Mousefest Land Portion – Day 1

Thursday morning was of course the official first day of the land portion of Mousefest. For me it was to be a busy day.

I made it over to the Magic Kingdom early and when I arrived at the Tommorrowland Terrace I had a surprise waiting for me. There were a number of people setup at the patio area that spans a bit over the water and faces the castle. Hmmmm, this was the area I had planned to use for Mousefest 101. There were all kinds of equipment setup and quite a few people there.

I approached whom I later found out was a radio personality and I asked what was going on. He was part of an Ottawa radio station that was broadcasting from the Magic Kingdom on this day.

I asked how long they would be there and he said they would be there only until 2 P.M. Well, that’s good but Mousefest 101 was scheduled to begin at 1 P.M.

No problem. I moved everything to the upper level just across from the registers. Thank goodness Noodle Station was closed.

Mousefest 101 was received rather well. Crowd estimates ranged from 280 to 320 people, most of whom were first time Mousefesters..

I presented Scopa Tower sweatshirts to two special people. The first was Masayo Kano who came all the way from Japan for Mousefest 2007.

The second sweatshirt was presented to Michelle Scribner-MacLean who first presented the idea of a Mousefest Primer.

The meet served everyone well.

One of the highlights was the raising of over $500 for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Fund in support of Deb Wills and for Lou Mongello’s DisneyWorldTrivia.com Dream Team Project” to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. The amazing outpouring of generosity was moving and special kudos go to Matt Hochberg of WDWTODAY for agreeing to accept the challenge and ride the bane of his existence the dinosaur ride in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Following Mousefest 101 was the Chairman’s Kickoff and Dave Marx made several announcements and wished everyone a most enjoyable Mousefest.

The next stop was Aloha Isle for the annual Dole Whip Meet. I’m not sure how many people attended this event but I do know that I ran out of 100 “Dr. Scopa’s Magical Elixir“ buttons.

This year Fred Block, Founder of MagicMeets, made sure that this year I did not miss out on the delicious treat. Thanks Fred.

From there we all went to Steve Barrett’s Hidden Mickey’s meet at Pirates of the Caribbean. The meet was extremely popular and Steve had quite the challenge to make sure everyone noticed the HM’s in the attraction.

During the meet the attraction stalled and we all got quite an earful of the attraction’s song. You see this fellow? On his hat is a skull and the left eye of the skull is a Hidden Mickey.

After the meet I stole away be myself to do a bit of research for some future projects.

I also made it a point to grab my Extra Magic Hour wristband before having dinner with some friends at the Plaza Restaurant.

After dinner I stole away again and checked out the “Twas the Night Before Christmas“ show at the Tomorrowland Galaxy Theater. Even though it was the first performance of the night there was standing room only.

I checked out a few things in Tomorrowland before heading to the Rose Garden to meet everyone for the annual MouseFest Fireworks meet. Along the way I was struck by the beauty of the frosted castle lights.

During the fireworks however I along with fellow AEN staffer Michelle Scribner-MacLean watched the fireworks from Main Street USA because I wanted to videotape the show.

We then returned to the Rose Garden to see the folks who were still there.

The next stop was Frontierland and the Frontierland Shootin’ Gallery for the mix and Mingle Passporter Parade meet.

The energy level was certainly starting to wane but some of us had enough energy left to watch the show in front of the castle before calling it a day.

While watching the show we all noticed that Mickey and friends seemed a little more animated than usual. The performing fab five as well as Chip and Dale seemed to be mouthing the words to the songs rather well and were also blinking their eyes. It made them seem so much more animated.

Day one was over.

As we all headed out the park we all wondered if a good night’s rest will recharge us enough for Mousefest Day 2.

I’ll tell you the answer in my next entry.

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