Havin' a blast at Shinteki Disneyland! (with pics) [SPOILERS]

[Note 1: This blog entry may contain information that can potentially spoil future experiences. Read no further if you are planning to participate should this event be hosted again.]

[Note 2: Pictures are both on my server (with full-size versions available) and on Facebook (no account required). These photos may also contain spoilers.]

After taking my daughter to Discovery Kingdom for her birthday in June (she wanted to ride an elephant), I talked with Jonathan about the logistics of holding a puzzle hunt at an amusement park. It seemed like a fun idea, but had many design challenges that needed to be addressed. We wondered if it was even possible. A few months later, Shinteki announced that they would be holding a "Field Trip" puzzle hunt at Disneyland, so we were soon to find out.

Jonathan was, naturally, thrilled. Seeing as how he drives up for nearly every puzzle event in the Bay Area, he wanted to see how many of his team would be "hardcore" enough to drive down for just one. Three of us ended up making the trip: Andrea, Given, and myself.

And we had a blast! I mean some serious fun. But it was at an intense pace. Thanks to Jonathan's scheduling, we may have been the first team to meet with Brent et al, and definitely the second to get our binder. By that time, Jonathan had already hoofed it to Space Mountain and gotten us Fast Passes. We set off in the other direction and started actual solving at the Indiana Jones ride. It was funny how we'd expected to have plenty of time to solve puzzles while waiting in line, but we rarely saw much of a line, so that we ended up having to actually stop in queues in order to get the data we needed.

Some memorable moments:

Finding the pin traders before the first ride (I had never noticed this phenomenon before) and getting our 10 point set in the first go

Trying to give Given — who hadn't been to Disneyland in twenty years or so — a tour of the Indian Jones line space: "And it used to be that you could shake this pole and the ceiling would come crashing down." *shakes pole and ceiling comes crashing down* "I guess they fixed it."

Playing "Spot Jack Sparrow" while trying to keep track of left-right aspects of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Figuring out that the "life-like people" for the Pirates clue referred to the people in the restaurant.

Getting all the answers we needed for the Haunted Mansion clue from the greeter and then going on the Nightmare Before Christmas-ed ride anyway.

Jonathan just happening to be looking at the page that required a blacklight while on the blacklit portion of Haunted Mansion

Taking turn-by-turn notes on Space Mountain

Running into other teams at the Tomorrowland photo spot and swapping photos.

Being impressed with the solution to the Give Us A Buzz clue.

Giving up my 28,800 score (18) for 35,500 (13) on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Running into Ian in front of Pirates when we had only one word to go for The Wordiest Place on Earth and forgetting to ask him for the final GC-only word we needed. "Isn't there something you want to ask me?"

Andrea and I getting way too wet on Splash Mountain even though we were sitting up front.

The satisfaction of solving The Wordiest Place on Earth while eating lunch.

Brent's surprise that we'd solved The Wordiest Place on Earth... apparently at how early in the game we'd accomplished it.

Spending way too much time looking for the other half of our team after we got split up on Tom Sawyer Island aka Pirate's Lair. Plus, the only other inhabitants of said island seemed to be other teams.

Watching Given try and figure out how to extract an answer from the barrel sudoku and having Andrea come up and say, "Hey, isn't that pi?"

Feeling like a crack shot as Jonathan pointed out each target in the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade and I hit it without fail.

My team (well, mostly Jonathan) going into a let's-gather-all-the-data-we-can-before-this-thing-is-over frenzy at around 5pm, while I trailed after them attempting to work on the Tweet Tweet puzzle.

Finally getting a chance to sit down and solve the Tweet Tweet puzzle in the Main Street ice cream shop.

Breaking the Indiana Jones cryptogram with the "eye is not a letter" aha as we got in line.

Eating a great meal at French Market.

Having enough time afterwards to hit all the rides we hadn't got a chance to yet.

We never made it anywhere close to Toon Town and solved nothing on Main Street (by the time we got there, it was as if everyone in the park was there too.) Regardless, we still made enough points to end up with a virtual gold medal.