D23 Scavenger Hunt 2011

A few weeks ago my brother and myself completed the first D23 Scavenger Hunt at Walt Disney World. What an adventure it was. Each day for 2 days you entered into 2 parks for 3 hours in each park to complete a series of questions ranging from 1 point to 10 points. At the end of the 2 days the scores were calculated and a winner was announced. The hunt had over 550 teams with some having 4 people per team. My brother and I were on our own!

We arrived at our designated first park Disney's Animal Kingdom to begin our hunt. After standing in a line of many die-hard enthusiasts we learned that some teams (ok many) had done research, read books, created pages of trivia and answers, watched movies, studied internet sites, trolled the parks earlier in the week and had really prepared for this hunt. They brought colored flags to delineate where in the park the questions were, highlighters for the more difficult questions, pens, pencils, extra papers, food, and a host of other items to be fully prepared for this HUNT! Dan and I, we just showed up! No materials in hand, no pencils or pens, nothing but some gum, advil, money and our ID's.

After receiving our credentials Dan and I began by reading all the questions and figuring out where in the park to head to first. Our first stop was my old hunting ground DinoLand USA. I had this down pat! Heck I worked there for over 3 months so I should know, right? Not really! Soon we answered the questions and moved on through the park. At about 30 minuted remaining Dan and I noticed that there were questions with higher points. So after answering 75 questions valued at 1 point each we came to the 5 point questions (10 in all) and the 10 point questions (another 10) with only 30 minutes left. We did our best guessing and answered as many as we could with some really stupid answers! However we turned our booklet in with only a few minutes remaining and left the park, heads held somewhat high. After all it was 97 degrees out that day! Off to Epcot for round 2!

Epcot, we learned from our mistake, to read the questions first, keeping in mind the higher valued ones! We entered Epcot and had 4 hours to complete the booklet with the same number of questions as AK. Dan and I went to the Electric Umbrella, got something to eat and began our strategy. Dan's only strategy was eating while he let me eat and figure out all of the questions. This time we answered all of the 5 and10 pointers and while in certain areas we were able to answer the less valued ones. By 6pm we were DONE! Dan and I both were hot, burnt, tired (of each other) and ready to go to our resort.

Day 2

We began our day in the Magic Kingdom! Another one of my old stomping grounds. With questions in hand and our strategy figured out from the day before, we sat at the checker table near the Chapeau shoppe, figured everything out and began answering questions on Main Street USA. The day went much faster and by the end of the 3 hours in MK we had all of our booklet completed and moved on to Disney's Hollywood Studios. By this time Dan and I are slap-happy, cracking jokes left and right and not concentrating on what was at hand. Again we entered the park got something to eat and figured out were to begin. We finished on time and felt good about the day.

With all concluded Dan and I returned to our resort and waited until 8:30 PM for the announcement of the winners at the Contemporary Resort. We did not win. On top of that we had to wait to get our results for another week! Oh well the time spent with my brother was a lot of fun!

One last thing. Sorry Dan! Dan is not always on top of his game! While answering some of the more difficult questions that required thinking Dan would space-out. Leaving me trying to figure out the answers. As I would be writing them down Dan would yell out what I had written while many other teams were around us! On many different occasions Dan did this with me grinding my teeth and giving Dan the evil-eye! Yet on many other questions when we had to count out words on a plaque with corresponding numbers to get a certain letter, Dan would be there as I might have 4out of 15 of the letters done and he would say "lets go I got it" What! "Yup its Manifest Destiny"! Ok, I thought he was pulling this from you know where! He was right! Finally Dan caught on and instead of yelling out the actual answer he would yell out something different! Good Job Dan!
At the end Dan and I finished 206 out of over 550 teams! Next year Team Goof Troop will be prepared and will have a new name, Disney Intelligent Minds With Ingenious Talent, otherwise know as the DIMWIT's!! Thanks for the name Dad!