My one and only photo from MouseAdventure (no cameras allowed)
Competing way out of our league in the Advanced Division, Team Bibbidy Bobbidy Bleep! probably finished at the bottom of the team rankings (we won’t know for two weeks), but that doesn’t matter at all. We’re not in it to win it. We’re in it for a good time, and we achieved that goal. This was a killer MouseAdventure, too! Usually a game includes 10-12 “quests” to be completed in 6-7 hours. This one involved almost four dozen quests doled out in three chunks over the course of two days/twenty hours. It was like doing three regular MouseAdventures in a row. We were surprised to finish feeling as strong as we did! (In fact, we were surprised to finish.)
Since there is another MA in two weeks (see below), there’s a gag order preventing me from describing any of the specific quests or puzzles from last weekend’s game. But it’s not giving away anything to say that MouseAdventure is a puzzle-based scavenger hunt-type competition that takes place in Disneyland. Teams of two to four people are given puzzles, riddles, math story problems, etc to solve after locating certain data that is hiding in plain sight all over the park. These “quests” are constructed so cleverly, I am always in awe of the folks who put the game together.
Players spend most of the day with their eyes glued to the architecture, the signs, the restaurant menus, the stuff painted on the Main Street windows, etc hoping to crack the codes and solve the puzzles. The game gives you a whole new appreciation of the tiny, luscious details that make Disneyland so magical.
During a typical MouseAdventure, you won’t go on many rides. Maybe one or two. You don’t have time to stop for lunch. You’ll need every available minute of game time for information gathering and puzzle solving. You will lose at least four or five pens and pencils, and maybe leave your puzzle-laden clipboard in the rest room on the other side of the park. And you will definitely think of the answer to at least one quest shortly after you turn in your answer sheet. D’oh!!
And I can’t get enough. :)
Click here if you’d like to know more about MouseAdventure, and especially if you’d like to participate in a sort of “intro-to-MouseAdventure” event at Disneyland on Sunday, June 6. The June 6 event is designed for families with children as well as teams of adults seeking to try MA in a relaxed, non-competitive environment. There’s also a competitive event scheduled for October in Orlando FL. I hope you’ll check them out! Not everyone who attempts a MouseAdventure falls in love with it, but lots of us do.
