Spring MouseAdventure 2009
 

Dates announced today. I will be there.

It's the day of the Lash Meet.

Hey, the Lashes could play!

Oh heck yes! :snap:

We're in for Enchanted with a new secret weapon team-mate and Wolffy has agreed to chaperone/play with the mini LoTers in Basic, PoloMadz, Wolfette and Swanie offspring #1.

Woo Hoo !!!!!!!!

:cool: :cheers: :snap:

What a piece of luck !! I note we would not be eligable for the Advanced challenge (Duh..) but we could compete in the Basic challenge !

...how many people can be on one team?

Between two and four.

So three?

Inclusive.

Actually, if you have a 4-person team, don't you only have to have 2 experienced players to be able to play the Enchanted Race? So if you guys do hook up with someone...

So 3 and you're not allowed to have criteria in how you choose your teammates but must let them join first come first served?

What about 2.75?

Kevy, it is generally rude to refer to your parapalegic friends as less than a whole person.

And if they are fractional due to gestation then they fail for being unable to wear their team number in a visible location.

You really want to subject them to ER? Experienced players can barely walk after it. :evil:

It will be my first official MouseAdventure, but I'm going to make the kids do ALL the work! So we have a really good chance!

Sooooo.... if you only have to have 2 experienced players to be able to play the Enchanted Race, then we could indeed hook up with an experienced pair...

Sounds like a great idea !!

Could any couples who wish to MouseAdventure with the LashPair, please PM us at your convenience.

We would love to give the Enchanted Race a go, as we see this as our one and only opportunity to ever experience MouseAdventure, and we want the whole casaba.

We feel that while we may be a slight hinderance (ie: MouseAdventure Virgins), we are bound to be a huge asset (by virtue of our incredible smarts, see?)

Let us know, guys !! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Hmmmm, I'm a freelance very experienced player with no team. ;)



Alas, just a single .... sigh, at the moment, but available.






Um, for mouseadventure, too.

We'd volunteer, but we don't want to subject you to direct exposure to Happy Haunt-style MouseAdventure. I can't imgaine that would be fun for anyone other than us (and maybe not even us).

The best way to keep up with the updates is to sign up for the MouseAdventure Newsletter. Here's a link to do that. Also when you do, make sure you add mouseadventure @ mouseplanet.com to your contacts so the emails are not marked as spam.

Just signed up...thanks!

Whee! We've already marked this on our calendars. I spent the last one telling the Rat that an enchanted race would be much worse....now it's time to demonstrate that I was not embellishing!

Does anyone have an idea of how much (roughly) it costs to enter?

Last event I want to say that the advanced was in the 100 dollar range but I wouldn't swear to it.

That's per team.

OK, then we're definately doing the Non-Advanced version.. May as well have less body-abuse AND more savings :D

Well, it now looks like folks will have more than one event to choose from on that same day! :birdy:

MiceChat's Practice Gumball Rally

I'm still a bit worried that we'd miss the sign up window. It seems to get chorter and chorter.


Get it? See, I'm still a DL Geek with a capital G, yo.

We're on the email list.

I'm signed up on the email. We're totally not missing this one! :)

Don't forget to check spam filters just in case. We're doing our best to keep mails from ending up there, but the newsletters do have some wording that can trigger some spam filters.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!

I think there are LoTters here who have something to do with the organisation of the event, yes?

...could they advise us on this thread when registration starts, just in case our spam filters are too vigilant ?

MattMatt and I are a tentative most likely.

Registration for April 26 opens at 8am PST next Friday, February 13. Registration for May 10 opens at 8am PST on Friday, February 27.

And we are not using Disney Event's server.

Ah, just got the email.

The theme is "Trains, Trams and Monorails". I hope this means we'll be required to ride these things, because otherwise we might opt to speedwalk the distance instead of wait in line.

Yes for those signed up for the newsletter, you should have received it today. If you don't see it, check your spam filter.

Over-achievers. :p

I believe the term you're looking for is "Masters". :p

Your debating skills definitely are masterful. :p

Reminder: Registration opens tomorrow morning at 8 AM PST!

Who is playing what?

We'll be doing the Day at the Park event.

We're going for Enchanted. The kidlets are going for Basic.

I'm playing EmCee. Hopefully I won't suck this time.

I think you're good at it.
:)

I'm playing with myself.

We're doing Basic... Best not to leave our heart in Disneyland (literally)

After talking to MattMatt we decided to skip ER and do day at the park. We only play for fun and ER is just out of our budget, as is Basic...

KB, notice how there were no subsequent posts questioning what you posted, being surprised by what you posted, etc? Viva Kevy Baby!
:D

[sarcasm]I'm shocked. Yeah. Shocked.[/sarcasm]

Um, I thought we were doing Enchanted Race.

Just seeing if anyone was paying attention.

My eyebrows were raised.

I passed the test! :D Guess I am ready for MA.

Not yet: the next challenge is to locate and remove a fan.....

I just IMed NM with the infor that reg opens tomorrow. He can't get pissed now. ;)

I think we'll be doing the wait in line for our AP event

Sure he can, it's what he's best at.

Fought through the slow loads and registered!

IN! And I broke down and registered us for ER.

If we're gonna play we're gonna go big.

Man the site was slow to load. but we're in and ready to explode.

According to AVP... as of 8:21 there were 18 spots left in the advanced division and as of 8:40 only 28 spots left in basic.

We're in for Enchanted and I got the girls registered in Basic. Totally spaced and was driving to work when Swanie called to see if I got in - oops. Made it though.

I woke up, came downstairs, and got 3 words of a sentence out before CP suddenly says, "Oh crap! MouseAdventure!"

That was at 7:56.

I think that should be on your t-shirts this time.

pretty much what I saw this morning at work as Ponine ran past me in the parking lot....at almost the exact same moment.

We're signed up for basic. :)

Hmm, I guess we have to go ahead and write the damned thing now. Fine!

I'll help! ;)

*biting fingernails* Oh, the excitement and suspense is too much !!

Ponine, are we in ? :D

I'm still saying it - Oh crap, MouseAdventure. We are so out of shape it's not even funny. Can't use it for the shirt now, since you already said it.

What's the deadline for shirt entry? *too lazy to look it up*

Having missed the announcement so many times in the past with the ever-decreasing registration window, I set an alarm on my TV, my phone and put a post-it note on the shower. Also left the computer on with the site up last night to save precious b00t time.

We successfully registered - after discovering that my credit card was declined. Yay for Rat's back-up card!

True story: I had woken up earlier, around 6:30, and went back to sleep - only to have a huge nightmare about not being able to register for MA. You know those dreams where you just can't make simple items work? Well, I just couldn't get the site to load on my laptop, so I went to use the Rat's finally, only he had some really rude friends over and the one guy wanted some more space for himself at the table so he just rips the laptop away from my typing fingers and that caused me to lose all this info that the form required. And so forth and so on. so, the alarm goes off, I wake up, the laptop boots up.....

And the site won't load. And I'm thinking: zomgponies! just like my dream! And then the credit card was declined, and we couldn't re-enter the form in that browser without getting an error......

But, we're in! Heffalump and Woozle, ready to tackle the Enchanted Race!

Thank goodness...I would hate to tell Wolfette it was off, considering how much excitement has already built up between the girls (oh, and me too)! I owe you one!

Registration for the April 26th MouseAdventure event is now sold out--both Enchanted Race and Basic. Registration for the May 10th MouseAdventure: Day at the Park event opens Friday, February 27, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. (PST).

We're now on Twitter (@MouseAdventure) as well.

I am totally excited for this!!!

So, is it like a quiz or something?

I'm glad you're excited!

Have you signed up for the Newsletter? If not, I would suggest you do; there is some basic information in there that will provide a good overview for a new player. You can also check out information on the MouseAdventure webpage.

Just curious - is anyone else thinking about going for the Florida MA this fall?

Yes, I am, but I will be staff.

What she said.

I wish we could, but with my vacation accrual being cut in half and other considerations (hello pretty new car), we just can't make the commitment :(

I'm thinking about it. But that's as far as it's going to go.

My sister and I will be there playing. In fact, I'm pretty sure we're going to do the cruise, too! (I had too much fun when I went last year, and this way I can get her on so she can see for herself that her husband (the anti-Disney person that he is) might actually enjoy it for a vacation.

The deadline to submit t-shirt designs for Trains, Trams & Monorails is midnight PDT tonight. mouseadventure@mouseplanet.com

Working on a last minute bit of inspiration as I post.

Bwahaha! Our shirts are in, and they're all GD this year. :) I'm glad he was motivated!

Your shirts rock.

Missed the deadline again. I'm just not feeling the inspiration.


Maybe November.

We gave up on shirts, you're all just too creative for us. We've caved and gone with store bought ones.

Aww shucks, 'tweren't nothin'.

I'm not playing MA today, but wanted to wish good luck to all the teams!

And there should be decent weather with a high of around 69 degrees F.

Team Australia looked quite dashing as they set off this morning, I'll be rooting for them - Aussie Aussie Oy Oy!

Good luck everyone!

*falls over*

Lashbear had a Looooooooooooooooong hot shower this evening before bed. Bliss.

...but I still have to Ped-Egg my feet.

We did have a massive LoT dinner afterwards which was awesome. 24 people, was it? Seriously. I need to call Brennan's and thank them and Esmeralda our waitress!

Missed all the after events, since the Wolfette and I went home and died (temporarily)!

The dinner afterwards was pretty epic, though I was happy to get home as soon as we had paid the bill.

As always the game had fun, challenging elements. Many thanks to the amazing staff.

That said, this may actually be our last. I don't think we've ever really said that before. We did our worst ever, we believe. Finishing in the bottom half of the pack and with 60 min in penalties was a hard pill to swallow.

We were very glad we were able to actually finish. It was an accomplishment in itself. But when I heard about how quickly the other teams had finished I realized that the time had come to admit that the Happy Haunts aren't what they used to be. We have no idea why, as we still feel that we are pushing ourselves to the limit. If pushed I guess I'd have to say that our decisions aren't as good and our mistakes are insurmountable.

We still move quickly, but that's not enough to compete these days. The current top teams truly do a fantastic job and you can't do what we did back at the last Enchanted Race 4 years ago - majorly screw up the first 2 quests and still be in the running. Another factor this time was waiting in lines. Part is luck - Simba's Pride told me they got lucky a couple of times and jumped right onto the Monorail and Train - but the other part is getting to the quests faster than others, as the lines get longer and longer as the day wears on.

I'm a problem solver type and I can't stop asking myself what we could have done better. We got out of the ballroom after more than half the teams were gone as we weren't looking up at the screen quick enough to get the code. We did pretty good at the Downtown Disney part, eye-spying signs to find words. It was the dominoes decoding part that stumped us. Why didn't we think to have at least one look in Fantasyland for ride vehicle descriptions? That would have saved us at least 20 min.

Why didn't we try as hard as humanly possible in the Big Thunder queue to see everything we could before actually riding the ride, so we wouldn't have to ride it again? We thought we were doing great on that count since we did see most of them and were only missing a couple of items when we boarded the train but duh, seeing things from the train is hard. We also totally missed the Big Thunder Mine 1880 sign. That one is mostly my fault as we had divvied up the questions. I wonder if anyone else had to ride it twice. :(

We then had a good middle period, with the train ride and the usual stabs at trivia we don't know, then Tomorrowland, with the Grim Grinning Ghosts music sheet in Innoventions (it's a sign!) and catching up with the Manhattans Project (NM, EH, and iSm) at the Monorail. Then GD was able to solve the structure puzzle without actually taking a tram and we nailed the locker puzzle, passing up Heffalump and Woozle (Prudence and LabRat) on the way to Bountiful Valley Farm. We really thought DCA was near the finish line but we were wrong.

That last packet of quests...sigh. As Prudence pointed out to us later, we should have skipped Flicks (spot words on signs and cross out letters) and gone straight to the Blue Sky Cellar to look for a French word definition, even though Flicks went very well for us. The Hollywood Backlot one was our ultimate time burner, walking around and around in a daze, and we never found a couple of those eyespys (the Between Takes sign was killing me, though there were some good victories in there). We were able to figure it out though. The Condor Flats one was a good quest but at that point we had totally lost all hope as the time slipped away. At 3:25 we found ourselves in Redwood, missing the Redwood quest paper, which we must have dropped. :(

We raced back to the Blue Sky Cellar to find the answers to the quests we had done and had 3 envelopes left to choose from. Each one we opened incorrectly was a 30 min penalty. We had to chance it, as the clock hit 3:30. We opened one - wrong. With 2 left we hoped a 50/50 chance would come through for us, but no! We finally opened the third envelope, drew on our awesome souvenier map (aww!) and got our asses to Zocalo.

Deep down I still feel like we could "get lucky" in the future, but the pressure of competing just doesn't seem worth it anymore if this is how we finish. I wish we could just enjoy ourselves instead of stressing. I have no idea how to not do this in a frenzy and I don't see us doing any better by taking it slow anyway.

Hell, I just might consider doing a Basic event just to see what that's like and attempt to not stress out. Maybe even bring someone else onto the team, just to force myself to not freak out on GD. :) Perhaps there are ways to play this game....for fun.

Again, major thanks to MousePlanet and the MA staff. :)

So? Where's the pic of LashBear with the trophy? ;)

Kudos to all who played in MA, my hat's off to you, I know I'd not get past puzzle #1.

Pretty much ditto to everything CP said.

I really have no way of judging whether we're getting worse or the competition is getting better. A bit of both perhaps. It's just strange when 4 years ago, we did miserably on two early quests, only to learn after the 2nd abismal quest that we were in 3rd place. Compared to this time, after doing horrendously on two quests and learning that we were in 2nd-to-last place.

Did we do MORE miserably than last time? Or did everyone else just do better?

On the plus side, from that point on, we were much improved. By the time we got into DCA we were "middle of the pack". Some of that was due to the nature of the game, the rides on transportation forcing teams to bunch up in certain spots. But it was also due to improved problem solving over the morning disasters, and we did hit a stride.

I definitely felt like I didn't want to do this to myself again. Of course, we're afforded some time to consider it since we're not doing the Florida one in October. We'll see how we feel once next year's spring registration opens.

Team Shiny Happy People had a blast and actually crossed the finish line. It was pure luck and lucky guesses. We found we were able to complete the majority of quests without issue, got lucky in Innoventions, got lucky and "lost" which landed us at the lockers before getting the structure quest which resulted in mass confusion, some phone calls by staff and a 20 minute penalty for said phone calls.

Time was wasted with the "__xie ____llow" quest, since I knew where it was but we kept trying to fill out the words. It was awesome to see Happy Haunts at BTMRR since we expected them to be long gone though by the time we got to the check-in she said "they were looking for us" and we were now dead last. We weren't sure if she was kidding or not until we ran into AVP on the way to the trains and she also said they were looking for us. That took a lot of the wind out of our sails.

We had the structure memorized, but by the time we made it to DCA it was about 2:45. We had our first MA argument ever in DCA over the quests that would ultimately kick our asses - so we didn't do most of them. We started doing process of elimination, opened 2 wrong envelopes, found the finish line area and decided to play hide in seek. Found Andrew, Steph and crew and YAY! But we have at least 3 hours in penalties. We're just proud that we finished ER even if it was luck.

Heheh, the Happy Haunts are feeling what I felt years ago ... namely, I haven't change, but the competition has heated up something fierce.

Sure, I was likely getting a little older and slower, but really we pretty much played the same game as always, but it was no longer the winning game. Heheh, we went from winning so often and consistently they had to invent forced retirement to instant obsolecence of falling further and further down the field.


Nowadays, all I care about ... if I play, which is not every time ... is whether the game is fun. And this one was. We made a few strategical errors of time management, but nothing drastic. We had a really good time, and though we got to the finish line a couple of minutes late ... we were happy to finish the course.


That said, I think having every team coalese at the Blue Sky Cellar at the end of the game, mere yards from DCA's MouseAdventure Central ... only to send everyone back into Disneyland and up Main Street ... with a parade running during the final half hour of the race ... to have been a very sour and, imo, miscalculated "exciting and challenging" finish to an otherwise brilliantly-conceived game of not-too-easy, not-too-hard, and involved experiencing the parks in depth.


We had a great time.


Loved being ahead of the Happy Haunts for half the game. ;) At first, we were kinda bummed when they caught up with us and passed us ... but in truth those shared moments of the game when we were neck-and-neck were really some of the best times!


Afterwards - the epic Hearthstone / Swank Bar / Soup Kitchen festival of nearly EVERYONE on the LoT was simply fantastic, heartwarming, hysterical and ... in a word ... aWeSomE.

And I totally loved the fact that we caught up at a point that afforded us the opportunity for mid-game debrief and relaxation. A monorail ride with no puzzles to work, no need to sit there staring competitive daggers at each other, just a chance for a recap of each other's day so far.

Heheh, the bobbing and weaving "race" to sing "Grim Grinning Ghosts" to non-seething Koi ... followed by playfully elbowing each other out of the way to read braille on the forever-Bonita-Tower elevators. Tee Hee. Fun.

This is of course completely unofficial ... but if The Manhattans Project came in just a few minutes after The Happy Haunts (albeit disqualifying us officially), but The Happy Haunts had 60 minutes in time penalties and we had none ..... um, then we achieved our supreme goal of besting The Happy Haunts.


Who's Happy Now? :p

Not to rain on the MA thread parade, but after everyone left dinner last night, we stuck around to make sure all of the bills had been covered (whoever's idea it was to split that up should be shot). After all the monies (both credit card and cash) were counted, it was VERY short. In addition to having already paid our own bill, we gave another $120.00. otherwise, the waitress would have received almost no tip.

Kevy, I want to know how this happened. Which check was $120 short? There was no check for the entire table. That was produced as a joke to present to Chris. The actual checks were for four-people each (unless a particular group requested a different number).

So ... if there were approx. 24 people, there would have been 6 separate checks. Was it a case where 2 or 3 of those were each short $30 or so, or was there some oversight where perhaps 1 entire check did not get paid?


My area's check for 4 people came to $90. But one person had only a side dish, and another 2 shared their entree. On the other hand, we had a large bar bill. My point being, it's entirely possible that one check was for $120. I'm wondering if that's the case, and it got lost in the spicy sauce.


In any event, though we always joke about Kevy coming to the rescue on any underpaid restaurant tab ... that is only for giggles and is never to happen for even ten bucks. A $120 shortage is entirely unacceptable. We must find out what happened, and see that Kevy is properly reimbursed.



P.S. - It was our idea to have separate checks. Seeing as it made life very easy for us, and our check was paid in full with a very generous 25% tip, I don't see why this would have been a problem for everybody else. To the contrary, waiting for every one of 24 people to go through one single check and calculate their amount would mean we'd be sitting there still.

As I mentioned in the other thread, the whole situation was a cluster fvck. There was no way of figuring out what happened. I am a numbers guy and at that point, there was no way anyone was going to be able to figure things out.

Even though she may have been at least partially responsible, there was no way I could have walked out of there in good conscience without making sure she received a tip. Others may disagree with my decision, but it was the one I made.

It was the only honorable decision, Kevy. And I'm sure we will see to it that you are made good.

But I'm at a loss. With 6 separate checks in 6 separate folders, you treat each of them separately. It's not a case of there being a $120 shortage on an $800 tab. There was no $800 tab.


Hey, I'm not here to be the inquisition. I'm sure you spent an inordinate amount of time figuring that out last night, and have little desire to deal with it now. I'm just flabergasted is all.

Sure, if I had thrown $75 into an $800 pool, I'd have no idea if the entire tab was properly paid. But when I put in $75 to my group's tab, I knew for a fact the bill was paid with a 25% gratuity. It was all there in the little folder, and I didn't have to rely on 23 other people to make that happen.

I doubt if 8 separate people decided to shortchange their bill. Most likely it's a shortage on 2 or 3 of the checks, and - in theory of course - it should have been easy to see which checks were properly paid and which were not.


Best Laid Plans and all that. But rest assured, your gesture of pure Kevydom will be a temporary inconvenience. We will make you whole.

Ya know, money-wise.

I have decided that I finally love a team name I have concocted enough to stick with it for the future. The Manhattans Project. Unfortunately busy schedules leave me now without precious free time (I hate my job) so the t-shirts didn't get printed. Next time. That said, I also really enjoyed my team. Steve, the knower of trivia, disneyland and MA strategy. Aud the creative and visual one who refuses to quit. And I the logic guy with good eyes.

I thought we actually played quite well and enjoyed it much more than the last MA, until the "speed quest" portion which kicked the fun portion down a notch. Also wishing we had gone to big sky first to skip the Flik's quest. Oh well.

The transportation thing, much like in the Amazing Race, is the great equalizer. Though it can be the benefit to some, we did not luck out. We ended up catching trains, monorail and the like just as they were departing having to wait for a full cycle. This allowed the happy haunts to catch us at one point. It was a nice ride though.

I missed having anything truly clever and unique this time, but perhaps the game has been running too long (and Alex is no longer writing). But it was fun. I truly enjoyed the first enchanted race considerably more though. And not just because I did far far better.

We didn't really make any big mistakes with the exception of missing the year big thunder mine opened, but we rectified that without riding again. Still a time sucker. We resisted the temptation to take the penalties thought it may have been strategically appropriate on some tasks. That said, we still came in at a crappy time. Not sure if other teams are just that much better, but we didn't think we were doing that poorly.

That we missed the cutoff by mere minutes because the X on our map looked slightly closer to the horseshoe than that random walled off area next to thunder was depressing, with one team member bailing before we found it a couple minutes late.

Oh well. Next game I suppose.

Should I be taking this personally?

The split checks were a total clusterfvck on our end of the table, as they randomly chose who to put on which bills. Couples were on different bills. Lots of confusion. GD did our amount and he maintains that we were covered.

Did you save a copy of the bill? When we're talking that much money short I would ask each person to tell me how much they paid and what they ordered so I could get my money back. Seriously, WTF.





What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the shoulder of one of the winning teams. I so wish I could see how their day went, how they work together, what decisions they made.

No. :)

The game was much more fun than the last one. Between that annoying license plate quest and that damn animal tracks one that could be interpreted in different ways, not to mention being in DCA all day, this game was much more enjoyable.

:) Agreed. It was plenty lonely when we were getting on the train surrounded by Basic teams. Always nice to know you're in the thick of things by seeing contenders around and even better, have a moment to actually say hi.

Aud called the Jazz kitchen and supposedly the overcharge will be fixed by Wed.

This is great news !! :snap: :cheers:

Whew.

That whole situation was a cluster. I said in the other thread, but I was just d.o.n.e. by the time fireworks came around and had her pull mine to a separate bill which I paid via card with appropriate tip.


Kevy, I PMed you. Please let me know.

I know CM and i had our own bill which was paid. That stinks about the shortage even though the bills were split up so it would be easier to calculate. Everyone should have been responsible for their own share and made sure each bill had the right amount on it for the orders etc. But people were bailing left and right oh well. Kevy thanks for putting out the extra dollars when you really didn't have to and you should definitely be reimbursed for your efforts. Everyone else shame on you.

MMG, I seriously doubt anyone intentionally shorted the bill. It was a clusterfvck from the start (of the bill paying time). The "joke bill" then the bills not being divided correctly. It was a disaster waiting to happen. I don't think any "shame on anyone" is necessary.

I had a wonderful day with everyone.... Thank you!

Sorry to hear about the clusterf*ck with the bill... I know we paid our bill with a generous tip. Apparently the waitress got confused during the bill-splitting process :\ I thought she had gone down the table and asked who was splitting with who, but it seems that didn't happen. Thanks Kevy for coving whatever got messed up- hopefully as NM said this will be fixed.

Seeing as how you didn't even bother to make it to the finish with your team, you're lucky we didn't impose an additional penalty for splitting the group. That was a pretty crap move to pull on your teammates.

What the frell are you talking about? The game was OVER. I had no idea my teammates were going to attempt to make it to the finish line. The game had ENDED. I left them at a park bench where they were going to continue to play with the materials for a bit while I met some people at the Hub, and they were going to join us in a few moments.

Going to the finish line at that point, after the game was over, was a decision they made after the game, without me.

There were no penalties to impose. Our team DID NOT FINISH officially.


MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS STEPH about stuff you know NOTHING ABOUT from 3,000 miles away.


And why don't you take up remedial reading while you're at it. My post was about UNOFFICIAL results. OFFICIALLY we have ZERO score.


Repeat WE DID NOT FINISH THE RACE ON TIME. Now Go Away.

Well, I'm certainly glad I never made it to the finish line in that case. ;)

It's kool everyone. The game was over at that point. When we couldn't find the finish line in the mobs (we were off by just a few feet) we were technically out of the game at that point anyway (it was like 4:04 when we gave up looking at the Horseshoe. Aud and I were determined to find it anyway, but like Steve said, we were out of the running. We even went so far as to open the other envelope, assuming we had made a mistake and that the quest that took us to frontierland was a decoy. No such luck. A bit of wandering around lead us to find the finish behind the temporary wall. Oh well.

On the other hand, if rules were being made up as things went along ... as they were apparently with Double DCA Jump Start Penalties ... maybe the game wasn't over when they said it was. :p

Aaaanyway.


So we haven't told the tale of how we fvcked up the very first step. But it wasn't our fault.

For those that didn't play the Enchanted Race part of the format was that we had 16 envelopes with about 30 random phrases printed on the front of each, the one in the bottom right corner having a filled in checkbox. As we solved puzzles, the answers to the puzzles would indicate which envelope to open next, the stack containing several decoy envelope that would result in penalties for opening the wrong one.

The very first clue for envelope opening we were given was a "souvenier", a large novelty map of Disneyland. By way of example, AVP held it up in front of the ballroom and said, "Okay, everybody, what does the map say on it?" Being a smartass, I was looking at the back of the package, where the grand canyon diorama was visiable, and while everyone else was dutifully reading "Disneyland Resort" off the front, I was saying, "Mule Deer!" Because it said "Mule Deer".

Well, we start flipping through our envelopes. None of the filled in boxes on the envelopes said "Disneyland Resort." But, oho, what's this? One says "Mule Deer!" Holy crap, my smarminess just paid off in SPADES! Those clever MA folk threw everyone off by drawing attention to the big old "Disneyland" on the front, meanwhile, the REAL clue was hidden in 9 pt. font on the back. Advantage Happy Haunts!

Tony happened to be right next to us and saw me looking at the quest from the Mule Deer envelope. "Why did you open that one?" I point at "mule deer". "Where does it say mule deer on the souvenier?" I point at "mule deer". "Uhhh, we have a problem."

Yup, we were wrong. Or rather, they overlooked the fact that the clue was not unique. Effing fantastic.

Fortunately, the envelope we incorrectly opened turned out to be the correct one for the very next clue, not a penalty-inducing decoy. So no harm done, save for quite a bit of lost time fumbling with the wrong envelope. That got us off on the wrong foot and we didn't recover until it was way too late.

Since it shouldn't be discussed in this thread (IMO), I have created a separate thread to discuss the dinner bill fiasco. I request that only MA related issues be discussed here.

Me too.

And you can bad mojo temper tantrum me all you want. Go ahead and hit it again and again, I don't care.

But don't have the nerve to tell me what I did or did not do, and expect me not to call you on it in the most unflattering terms.


And Marla, you can frell off, too. Don't tell me to chill out. I'll admit it's a pet peeve when people tell me my own motivations or thoughts or experiences. But when they do, they raise my ire. And when threats are attached, I get really pissed off.

In this case, it was an impossible retroactive psuedo-threat, but threats tend to make me really, really mad.


:mad:



And, like it or not, Steph, you are going away from me. You are the first person I've ever put on IGNORE in the history of the internet. Congratulations.

Oh the drama...


There seems to be a LoT of drama in a Lot of threads lately... Can we all stop pointing fingers please? :)

GD, one comment from Joe regarding your team was that he noticed you seemed to be doing a lot of brute-forcing of the puzzles rather than going to find the information that you would need to solve them, like doing the dominoes without finding the signs that gave the ride vehicle names.

That was the only one we did that on. Well, that and the Parking Structure, and that one paid off well. Of course, by the time Joe was asking us if we'd visited the attraction, we already had all of the ride vehicles correct, but had just swapped a single letter in the answer.

It was extremely disheartening to be told they were "looking for us" after the BTMRR quest. We did it the first time and we were in line right in front of GD and CP. We had to ride again (and had the foresight to get a FP) so we did that and got the rest of the info and by the time we came back we were told they were looking for us. We thought she was kidding but when we got to the trains we ran into AVP who told us the same thing. That really took the wind out of our sails for a few hours. We got it back at the lockers when we saw how many bags were left.

We should have gone ahead and checked in. We didn't get back to the Frontierland area until about 4:05, at which point I figured it was pointless so we didn't bother trying to find the finish line and instead went and checked into the hotel.

We spent too long on the first quest in DTD - should have made a beeline for the park as soon as I had enough letters to know how the directions ended; stupid completeness drive. Didn't mind bruteforcing the dominoes - knew all the conveyances except the first and it took us less time to do that way than it would have to go look it up. (especially once I got my brain around it being a question - then it was easy.) The buildings were easy, but we kept missing one of the window things. The logic puzzle would have been fine had we not guess wrong on which floor the soda machines were on. Also, should have just backtracked on the walkway to get the movie date rather than deal with riding the tram. (Hell, I've been on that route enough times I should have just REMEMBERED the movie date.) Finally - shouldn't have bothered with the Fun Fair quest. I suspected there was enough info in the quest set-up, and there was. Oh well.

Bruteforcing is a winning strategy. I wish we had done a little more of that. Best example is probably the Flik's Fun Fair quest which you didn't have to complete as soon as you found out the answer was a French word inside the Blue Sky Cellar.

A more obvious example is the Mickey & Friends logic problem, which you could have done from anywhere if you were pretty familiar with the parking structure. Advantage Disneyland geeks.


Anyway, it's always wise to see if you can figure out the question (leading to the answer) from very incomplete information. Often that's the case, and it's a time-waster to complete every step of every quest when only a portion of them are necessary to get to the correct answer. Eye on the Ball.



* * * *

Ok, so what was with the Double Time Penalty on a "Jump Start" (skipping the entire quest) if done in DCA? If that was part of the rules (and I assume it's in the written rules somewhere), wouldn't it have been along the lines of fair play to announce that when the annoucement was made about a Jump Start incurring a 40-minute penalty?

Logically, teams might not want to jump to the jump start unless they really need it, i.e., more likely later in the game than earlier. In fact, it was clearly announced that Jump Starts (and Roadside Assistances) could not be used in the last half hour of the game. Since the last third of the game was in DCA, I really think it was a low blow not mentioning that time penalties are doubled in DCA.


* * *

Here's the part where everyone assumes I've got nothing nice to say. So let me reiterate, the quests were clever, fun, took advantage of exploring the Resort in depth, and rewarded intimate knowledge of the Resort. Playing provided for a really good time. I've done tons of mouseadventures, and this was among the good ones.

The sticker that sealed the Speed MouseAdventure portion in DCA said that all penalties were doubled. This was a necessary evil for a couple of reasons, but the biggest was because this was an elimination of envelopes, as you completed quests your odds increased on guessing the correct envelope. In the interest of rewarding teams who worked the quests (weather actually doing all the work or brut forcing them or reverse engineering them) over teams that just wanted to guess and rip open envelopes, we needed a big enough penalty and the easiest way was to double them.

We couldn't really say anything about this at the start because of the format of the game. In the race format, teams don't know where they are going and must strategize quest-by-quest. We couldn't say, penalties are double for your last 5 quests, because how would you know?

I'm glad you enjoyed the game. This was the first race style I worked on and this format is quite a bit harder to figure out and keep the quests fun and interesting.

I'm still chuckling about you holding the envelope up to the sun to see if you could read it. It was one of the first things I checked for because that's what we would have done. :) What did you decide on for the Detour? It was a kick to hear teams discuss the merits of one over the other.

Wow, I understand the logic. But to keep that "Rule" a deliberate secret is just about the most underhanded and disreputable thing I've ever seen pulled by the mouseadventure staff.

Shenanigans and unfair. We were saving our Jump Start for if we really needed it. When we did, and we wanted to use it, a sudden and deliberately hidden rule was revealed. That just plain sucks, and I can't see how we can trust the rules of the game if they can be changed without prior notice during the game.

The rule was stated as a Jump Start gets a 40 minute penalty. That turns out to have been a deliberate lie.


I am beyond disappointed.

We did that too, even though we knew we wouldn't be able to see anything. We also love DCA MA central being in the Farms area. Easy to spot, centrally located.

When we were heading back into DCA a woman stopped us to ask if we knew where the wine tasting was. We were in the depths of a discussion and I pointed over to the wine area saying "I think it's over there". What I wanted to say was "does it look like we've been drinking or that we need a drink?". But that would have been rude.

Yeah, you save a jumpstart or whatever until the end because you may really need it, and then the rules change...that's messed up.

Perhaps the wording should be something like "at some point during the game the penalties will double. We can't tell you when..." I'm reminded of hidden idols on Survivor, where you're not sure if they're in play or will be in play in the next round, and you have to gamble.

Humm. I didn't think of it like that CP.

Maybe "penalties will double in the last hour (or whenever) of the game".

In the end, though, I'm glad we never used our Jump Start or any assistance* - and so came within a minute or two of finishing "under our own steam," so to speak.

What kills is that if we'd read the Quick Quests envelope more carefully about the double penalties, we would not have wasted time going to MA Central to take the Jump Start ... and so would have finished the race officially.

Ah well. There are many other "what ifs" - many in the final hour of the game - that would also have led us to an official finish.


But I would suggest mouseadventure reconsider this particular policy and avoid it at all costs in the future. It breeds distrust. It's lowball and frankly, complete shenanigans of unfairness.

Oh, I feel it's only fair to add that some of the staff were so sweet in giving us a helpful hint they didn't have to ... and that's been my consistent experience over the long, long years I've played.

Does anyone have any thing to say about the basic game? I see a lot of complaints and frustrations about the Enchanted race, but I havent seen anything about Basic.

I have no idea how we did, how the bears felt after, if I got penalized for giving my business card to another team... etc

I know that i am beyond frustrated now... afraid I didnt really give the bears a fighting chance to win.. but I really wanst trying to win.
I wanted the guys to have a good time, and be albe to say that they have done an MA.

So yes, while on the train I used my phone, told someone to quit texting me, I was busy. So that she'd stop getting snittier with each passing hour. :blush:
Because darn it, we were just trying to get through it! At least I was.
Ever tried playing MA with a 10 year old who gets bored? yeah... frustrating to say the least.

Anyway.. this is my public apology to the bears. Darn it... I knew better on the bronze statues. I should have re thought that.

But you know what guys? We tried. We didnt kill each other, Stoat got over being mad at himself, and we all lived through it. Spilled ice cream and all.

The Bears had a blast, and didn't say a bad thing about their awesome team mate.


BTW, Pru, I keep forgetting to tell you. While playing, I saw a guy wearing an Aquaman t-shirt and thought of you.

You're sweet. Thank you.

I'm in MA regret mode where I see all the mistakes I made and get uber frustrated.

I saw the Aquaman shirt too... wondered where it came from.

The Bears had fun.


If you were trying to show them a good time, rather than trying to win per se, I'd say you had exactly the right attitude.

Clearly it was a physical manifestation of Pru's unconscious psyche.

I have a multitude of powers.

However, if the guy wasn't singing about his plan to conquer the world, I was not entirely successful.

What if he was doing an interpretive dance of his plans to take over the world?

Let me (us) tell you,

We had the BEST time playing Mouseadventure. We were afraid that we were holding you back from scoring, but you know what? I wouldn't have changed anything about the game at all. We had fun, challenges, laughs, and a fantastic team who knows that the best way to enjoy life is to stop for a big fantastic Icecream Sundae.

Life's too short to worry about mistakes (or even just plain overlooking stuff, which is what the LashPair did with timothy Mouse and Jiminy Cricket), and as far as participating and being proud of our effort, this Mouseadventure exceeded our expectations.

Aussie, Aussie, Callifornians, Oi, Oi, Oi. :snap:


(and I still can't find the placings online for the Basic division)

So glad you had a good time! Full results and recap will be posted to MousePlanet next week.

Lady, if someone were to take me through MA just with the attitude of "this is a fun thing, let's try it" I might actually consider participating. I get enough stress and competition elsewhere in my life; reading post-MA threads and the tone and sniping within them makes me glad I don't play.

MA is all about what you make of it. MattMatt and I have a goal every game of have fun and "not last". We do something silly every year - one year we skipped down DTD singing the Manson version of Sweet Dreams. This year we randomly shouted names of fruit when we saw other teams. BANANA!!!!!!!!!! POMEGRANATE!!!!!!! No, our method won't work for everyone but it works for us.

We're not the best at puzzles, we're not super competitive and we play to have fun. We play the advanced version because we've been playing for so long now that we know we probably still wouldn't place at Basic and want to play with our friends.

If everything else wasn't crushing down on you right now (and registration was still open) I think the "day at the park" version would be perfect for you guys. The next one isn't until Spring, so you have lots of time to think about if you want to play Basic or if they offer another non-competitive event.

Registration is still open for Day at the Park, though May 1st. We re-opened it so all the day guests observing MouseAdventure last Sunday would be able to play sooner than a year from now.

That's actually very clever. So many people always ask about mouseadventure during the game, and are excited ... but we have to tell them the next event is 6 months away.

If we could get in the habit of telling them there's a "sampler" in a week, new recruits would pour in.

BTD is right. It IS all what you make of it. We used to be high-stress players and we're at the point where we just enjoy it when we play. It doesn't make us very competitive but we've garnered our 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the past. We haven't gotten last place yet, though. ;)

Of course, now we don't even play. How's that for non-competitive?

I've got to say, we've always played for fun. We like playing the game, and playing to the best of our abilities. But never at the expense of enjoyment.

It just so happens that was good enough for quite the winning streak back in the day. It no longer is, but I wouldn't change a thing. MouseAdventure is only worth the fun it brings!

Suddenly the banana comment makes way more sense. I think.

Results have been posted.

YAY !! we were in the top 10 in our category !! :snap:

What a great team we had. :cool:

Careful, Andrew. You might be planning an event inside a John Lennon video :P

The full recap of MouseAdventure Spring 2009 is now posted at MousePlanet LINK.

Woohoo! So happy right now! I competed in "MouseAdventure: Day at the Park" on Sunday, May 10 and my team called "The Disney Ninjas!" won first place!
:D

That was you? Awesome! Congratulations!

And also thanks for entering the T-shirt contest.

You probably didn't recognize me because we're Disney Ninjas who are "As Quiet As A (Mickey) Mouse."
;)

Andrew, thanks to you and everyone at MP for organizing a challenging, well-run and fun event. :)

Congratulations Daniel!

WTG Daniel!

Saw you that day...had no idea it was you either...WTG DD!

Maybe wearing a non-DCA hat/cap (or Mickey ears) is like camouflage. ;)

Thanks, everyone. I know it was the "non-competitive" MA, but my teammates and I will gladly accept the first-place finish, especially since it was the first MA experience for the other three "Disney Ninjas." Now, they're excited about playing in the competitive MA events.

Actually, it came as a very happy surprise, since we thought some of the other players who competed in both April 26's "competitive" Basic or Advanced Division/Enchanted Race MouseAdventure AND came back to compete again in the May 10 "MouseAdventure: Day at the Park" would win, or at least have a great advantage.

How does the "non-competitive" MA work? How do people win it?

Congrats DisneyDaniel! :cheers:

The May 10 "Day at the Park" played a slightly modified version of the April 26 "Basic" quests. The "MouseAdventure: Day at the Park" was called "non-competitive" only because it did not have an awards ceremony afterward and no prizes were awarded.

"Day at the Park" teams only played for bragging rights, but it was still competitive, scored and ranked. The maximum, possible score of 570 points was the same for both of the recent "Day at the Park" and "Basic" competitions.

The scores/rankings for all of the MouseAdventure Spring 2009 teams and divisions are listed HERE.

I think you get more hints and "help" than a regular game. It's supposed to be less intense than a regular game for newcomers who just want to try it out and have fun.

I wonder what would happen if some seasoned veterans came in and busted that thing wide open :evil:

There are no prizes or awards. Basically it's meant as an intro to MA, and also an alternative for those who aren't as interested in the competition part. But feel free to participate!

I kind of want to, if only to prove that we can still play the game....though we'd probably lose and have to commit hari-kari (unless we'd done the same puzzle in the past, though we might even lose then).

Even if we did win it would look pretty sad that we'd had to go down a couple of levels to be competitive, not to mention that we'd take bragging rights away from people who have never won before and deserve some glory.

Either way...oh well. Maybe we should try basic...

I kinda think Day at the Park shouldn't be overtaken by veterans. Even those of us who suck at Advance (like the Shiny Happy People). Every year we talk about playing Basic, but we feel that we've been playing for so many years that while we probably still wouldn't place in Basic it's more appropriate to be playing Advanced.

Actually, we thought the Basic division was a fantastic intro to Mouseadventure. Nothing too scary, and we didn't take the competitive side to heart, meaning that we had a really fun day.

Having fantastic teammates helped a lot (BIG thanks to Ponine & Son), and I think that if you wanted to make an easy intro into MA, just set up an online pool where teams of 4 could be allocated from 2 beginners and 2 experienced players. It'd be a great way to meet new people as well !!

Long Live MouseAdventure !! :cheers: