MouseAdventure Recap (MousePlanet News) by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix

MousePlanet's 15th MouseAdventure event was held October 14 at the Disneyland Resort, and we are proud to say that we once again set a new record for our Biggest Event Ever. More than 650 players formed 190 teams to compete in the 6-hour challenge. Despite a 30 percent increase in event capacity, registration sold out in an astonishing 44 hours.

The event

Our event began at 8 a.m. at the Paradise Pier Hotel ballroom, where teams received their sign-in packet, posed for team photos, and got a chance to size up the competition before the games began. David Perry of MouseAdventure Masters team The-Mouse.com welcomed new players and teams with a brief new-player orientation to prepare them for the event to come. At 9:30, following a quick event overview and after solving some unexpected technical issues, teams settled in for a 50-question trivia challenge. Several teams opted to skip the trivia section in order to gain more time for quests, but one team took a few seconds to fill in random answers on their trivia answer sheet before trading it for their quest packet. This clever strategy paid off, and earned the team 14 points! Once trivia was complete, teams rushed to trade their trivia answer sheets for their packet of quests, and by 10:00 all teams were heading into the parks to begin the adventure.

650 players won't hold still for a group photo, so this will have to suffice this year. Photo by Kenji Luster.

The title of the Fall 2007 event was the "EyeSpy Adventure," and every quest incorporated photos into the puzzle. We offered teams the opportunity to register for the Basic or Advanced version of the game, and once again offered a Family subdivision of the Basic category just for those teams playing with children ages 6-13. Ten family teams participated in our Spring 2007 event, and we were pleased to welcome 24 family teams this time. All divisions shared one common set of quests, and the Advanced teams received an extra helping of more difficult quests to solve. And in direct response to participant feedback from past events, we included copies of the harder Advanced quests as a bonus for Basic and Family teams to give them a taste of what the other players were facing. Several Basic teams said that seeing those quests was enough to convince them to stay in the Basic division for a few more events.

Teams had until 3:30 in the afternoon to complete their quests, and the staff quickly collected answer sheets and raced back to the Paradise Pier Hotel to begin grading, while teams dispersed through the resort in search of much-needed food and drink. In our last post-event survey, we asked teams how they would prefer to pass the downtime between the end of the event and the award ceremony. Since the majority of respondents said that they would enjoy attending an organized activity after the game, we offered an optional dessert mixer, where MousePlanet columnist and author David Koenig entertained the crowd with his fantastic "multimedia extravaganza"—teams who chose to skip the mixer and return only for the awards ceremony missed a real treat.

Joe Stevano (left), co-creator of the Fall 2007 MouseAdventure, gives a hint to a team. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.

In lieu of post-event trivia or games, we opted this time to host our first-ever team T-shirt and team mascot competitions. MouseAdventure master of ceremonies Andrew Rich introduced each team who had entered their shirt design into the contest, and announced the winning design. Teams were then invited to show off their team mascot, and the audience voted for their favorite. For many teams this was the highlight of the show, so much so that we might consider holding a team theme song competition next time...

Once the official results were tabulated, the winning teams were announced and invited to come claim their prizes, and with that we ended our 15th MouseAdventure event.

Event photos

Given the logical nightmare it would cause, we officially retired the group photo after the last MouseAdventure. Individual team photos are available at the following links. In response to repeated requests from teams over the years, we have also posted larger versions of the team photos, as well as loads of candid photos from the event, to our MousePlanet Gallery Web site (link).

The Quests

Most of the quests were based on a specific land of Disneyland Park, though there were two park-wide EyeSpy quests that included photos taken all around Disneyland. Advanced teams had one quest each in Downtown Disney and the Esplanade. Quests were worth up to 80 points each, with partial credit available for several quests.

All teams

Fantasyland

Description – teams had to "colorize" black and white photos of the tea cup ride vehicles from the Mad Tea Party attraction, then use the correct colors to answer additional questions around the land.
Correct answer – Disney Princess Fantasy Faire
Most common concern – "What color is teal, anyway!?!" In creating this quest, we broke a cardinal rule of MouseAdventure, which is "don't ask about colors unless they can be found on Mickey Mouse." Shades of blues and greens have been problematic in past games, and even providing a color key on this quest sheet did not adequately avoid the issue. Teams who counted 5 letters for that task arrived at the expected answer of Disney Princess Fantasy Faire. Teams who counted only three letters arrived at the answer Casey Jr. Circus Train. In the end, we awarded full points for both answers.

Critter Country

Description – teams were given five sets of photographs taken around Critter Country. In each set, one photo had been altered - sometimes obviously, sometimes subtly. Once teams identified the altered photo in each set, they added up the value of the corresponding menu items and arrived at a final price.
Correct answer – $28.35
Most common goof(s) – this quest was generally more difficult than we intended, but most teams had trouble spotting that Tigger's whiskers had been removed from the photo. The edited photos were: Set A, Owl's Howse; Set B, Pooh stuck in Rabbit's Door; Set C, Tomato Seed Packet; Set D, Tigger; Set E, top right photo (ice cream bar).

Trick or Treat

Description – teams used photos from Main Street to locate and count decorative pumpkins. Based on those answers, teams had to navigate around Main Street to arrive at their final location. Advanced teams had one extra pumpkin design to locate.
Correct answer – "Crystal Arcade" for Family and Basic teams; "Penny Arcade" for Advanced teams.
Most common goof(s) – this quest had a catch, in that teams could not "trick or treat" for the Main Street photos until later in the game. Starting at Noon, teams had to collect sets of photos from each of the three MouseAdventure stations around Disneyland. Only then would they have the information they needed to even begin to tackle the quest, but lots of teams misread the directions and tried to solve this as their first quest of the day.

An elusive clue indeed, as this element was apparently removed last week. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.

Mickey's Toontown

Description – This quest was an expanded version of the very popular "speed Eye Spy" quest from Spring 2007. Teams had to figure out which word(s) had been removed from a series of photos taken around Toontown, then use those same words to solve a word search puzzle.
Correct answer – 21
Most common goof(s) – Most teams who attempted this quest had no problem solving the word search puzzle, but counting the books on the face of the Toontown Library proved to be much more difficult. Teams also had trouble locating the jelly jars on Goofy's House, often because they didn't look at the back door. And we were as shocked as anyone to discover that a element of Gadget's Go Coaster we assumed was a structural piece was missing on game day, and with it the acorn soup can in one image.

New Orleans Square

Description – Match the balcony railings in the provided photos to their New Orleans Square addresses, then use those answers to decode your final question.
Correct answer – 144
Most common goof(s) – Some teams failed to take us literally when we said "directly below." The address for the location in the second photo is "19," and the address marker is on the floor of the doorway.

Frontierland

Description – This was a major expansion of the "Choose your own MouseAdventure" quest from several events ago. Teams were provided with a small booklet of photos taken around Frontierland and a starting question. Their answer to that question led them to the next question; their answer to the second question led them to a third, and so on and so forth. There were 10 "paths" through the quest; a series of correct answers sent you down one path, while a series of incorrect answers sent you down another, longer path. Each path concluded with a final question.
Teams who answered the first four questions correctly arrived at question "X" as their final question. The correct answer was "2," and was worth 50 points. Teams who incorrectly answered one of the first four questions arrived at one of 9 different final question, and received partial credit.
Most common goof(s) – There are two photos of Calamity Jane - they are right next to each other. Teams also had a very hard time finding the crate with the checkerboard top, which is in the queue for the Mark Twain Riverboat.

MouseAdventure teams search Main Street for an elusive clue. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.

Adventureland

Description – We went on a photo safari through the Jungle Cruise, and turned our resulting images into photo stickers. We provided each team with a set of these stickers, and asked them to place the images in the order that each animal or scene appears in the attraction. Family/Basic and Advanced teams had slightly different images.
Most common goof(s) – Many teams reversed the order of the two African bull elephants. The Advanced teams had a very difficult time locating the single deer, and most teams needed two rides to find it.

Advanced teams only

Downtown Disney

Description – Teams had to identify the villains who are depicted in carved pumpkins on display in the windows of the World of Disney store, then use those names to complete a word puzzle.
Correct answer – Enchanted
Most common goof(s) – Teams who could not remember the names of Cinderella's stepfamily found this puzzle especially challenging.

Main Street

Description – Teams first had to match carpet and flooring samples to Main Street store locations, then determine the cost of all merchandise in a specified display window.
Correct answer – $216.00, the value of the merchandise on display in the Silhouette Studio window.
Most common goof(s) – This was a tricky question because silhouettes are priced by the number of faces in the image. Many teams forgot to count the gold Mickey Mouse face, others forgot to include the cost of the frames.

Disneyland Park Esplanade

Description – In this modified version of the computer game "minesweeper," teams had to determine where Dory had buried a time capsule in the Esplanade between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.
Correct answer – C27

Tomorrowland

Description – Teams had to locate and complete series of images, then decode a cryptogram to reach their final question.
Correct answer – 75
Most common goof(s) – Many teams had problems completing the "_______________" "Mars?" "Moon?" series—these images were taken from the scale just inside the Starcade.

We also included two more EyeSpy quests in the event. For the first, we asked Goofy to take photos of his friends around the resort, and of course he got his big thumb in the pictures. Teams had to identify the character obscured in each image. Teams received the Holiday EyeSpy and a 20 point bonus when they located MouseAdventure crew members Bev & Tracy Screeton hiding out with the pirates around the Rivers of America. This second EyeSpy was based on the HalloweenTime decorations around Disneyland.

The Results

Prizes were awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams in both the Basic and Advanced divisions, and 1st and 2nd place in the Family division. The Best New Team honor was awarded to the highest-ranking new team that did not otherwise win an award; in the Basic division the best new team tied for 3rd place so the award went to the next best new team. We also recognized the team with the highest score in our very difficult trivia section.

Family division – 598 points possible

1st place, with 448 points - Team 3145: Pooh and the Hunnies

2nd place, with 439 points - Team 4048: The Metzger Family

Basic division – 598 points possible

1st place, with 520 points - Team 3045: The Googlie Bears

2nd place, with 489 points - Team 4070: Teamatouille

3rd place (tie), with 488 points - Team 4030: The Acceptables

3rd place (tie), with 488 points - Team 4031: The Scramblers

Advanced division – 848 points possible

1st place, with 665 points - Team 3052: MouseAdventure Staff Appreciation Society

2nd place, with 648 points - Team 4130: Peter's Pans

3rd place, with 633 points - Team 4058: San Diego Mouse Catchers a.k.a. Team Big Pencil

Best Trivia – 98 points possible

78 points - Team 4130: Peter's Pans

Best New Team

475 points - Team 4133: Club 34 (Basic division)

Best Team T-shirt

Team 3017: Dorks, Inc.

Best Team Mascot

Team 3084: Team of a Million Churros

The winning team mascots.

Master's Challenge (not a prize division):

MouseAdventure Masters are those teams who, on the occasion of their third first-place victory, are honored with retirement from competition. Two of our four Masters teams participated in this event, and their scores are presented her as a benchmark for other teams. Having taken their second 1st place victory, The Googlie Bears now join Team DF4 as "masters candidates," teams who will be retired after their next win.

Brothers Bears: 682 points

Denton Affair: 444 points

Full Results

Scores are listed by team number, and are detailed as follows:

Trivia – Number shown is number of questions correct out of 49 questions. Each correct answer was worth 2 points. (One question was thrown out, and no team received credit for it)

Front – Aggregate score for all quests plus the "Find Bev & Tracy" bonus. For Family and Basic teams, there were a maximum of 350 points. For Advanced teams, there were a maximum of 600 points possible.

Back – Aggregate scores for Eye Spy, Holiday EyeSpy and the hidden quest. For all teams, there were a maximum of 150 points possible.

Penalties – 10 & 20 point deductions per infraction reported by a MouseAdventure crew member. The two most common infractions were for entering the Star Tours exit, and for splitting up during the event. (Both explicitly against the rules)

Fall 2007 Scores - By Division

Fall 2007 Scores - By Team Number

Crew acknowledgments

The MouseAdventure crew really outdid themselves this time, handling 30 percent more players with no additional crew. Once again, Joe Stevano was responsible for the design of the event materials, and he's managed to raise the bar another notch. In addition to working the weekend of the event, Shoshana Lewin and fiancé Adam Fisher, Kevin and Matthew Krock, Andrew and Jennifer Rich, Jeff Moxley, Sheila Hagen, Bev and Tracy Screeton, Amanda Smith and David Perry all helped to test the quests in the months before the event. Adrienne Krock, Karin Hubbard-Luster and Kenji Luster, Steven Ng and Lisa, Emma and Charlotte Perkis all helped staff the event on Sunday. Lani Teshima made the event buttons, as well as the limited-edition buttons we gave to those how attended the Mickey's Halloween Treat meet on Friday. A special thank you to David Koenig for his entertaining "multimedia extravaganza." Finally, a very special thank you goes to my husband, Tony Phoenix, who has resigned himself to living in a constant state of MouseAdventure preparation.

Survey

Tell us what you think!

Feedback from our teams helps us to expand and improve the event. We made many changes to this event based on feedback we received after the Spring 2007 event, but we know there's always room for improvement. We've created a quick survey, and encourage all players to complete the survey at this link:

Click here to take survey.

Our next event

Our next MouseAdventure event will be held in Spring 2008 at the Disneyland Resort. Event format, park and pricing have yet to be determined. We will post the event date and registration dates as soon as we confirm them, but that announcement may be as little as 90 days before the event. We generally open registration around 60 days before the event, so there will be at least a month between the time we announce the event date and the time we begin accepting registrations. Keep reading MousePlanet.com for more information—MouseAdventure updates are posted in the weekly Disneyland Resort Park Update.

MouseAdventure Recap