Getting ready for this Sunday’s Great Disney Scavenger Hunt

Jim Hill

14 years ago

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).

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.

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP53Ge1IUsE]

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