MouseAdventure is back!
Sunday, November 16, 2008 at the Disneyland Resort.

MouseAdventure Mystery: Advanced is Full!

MouseAdventure Mystery: Basic is Full!

MouseAdventure 101 is Full!

Event Info:

To keep the game fresh, interesting and accessible for veteran players and newcomers alike, we are once again offering three divisions for the Fall 2008 event:

MouseAdventure 101 (Disneyland only) — A shorter, easier event designed for first-time MouseAdventure players and teams, this division will feature "Best of MouseAdventure" quests taken from previous MouseAdventure events in Disneyland Park. While Disney trivia may be a factor in some quests, there is no separate trivia quest in this division. Teams that participated in the Spring 2008 MouseAdventure 101 event are welcome to register for this division again.

MouseAdventure Mystery (DCA only) — MouseAdventure Mystery is a mix of elements from our Classic and Mad Scramble formats. Teams will solve quests that - with a little detective work - help them solve "Whodunit?" This division will include quests in Disney's California Adventure. First-time teams should not register for this division.

MouseAdventure Mystery: Advanced Division (DCA, Disneyland and Downtown Disney) — The longest and most difficult version of the Fall 2008 event; includes all of the elements of the Basic category, plus an extra helping of Advanced quests. Advanced Division teams will solve quests in DCA, Disneyland and perhaps even Downtown Disney. The Advanced Division is recommended only for returning teams that have previously completed a MouseAdventure: Mad Scramble format event, an Enchanted Race or at least two prior MouseAdventure events. First-time teams and teams with very young children should not register for this division.

Family teams — Teams that include children ages 6 - 13 are considered Family teams and can register for the division they feel best suits their team. We strongly suggest that first-time teams register for the MouseAdventure 101 event. Teams with very young children should not register for the Advanced division.

Changes for Fall, 2008:

• MouseAdventure 101 players who want to savor the full MouseAdventure experience are invited to attend the post-game award ceremony at the Paradise Pier Hotel Ballroom as we announce the winners of the MouseAdventure Mystery and Advanced Division events. Please note that results for the MouseAdventure 101 division will not be available at the award ceremony, and winners of the 101 division will be announced on MousePlanet about a week after the event.
• MouseAdventure 101 teams are invited to participate in the team t-shirt and mascot competitions, which will be held at the post-game award ceremony.
• We can no longer offer wheelchair rentals to MouseAdventure participants. If a member of your team will require the use of a wheelchair or ECV during the event, you have a few options:
  • Players staying at a Disneyland Resort Hotel can rent standard (push) wheelchairs directly from the hotel. Please check with the hotel directly for information about cost and availability. Unfortunately, the hotels do not have scooters (ECVs) available to rent.
  • Players may rent a wheelchair or scooter from Disneyland or DCA once they enter the park. These rentals can only be used in the theme parks, and not be taken back to the hotel after the event.
  • Players may also rent a wheelchair or ECV from an outside company. Please contact the event coordinator if you would like the name of the company Disney recommends for such rentals.

Registration Information:

Registration opens Friday, August 15 at 8:00 am PDT and closes once when we reach capacity. Registration is based on the capacity of the Paradise Pier Hotel Ballroom and is strictly limited. Once we are fully registered, we cannot make special exceptions or extend registration. There is no waiting list for this event. The Fall 2007 event sold out in 44 hours, and the Spring 2008 event sold out in about 30, so we strongly encourage you to register your team TODAY to ensure your place. If you are a team seeking additional players, or a player looking to form a team, visit our MousePad discussion board for help (link).

Your MouseAdventure team must consist of at least two players and no more than four players. Some people like having four brains on their team; some teams work better with just two or three players. It is up to you to decide whether you want 2, 3, or 4 people on your team, but there are often advantages for larger teams.

Everyone age 6 or older accompanying a team is counted as a player, and all teams must include at least one adult (over age 18), regardless of the division you register for. Teams with players ages 6 - 13 are automatically designated as Family teams. Non-registered friends, children and companions may not accompany you during the game (children 5 and under may accompany teams during the event, children 6 and older must be counted as a player).

Cost:

Registration for the Fall 2008 MouseAdventure 101 is $40 per team and includes event registration and post-game award ceremony only. Park admission is not included. Registration limited to 75 teams.

Registration for the Fall 2008 MouseAdventure Mystery is $95 per team and includes event registration and post-game award ceremony only. Park admission is not included. Registration limited to 100 teams.

Registration for the Fall 2008 MouseAdventure Mystery - Advanced Division is $105 per team and includes event registration and post-game award ceremony only. Park admission is not included. Registration limited to 50 teams.

Additional event information:

Team Names — If you wish to use a team name, you must provide that name when you register. If you do not provide a team name at the time you register you may NOT add one later. The registration software may reject a team name if it has already been registered for the current event. We do not arbitrate disputes about the use of team names - the first team to register a specific team name is the team that gets to use it. Please keep team names appropriate for the environment; we do reserve the right to reject team names (or refuse to say them out loud).

Refunds / Cancellations / Team Changes — All events are rain-or-shine, so expect to be there unless we announce a cancellation. All registrations are final —there are no refunds once your registration is submitted, and teams may not change divisions or add players. If you need to drop a member from your team, please notify us by November 7, 2008.

Team numbers — We cannot accommodate requests for a specific team number. If your team plans to incorporate your team number in your T-shirt design, you can e-mail the event coordinator to learn your team number after registration closes.

Admission Tickets — Your registration fee does not include park admission! If you do not have an appropriate annual pass, you must make arrangements for park admission, and we strongly urge you to do so before arrival on game day. If you are purchasing single-day admission to play, be sure to note what type of admission you will need for your specific division:

• MouseAdventure 101 players will need valid admission for Disneyland Park only.
• MouseAdventure Mystery players will need valid admission for Disneyland California Adventure Park only.
• MouseAdventure Mystery: Advanced Division players will need valid admission for Disneyland Park and Disneyland California Adventure Park.

New Team/Player Orientation — New teams should register for the MouseAdventure 101 division, and a brief game orientation is included in that event. We will not offer a new player orientation for MouseAdventure Basic or Advanced teams at this event.

Family Teams — If at least 10 family teams register in a division they will be ranked against the other Family teams in their division. If there are fewer than 10 Family teams in a division, the Family teams will compete against all teams in their division. The "Family team" designation is used primarily for scoring purposes, and does not impact the event schedule or rules for any of the divisions. Family teams should refer to the information and rules for the division in which you registered. For example, if your family team registered for the Basic division, please follow the event schedule for the Basic event. If your family team registered for the MouseAdventure 101 division, please follow that schedule.

Sign In — All teams will sign in at the Paradise Pier Hotel the morning of November 16, 2008 before their registered event begins. We will take team photos during the sign in process, so make sure your entire team is on time.

Parking — Teams may choose to park at the Paradise Pier Hotel at a reduced rate of $10 per day, or at the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure. The walk to the hotel from the parking structure can take about 20 minutes - be sure to leave enough time for this warm up stroll!

Award Ceremony and Prizes — The winners of the Fall 2008 MouseAdventure Basic and Advanced divisions will be recognized in an award ceremony at the Paradise Pier Hotel Ballroom. Prizes will be awarded to the highest scoring teams in each of the divisions. All MouseAdventure players are welcome to attend the ceremony, which begins about 2 hours after the end of the event. The exact schedule for the day will be posted online and sent to your team via e-mail prior to the event. Due to capacity restrictions on the ballroom, we can not accommodate non-registered guests, children or companions during the award ceremony.

The winners of the Fall 2008 MouseAdventure 101 division will be recognized on MousePlanet about a week after the event. Prizes will be awarded to the highest scoring teams in that division, and will be mailed directly to the winning teams. MouseAdventure 101 players are welcome at the post-game award ceremony, but results for this division will not be available that day.

Personalized buttons — For those who want something a little more permanent from their experience, we offer customized name tag buttons. These 2.25" round buttons, designed just for this event, are personalized to show your name, and are available during team check-in so that you and your teammates can wear them during the event. The cost is $3.50 per button, and is yours to keep. If you want them, you must order these with your MouseAdventure registration.

If you add buttons to your MouseAdventure registration, make sure you provide the exact text that should appear on the buttons. For best results, use 10 characters or fewer; beyond that the text is increasingly small. We reserve the right to reject any text for any reason.

Outfits and costumes — One of the great things to have happened over the years is the increasing number of teams who go all out in putting together a team "uniform." Do keep in mind that Disney does not allow "costumes" in the park, and it is difficult to know where a line might be drawn. Keep in mind as well the environment we'll all be in, and stay age-appropriate. We reserve the right to refuse admission to teams or players with inappropriate or offensive outfits, costumes, t-shirts or accessories.

Zazzle.com offers a line of Disney-themed T-shirts that can be customized, and make great team shirts. Check it out here, and then select the Disney InkShop collection. We invite your team to participate in the T-Shirt and Mascot competitions described below.

Team T-shirt and Mascot Competition — Keeping in mind that Disney does not allow adults to wear "costumes" in the theme parks, MouseAdventure teams are invited to channel their creative efforts and participate in the third semi-annual Team T-Shirt and Team Mascot competitions.

To enter the T-shirt competition, teams must submit their design(s) by Monday, November 3 2008. Detailed instructions are available on the Event Info page (link), and will also be sent to registered teams prior to this deadline.

MouseAdventure teams are also invited to bring their team mascot to the award ceremony for the team mascot competition. Mascots will be judged on name, costume and how well they compliment the team name and theme. Mascots may be inanimate objects, like stuffed animals. Mascots may not be live animals (including service animals), live creatures or people (including children).

Communication — Team captains (the person registering the team) will receive a credit card receipt by e-mail within an hour. A detailed registration confirmation that includes your team information will be sent to your team about one week after registration closes. If you don't receive this e-mail, don't hesitate to drop us an e-mail here. One frequent issue we have is with spam filters blocking mass e-mails sent to all registered teams. Please take a moment to unblock e-mail from mouseplanet.com, and encourage your teammates to do the same.

Basic event rules and a preliminary event schedule are now available on the MouseAdventure information page (link). While we will be in contact with your entire team by e-mail (if you provide valid e-mail addresses for your teammates when you register), it is the responsibility of the Team Captain (the person registering the team) to make sure that all members of their team review the rules and schedule. Please make sure to review the rules well before the event, so that any questions may be addressed before game day.

We also encourage teams to participate in the MouseAdventure threads on our MousePad discussion boards. This is the place where you can ask questions of the MouseAdventure staff, and get helpful advice from returning players.

Hotels — The pre-game sign-in begins as early as 8:00 a.m. (depending on division) and the post-game awards run through 7:00 p.m., so plan for a very full day. If you are attending from out of town, we encourage you to find lodging for Saturday and/or Sunday night so you don't start the day already exhausted, or have to rush off as soon as the event is over.

For those teams that wish to plan a mini-vacation around MouseAdventure, we have negotiated a discount with MousePlanet Sponsor Howard Johnson Hotel in the Anaheim Resort, just across Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland.

You must make your reservations by calling the in-house reservation line (714-776-6120, ext. 6401), and mention "MouseAdventure" when you book. Note: The central Howard Johnson reservation line can not make reservations with this discount. If the in-house reservation center is busy or closed, your call may be routed to the central reservation line and you will need to try again later.

Teams may also receive discounted rates at the three Disneyland Resort Hotels:

• Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel: $192.00 per night
• Disneyland Hotel: $208.00 per night
• Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa: $288.00 per night

Rates quoted above do not include the Resort fee and applicable taxes, and are valid Saturday, November 15 only. Concierge-level rooms and 1 bedroom suites are also available at an additional charge.

Rooms are extremely limited, and you should make your reservations as soon as possible. You must book directly through Disney, using the contact information below, and tell the operator that you are attending the MousePlanet event to obtain these rates. The Paradise Pier Hotel will be the most convenient hotel for teams participating in MouseAdventure.

Phone: (714) 520-5005
Fax: (714) 520-6011
E-mail: dl.travel.group.reservation.sales@disney.com

Are you game?

We hope all this sounds interesting to you, and you’re planning to join us for our Fall 2008 event. Please read the following details, and make sure you read the registration instructions.

MouseAdventure Mystery: Advanced is Full!

MouseAdventure Mystery: Basic is Full!

MouseAdventure 101 is Full!

MouseAdventure is a popular and fun quest-based event produced by MousePlanet and held twice a year at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.

The signature community event for MousePlanet readers, MouseAdventure is part-scavenger hunt, part-road rally, part-trivia challenge—a team-based competition that guarantees you will never look at the Disneyland Resort in the same way again. You'll notice buildings you usually walk past (do you know the address of the Main Street Music Company?), colors you might not have noticed (how many purple cars are there on the Sun Wheel?), and little details you didn't even acknowledge (cannonballs on City Hall? You bet—we've seen 'em).

Held in the fall (usually October or November) and in the spring (usually March or April) in Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, or even in both, MouseAdventure uses various event formats with their own rules and strategies, with puzzle-based "quests" serving as their core.

The Format

MouseAdventure began with a single event format, and over the years we have modified, added, expanded and combined game elements to create a series of unique formats. Some of the most common formats include:

• Classic – solve a collection of quests, in any order and ranked in difficulty from "A" to "E," and earn points for each correct answer. The team with the highest score wins.
• Mad Scramble – requires you to correctly solve one quest before starting another. In this format, the team that correctly solves all the quests in the least amount of time wins.
• The Enchanted Race – sends you on a longer and far more challenging race to the finish line. Due to the difficulty of this event, registration is restricted to returning MouseAdventure teams only.
• PhotoAdventure – presents a novel twist—every puzzle or task leads you to take a specific photograph inside the park; EyeSpy Adventure incorporates mystery photographs into the classic MouseAdventure quests.
• MouseAdventure 101 – designed specifically for first-time MouseAdventure teams, MouseAdventure 101 provides a "taste" of MouseAdventure in a shorter event that includes game elements used in past MouseAdventures.

The Quests

If you love word puzzles, you're in luck: many MouseAdventure quests incorporate an element of popular paper-and-pencil puzzles like word searches, cryptograms, and logic problems. But don't think that you'll be sitting on a park bench all day, because teams travel far and wide both to find clues and to solve the puzzles they lead to. You may need to ride attractions, watch shows and explore far-flung areas of the resort, all the while using your keen observational skills to complete the quest.

In addition to the core quests of each game, a variety of side games add another element to the competition. Teams might receive a sheet of EyeSpy photos and be directed to identify mystery pictures taken within the parks, or be asked to find and obtain a list of scavenger hunt items. A trivia portion is usually optional, but a strong grasp of Disney minutiae can help set your team apart. Some quests may even require you to find, interact with or perform for MouseAdventure crew members!

Since MouseAdventure attracts both die-hard veterans as well as brand new competitors, we usually offer varying levels of difficulty to accommodate those wanting to spend a fun day learning something new about the Disneyland Resort and those who prefer a more intense game (usually returning teams or new teams glutton for punishment).

While every MouseAdventure event brings new twists and challenges, the basic format remains the same. The Fall 2008 event will begin with sign in at the Paradise Pier Hotel; each division will sign in at their assigned time. Teams receive their sign in packets and pose for a team photo, then join the other teams in their division in the ballroom for a brief pre-game presentation and the start of the game.

Once the game begins, teams make their way to either Disneyland or DCA (depending on division) to solve the event quests. The Advanced division teams have more quests to solve and a longer event; MouseAdventure 101 teams have a shorter event but far fewer (and easier) quests to solve.

MouseAdventure crew members are stationed inside both parks to monitor the event and assist teams who need a “nudge” in the right direction. During the course of the event teams are encouraged to check in at the MouseAdventure stations just to see if there are any important announcements or corrections.

At the end of the event, teams turn in their answer sheets and any requested materials at specified locations inside the theme parks, and can then take a well-deserved break from the stress of competition. After about two hours, teams return to the Paradise Pier Hotel, to mingle with other players, compare notes about the quests, win raffle prizes and participate in the team mascot competition. Once the answer sheets are graded, winners of the Basic and Advanced divisions are announced and the winning teams get to pick their own prizes from a great prize table.

The pre-game sign-in begins as early as 8:00 a.m. (depending on division) and the post-game awards run through 7:00 p.m., so plan for a very full day. If you are attending from out of town, we encourage you to find lodging for Saturday and/or Sunday night so you don't start the day already exhausted, or have to rush off as soon as the event is over.

When we say MouseAdventure is fun, it doesn't adequately capture the experience. There's a reason we have thread after thread on our MousePad discussion boards both prior to and after the game—people bond over this thing like nobody's business. Now in its seventh year, MouseAdventure has grown each and every event, and there are a number of teams that have participated in all 14 editions! Come visit our MousePad discussion boards and see what all the chatter is about.

Read the rules. Every member of your team should have and review these rules well before the event so any questions can be addressed before game day.

Familiarize youself and your team with the event schedule, so you know where to be and when to be there. Points can be lost by missing important deadlines.

Wear comfortable shoes; your team will walk considerably during the event.

Eat breakfast so you have energy, and can manage with quick snacks during the event.

Although you need only show up with a writing instrument, consider bringing the following in a hands-free backpack (or a hydration pack):

• Water – a bottle in a holder or hydration pack such as a Camelbak. You can always buy a bottle of water and a bottle carrying strap in the park, but be aware that water is expensive to purchase in the park. Note: Dehydration can lead to a serious medical issue. We expect each player to drink ample amounts of water during the event.
• Comfortable shoes – make sure they are broken in; never wear brand new shoes.
• Sunblock – the higher the SPF the better.
• Writing instrument(s). Pens, pencils, highlighters, markers – you can never be too prepared.
• Clipboard – your team should have at least one clipboard, although having one clipboard per team member might not hurt. You will be dealing with lots of loose paper and potentially small, easy-to-lose game materials.
• Sunglasses.
• Hat or visor that provides shade over your eyes.
• Scratch paper. Some teams also like to bring graph paper. You just never know.
• Small snacks – raisins, nuts, and energy bars to munch on during the event.
• Rain poncho or large garbage bag (poke arm holes) – if weather calls for drizzle.
• Adhesive bandages – if you're prone to blisters on your feet. Consider a proactive measure and put them on your sensitive spots beforehand.

MousePlanet is pleased to offer a new opportunity to experience the fun of MouseAdventure on your own.

After every MouseAdventure, we always have lots of people asking if they can buy a copy of the game so that they can play on their own. Some people want a chance to go back and do the things they missed. Others were unable to join us on the day of the event and want to see what they missed.

For a lot of reasons, we have always been somewhat reticent to do this. For one, the games are constructed to a specific time in the park, and the frequent changes within the park can render specific puzzles insolvable or nonsensical. Also, we like to think that there is something special about being part of the larger event.

However, following the last event we received the usual requests to buy a copy of the game. The same concerns apply, but we've decided to try it out and give people what they want. At least this one time we're offering the game packet used on March 13th (the Open division) for sale. It won't be 100% identical as we have removed those pieces of the game that absolutely required the larger event to make any sense. We also can't guarantee how long any particular puzzle will continue to work as we wrote it.

Each copy will come in a spiral bound format for easy use with an answer key in the back providing some explanation of the puzzles, the correct answers, and how you should have found those answers. The price is $25.00 per packet, which we recognize may seem steep but we don't want to encourage people to avoid the real event and just wait for a potential solo version after the fact. We've also limited purchases to 4 packets per purchase so that you can play with friends, but not to hold your own large event. If you have a large party that would like to do something like MouseAdventure, please get in touch with us and we'd be happy to see if something could be worked out.

If you'd like to purchase game packets, click the link below. Orders will be shipped once a week, so delivery may take up to 2 weeks; all orders will be shipped first class mail.

Order MouseAdventure Packets