MouseAdventure Wrapup... A+

[Laffite]

Originally posted by lilblckrncloud
The man in the Timepieces store confirmed that two clocks had the words on them, even though we didn't ask,

Our team met him too. When I started walking around looking up, he asked me, "looking for something"

"ur-uh"
"There's two"
"uh?"
"2 clocks"

Then I just stood in awe... wow, this guy is good :p

I thanked him, told stitch that there's two, and thanked him again as we were leaving.

Also, at Minnie's house, we were very discouraged at first we were saw the line to go in. When we started trying to peer inside, a CM looked at us and just waved us in and said "go 'round through the back". That was very cool of her. Apparently a team had already established earlier that there will be more people that want to go in for a "quick look"

We know that the CMs are nice, and they're still nice under the pressures of geeks. Well, kudos to them :)

[Ghoulish Delight]

We didn't run across that friendly CM at Minnie's House. We were able to see the green chair in the front room from outside. Then, using some deduction, narrowed down the possibilities for the color of the toaster. We happened to get it right on the first try, but our educated "guessing" meant that even if our first guess was wrong, we had a second (and third) ready and waiting so we wouldn't have to trek all the way back.

All the New Century CMs were in a very helpful mood. There was a female CM when we went through. To save time, we got as far as figuring out we were looking for some word on clocks in that store, but didn't have the complete word. I figured I could reverse engineer it with the few letters I already had by looking at the clocks. We walked in and started looking up. The CM asked, "Whatcha looking for?" I kind of hesitated, since I didn't actually know. Then she said, "Regulator A?" to which I responded, "Uuuh, yyyyyeeeeahhh, apparantly." :D And, after counting I kind of slyly held up two fingers in her direction to which she responded with a sideways smile and little nod :) Very fun little moment.

Our other good CM encounter was at the Fantasyland Mad Hatter. We needed a receipt for the Scavenger hunt. There was a pretty big crowd, so we were kind of hesitant. Fortunately when we walked up to the register, a credit card transaction was in the middle of being processed, so she had a moment. We politely asked if there happened to be any receipts in the trash she could spare, and she very obligingly dug one out. We thanked her and were on our way without, as far as we could tell, disturbing anyone's day.

[Sophie832]

Originally posted by AVP
(Anyone remember trying to count the teeth on Monstro a few games ago....?)

Ahhhh yes, but I also remember that it was impossible to figure out the actual # of teeth because of construction in Fantasyland that made it hard to see. Teams were given credit for more than one #, I believe. Talk about a bad memory ;)

The only two CMs I actually tried to ask for help this time around were both very ornery...it's not that they gave me a false answer, it's more like they told me it would be "cheating" if they helped.

One kind CM did help us with the scavenger hunt bingo portion. We needed a "not valid" fastpass from Splash Mountain. Not thinking, I grabbed a Pirates one first, so the Splash one wouldn't be valid. I forgot that Pirates is off the system. When the CM heard us say that over at Splash, he just opened up the machine to give us a "not valid" pass. It was nice of him to go to the trouble because the area was pretty busy at the time.

At Minnie's House we got a pleasant surprise when not a CM, but Minnie herself pointed to the path that goes around to the back door. I guess several teams had been through there at that point, since it was our last quest. Very cool moment.

[cstephens]

After joking around with a few staff members/helpers on Sunday (including suggesting an alternate method of punishment for getting caught doing naughty things), we were wondering if it's been considered doing some sort of event in Downtown Disney. We weren't sure if that would be feasible given the time constraints, especially if you include the Disneyland Hotel and the Paradise Pier Hotel, but it would seem fairly challenging, and people who might not be able to join MouseAdventure or MadScramble because they can't afford the park admission cost would still be able to participate.

Just wondering out loud.

[Lani]

Originally posted by Ghoulish Delight
Mouse.com was the team name.Actually according to their registration, the team name is "the-mouse.com".

[RStar]

I'd say that each of the three MAs I've done, that I have only come across great CMs. I don't usually ask them for help, I try not to bug them. But once in a while they may ask what's going on, and then they may offer up a little help. But this time all three times it didn't help me out.

1) Two clocks- I had found the answer before she told me.

2) Golden Horseshoe CM- there's a fruit cart behind the Tiki room, they may have the recipe there. Bless her heart.;)

3) After we figured out the "Indian's Place" and went in the first CM said they weren't allowed to help. The second said "Aw, come on. It's on the back wall" as she pointed to the Jelly Bellies. But we had like 5 min. left, took the $2.25 per 1/4 lb., multiplied by 4 to get $9 per lb. which of course was wrong, but we had no time to double check the answer.

I agree with everyone, this was the best game ever. The staff out did themselves this time! Thanks guys!!:cool:

[Alex S.]

First of all, thank you for the kind words. I'm so pleased we were able to put on such a successful event. Since I've been involved in MouseAdventure, my role has been to make things run smoothly. So I'm always gratified to hear when you think it runs smoother.

And we've already developed some ideas for the next event that may make things run even faster.

But with these last two events, I've been much more involved in the game creation side of things and I'm humbled by how difficult it is. The hard part isn't thinking of puzzles, the hard part is being able to accurately guess how difficult those puzzles are. Just an example, going into the event, I was sure that Frontierland was the easiest of the four stations. Everything I've heard says I had it at the wrong end of the list.

Again, I have to give much thanks to those from MousePlanet and beyond who did so much of the work and make sure that the plan I put together actually works. There are always inevitable snafus, but they are amazing at smoothing them out on the fly.

[Bill Catherall]

So...tired. Brain...still...not...working. Must...post...

Why am I still tired, you ask? After MadScramble my wife and I continued to play at the parks sans-kids. Then on Monday we went back to the parks with the kids and drove home (all 7 hours because of LA traffic) afterwords. So basically we spent 3 days in a row walking and walking, and not enough sleeping. I'm at work now just trying to function. But I wanted to give my feedback and share my experience with MA.

My wife and I had a lot of fun. And even though we have been married for just over 8 years now, I think we learned more about each other during the game. Our team working skills were challenged and improved. Although we didn't rank very high (if I remember correctly our adjusted clock time was 2:17), I think we did pretty good all things considered. We could have had a better strategy, we certainly learned a lot there. And we really got dinged on that POTC fast pass. Ouch! But with her good eyes and my puzzle solving, we made a good team.

Notable moments:

We started with the NOS item search. Although I read the instructions about the 1st and 2nd guesses being "free" it just didn't click with me and we probably spent an extra unnecessary 5-6 minutes looking for either the tambourine or the drum set. We could have easily used our guesses there to save us the time.

Then we went on to the alphabetical gods. I solved the puzzle rather quickly and we immediately knew where to go. But on the way we stopped in to all the shops in Adventureland looking for that stupid EyeSpy idol that we never did find. We also picked up a few items for our Scavenger Hunt Bingo.

From there we moved on to Frontierland and picked up the quest with the picture phrases. UGH! It took us forever to finally figure out it was the fry cart. And then once we figured it out we wasted our time making the trek out to it when I already knew the answer.

Then we picked up the Evil Paragraph which my wife solved rather quickly (after I tipped her off on the fastest way to solve it). I just let her do it on her own while I looked over the trivia to see if we even had a chance to answer any of it. Then we went looking all over the place for the "Indian's place" and finally my wife spotted the Indian with her keen eyes. We thought we had to ask them for the recipe, but as soon as we approached the CM we got an immediate "sorry we can't help you." Then after we glanced around the store it hit me that the fruit salad was probably the Jelly Bellies and we looked for the tangerine. Then I noticed the recipe on the tube and I was about to do the math for one pound of tangerines but I reread the question and figured it out.

Then off to Fantasyland. We did the Toontown quest fairly quickly and didn't have any problems there. (We figure out to go through the exit of Minnie's house all on our own. ;) ) We found an EyeSpy while we were there too.

I solved the Carousel quickly, twice. I wasn't confident with my first answer and my wife was thoroughly confused so she wasn't double checking me. So while explaining it to her I solved it again and came up with the same thing. That was all I needed.

At this point we still hadn't used any of the guesses to our strategic advantage. We didn't employ that until we got to our last 2 quests at Main St. (Actually, it didn't really register with me until then. :rolleyes: )

We also walked right past Jen and Andrew a few times and got thoroughly laughed at when we finally spotted them. :D

Started off with the "bubbles" quest. Figured out Pinocchio quickly but didn't have any idea where we'd find him in a bubble. So we just decided to use the 2 free guesses and headed to Red Rockett's to answer the questions. Since we couldn't find "X" on the menu we figured with only 3 possible answers we could at least get it right on the 3rd and critical guess. We ended up getting it right on the first guess.

Then on to the windows. We couldn't find one of the window sets, but was able to deduce the remaining letters. We only found one clock though, but we figured it couldn't be more than three clocks or we would have seen another for sure. So we used our first guess "1" and got it wrong. Then on the second guess "2" we got it right.

We found Lani while in Tomorrowland. I think we got about 4 EyeSpy, I'm not sure, but we wasted way too much time doing that. And we turned in 5 fast passes including Pirates, so we got a penalty there. We also got Bingo. So we should have had a total bonus of -18 minutes, but our score sheet looked like we only were credited 4 minutes. But it doesn't matter, we wouldn't have placed anyway.

Again, we had a ton of fun. I think the puzzles were excellent (with that one questionable fry cart). I also like the format and being able to know how you're doing as you move through the event.

[mhrc4]

Originally posted by Alex Stroup
First of all, thank you for the kind words. I'm so pleased we were able to put on such a successful event. Since I've been involved in MouseAdventure, my role has been to make things run smoothly. So I'm always gratified to hear when you think it runs smoother.

And we've already developed some ideas for the next event that may make things run even faster.

But with these last two events, I've been much more involved in the game creation side of things and I'm humbled by how difficult it is. The hard part isn't thinking of puzzles, the hard part is being able to accurately guess how difficult those puzzles are. Just an example, going into the event, I was sure that Frontierland was the easiest of the four stations. Everything I've heard says I had it at the wrong end of the list.

Again, I have to give much thanks to those from MousePlanet and beyond who did so much of the work and make sure that the plan I put together actually works. There are always inevitable snafus, but they are amazing at smoothing them out on the fly.

so what are you actually gonna do with that Disney Magazine Inquiry I passed onto you?

[Alex S.]

Yes, I'll be calling them and we'll see what comes of it.

[mhrc4]

awesome, let us know what comes of it!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Just for the record - I am still waddling around like a duck because my legs are aching. Man, I was not in shape for this thing!


Originally posted by Bill Catherall
My wife and I had a lot of fun. And even though we have been married for just over 8 years now, I think we learned more about each other during the game. Our team working skills were challenged and improved.Ah, cool! I can definitely say the same for GD and I, at our first MA. Working as a team like this doesn't happen every day, and it reveals a lot about yourselves (not to mention your relationship!). We work together way better now that we are experienced at it.

Alex, you're right - that Fronteirland one was the hardest for us. I've done those kinds of puzzles before but only when it matched the word exactly (ie, you can't say "corn" for the "con" in Conestoga, and "flies" does not mean "fries"). Add in that the "stogie" picture was pretty bad and we were just wandering around looking for arrows and horseshoes.

I love how people are told "don't ask CMs" but they have to get burned before they realize that we say that for a reason. I do not like getting CMs to help - I want to do this on my own, and not run the risk of using wrong information.

After hearing about how others got burned with the Pirates FP (we were so lucky), I don't think I would run that risk again. It IS possible that we got 1st place by only 6 minutes....and if so, then the FPs are what put us over the top....but man, what a gamble! I feel so bad for those that got burned. It may very well have been us, and WE would have been tearing our hair out over a 4th place finish!

[lilblckrncloud]

Originally posted by Cadaverous Pallor
After hearing about how others got burned with the Pirates FP (we were so lucky), I don't think I would run that risk again.I am right there with you on that one. We probably won't take that risk next time, if given the opportunity. The part that stings the most for us about it is that we passed up the PoTC FP twice during our travels, but then went back to get it. It was like we just HAD to get that one for some reason. Our gut feelings were lying to us!! Having your instincts mess with you is even worse than dealing with surly CM. ;)

[lisap]

*shiver* The Nasty Fastpass Gamble *shiver*

I would probably be using the totally angry face right now had we picked up the POTC pass--for some reason we didn't, and walked next door to Indy. As I turned in the three we had decided on, Alex was standing behind AVP minding his own business (actually he was reading our trivia sheets and smirking), and I kept waiting for him to say "a HA!!!!" :~) when I handed them the boobytrapped Fastpass. We never found out till Monday what the nasty one was.

Sheer luck, I tells ya.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Alex was standing right there when we turned ours in, too. He saw us use the two for the Scavenger Bingo and asked, "Do you want to use either of those for the Fastpass Gamble?" I said yes and "I'm relying on your sense of decency to not choose one that was on the Scavenger sheet as the evil one. A big gamble, I know but..." He just kind of smirked and shrugged his shoulders. The SECOND we walked away I started kicking myself for that decission. Like CP said, I don't think it'll be worth the risk in the future. That's just a HUGE penalty.

[innerSpaceman]

It should be a huge penalty, since it potentially enables those with really bad finish times to shoot ahead of the pack in one fell swoop (if they gamble big and win). I think Alex erred on the side of niceness to pick the disconnected Fast Pass (Pirates) as the wild card and especially refrain from selecting any scavenger hunt FPs for that dubious purpose. I believe it was all part of a general trend, a backlash if you will from the prior M.A., to make this game accessible, and on the easyish side - hence more enjoyable for all. It was, as it turns out, a wise decision that resulted in a smashingly successful MouseAdventure.


Warning: Kvetching Ahead!

So, Happy Haunts or any other up-and-coming teams, does the 3-championships-and-you're-out policy put a damper on your enthusiasm to play your best and win?

[lisap]

Originally posted by Alex Stroup
Just an example, going into the event, I was sure that Frontierland was the easiest of the four stations. Everything I've heard says I had it at the wrong end of the list.


Let's see. In order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest, I would rank the stations:
--New Orleans Square/Adventureland
--Main Street/Tommorrowland
--Fantasyland
--Frontierland

(I'm not the best one to judge this--but I base it on how aggravated the puzzle solvers got while we were playing, and how many times we had to backtrack to the land while muttering under our breath ;) )

But really, I think all were at a consistent level of difficulty. How would everyone else rank them?

[stan4d_steph]

Originally posted by innerSpaceman
So, Happy Haunts or any other up-and-coming teams, does the 3-championships-and-you're-out policy put a damper on your enthusiasm to play your best and win?

No

[Ghoulish Delight]

Not at all. As you pointed out, what's the "worst" that could happen? If we are fortunate enough to be retired in this manner, we would get to play, for free, and still find out our results. While I do love the prizes we've collected, they are certainly not the reason I play.

This is the order of difficulty (easiest to hardest) I'd put it in:


Tomorrowland
NOS
Main Street
Fronteirland (Bone ants a outf hit ars!!!!??? :rolleyes: )

[FEJ]

Originally posted by lisap
Let's see. In order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest, I would rank the stations:
--New Orleans Square/Adventureland
--Main Street/Tommorrowland
--Fantasyland
--Frontierland

(I'm not the best one to judge this--but I base it on how aggravated the puzzle solvers got while we were playing, and how many times we had to backtrack to the land while muttering under our breath ;) )



The Pictures in Frontierland were easy for me... I got Bonanza Outfitters right away and the Wagon part of Conestoga Fries question was a give away for me also.... (then again, I had a lot of practice with Lucky Lager :) )


For me, being the Frontierland evil paragraph problem solver, the hardest part was concentrating while counting the words in the paragraph while the other three worked on the trivia... Trying to listen and count isnt as easy as it seams..hence I missed a line somewhere,. but it was near the end. Flub made the Jelly Belly/Tangerine call, and we were off. Once we got to the Trading Post, in a Haste to not give the answer away, I jumped to a conclusion and we had to go back, costing us time..

The same thing happened at Goofy Gas..Jumping to conclusions cost us time..


The Carousel was just time consuming, if you didnt catch it while it was parked.....

My rankingsof both quests per land:
Main Street/Tomorrowland: Easy/Easy

New Orleans Square/ Adventureland: Easy/Easy- Time Consuming looking up...

Fantasyland/Toon Town: Easy/Medium - Time Consuming

Frontierland: Easy/ Medium Time Consuming Counting Paragraph and flipping paper over..


But then again, I love solving puzzles...


Overall MA:


A++

[Alex S.]

Originally posted by innerSpaceman
I think Alex erred on the side of niceness to pick the disconnected Fast Pass (Pirates) as the wild card and especially refrain from selecting any scavenger hunt FPs for that dubious purpose. I believe it was all part of a general trend, a backlash if you will from the prior M.A., to make this game accessible, and on the easyish side - hence more enjoyable for all. It was, as it turns out, a wise decision that resulted in a smashingly successful MouseAdventure.


Giving me too much credit. It was a random selection. The only one I ruled out was Pooh, since I had no idea if those would be available or not (and if they were, I figured people should be rewarded with three minutes for spending five minutes walking over there).

So, I just kept dropping a penny on a copy of the scoresheet until it landed on one of the listed FastPasses.

[FEJ]

Originally posted by Alex Stroup


So, I just kept dropping a penny on a copy of the scoresheet until it landed on one of the listed FastPasses.

True Science.... :)

[cemeinke]

Originally posted by Alex Stroup
So, I just kept dropping a penny on a copy of the scoresheet until it landed on one of the listed FastPasses.

Right before the start of Mouse Adventure - we looked at our collection of Fastpasses that we gathered the day before, certain they would be needed in the scavenger hunt. We then reasoned that Pirates would probably be the penalty fastpass since it was the one still disconnected from the system. We kicked ourselves when we heard it was the one.

Then again, we decided to play conservatively and skip the fastpasses since we were confident that we could score high without the gamble. Considering there was still a random element to this choice, I think we still probably did the right thing on this one.

[Bill Catherall]

Too bad Alex didn't randomly pick Big Thunder Mountain. Fastpass distribution was turned off during the game. (Or at least it was when we passed by.)

I found Fantasyland to be the easiest. Drawing a diagram of the Carousel really made it much easier (it's just a wheel with 18 spokes). You could work the problem even if the Carousel was spinning.

I would say NOS was the next hardest, only because trying to find all the items on the balconies really slowed us down. Mostly our fault though.

Then Main St./Tomorrowland and Frontierland were tied for hardest. Only because of the fry cart and the bubbles. If it wasn't for that everything would probably be about equal to me.

[Not Afraid]

And Mr. Catherall....I miss you again!

(I guess the last time I did get a quick hello and a hug in)