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Our spring 2024 event took place on March 9 at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Because of our return to Animal Kingdom, we felt the theme of Disney's True-Life Adventures was a fitting one. These films had a lasting impact on wildlife documentary filmmaking.

The curse of MouseAdventure was felt in the very hot temperatures during the day, which were somewhat mitigated by periodic cloud cover. Teams started out with a pre-game rules session just outside the security perimeter of the park, and then were released with the game packet to head into the park at 10 AM.

Teams had the morning to work on the initial set of seven quests and two eye spy quests. Two of these quests (one in Asia and one in Pandora) had instructions on them that once completed, teams should turn in their quest sheets to receive an additional quest. Inside the packet, teams also received a sheet that indicated they should return to MouseAdventure Central to pick up an additional two quests based on Discovery Island. In total, teams had six hours to complete 13 quests as well as trivia.

The quest summaries as well as answers are included below.

 

Quests

Prowlers of the Everglades - 20 points

This quest made use of the animal enclosure signage on Discovery Island. Teams were provided with a set of maps showing where endangered animals live on one side of the page and a set of names of different animals on the opposite side.
Connecting each map with its correct animal crossed over sets of letters in the middle of the page. When all animals had been found, a questions was formed by reading the letters in the order they were crossed (based on the map order from top to bottom).
Final Question: What is an otter family home called?
Answer: Holt

Unfortunately, the Imagineers decided to adjust the habitat of the lesser flamingoes between the time that we initially surveyed the maps and when the game was played, making the map on display different than the one on the quest page.

The African Lion - 30 points

Teams received a quest page with Swahili phrases with one word missing. They then searched the walls and signs in Africa, looking for those phrases. After all the missing words were collected, teams searched for them in a word search.

The final question was hidden in the leftover letters of the word search when read from the bottom up, and right to left.

Final Question: Where are classes for learning Swahili?
Answer: Hoteli Burudika

Bear Country - 30 points

The signs and bulletin board items in Asia are plastered with telephone numbers for its many businesses. Teams received a list of numbers and then had to fill in the provided blanks with a business name or text from the associated sign. Each answer had one letter that was associated with a phone icon.

Placing the letters in a grid of the phone icons created a decoder. Teams used the letter grid to decode the provided set of coordinates and form a final question. The final answer is located over near the entrance to the Anandapur Theater.

Final Question: Phone number to make complaints about elephants
Answer: 42485

Once teams had completed this quest, they traded in the quest pages for the second quest in Asia.

The Living Desert - 40 points

This quest sent teams on a photo safari of the plants of Pandora. Teams were given a map of Pandora labeled with a variety of different viewpoints. Each viewpoint was associated with a set of four boxes that contained letters or spaces. The quest page also contained a set of seven photos taken from one of the viewpoint locations.

Teams matched the photo with the viewpoint, and then placed the associated letters and/or spaces into the space provided for that photo. Once all the boxes were filled in, the final question was revealed. The final answer could be found on one of the maps at either entry to the land.

The letters in the grid looked like this:
MO ARA TERRITO
RY RIVER NAME

Final Question: Moara Territory river name?
Anser: Kapsavan

Once teams had completed this quest, they traded in the quest pages for the second quest in Pandora.

In Beaver Valley - 40 points

Dinoland was so rich in resources that we tasked teams to search for signs that contained the letters IN in them. Each instance of an IN also had a direction to move forward or backward in the letters of the answer; WARNING <-4, for example would yield a W. When take all together, these letters formed a final question.

Final Question: What is compostasaurus club dirt made from?
Answer: trashed tableware & food scraps

This text proved challenging for some teams to find, but was featured on signs in the plantings around the food service areas in Dinoland.

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Secrets of Life - 40 points

 
Players visited the Gorilla Falls Trail and searched for a missing item in a set of three or four items. After finding all the missing items from each set, letters were eliminated from the letter cloud to form one item from a three-item set.
 
The missing set listed was gorilla sanctuary, whcih lead to the final answer of: Hippo Pool, Bird Forest
 

Nature’s Half Acre - up to 50 points

 
Having taken a train trip out to Rafiki's Planet Watch, teams had to complete a three part quest. The answer from each part was placed in provided spaces associated with animal icons.
 
The first task involved finding missing words in signage on the walk from the train station to the main building. Indexing the indicated letters spelled out the phrase, "National Park of American Samoa." A map near the main building lists all of the National Parks of the United States and its territories. The island of TUTUILA is part of the National Park of American Samoa.
 
The second part employed indexing letters off of six large posters on the side of the building, which spelled out the question, "what are red rat and Everglades rat." Red rat and Everglades rat are types of SNAKES.
 
The third mini-quest involved what we call a "drop-down." Players used a line of animal silhouettes attached to the outside wall along with the quest page which showed each image along with two letters below it. Moving from left to right, each time an animal appeared, teams used the letter below, crossing out each letter as it was used. Once complete, the letters spelled, "look in the garden for type of powers to thank the bugs for." The pollinator garden near the path to the train has a sign that states we should thank bugs for their MARVELOUS powers.
 
For the final step, teams used the answers from the first three parts (TUTUILA, SNAKES, and MARVELOUS) and transformed each letter forward or backward in the alphabet based on the number below it to determine the letter associated with each animal icon. A set of animal icons was then decoded to spell out the final question.
 
Final Question: Early exploration of True Life Adventures set filmmakers down a path toward what?
Answer: Disneynature films
 
Funny story here: In the weeks before the game, we had a player reach out to let us know that the signs on the walkway to Rafiki's Planet Watch had been removed, which threw us for a loop when we showed up to test the quest on game weekend - and all the signs had been replaced. Except that several of the signs had been changed, and the Imagineers added almost 10 more signs to the pathway. Needless to say, we provided a whole new page of data for that mini-quest.
 

The Olympic Elk - 5 points each

 
Players had to search the park for signs that ended in the word "Only" and fill in the missing gaps:
 
A Shop Keepers
B Theater Staff
C Dig Site Personnel
D Kitchen Staff
E Trek Guides
F Shopkeepers
G Cast
H Authorized
I Workers
J Officials
K Forestry
L Islanders
M Shop Workers
N Eastern Star Staff
 

White Wilderness - 5 points each

 
During their wandering through the park, teams also had to find the locations of each of the letters in ANIMAL KINGDOM
 
A Conservation (Station)
N Pongu (Pongu)
I Windtraders
M Maji (a large black tank overlooking the Africa food court)
A I are smart / Airstream (a trailer outside Restaurantasaurus)
L LOCK (personnel access covers in Pandora)
 
K Keep (out from the bushes)
I Going (out of existence sign)
N Corn(-Ivores)
G Dug (& Russell's)
D Adventurers (Outpost)
O (Mariya's) Souvenirs
M Merchandise (of Extinction)
 

Jungle Cat - 40 points

 
Teams picked up this quest after completing Bear Country. The quest included one page with a series of multiple-choice questions and a second page with grids of letters on both sides as well as a series of instructions.
 
Teams were asked to search Asia for the multiple-choice answers, where each answer was associated with a colored letter. Once they had all the answers, teams followed the instructions on the second quest page to connect the answer letters together on the grid.
 
After drawing in the lines, teams "cut" along those lines using their writing instrument, folded the page in half, and bent the cut-out flaps back to reveal the final question. The final answer is a small sign at the base of the white temple between Yak & Yeti and the Anandapur Theater.
 
Final Question: This temple is being restored as part of what project?
Answer: Culture-Internationale
 

The Vanishing Prairie - 20 points

 
Teams picked up this quest after completing Living Desert. In Pandora's Windtraders store, teams searched for the answers to a series of multiple-choice questions. Each answer was associated with a set of two letters. When the answers were written one above another, players ended up with a clue written in two columns: "Use the blacklight."
 
When the quest page was then held under the blacklight in the corner of the store, the final hand-written question appeared on the page (like magic!).
 
Final Question: What can you access behind the large RDA gate?
Answer: Mine
 

Water Birds - 30 points

 
Inside the Riverside Depot on Discovery Island, players surveyed a wide wall covered in fish of various shapes and sizes. A provided quest page included silhouettes of the fish, laid out as they appeared on the wall, with a letter assigned to each silhouette.
 
Also on the page was a series of images of the fish from the wall. Teams used the silhouette key and the images to determine what letter was associated with each fish. Once completed, the fish school spelled out the final question.
 
Final Question: Count the animal chewed posts inside Island Mercantile
Answer: 23
 

On Seal Island - 50 points

 
Outside one door of the Riverside Depot, there is a tile mural featuring bats, ducks, and butterflies. Teams received two sheets of stickers printed with images from the mural as well as images that did not match, and were instructed to use the provided stickers to recreate the mural. Each image also had a white letter or an arrow on it.
 
When all the stickers were placed into the right order (in an 8 square wide by 9 square tall grid), teams followed the arrows and letters to spell out the final question. The answer is located on a penny press machine just outside the Riverside Depot.
 
Final Question: What are the five words written on the coin being held by the crab
Answer: In God We Trust / Liberty
 

Hidden Quest - 20 points

 
Each quest had a section of text in a sidebar. To reveal the hidden question, teams used the month and day of the provided film release date to index into the provided sidebar text. When placed in chronological order by release date, the letter spelled out: "Draw the animal on lockers sign." The lockers sign in the Oasis area of the park has a squirrel on it.
 
Sadly, no teams solved the hidden quest so we did not receive any cute squirrel drawings.
 

Results

Results and awards were presented at our post-event gathering on Saturday night, at the wedding pagoda between the Boardwalk and EPCOT International Gateway. We also handed out achievement buttons, which allow us to reward MouseAdventure teams that get the highest trivia score, find all of the eye spies, and other accomplishments. You have to be present to receive them though, so make sure to attend our future post-event gatherings!

Full results are available on the MouseAdventure website. The total possible points for the event were 545.

The best new team (not otherwise placing) was The Iguanadons with 346 points, who placed 8th in their first game.

The top 3 Advanced Teams were:
  1. Chicago Skyliners with 464 points
  2. Jussst A Dinosaur! with 401 points
  3. Tangaroa-Ru Duo with 388 points

The Masters:
A Masters team is a team that has placed first in 3 events, and has been retired from competition. Although not eligible for any prizes during non-Invitational MouseAdventure games, Masters teams return to set the bar for other teams to compete against. They play mainly for bragging rights and the thrill of the puzzle hunt.

Two Masters teams played this event, here's how they did:
Second overall: Goof There it is! with 429
Fourth overall: Conflicting Weenies with 397

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Chicago Skyliners

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Jussst a Dinosaur!

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Tangaroa-Ru Duo

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The Iguanadons

Candid Photos

We try to capture the fun of every event by catching photos of as many teams as we can during the game. All the images we took are in our Third Gate Games candid gallery.

Thank You!

Thanks to our awesome teams for coming out and playing the game. We'd also like to thank:

  • Shoshana Fischer for writing the trivia
  • Kris & Chris Murray for helping us write and beta test the event
  • Chesie who was an amazing helper on game day

If you enjoyed the event, please share with friends you think might like to play in the future!

This game was brought to you by the song "How Far I'll Go"