[ Our Event] 12 hour scavenger hunt: Amazing Race Style

[Guest-expert]

I have to share this with the DIS community. We've been planning this event for 2 years, and managed to pull it off on December 2nd!

Backstory: My friends and I work with with High School students (15-18 yr olds) in Florida and have put on a Road Rally style race twice a year (similar to the Amazing Race) for them since 2010. Just this last weekend, we turned in their cars (normally driven by parents) in exchange for Disney Transportation and took the whole game on the road! We fundraised the heck out of this team building event, and managed to fund 12 teams of 4 players each for a day at Walt Disney World.

We arrived on a charter bus at 830am and began the "race" the minute they stepped on to the sidewalk. The teams had to decode clues and decipher hints to progress in the game. There were scavenger items for extra points available to the teams (i.e. A photo from the air in the balloon at Characters in Flight @ DTD) and bonus points for completing challenges (i.e. climbing Swiss Family Robinson Tree House 3 times in 10 minutes)

The students were on their best behavior all day and took an awesome oppertunity and made it into a memorable weekend! The "game staff" had a blast, the students couldn't get enough of it and 12 hours later, we ended the game and let the kids "play" for 4 bouns hours, free from the competitive nature of the game.

We had 48, high school aged kids at disney for 16 hours with no issue (minus the occasional dying cell phone) and while it was a long day....i'd do it again in a heartbeat. Crowds were big, but they were filming the Christmas Day parade for most of the day, and it made movement.....challenging, but not impossible.

Thanks for letting me share!

 

[Metro West]

Well...that sounds like a lot of fun. Glad your group had a great time!

 

[Pumbaa7287]

Sounds fun, I'd love to see a list of all the 'events' if it's possible to post it. I'm a teacher in Florida as well and ideas like this are really cool.

I will say, SFR 3 times in 10 minutes?! I hope there was no one else in the treehouse at the time, seems like it would be impossible if you got stuck behind someone, and rude if you're pushing past them, lol.

 

[APB513]

What a great idea! I love Disney and I love the Amazing Race - the best of both worlds

 

[wiigirl]

What a great idea!

 

[Guest-expert]

Sounds fun, I'd love to see a list of all the 'events' if it's possible to post it. I'm a teacher in Florida as well and ideas like this are really cool.

I will say, SFR 3 times in 10 minutes?! I hope there was no one else in the treehouse at the time, seems like it would be impossible if you got stuck behind someone, and rude if you're pushing past them, lol.

They were under strict instructions to avoid being rude. One team did do it, but they were spent afterwards.

 

[anniemck]

I would for sure love to see a list of event's/ clues... this sounds so fun.

 

[brymolmom]

I think my cousins and aunt/uncle might have been among your teams. Heard about this. I was supposed to be a 'phone a friend' - but never got a call!

Sounded like so much fun to me!

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

What a great idea! I love Disney and I love the Amazing Race - the best of both worlds

~I totally agree! I love the Amazing Race! I've been watching faithfully since season 1, it was the main reason I got a DVR!

~Disney & the Amazing Race together sounds like a dream! I would have loved to experience something like this. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Guest-expert]

OK, so for those of you who asked...I'll explain a few things first.
Of the 40+ that played, only about 4 were what I would call, Disney Proficent. So some of these may seem easy for you, and some were suppose to be easy because we were moving them around the property. Also understand that we timed all these locations. So for instance, once you figured out that Clue 3 was the Boat Dock at PO:FQ there was a time stamp on the clue that said they had to be there between specific times. Most were only a 20 minute window. We used Facebook to post the clues and they uploaded all their scavenger photos to their Team Facebook page.
I'll post the scavenger items at the bottom.

Clue: There be sea monsters here....but not at Cypress gardens.

Clue: Nicht 99 Luftballons, nur ein gelber Ballon.

Clue: If I were on Bourbon street pier, I'd need to be where first?

Clue: I see London, I see France....but "you" should not enter from here.

Clue: Where would you have entered, on the first day of the tenth month of MCMLXXI?

Clue: An original attraction, you can almost see the whole kingdom from here.

Clue: Between the worlds of fright and thundering speed, suspends the path that you might need. I’ll hint and huck of places far, though you cannot get there in a car.

Clue: In early America, there was nothing quite like public humiliation for your crimes.

Clue: A major topic of debate as a world traveler – only civilized people have it at half-past 3, because by 4, it is much too late.

Clue: These constellations are often taken for granite.

Clue: You’ve been ordered to sail east my boy! Find your riches in the wilds of Florida.

Clue: Back and forth, north and south, all day and all night. I’ll climb above and wait a while, and take in all the sights. A general craft is where I am you better hurry up. The end is near for most of you, I'm tired of this stuff.

Scavenger sample (we had well over 60 items)
1. Picture from 400ft up Characters in Flight (300pts)
2. Girl team member dressed as a princess or Male team member dressed as a pirate (500pts at finishline)
3. Picture of Sunset on the Seven Seas Lagoon
4. Picture of {one of our staff's} Photo on the wall at Spaceship earth (1000pts)
5. PO Build and Race a Lego car (200pts)
6. PO the Soarin Wait time at exactly 8o minutes
7. PO Disney Airport (100pts)
8. PO team Leading a parade (1000pts)
9. PO a Reticulated Giraffe on a savanna (500pts)
10. Video the talking trashcan, named Push (200pts)
11. A picture of Cast member and alumni Sara P.(200pts)
12. PO team boarding Space Mountain (200pts)
13. PO team Boarding a Clam shell (500pts)
14. PO giving Peter Pan Fast Passes to a random family. (100pts)
15. PO a player getting a haircut (200pts)
16. PO of lions eating a zebra (50 pts)
17. PO Players racing cars on the speed way (50 pts)
18. PO the whole team pulling the sword from the stone (50 pts)
19. PO “Injun Joe’s” cave (50 pts)
20. PO team soaked from splash mountain (50 pts)
21. PO the Genie (50 pts)
22. PO the original EPCOT concept (50 pts)
23. PO the team in a spinning Tea cup (50 pts)
25. PO “small children” on a Ferris Wheel (50 pts)

The scavenger items can be creative, and in fact, we expect them to be as innovative as possible. For Example: the Picture Of...Lions eating a zebra was actually from the Jungle cruise attraction....but several teams found stuffed zebra's and lions and staged a scene with them. And the soarin wait time.... could be a picture of the wait board at epcot, or the phone app.

 

[Guest-expert]

I think my cousins and aunt/uncle might have been among your teams. Heard about this. I was supposed to be a 'phone a friend' - but never got a call!

Sounded like so much fun to me!

Last name start with FR?

 

[MouseyMin]

I was staying at French Quarter then and I'm pretty sure I saw some of them. They were talking to a Cast Member about "I see London, I see France" at the bus stop. They looked like great kids who were having a lot of fun - and were taking it VERY seriously!!

 

[ohboyx3]

This sounds like SO much fun!! Some of those clues are hard to figure out!

 

[Guest-expert]

I was staying at French Quarter then and I'm pretty sure I saw some of them. They were talking to a Cast Member about "I see London, I see France" at the bus stop. They looked like great kids who were having a lot of fun - and were taking it VERY seriously!!

That was them for sure!

 

[Guest-expert]

[2014 UPDATE] I'm back to tell you we are trying this again! This time an overnight event at multiple parks. If you will be at the House of Mouse this weekend, you may see my players playing again.

 

[goin' again!]

Sounds like a lot of fun! Keep us updated as to how it all goes