mre200200
Joe Flowers
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2008
Just over a month ago, me and a group of friend were all able to compete in Minnie's Moonlit Madness at the Disneyland Resort. It's an after hours scavenger hunt for Disney Employees and their friends, and a chance for top teams to put their knowledge of Disney trivia to the test. It's not very widely publicized, but it's been going on since 1989, and I figured there'd be more than a few Disney fans who would be interested in hearing about it. And for those who have seen my reviews before, you'll know that this is going to be very photo heavy.
Our team of 4, Ruston, Jacob, Theresa and I, have had a blast competing together as a team, all the way up until 2015 when the event got so popular that instead of requiring only 1 Disney Cast Member per team, they started requiring 2 Disney Cast Members per team. Our party of 4 only has one cast member, and with that, all our hopes for competing together again were gone.
Since then, I've had a blast being a volunteer for the event, seeing some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into putting on an event like this. But there's nothing quite like competing...
Fortunately every once in a while, a little Disney Magic can happen.
All the way back in August 2017, a friend let me know that there was an auction with various Disney items, benefitting CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange Country). CHOC is a great hospital that was the beneficiary of Minnie's Moonlit Madness donations back in 2015. In the auction, amongst the other items was a VIP entry into the 2018 Minnie's Moonlit Madness. Not only did the winner get special VIP treatment on the night of the event, but they also only needed to have 1 Disney Cast Member on their team! Whoa!
After consulting with Ruston, Jacob, and Theresa, we all decided we definitely had to bid. Now the question is, how much were we willing to pay? Entry into the event the normal way is $100/team. We ended up paying a bit more than that, but the important part was, WE WON!!!
Fast forward to January 3rd and registration for Minnie's Moonlit Madness opened up to all teams. Along with registration being open, we got a glimpse into this year's theme! Disney Musicals! And in preparing for the event, I even found the artist who did the design for this year's theme, Adelya Tumasyeva! Very nice work.
So now that we know the theme, it's time to focus on prep work. Outfits of course, because it's always fun to dress in costume at Disneyland. The four of us threw around a few ideas from popular Disney Musicals, like Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. I thought Tarzan could be an interesting one to dress as... But in the end, it was the Newsies that Seized the Day!
Now, on to the knowledge prep work. We certainly have fun participating in MMM, but I want to do well too. You can't expect to do well by sitting on your laurels. You need to put in some hours brushing up on the source material. Disney Theatrical Productions from wikipedia was the obvious place to start. While I've seen a few of these shows in person, I certainly haven't seen all of them. In the weeks leading up to the event, I'd listen to the soundtracks, watch recordings and fan videos from Youtube, and study up on all the Disney Musicals I could, as well as watching some of the original source material like High School Musical, Camp Rock, Hunchback, Lion King, and more.
Of course I reviewed some of my past write-ups to re-familiarize myself with the types of trivia and questions that we'd be seeing.
The Sunday before Minnie's, Ruston and Jacob came over and again we talked through strategy. Thinking through how we were going to tackle trivia, line up for walking the park, talk through what worked best in the past for solving clues, etc.
Finally Feb 15th arrived! Theresa and I got off work early to brave the lovely LA traffic, reaching Disneyland after 1:30 when on a normal Saturday morning it would take us 40 minutes. Ruston had it even worse, taking nearly 2 hours to reach the parks. Jacob happens to work close, and got to the parks early, spending the time wandering DCA, looking at all the fine details in various locations, just in case they happened to be used for clues later in the evening.
We spent the rest of our extra time in Downtown Disney, enjoying Earl of Sandwich for dinner and learning the ins and outs of Snapchat, which would be used for a bonus clue later on in the night.
At 7:30, we made our way back to the Esplanade and saw many of the other teams checking in.
And said a quick hello and thank you to the voluntears.
At 7:45, the side gates opened and the long line of teams were allowed in.
Part of our VIP experience tonight included express checkin, being greeted by Michelle with our captain's packet and a few other goodies.
Having the captain's packet signed with messages from members of the Clue Crew was an especially nice touch.
Michelle walked us in to the park and up to the Hyperion Theater.
At the theater, ushers checked everyone for wristbands before entering.
One extra special perk of winning the auction was a very special Charity Bonus clue, worth an unspecified number of points. We were allowed to start working it as soon as we received our captain's packet, so we took the time before we were let in to answer the clue.
And I took a few minutes to run over to the merchandise table to see what was offered. Posters, shirts, and the very important clipboards.
Just after 8:30, while all the other teams were lined up outside, we were led into an empty Hyperion Theater.
Empty except for one very important person. Minnie Mouse!
Our VIP experience gave us a few minutes with her to get photos and hugs.
Michelle brought us to our assigned seats (front row, center), and we said our goodbyes.
At 8:45 teams all started coming in. We got ourselves setup while we waited. Yes, there were laptops involved. Trivia can be really tough. Speeds however dropped considerably when everyone came inside.
Playing on the big screen were cartoons and even the Muppets, where the theme was musical stage performance.
Jacob showing off our lanyard. By the end of the night, we hope to have all those boxes punched out signaling that we completed all 10 of our clues.
At 9:10, the theater was full and it was time to get started!
Our team of 4, Ruston, Jacob, Theresa and I, have had a blast competing together as a team, all the way up until 2015 when the event got so popular that instead of requiring only 1 Disney Cast Member per team, they started requiring 2 Disney Cast Members per team. Our party of 4 only has one cast member, and with that, all our hopes for competing together again were gone.
Since then, I've had a blast being a volunteer for the event, seeing some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into putting on an event like this. But there's nothing quite like competing...
Fortunately every once in a while, a little Disney Magic can happen.
All the way back in August 2017, a friend let me know that there was an auction with various Disney items, benefitting CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange Country). CHOC is a great hospital that was the beneficiary of Minnie's Moonlit Madness donations back in 2015. In the auction, amongst the other items was a VIP entry into the 2018 Minnie's Moonlit Madness. Not only did the winner get special VIP treatment on the night of the event, but they also only needed to have 1 Disney Cast Member on their team! Whoa!
After consulting with Ruston, Jacob, and Theresa, we all decided we definitely had to bid. Now the question is, how much were we willing to pay? Entry into the event the normal way is $100/team. We ended up paying a bit more than that, but the important part was, WE WON!!!
Fast forward to January 3rd and registration for Minnie's Moonlit Madness opened up to all teams. Along with registration being open, we got a glimpse into this year's theme! Disney Musicals! And in preparing for the event, I even found the artist who did the design for this year's theme, Adelya Tumasyeva! Very nice work.
So now that we know the theme, it's time to focus on prep work. Outfits of course, because it's always fun to dress in costume at Disneyland. The four of us threw around a few ideas from popular Disney Musicals, like Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. I thought Tarzan could be an interesting one to dress as... But in the end, it was the Newsies that Seized the Day!
Now, on to the knowledge prep work. We certainly have fun participating in MMM, but I want to do well too. You can't expect to do well by sitting on your laurels. You need to put in some hours brushing up on the source material. Disney Theatrical Productions from wikipedia was the obvious place to start. While I've seen a few of these shows in person, I certainly haven't seen all of them. In the weeks leading up to the event, I'd listen to the soundtracks, watch recordings and fan videos from Youtube, and study up on all the Disney Musicals I could, as well as watching some of the original source material like High School Musical, Camp Rock, Hunchback, Lion King, and more.
Of course I reviewed some of my past write-ups to re-familiarize myself with the types of trivia and questions that we'd be seeing.
The Sunday before Minnie's, Ruston and Jacob came over and again we talked through strategy. Thinking through how we were going to tackle trivia, line up for walking the park, talk through what worked best in the past for solving clues, etc.
Finally Feb 15th arrived! Theresa and I got off work early to brave the lovely LA traffic, reaching Disneyland after 1:30 when on a normal Saturday morning it would take us 40 minutes. Ruston had it even worse, taking nearly 2 hours to reach the parks. Jacob happens to work close, and got to the parks early, spending the time wandering DCA, looking at all the fine details in various locations, just in case they happened to be used for clues later in the evening.
We spent the rest of our extra time in Downtown Disney, enjoying Earl of Sandwich for dinner and learning the ins and outs of Snapchat, which would be used for a bonus clue later on in the night.
At 7:30, we made our way back to the Esplanade and saw many of the other teams checking in.
And said a quick hello and thank you to the voluntears.
At 7:45, the side gates opened and the long line of teams were allowed in.
Part of our VIP experience tonight included express checkin, being greeted by Michelle with our captain's packet and a few other goodies.
Having the captain's packet signed with messages from members of the Clue Crew was an especially nice touch.
Michelle walked us in to the park and up to the Hyperion Theater.
At the theater, ushers checked everyone for wristbands before entering.
One extra special perk of winning the auction was a very special Charity Bonus clue, worth an unspecified number of points. We were allowed to start working it as soon as we received our captain's packet, so we took the time before we were let in to answer the clue.
And I took a few minutes to run over to the merchandise table to see what was offered. Posters, shirts, and the very important clipboards.
Just after 8:30, while all the other teams were lined up outside, we were led into an empty Hyperion Theater.
Empty except for one very important person. Minnie Mouse!
Our VIP experience gave us a few minutes with her to get photos and hugs.
Michelle brought us to our assigned seats (front row, center), and we said our goodbyes.
At 8:45 teams all started coming in. We got ourselves setup while we waited. Yes, there were laptops involved. Trivia can be really tough. Speeds however dropped considerably when everyone came inside.
Playing on the big screen were cartoons and even the Muppets, where the theme was musical stage performance.
Jacob showing off our lanyard. By the end of the night, we hope to have all those boxes punched out signaling that we completed all 10 of our clues.
At 9:10, the theater was full and it was time to get started!