The "Day at the Park" was designed for first-timers such as ourselves to try MouseAdventure. We thoroughly enjoyed it! There were just under 300 players today; combined with a more difficult event two weeks ago, around 1000 people participated in MouseAdventure this year.
Our team name was "Practically Perfect," and my daughters designed t-shirts with silhouettes of MARY POPPINS symbols; one shirt had a kite, another a chimney sweep, and the other two shirts had a carousel horse and a penguin. There were some extremely clever team names and/or t-shirts. Our favorite team name was the Ancient Cambodian Shriners. (If you're drawing a blank on that, go on the Jungle Cruise ride the next time you visit Disneyland!)
There were a wide variety of various puzzles and hunts to complete. One hunt had us carefully examining signs in ToonTown; another had us studying each building in Fantasyland; and another involved reading the tribute windows on Main Street. I'm not sure I'd ever been in Miss Chris' cabin at Thunder Ranch, but I'm sure familiar with it now! The challenges cause you to look more carefully at the tiny details that make the park so special, and we also learned some interesting things about the park in the course of the day.
The number of "quests" was just about right; we completed all but one or two. Next time I think we might be a little faster, as we acquired more know-how as the day went along.
A postcard exchange challenge which involved trading postcards with other teams throughout the day helped build camaraderie among all the event participants; we were watching for other players wearing bright yellow lanyards, and trading postcards was a great ice-breaker.
And we sure got our exercise today! I think we explored everywhere in the park in detail except for Critter Country and Tom Sawyer Island.
A 50-question multiple choice trivia quiz accompanied the trivia hunts. If you're the kind of person who knows the names of Miss Disneyland Tencennial or the actress who christened the Mark Twain on opening day, and remembers details about long-gone rides and restaurants, the trivia quiz is for you! We had to guess at a few but I think overall we did reasonably well considering the level of difficulty. The trivia answers were submitted on a Scantron sheet.
The use of digital cameras and other electronic equipment is strictly forbidden for the duration of the game, so no park photos today! I took a photo of a lanyard once we got home. (Click to enlarge.)
We were impressed with the event's organization from the moment we arrived at check-in at the Paradise Pier hotel. There were plenty of volunteers to direct participants and answer questions, and everyone was extremely friendly. They were so well organized each packet even included business cards with the MouseAdventure web address to hand to park guests who wanted to know what was going on. We could have handed out three times as many cards as we had; all day long we were approached by curious guests (not to mention some Cast Members!) wanting to know about our lanyards and the mysterious sheets on our clipboards.
There were many staff members on hand at various park locations to answer questions and offer friendly reminders to stay hydrated and reapply sunscreen. (It was warm out there today!) Volunteers could also be found at Carnation Gardens throughout the day.
The next MouseAdventure will apparently take place this fall at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando. The next California MouseAdventure may not take place until next spring.
We'll definitely be interested in playing again next year!
Update: The results are in: We came in 28th out of 79 teams. We're quite pleased with that!
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