 2 and the race is January 6? Now there's a question. Silly, because I am ONE WEEK OFF in my planning. The race isn't the weekend of Jan 5/6, it is the weekend of Jan 12/13.

But the race has ALWAYS been the first weekend in January!!! (of course, this factoid means nothing: reality says that this year it is the second weekend).

Ooopsie!

So, call the hotel and beg them to reschedule, pleading stupidity. They accommodate me, at a slightly higher rate. Reschedule work meetings and such as best I can, apologies for the calendar error. Re-arrange the family calendar for who is doing what with which kid on the weekend.


Planning is important, but verification from first sources is critical.