It was definitely a case of goodwill hunting at Disneyland Resort on Sunday, September 26 as nearly 2,000 entrants gathered for the first-ever D23′s Great Disney Scavenger Hunt!
Anyone fortunate enough to spend a somewhat sticky Sunday today at Disneyland Resort no doubt saw hundreds of guests, many in groups of four, walking quickly — not running! — wide-eyed and purposefully through the Resort’s hotels, theme parks and shopping areas, looking like detectives on the hunt for answers rather than for the next attraction to board. Many of them wore colorful team shirts — “The Apple Dumpling Gang”,” “Team Ravenscroft” and “Four Foolish Mortals” were among our favorites — and some of them wore their favorite character-themed shirts. But all of them wore bright blue bibs displaying their team number and the D23 logo. That’s because they were all part of D23′s Great Disney Scavenger Hunt, which, no matter how much fun it was to embark upon, was definitely no walk in the park.
Hunters gathered bright and early at the Disneyland Hotel for a rules review, were divided into three different sets of groups and were then sent off on their respective journeys throughout the Resort — with the last group departing by 9 a.m. They fought off soaring temperatures with a hearty spirit, and returned back to the Hotel by 2 p.m., each team hoping they had garnered the most possible points from 330 questions of three different types:
- Miner League, which required keen observation and were worth one point for each correct answer.
- Major Domo — puzzles, math and word game questions worth five points for each correct answer.
- Super-Difficult-Idocious — the most challenging questions, worth 10 points for each correct answer.
After a comprehensive counting of all the teams’ answer books, the trio of Kate Loomis and Henry Work, from Mountain View, California, and Kelsey Lubetich, of Silverdale, Washington, was determined the winners of D23′s first-ever Great Disney Scavenger Hunt, going into the record books with a dazzling total of 320 points, besting the second place team, who called themselves Valiant and Valiant Detective Agency, by 19 points and the fifth-place-finishing team by 50 points.
“We opened up the question book once we received it and were able to answer a lot of the random questions off the top of our heads,” Kate said. “We knew where everything was in the question book, and that was a big help,” Kelsey added. The trio, who said that a question that required locating a diary on Tom Sawyer Island caused them the most difficulty, admitted they entered the contest hoping to win. “But when we saw the top 10 point totals, we figured we were out of the running,” Henry said.
To the winner go the spoils and all top 10 finishers received prizes, with each of the three members of the winning team taking home the grandest prizes of all — a dazzling array of Disney merchandise, including including goodies and collectibles from our friends at Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Records, the Walt Disney Collectors Society, Walt Disney Publishing and the Walt Disney Archives, even though, winning, as it turns out, wasn’t at the top of their agendas. “We just wanted to have fun,” they said, almost in unison.
Shown below are images of some of our inaugural scavenger hunters. Enjoy!
(L-R) Steven Clark, head of D23, Kate Loomis, Henry Work, Tigger and Kelsey Lubetich celebrate Kate, Henry and Kelsey’s winning of D23′s Great Disney Scavenger Hunt at the Disneyland Hotel on Sunday, September 26.
