Minne's Moonlit Madness

This one may be a straight post, no jokes or anything(we will see how long that lasts)! 

So Minne's Moonlit Madness is a fundraiser put on by Cast Activities that takes place after the park closes. Several volunteer CM's create clues and activities that placed all throughout Disneyland. Some 200 teams, from two to four players(but one of them has to be a cast member) get linked together at the waist. They start by trying to answer 50 trivia questions, then get sent out into the park to solve various puzzles or do activities. I was a volunteer who helped monitor a clue area in case teams got stuck or if they needed something cleared up or if they just wanted the answer! Just kidding on that last part. I made those jerks(said with affection) work for it! They had to to math and I was really no help with that.

In your head I want you to picture the clock from show 24 but have it say 6:30pm.

So here is how my night went. All events take place in more or less(mostly less) real time.

2-28-2013 6:30:43pm(boop-beep boop-beep)

The FSL(Future Supreme Leader, aka my wife) and I met up with our CM friend who is part of the Cast Activities group and a clue creator, and her girlfr- fianc- wife(Let's go with girlfriend now,  soon to be those others), and parked in the Mickey and Friends lot. 

7:04:61pm(boop-beep)

Stood in line. 

7:27:20pm

Got checked in.  

7:28:40pm

Got our bags searched. The security guard asked if I had and guns or knives in my bag. Thought about making a joke but thought better of it and just chuckled uncomfortably. 

We were about to enter the Winston Employee Gate. I was a little nervous. What if I saw Snow White smoking a cigarette? I mean, from Cinderella I'd expect that sort of thing but not Snow White! Can't even begin to describe how big "back stage" is. The horse corral alone was as big as a soccer pitch(yeah, that's the correct name for a soccer field, look it up lazy!). Saw unpainted Autopia cars, lots of random equipment and bikes galore, I mean an crap ton of bikes. We got corralled into a holding room in the Performance Center where choir groups practice and the parade choreography is worked out and stuff like that. The crowd in the room looked like characters from the Mos Eisley Cantina, it was full of the most random people. There was an entire group of steam punk cos players, a group of people dressed like they were from the 80's...  The 1880's! Olde tyme western folk are the best! Oh, there was also a group dressed like the other 80's...  Neon, legwarmers, headbands...  You know,  all the stuff that I have tried to forget ever existed. I lived through those 80's and they weren't that great! 

Our clue clue leader called us outside so we could all meet and learn what we had to do.

8:00:00pm

We walked through more backstage, past a warehouse that was literally packed to the rafters with extra signage and decorations. We popped out in Toon Town through one of the cast member entrances. The park was closing for the normal jerks so we hung out at Jolly Holiday to wait for the riff-raff to leave. 

Jolly Holiday Bakery. I stood right in the doorway during the game

9:15:46pm

We had some time to walk around and see the park in all its empty glory. I'd say there were less than 100 people scattered through the park at that time. Walking around an empty Disneyland is exactly as peaceful as you would imagine...  And not a stroller in sight! HOLY CRAP! Stroke of genius(pretty frequent for me, of course)! That last line about the strollers made me think of Ice Cube's, Today Was a Good Day... What if someone... Oh I don't know... An handsome and charming evil genius did a Disney version of Today Was a Good Day? Ka-Pow! Mind blown?? Mine too. 

Haunted Mansion

A Mansion that is Haunted

New Orleans Square

Sleeping Beauty's Castle with NO ONE in front of it

Empty hub and Castle

Panorama down Main Street toward front gate

One of many cats that live and hunt at the park

Here is what it looked like last night and a comparison shot during the day.

Night of

Next day. Still not too crowded

I discovered the real secret behind the Disney Magic.

Pixie Dust is orange and tastes like cheese

So just after 10pm teams, after answering 50 trivia questions, got scattered into the park to figure out puzzles all while being literally connected at the hip. 

As I am writing Goofy's Sky School broke down. I would be jealous that they may be getting walked off the ride, but they are just baking in the sun... suckers.

Goofy's Sky School walk off

Back to the story. I stood around and listened for teams that were having a hard time understanding the clues or keep them moving in the right direction. One of the clues was a red herring(like Communism) and it was fun to see the teams freak out over it.

12:15:23am(boop-beep)

At midnight it was over and we all walked out of the park. 

View from our room

It was fun helping out. Next year our CM friend wants to have a team participate so...  Hopefully the FSL and I will be able to run around solving mysteries!

Have a magical day!(nope! Don't like it.)