Take 2000 people (who are divided by 575 teams) and then set them loose at the Disneyland Resort for just over five hours ... and what do you have?
And - no - the above is NOT one of the questions from D23's Great Disney Scavenger Hunt (which will be held this coming Sunday morning in Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure, the Disneyland Resort Hotels as well as in Downtown Disney). When I spoke with Jeffrey Epstein -- Marketing Manager for the Official Disney Fan Club -- earlier this week, Jeffrey assured me that this all-around-the-Resort competition won't be nearly as cruel as Minnie's Moonlit Madness (which is this trivia competition for Disneyland Cast Members & their friends that's held after-hours inside of that theme park. Which is infamous for its devilishly difficult questions).
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Which isn't to say that you won't need to put on your thinking cap (not to mention a comfortable pair of shoes) if you're taking part in the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt. For there are 330 questions stand inbetween you and glory (And when I say "glory," I mean the terrific prizes that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Records, the Walt Disney Collectors Society, Walt Disney Publishing and the Walt Disney Archives have provided. Which will then be awarded to the top 10 teams).
Mind you - in order to actually win this thing - you're NOT going to need to know your Disneyland history & trivia backwards and forwards. Just like there are all sorts of different people, there are all sorts of different levels of Disney fandom. Which is why the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt was deliberately designed to be playable (more importantly, enjoyable) for several different levels of Disney fans.
"The Miner League features mostly observation-based questions. Which will make this portion of the competition easier for families with small kids to do. The Major Domo level of this scavenger hunt is somewhat harder than that," Steven Clark, the Head of D23 said. "And as for the Super-Difficult-Idocious level ... You're going to need a keen eye to answer all of those questions. Which are fairly challenging but still doable."
And Clark and his team at the Official Disney Fan Club have made sure that the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt is actually doable. Two weeks ago, staffers from the Walt Disney Archives went down to Disneyland and test-drove the final version of this Resort-wide competition. Which meant trying to legibly jot down answers to trivia questions while riding through a number of Disneyland dark rides.
"We had a number of very nice Cast Members at that Resort who offered to walk us through the attractions or let us ride with the lights on. But we said 'No,' " said Becky Cline, Manager of the Disney Archives. "We wanted to experience this competition just as D23 members will. Make sure that all of these questions are easily answerable under normal operating conditions."
Now where this gets interesting is ... Well, given the people who were playing the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt during this test run were Archives staffers, you have to assume that they'd been to Disneyland before. That they'd seen this theme park, experienced its rides, show and attractions before.
"But because they had to slow down and really look at things in order to answer these questions, a lot of people came up to me afterwards and said 'I never realized how beautiful Disneyland is," Cline continued. "They came away from the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt with a renewed appreciation for the design & detail of the place."
Well, here's hoping that - you're one of those 2000 people who are taking part in Sunday's D23-member-only event - you too come away from the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt with a renewed appreciation of the Disneyland Resort. Not to mention some of those neat prizes that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Records, the Walt Disney Collectors Society, Walt Disney Publishing and the Walt Disney Archives are offering up.
And speaking of D23 ... The latest episode of Jeffrey Epstein's "Disney Geek" vlog just went live. And this time around, Jeffrey shares images from Tinker Bell's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony earlier this week as well as laying out which Disney & Pixar animated features features will be arriving when in theaters between now and November 2012. Epstein also shares some shots of Guests dressed up in all their Halloween finery from the Tokyo Disney Resort. So if you want to be in the know about what's been going on within Disney's world over the past week or so, please click on the video below.
Your thoughts?
We'll be there. We've done 'Mouse Adventure' for several years and are looking forward to Disney's take on the Amazing Race style competition.
@Jim Hill
Are you competing this sunday?
Just a note, the hunt is not d23 members only but it was cheaper for them to register than non-members. i'm not a d23 member but i was able to sign up. looking forward to it!
I'm really looking forward to participating! A quick question though:
Do you get to pick which level you want to compete in when you register? Thanks! :)
Did you make it out for the scavenger hunt? If so, what did you think? I thought 300+ questions were to many and I prefer the puzzle type questions that 'Mouse Adventure' offers better.
I take it Jim doesn't respond to his readers. That's a bummer.
Daniel --
It's not that I don't respond to my readers. To be blunt, taking part in the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt was never really an option.
To explain: After spending Friday and Saturday holed up in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel covering Destination D, in order for there to be a story up on JHM Monday morning about that D23 event ... Well, that meant that I had to spend Sunday in front of my computer writing text & selecting photographs. Which is why (even though several teams asked me to join them on the Great Disney Scavenger Hunt) I had to take a pass
You gotta understand that JHM is a very small shop. This website doesn't have a huge staff. Most of the time, it's just Nancy and myself churning out the new content. So if I'm not in here answering reader's questions or comments, that's probably because I'm still working on tomorrow's article for the site.
Speaking of which, I gotta get back to researching "Mickey and the Beanstalk" now. Again, I don't mean to be rude. But these stories really don't write themselves.
Sorry about not answering your query sooner,
Best Regards,
j