MouseAdventure 3/28/04 Recap Thread

[lesliebumper]

(finding teamo) Thanks for the compliments on the shirts. My husband, Alan, actually thought up that name on the way home from the last MA, and says he's still undecided if he likes it all that much. From there we picked characters with the personality traits we shared. I'm kind of the goofy nurterer (Peach), and I can attest that Alan (Gil) always aims for the toilet. Trish is totally enthusiastic and loyal (Dory), and Noel's just plain scary sometimes (Bruce).

Although I nagged him all the way home about it, Alan didn't come up with the team name for next time!

We loved getting all the packets all at once and seem to keep learning as we go along (this was our 2nd MA).

What's most astonishing is the care and planning that go into this event. I can't thank the volunteers enough. What I found different on this one is we SAW more people working, and it was fun to say hi and thanks to the people sweating it out so we could have a blast.

Now the only problem is I'm so excited telling everybody we took 2nd place at MA, and they just look at me and say "okay..." Maybe I need to cultivate some more "mouse" crazy friends...

[piperscott]

And if my team is reading this, you guys rock too.

You too Bill... see I do come out of lurkmode from time to time.

As this was only my second MA I have to say I enjoyed the format much more. I like having all the information in my hands. It was a little undaunting and how a two player team was able to juggle all that paper I'll never know. Congrats to the winners and look for our team to do some stomping next time.

Thanks to the staff for everything... It was enjoyable to meet so many of you.

[mhrc4]

Well I have met her before at previous events so I'm not a total stalker! I couldn't tell you your wife's name to save my life, if that helps- my memory for names is horrible, but little things like you got married in January I can remember.

yeah, I remembered that you had talked to her previously, so that wasnt the question, I think she was just shocked you knew that we got married! LOL, i told her the only way I could think that you knew was my signature on the board!

There's a reason we don't do this. We don't want to upset Disney by appearing to be soliciting on property. And can you imagine if we had over 300 people doing it?? We don't want to find our players or ourselves in violation of any Disney policies.

Adrienne

I guess that seems logical, but I think that 320 people running around disneyland like chickens with their heads cut off, in groups of 2-4 people, with arm bands, name tags and matching outfits is a bit more of an advertisement and solicitation than business cards would be.... just my opinion... i guess that comes from people asking us what we are doing and how they can get in on doing it next time and things like that... just trying to help out.

Actually, you were closer than you thought to getting the NOS answer right, mhrc if you had "Pirates of the Carribean." The piece of information that was in error was that one of the pictureds signs was missing. Since you just went through and found the words in the word search without looking for the signs, you probably found those words anyway (petite pattisserie). So you had the puzzle solved. What you didn't do was what we almost didn't do....keep going. The actual answer was "Pirates of the Carribean Exit Only" And then it said "Alex Lani," but that wasn't asked for in the instructions. So you were that close....

ya, we tried to cut a small corner, and I am kicking myself now for not going back and figuring the whole thing out....oh well, cest la vie, we still had fun.

Nobody has answered or rather brought up the Picture spot quest... was I the only one that was confuzzled on this one?

[timl33]

Actually, you were closer than you thought to getting the NOS answer right, mhrc if you had "Pirates of the Carribean." The piece of information that was in error was that one of the pictureds signs was missing. Since you just went through and found the words in the word search without looking for the signs, you probably found those words anyway (petite pattisserie). So you had the puzzle solved. What you didn't do was what we almost didn't do....keep going. The actual answer was "Pirates of the Carribean Exit Only" And then it said "Alex Lani," but that wasn't asked for in the instructions. So you were that close....

Arrrrgh. I still suck. I found the Alex Lani stuff, and then assumed that the rest of it also pertained to the quest's authors. Didn't even cross my mind to think of Exit Only.

[lisap]

Arrrrgh. I still suck. I found the Alex Lani stuff, and then assumed that the rest of it also pertained to the quest's authors. Didn't even cross my mind to think of Exit Only.

Don't feel too bad--eandc missed that exact same part of the puzzle when we tested it. We got to the POTC part and then took off to turn it in without finishing the rest, because it's a sign, right? It pays to be careful.

I was hanging out at Toad all day and saw a LOT of teams working like mad on the cypher, then giving up without ever getting into the queue with me. . That was a tough puzzle--I was happy for the teams who solved it completely.

I was mistaken several times for Jen in the "find Jen" quest which was amazingly flattering but I mostly chalked it up to the photos not being in color.

Alex planned an amazing event. Y'all can't imagine all the planning and details that go into this--it boggles my mind! It was wonderful fun and it was great to meet some new teams and see everyone's great attitude. Looking forward to October.

[Kevy Baby]

Well, Team Wannahockalugi can say with 100% absolute certainty that this was by far, the absolute best MA we have EVER participated in! But the again we could also say it was the worst one we have ever participated in.

But it was a blast. Being as we were all first timers to MA, we really had no idea what to expect; we just accepted on blind faith that we would have a good time. And we were not disappointed.

First and foremost: a huge thank you to Alex, AVP and the entire staff for putting together such a wonderful event. I was amazed at how well the whole event was designed and executed. I was very impressed with the high level of thought, attention to detail, and sadism incorporated into the whole event.

Congrats going out to GD, CP, NA, Seamonkey and anonymous (why does he/she wish to remain anonymous?) for their respective wins. I know that you guys were really amped up for this and I really enjoyed witnessing the excitement you all experienced when you heard your names announced.

Getting the whole packet at once was a wee bit overwhelming, especially for us first-timers (we just assumed that most everyone was going to finish the whole thing). But we did a quick read-through and decided to head over to the Twain. Just as we finished answering Lani's questions (got credit for it ), we turned around to see them closing the gate. So turning lemons into lemonaid, we headed up to the bar on the second level and spent the whole trip strategizing (or at least as best we could).

We did the puzzles in NOS - even figured out La Petite on our own (although it was good getting confirmation later). Also, we walked past Andrew at least four times without seeing him (which he gleefully pointed out to us once we DID find him).

We did the full TSI quest. Thank you to which ever team had a member scream out "Hey, I found it" to his team members just as we were walking past (that was an easy 10 points). Also, no one pointed out in this thread that both Tom AND Becky were graffitied into the tree (as well as Huck, but that wasn't one of the choices). And the "Hidden Shack" that was supposed to be behind the "tied-up canoe": there was no canoe (but we knew there USUALLY was a tied up canoe). For those who didn't figure out the BIG secret about the TSI quest (don't read if you don't want to have a "DOH!" moment):

 

If you just read the whole quest, all 40 steps, you would have seen that the answer was right on the sheet - you didn't even need to go over there! DOH! (We know of at least one team who did this!)

We actually didn't read the instructions closely enough and didn't discover that we didn't need to do all three sections of the scavenger hunt portion until we were walking up to turn our sheets in. And we followed the directions TOO well on this: we actually made a purchase at every place you needed a receipt from. The Bengal BBQ people were extremely helpful: they saw us in line and said, "hey, do you guys just need a receipt?" (but we bought a coke anyways). At Winner's Circle, two team members just grabbed an inexpensive item near the register that happended to not have a price on it. The CM was going to go in the back to get the correct info. We just grabbed something else and bought that instead - but the CM wanted to make sure we got what we wanted (the first item). Thankfully, it didn't take too long to just convince the CM that we didn't care what we bought as long as it was SOMETHING.

We will be returning in the Fall for sure (although we will be short one team member: it will be 2-3 weeks before her due date). We found out that having a person in a wheelchair was a benefit: she was doing a lot of puzzles, paperwork, and organizing while the rest of us pushed her around from place to place.

I am still undecided on whether bribing the judges works. I remembered chocolate for one, but didn't get for another, so those may have offset each other (note to self: when an MA judge PMs you her favorite chocolate, DON'T ACCIDENTALLY DELETE THE MESSAGE!).

[Edited to add] Pafuts and I were composing our posts at the same time - how funny!

[Pafuts]

Well we on Team Wanahaukalugi had a GREAT time. We were all first timers so we don't have any way to compare previous years.

One of our team is pregnant and told by her doc to not exercise. She rented herself a wheelchair and we pushed her around. This ended up being a plus as she was able to work on puzzles and sorting papers while we went from one quest to another. We are actually considering doing this next time, just for the time saving benefit.

We totally misunderstood the scavenger hunt and completed ALL THREE sections. Oh well. Now we have a map in chinese.

We did get the correct answer to NOS. I was very surprised to see that the letters were in the correct order. I was expecting an unscramble on top of the word search.

We found both missing staffers and answered the question. We also found Lani and got that right too. With four of us just blurting things out we had a small chance of failure.

We had too much fun doing TSI! I greatly enjoyed the physical challenge. We even got the right answer!

We also completed the R2p2 puzzle and found 2 of the eye spy items.

Our total score was 520. Not bad for newbies!

Thanks to all involved for a very fun day!

[Kevy Baby]

Nobody has answered or rather brought up the Picture spot quest... was I the only one that was confuzzled on this one?

No, we got hung up on this too. Although not to the extent that you did - once we couldn't figure it out from the Guide, we gave up on it.

[NirvanaMan]

Hey all! I'm glad everyone liked the smilies costumes. Nice to see all that last minute hard work paid off. Apologies to all if your favorite Smilie did not make it into our arsenal ( was the most requested out of the ones we did not have). A big thank you to all the MP staff that put this together. I can only imagine the kind of time that must go into creating something of this sheer magnitude with flawless excecution.

A big congrats again to CP and GD for seriously kicking everyone else's arse. I think they cheated.
Also to our other first placers - consisting of NA, Seamonkey, and nameless/faceless....Another big congrats. I know I couldn't have tolerated the heat in those all black, turtleneck outfits. Tres Bien.


Overall, I liked the new format. However, it was quite difficult for a team of 2 to manage all that paperwork. Of course, CP and GD had no problems, but they are the hauntingly fantastical exceptions. We had papers flying all over the place at different times. Perhaps clipboards are the way to go. We too got hung up on one of the photospot questions relating to the guidebook which did not seem to make sense. Oh well.

Of course most of our time was devoted to ensuring a proper smilie to emotion correlation, so we did not have time to read silly things like instructions. Our score reflected this, and the face was worn. However we have nothing to be about, as we did win team spirit, and were quite about it...and very .

[Bill Catherall]

Question: Do the 5 lights by the bathrooms on TSI normally blink, or was someone making them blink? It freaked me out when I walked over there, didn't know which lights we were supposed to count, then suddenly I saw 5 lights blink on, then off...just like the story! Tricksy lights!

[adriennek]

Kevy Baby: there were actually red herrings in the TSI quest so yes, you could've found an "answer" if you read through the packet, but it might not have been the right answer.

Adrienne

[Ghoulish Delight]

Perhaps clipboards are the way to go.

Clipboards are definitely an advantage (ummm, have you figured we've been lying to you all this time we've been telling you to get a clipboard?). This was the first time we had 2 clipboards, one for each. About half way through we decided to ditch the second clipboard in favor of having one of us with our hand free to shuffle papers, get water out, etc. It was decidedly unweildy to deal with that much paper with just two people. We eventaully got a pretty good system for handling them worked out (which I will not reveal ).

[Sophie832]

I think everyone's right in saying the most important thing in MA is: read the instructions, read the instructions, read the instructions. Even though I know this, there are still mistakes I make in every single MA because I didn't read something right, or didn't bother to read it at all. In this last time, both my partner and I read the "Peter" question in the Tomorrowland quest wrong, and neither of us bothered to completely read the TSI quest, otherwise we might have just done it without going to the island, instead of skipping it all together.

"Toadi Acceleratio, Semper Absurda." I used the whole saying each time I did it, but first I had the two sayings in the wrong order, and then the second time I just did it wrong. The third try was the charm, and my partner has excellent eyes, so we didn't have to go too far into the queue before he could read the text on the wall.

GD and CP have won a prize in all 6 raffles they've entered, right? Shennanigans!

In other news, I might just have to change my name to "Sophie." I think next time I wear a nametag at an MP event, I'll write, "Sophie832...AKA Helen." A little 3984 tribute.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Kevy Baby: there were actually red herrings in the TSI quest so yes, you could've found an "answer" if you read through the packet, but it might not have been the right answer.

Adrienne

But it was the only answer with anything leading to it. We were one of the teams that never set foot on the island, but got it right. CP started reading through it and quickly realized that the decissions seemed to be arbitrary (Which way do you think Injun Joe went?), and we noticed that some choices led you in circles. So when we came to an answer we figured that challenge was not to be led in circles, so we felt confident that we had the right answer. I guess there were a couple choices that were based on actual questions that could be answered (like the moose one maybe?), but it didn't seem to matter.

[Ghoulish Delight]

GD and CP have won a prize in all 6 raffles they've entered, right? Shennanigans!

Not at all. This is only the second time we've won raffle prizes (although both times, both of our raffle tickets won). We did win a 2003 Disney calander at the Spring 2003 event....with more than half of 2003 left to go, even!

Even though I know this, there are still mistakes I make in every single MA because I didn't read something right, or didn't bother to read it at all.

So true. And that's what was even more amazing about our win. We're fast. We know that that's our biggest advantage. And we usually sacrafice acuracy. We've usually finish all the packets, but get significant chunks of them wrong because we were in a rush. Either we miss some important bit of instruction, or we make a careless error because we're hurrying. This time, everything that we did, we got right That's never happened in classic format. Of course, in Mad Scramble we did, but that's a whole different beast. I think the difference this time was the format. Since we had everything with us, we were able to use ALL of our time walking between quests reading instructions. Unlike in the past where we would have to return to Carnation. That time walking back to Carnation is basically dead time because we didn't have anything more to read or work on. That really allowed us to feel a lot less rushed this time.

[NirvanaMan]

Clipboards are definitely an advantage (ummm, have you figured we've been lying to you all this time we've been telling you to get a clipboard?).

I assumed that it was some sort of Vast Left Wing Conspiracy...yes.

[Kevy Baby]

I think we did the TSI quest in 9 steps:

1. Initial step (I don't remember what it was)
2. Lights at the dock (see Bill's post)
3. Treehouse
4. Barrel Bridge
5. Gophers (I knew you didn't *have* to have you head touching the lowest point, but I figured that it was put there for the amusement of the bridge monitor who would dock you if you DIDN'T do it)
6. Bell
7. Fort Gate
8. Counting Meeses
9. The solution

All tolled, it took about 30 minutes from dock to dock

[EandCDad]

But it was the only answer with anything leading to it. We were one of the teams that never set foot on the island, but got it right. CP started reading through it and quickly realized that the decissions seemed to be arbitrary (Which way do you think Injun Joe went?), and we noticed that some choices led you in circles. So when we came to an answer we figured that challenge was not to be led in circles, so we felt confident that we had the right answer. I guess there were a couple choices that were based on actual questions that could be answered (like the moose one maybe?), but it didn't seem to matter.

The real difference is how you define "reading the quest." If you simply read all 40 sections, you had a (I think) 25% of getting the correct answer, because there were several false answers. If you went throught the sections and just said "I don't know how many water fountains there are, but let's just say there are two and see what happens" then you would, eventually, come out with the correct answer. Alex was basically too nice in that if you got the wrong number of lights, or if you chose paintings instead of dishes, or if you miscounted the moose, you went back to the beginning (or middle) instead of getting a wrong final answer. I'm assuming he won't be making it that easy, again.

[Not Afraid]

I assumed that it was some sort of Vast Left Wing Conspiracy...yes.

Did I tell you to bring clipboards?


I read these questions about TSI and the Photo Spots and, even though we got these right, I can't tell you anything about them. You'll never hear about how we solved the Photo Spot thing since No Longer Posting solved that one. For TSI, you'll have to talk to cemeinke, as he solved that one sitting down.

I can talk about the Tiki Room queue, the Eye Spys and the two frustrations of Walt's speech and the Toad queue.

We also did all of the "extras", which was fun for us. Actually, we excell at the extras. All three of us are very visual.

However, I'm not very fit. My hamstrings are KILLING me today - AND I'm exhausted.

[cemeinke]

This was the first time we had 2 clipboards, one for each. About half way through we decided to ditch the second clipboard in favor of having one of us with our hand free to shuffle papers, get water out, etc.

All three of us had clipboards, and I thought at the time that it was overkill - but they matched the purple of our outfits so we had to have them. Little did I know how fortuitous that was for us, to be able to split up the quests, and not loose pages to the breeze - which only happend while attempting rubbings.

[Ghoulish Delight]

My favorite quote of the day, uttered by myself...."You spell something with 20 A's and 20 I's!!! "

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ugh, been so busy today, I've barely been able to read this one thread, never mind actually post everything I want to say! This may be short.

First of all, even MORE thanks to everyone that had a hand in running this fantastic thing we call MouseAdventure. Alex and crew, we love you!

Yes, I liked this format much better, and not just because we won. GD explained why - useless "travel time" from land to packet pick-up was eliminated. While we were walking I was continually reading and re-reading the various quests. This made directions much easier to understand than in previous events, where you grabbed your land-packet and had to immediately figure it out. I can't even say we stopped at the beginning and figured out exactly what we were holding - we tried but got antsy. Instead we decided to go in geographical order for a while. After a bit of that, I had read most everything (GD does most of the puzzles) and we got the hang of it. At the 1.5 hour mark we sat down and decided what we needed to concentrate on (higher point values, items we knew we could finish, etc). I can't say we had a coherent strategy from beginning to end except - GD did puzzles, CP read and kept updated on what was next. And that "rule" wasn't hard and fast, either.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Sorry about the big block of text above. I was trying to type quickly.

Ghoulish darling, you were wrong - we've won raffles before that. Remember the Mickey luggage tag and luggage strap? (Anyone want to buy them?)

Alex was basically too nice in that if you got the wrong number of lights, or if you chose paintings instead of dishes, or if you miscounted the moose, you went back to the beginning (or middle) instead of getting a wrong final answer. I'm assuming he won't be making it that easy, again.

I started really reading that one later than I actually should have. We had already done the NOS and CC portions and were finishing up Fantasyland. I think we had already surmised that there was no way we were going to take the time to get onto and off of TSI. But during my travel-reading I picked it up again. Two things caught my eye. I noticed that the instructions said something like "many choices lead to the right answer", and the first choose-your-own-adventure question was purely subjective.

This really caught my attention. I thought "I CAN'T get this question wrong, and it DOESN'T require me to be there, just to make up an answer." I decided to go scientifically and choose the first option each time. I made sure that each and every question was not a /factual/ question, but a subjective one. When I got to the bell one, I was almost laughing. Since the writers couldn't control who rung the bell when, it obviously was a joke on us. I got the moose and stopped. I chose one option, and it gave me an answer - the other one brought me back to somewhere I'd been before, like EandC said. So it HAD to be the answer. I double checked, but it still seemed way too easy. GD was especially suspicious of that one, and I had my doubts, but it seemed to work out. We worked the whole thing out in less than 3 minutes sitting by Snow White's wishing well.

At the time I didn't realize how many people would end up on TSI. If I'd really thought about it, it would have made me feel a lot more secure of our position.

[Wishful]

How did you do?
We did great considering there were only 2 of us who know nothing about any of the stuff covered in the quests - about 360 I think and most of that was *gasp* trivia! (who knew I paid attention to Kurt Russel's career?)


What was your most/least favorite part/quest?
Most favorite - the do your own MA (loved it!), New Orleans Sign Thing, Disney Speech, Scavenger Hunt, Eye Spy, Trivia!
Least Favorite - Satanic crossword thing (Critters?)


What did you think of the new format/quests?
I loved having the whole packet at once. I don't know if it gives a true advantage or not, but I would think that if I had a team of 4 and had the whole packet at once, people could work on some puzzles while the group was walking around (Do your own MA, Walt's speech, etc. things that you had to solve first and then go to a location to finish) and cover a lot more ground that way - with only 2 people that was harder to do - but I guess a group of 4 has an advantage anyway? Doesn't matter, it was all for fun, but in October we're going for a high score (and a whole team that shows up, and not forgetting our shirts)!


How much do you appreciate the MP staff for doing this for us? You guys were great even when some of the staff was kinda grumpy or not in the mood for jokes or not returning my emails (I know, you were all busy), but it was a great event!

It was our second MA, and we're looking forward to the one. Once thing I have to say, and I'm just being honest, so please don't flame me, it is really intimidating to come into this group in person. Maybe it was the competition atmosphere, but I found it really hard to walk up to people and start a conversation at the picnic area (this was before the event, not afterwards when we were just melting), I tried a couple of times with "Hi, is this your first event?" and I either got a brief "No" and the person walked/turned away, or they gave me a "look", or "No, I'm staff" and I got the look and a turn away. If I commented on a shirt/team uniform, it was almost the same. I asked someone where they found their font, and I got a "on the internet" and a turn away. People who were new were a lot easier to talk to, and I think that's odd. I think all the "veterans" have a lot of knowledge and experience and would be fun to talk to, but the group dynamic seems kinda "clique-ish". Maybe it's different if it's just a meet, but I'm somewhat daunted at the thought of going to a meet now. Again, it was hot, we were getting ready for the event, but wasn't there supposed to be some "people fun" as well as quest fun?. The park guests who spoke to us were easy to talk to, and they were intimidated by us! I'm sure there will be comments, but are there any newbies who felt this way?

I do agree though with someone who mentioned this before, I wish we could do something about telling people about MP because we had a ton of people asking us what we were doing and I know they wouldn't remember the website name and you know they would want to hang out with us. I understand the "no soliciting" thing, but there must be something we could do...I know Alex would love to set up a 200 team event someday...

[Kevy Baby]

Once thing I have to say, and I'm just being honest, so please don't flame me, it is really intimidating to come into this group in person. Maybe it was the competition atmosphere, but I found it really hard to walk up to people and start a conversation at the picnic area (this was before the event, not afterwards when we were just melting), I tried a couple of times with "Hi, is this your first event?" and I either got a brief "No" and the person walked/turned away, or they gave me a "look", or "No, I'm staff" and I got the look and a turn away. If I commented on a shirt/team uniform, it was almost the same. I asked someone where they found their font, and I got a "on the internet" and a turn away. People who were new were a lot easier to talk to, and I think that's odd. I think all the "veterans" have a lot of knowledge and experience and would be fun to talk to, but the group dynamic seems kinda "clique-ish". Maybe it's different if it's just a meet, but I'm somewhat daunted at the thought of going to a meet now. Again, it was hot, we were getting ready for the event, but wasn't there supposed to be some "people fun" as well as quest fun?. The park guests who spoke to us were easy to talk to, and they were intimidated by us! I'm sure there will be comments, but are there any newbies who felt this way?

Wow, I am real surprised about your experience. If I was one of the people you felt gave you the cold shoulder, I apologize.

While this was not my first meet, I have only been around a relatively short period of time (and my first MA). My first meet was about 2 months ago. People were warm and open. If I started a conversation, it continued. I have made several new IRL friends.

As for the morning of, I think everyone was rather focused on the task at hand. I would say the morning atmosphere was not the best for initial meetings. It was not really condusive for introductions. Next year, come to the Pot Luck the day before.

So try a regular meet and give it another shot.