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.
Secrets of Life - 40 points
Nature’s Half Acre - up to 50 points
The Olympic Elk - 5 points each
White Wilderness - 5 points each
Jungle Cat - 40 points
The Vanishing Prairie - 20 points
Water Birds - 30 points
On Seal Island - 50 points
Hidden Quest - 20 points
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:
- Chicago Skyliners with 464 points
- Jussst A Dinosaur! with 401 points
- 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
Chicago Skyliners
Jussst a Dinosaur!
Tangaroa-Ru Duo
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"