MouseAdventure was fun!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ok, my team didn't win, but we still had a great time. Running around Dland trying to get around all those strollers and find the answers was a whole new way to find out things about the park. I can now tell you where to find a see-saw on Main Street or where there's a real red fire hydrant.

Anyone from the boards win anything? I know they'll post results tomorrow and full-on scores on Tuesday....then you'll get to see a picture of me....

I was bummed that I didn't bump into any of you guys there, except the moderators/columnists of course. It was nice meeting everyone.

For those of you that didn't go, shame on you! It was a lot of fun.
:D

[MickeyD]

Originally posted by Cadaverous Pallor

For those of you that didn't go, shame on you!

Hey! Some of us WISH we didn't have to work on Sundays so we could do stuff like go to the Sunday mosepad meets, or go to Mouseadventures, etc., but... :p (<--- just so you know, I DON"T mean this as an open mouth smile ;) )

[supercarrie]

We had LOTS of fun too! And we won! Third place in the scavenger only category - The Yippies, team 38! lol. We are VERY happy, because we didn't think we would even place in like the top 20 lol - this was our first time doing it. We are all exhausted now, but had a lot of fun and will be back next time! Thanks to ALL the staff who organized this - you made it a blast!!

[Gauchograd99]

I must agree that things were a load of fun today. After getting back our test we found some uncounted points so everyone check yours. Adrienne already knows about ours, but take heed those of you in 3rd place... NEXT time I will assure we dont make a foolish error again which cost us the 3 points needed to jump ahead of you.

Congratualtions to the winners and next time you will feel more pressure from Helen and myself... Gaucholholics will rise again!!! :)

Thanks to the staff for the amazing time and I hope to see everyone there again!

BTW: Cadaverous Pallor, we met you (kinda) while exchanging words. I was in a bright yellow shirt and white UCSB hat (like I did not stand out with that color on).

[Ralph Wiggum]

I didnt win but I had a blast... I definately recommend coming!

My team was Ralph Wiggum, Fej and the P. O. P.

[DisneylandBoy]

Tell us ALL about it! I couldn't go, and I wanna hear about it! Did you guys have to ride HMH to get answers? I know they'll post it all on Tuesday, but I can't wait that long!

[tooch]

We attended Mouse Adventure for the second time. The Mouse Adventure Crew did a wonderful job organizing everything ( as usual!!!!!!). The only bummer was the few that decided not to follow the rules. What fun do you get out of winning if you cheat!!!!! Nice example for the kids that participated. This is not sour grapes from a team who didn't place in the top 3. I'm just venting frustration from observing the devious at work. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!!

Congratulations to those who did well and remembered what the day was all about. Disney fun, family values, and honesty.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

[Cadaverous Pallor]

No, we didn't have to ride the Mansion, which is a really good thing due to the fact that we only had 3 hours to complete everything and the Mansion line was probably at least an hour long all day. In fact, I can't think of anything we had to ride a ride for. Again, this was good, since it was rather crowded there that day. The entrance lines at 11am were really long and there were worries about getting into the park and to the meeting place on time, but the wait wasn't as bad as it looked.

Let's just say the pictures of things we had to find all over the park were evil. Like most teams we did the parts that were worth the most points first. The part that was worth the least points, which involved Innoventions, completely confused us and we couldn't finish it. Of course by that time we got to that part we were exhausted and our brains were on the fritz.

We had to examine the ceilings and floors of the shops on Main Street.....get certain fastpasses......decipher all manner of codes and such.....and run around to get to Monstro because of the repaving!

I'm sorry Gaucho, I got so many words that day....I'll definitely check the team pics when they are posted so I can put names to faces. If you noticed it was me you should've said something! ;)

Speaking of uncounted points....we did answer one section of the the Innoventions part, but we didn't get any credit and the Innoventions paper wasn't in our folder. I guess it's possible that it got dropped or something....if any of you guys that organized this somehow come up with an Innoventions sheet that has only the "A Most Confusing Paragraph" section answered, then that's ours.

Gosh, I hope that's not the difference between winning or losing! :(

SuperCarrie, way to go!!! You are an inspiration to first-timers everywhere. And here I thought that only veterans had won!

BTW, in case anyone remembers numbers, I was in team 33, the Happy Haunts. Our word was "Big Thunder Trail".

People cheated??? How?

[supercarrie]

Thanks so much! We got really worried when we picked up Innoventions, which we decided to do first. We were like - if this is the easiest one, we can't imagine what the hardest ones are like! But as it turns out, Innoventions was hardest for us! Maybe because normally we avoid that place! LoL.

Also - lol Gauchograd99. We were only five points behind the 2nd place team - it was close! I think what got us the 3rd place finish was my brother using 12 letters to solve the KeyLetter quest - only he would think of "degeneration." But next time, we will be prepared...
:)

[tooch]

There we many different types of dishonesty. People giving out bogus team key words and letters. People compiling answers with other teams. People spying on other teams papers. And teams not sticking together. Yes, I understand, people have to go to the bathroom. Some teams split up to do the scavenger part and some went out to find pictures. Some sat and did the word puzzles while others finished the search for clues.

Overall the experience was good. We don't know if we will compete next time. We'll have to see if the Mouse Adventure Crew can come up with a few ways to deter dishonesty. As I said before the Mouse Adventure Crew does A GREAT JOB. It's just a few that spoil the fun.:(

[Ralph Wiggum]

For the most part I think everyone played fair but I did see a team (who placed) that was not staying together with their group. No sour grapes here either though. I wasnt doing it for the prizes, I did it for the fun and thats what it was all about. My mission was accomplished.

[Kevin Yee]

We are aware of the cheating, actually. We have tried steps in the past to prevent folks from copying entire pages of keyword/keyletter exchanges, but these only had limited success.

We are considering some alternate formats to counteract the cheating elements. Believe me, we don't want anyone to cheat either. The difficulty comes from not regimenting things so carefully to avoid cheating that you suddenly make the whole thing "not fun" for everyone.

To be honest, though, it might all be a moot point. The next MouseAdventure - currently slated for April - is going to be really radically different in probably most respects. More I cannot say, as plans are still in flux.

On a happier note, I'm glad to see that everyone seemed to be having a good time. It's always such a kick to see everything come together so well!

[Niwel]

All I can say is WOW!!!

The MousePlanet team did an amazing job! I just wish the construction wasn't there. It was a definite pain to get around it.
My team and I (The Madhatters in the funny hats...I was the one in the Mickey Mouse Graduation hat) had an awesome time at our second MouseAdventure and even though we didn't place...we loved it.

However...WHAT WAS UP WITH THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE POSTER??? ok--- that's my only beef....I think it was our least favorite thing. We kept getting cross-eyed

It was great seeing some teams (over and over and over again) wish we could have met everyone....

We will see you all in April:D

[Uncle Dick]

Hey, hey. I didn't participate in MA, but I saw all you guys there running around the park. I saw Kevin Yee sitting at a table and then I saw Al walking down Main Street. Heh. Anyway, looks like you all had a lot of fun. I might have to join in next time...

[KarenW2]

We had a blast at our second try at MouseAdventure and definitely accomplished more this time than last time. A change in 2 of our team members probably made the difference. Going over the answer sheets, I noticed there were some errors in ours too, like for some odd reason, someone put down we got only 20 points for the Captain's Mixer, even tho we got every answer we put down correctly, and they had originally had put down the correct number of points as 50, but crossed it out. Also, 26 x 3 on the KeyWord Exchange is 78, not 68.

How was the scoring for the Fantasyland section done for the last page? Did nobody get scores for it, since we couldn't get the answers, due to the areas being closed off? We only got points for the first 2 pages.

Scoring aside, we really enjoyed the MouseAdventure this time too and look forward to the next one in April.

Sure missed getting a shot at a "consolation" door prize tho! :D

[Ralph Wiggum]

I think everyone was prorated on the captains mixer. The sheet we all had said 50 points but the answer sheet if you notice was out of 20....since they add up everything on the answer sheet they went with the 20. Its the same thing though. We got 45/50, but prorated to 18/20. Same thing...

As far as the fantasy land questions. You could see everything that was in the questions except for when they closed the castle walkthrough but that answer was given to you when you picked up your packet(so i was told). Everything else was visable....for the storybook ride part of it you had to walk around through the castle and over by the matterhorn to see it.

[Disney Crone/Kid]

This thread is lots of vicarious fun! The head pictures were quite hilarious. Thanks for posting your experiences.

I was a 100 miles away this weekend. Darn!!! But I was thinking of you guys, running your fool heads off, darting here, darting there, laughing, strategizing, and having good, clean fun playing Mouse Adventure, which requires more than a few dollops of intelligence.

Too bad about the cheaters. Hey, it's their loss. What goes around, comes around...yada, yada, yada. I just wish they would disqualify themselves from the prizes, and let the honest players win the tangible prizes. What were the prizes?

Like Ralph Wiggum, I think the biggest prize is having fun and playing the game with GLEE. Take a second to contemplate the prep time, effort, and coordination it took for the MP staff to put it on -- and pull it off. You'll soon realize that the game itself is the BIGGEST prize in itself.

Thanks, MP staff, for creating such fun in our lives. Your efforts do not go unappreciated.

[Kevin Yee]

There were in fact a couple sections we had to score appropriate to the score sheet, not the question sheet. That mixer was one, and the scavenger hunt was another.

As for mis-calculations, that can happen. This is why we do a regrade and recount and readdition for the top 5 teams in each category before announcing for sure who the real top 3 teams are :)

[adriennek]

Niwel-- are you missing your 2000 tassle from a Mickey Mouse Graduation Hat? We found a tassle in the picnic area after the event and someone stuck it in my stroller. If it's yours e-mail me at adriennek@mouseplanet.com and I can mail it to you.

Karen K- Ralph's right. I was the one who changed ALL the Captain's Mixer scores-- here's what happened: The paper said 5 points each, 50 total. The recording sheet stapled inside the folders said "20 points" total. Any time that the sheets said something different, we went with what the recording sheet said. So if you originally got 50 points (10 correct,) you got full credit with 20 points instead, but *everyone's* score was adjusted to meet the 2 points each, not just yours! In the case of section 4, it worked to everyone's advantage. Section 4's paper said 60 points each, but the recording sheet said 120 points each. So for section 4, your score doubled.

I didn't score the keyword section but I'm sorry about that miscalculation. We had quite a system going to grade the papers but as Alex said, we shuffled though 2000 sheets of paper yesterday! (Can you believe it was that much?)

Adrienne K

[KarenW2]

Thanks everybody for the info on scoring. I'm sure the numbers weren't enough to change anything in our standing, besides, we played it this time as last time, not to win, but for the fun of finding new and interesting things we didn't notice about the park. I was just curious as I looked over the sheets last night.

Thanks again to everybody for the hard work you did putting this together! We had a great time and are totally exhausted today! This is one of those times that having arthritis & fibromialgia is a real pain, but I did the best I could! Today is recovery day for me. I'm not walking anywhere, but around the house! :D

Am I reading Al's column correctly that the castle was closed at some point yesterday? We must've been in the other areas of the park, cos it was open whenever we went thru. It was frustrating to wait so long to get into the park yesterday, both the first time and reentering after registration and dinner, but we totally understand that they wanted everybody to be safe inside what I will still call the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

Thanks again guys! We'll be looking for info on the April 2002 event!

[JeffG]

Am I reading Al's column correctly that the castle was closed at some point yesterday? We must've been in the other areas of the park, cos it was open whenever we went thru. It was frustrating to wait so long to get into the park yesterday, both the first time and reentering after registration and dinner, but we totally understand that they wanted everybody to be safe inside what I will still call the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

Al's update was a bit unclear, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about the castle walkthrough with the "Sleeping Beauty" dioramas that was closed yesterday. As far as I know, the regular castle archway (that connects the hub with Fantasyland) remained open all day.

-Jeff

[Tony]

JeffG is correct - it was the walkway through the Sleeping Beauty dioramas that was closed after about 1 p.m.

Tony

[Niwel]

Originally posted by Tony
JeffG is correct - it was the walkway through the Sleeping Beauty dioramas that was closed after about 1 p.m.

Tony

Wow! That's really strange...it must have happend right after we left it. We went to Fantasyland arounf 12:45 (after spnding waaaayyyyy too much time in Frontierland)

It's a shame they had to close it. It needs all the attendance it can get.

[Alex S.]

I just want to chime in with a couple of comments:

- Thank you to everybody who participated, it was a wonderful event; particularly after my heart attack when I saw the lines at the gate. I am amazed that everybody made it inside and we were able to start the event on time.

- Thank you again to everybody who worked on the staff side; they really do an amazing amount of work from 9:30 am to 5:30pm. They all have my gratitude.

- Scoring errors. When I was in grad school I attended a presentation on business processes. One of the conclusions of the presenters research is that when it comes to repetitive tasks, anything less than a 0.4% error rate is perfection. The only way to eliminate the 0.4% of errors is through repetition and error checking. I can't vouch for the correctness of his research, but I am confident that under Adrienne Krock's leadership, the fewest number of errors we can reasonably expect were made. Unfortunately, we don't have time to do much error correction.

We recognize that as MouseAdventure has become a larger event and the prizes have become more important that the tolerance for error decreases; we are continuously looking at new methods and procedures that will reduce errors. I think we've succeeded each time, and I'm confident that will continue with future events.

- Cheating. Unfortunately, the only way we can really avoid any cheating is to never let you people out of our sight; coming up with 15 quests that can be fulfilled at Carnation Gardens might be difficult, though. We will be looking at redesigning certain sections of the packet to make cheating either more difficult or valueless. If anybody has suggestions on how to keep teams together, we are all ears (we've considered tieing you together but are afraid we'd get reports of clotheslined children all over the park).

As for giving out incorrect KeyWords and KeyLetters, I don't think that is cheating per se, but it certainly goes against the spirit of the game.

We try to stress that the goal is to have fun and to see things in the park you've missed. We think providing prizes is a valuable element, but unfortunately some people will place the stuff over the fun. Again, we're always working on it, hopefully we'll reduce it, but I doubt we can avoid it altogether.

- Cast Members and park conditions. Rest assured, if we'd known about the Fantasyland construction in time, we would never have sent you into that part of the park. The major form of the game was finished months ago, however, and we were caught by surprise. All we had time to do was alter the existing Fantasyland quests so that they were all still possible to complete (at least one was rendered completely impossible by the construction). Also, many teams relied on a Cast Member to answer one of the Fantasyland questions; it was possible to get your own answer, but difficult. We would prefer that Cast Members not do this, but of course we have no way of stopping them. Unfortunately, the Cast Member did two things:

1) told the team that it was impossible to get the answer;
2) the CM then gave the team the wrong answer

We decided that it was wrong to penalize teams for believing a cast member but we will be sure to remind people that Cast Members are not always correct, and that the final arbiter of what is possible is the MouseAdventure crew.

- Surveys. Later this evening, I will be emailing to every team a survey (it will go to the email address with which your team registered). Please, share ANY comments or ideas you have; please do not send ideas for SPECIFIC puzzles or quests as I will have to delete those unread. Any comments on the structure, procedures or the specific puzzles in the event are welcome. If you are not the person who registered for your team feel free to email me (stroup@travelite.org) or that person for a copy of the survey.


Out of curiosity, did anybody by the group photo from the camera store? (I'm hoping somebody from MP remembered to, I didn't).

Thank you, everybody, for making the event a success.

Alex Stroup

[KarenW2]

Hi Alex,
Our team totally forgot to check the Photo store too, til we were sitting on the tram! At that point, we were too exhausted to go back in all over again! We were hoping somebody remembered from one of the other teams as well. Maybe they could post a link to one that they scanned in?? :D

Thanks for the comments you added to the thread. I think the cheating was the most discouraging part of the day, but we figure they'll just lose out on the fun of "discovery" of the real answers first hand. We noticed teams running around that had more than 4 players gathering answers, besides the other methods of cheating already mentioned.

Any idea which team came the farthest to join in the fun? We came from Oceanside & Fallbrook, not that far, so I'm sure there must've been others that came from farther places.

Thanks again for the fun!