MouseFest is Coming! MouseFest is Coming!
Boy, time really flies! It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that we were announcing all of our MouseFest meets, yet here it is, just a week and a half from the start of the MouseFest cruise, and two weeks before the land portion kicks off.
Once again, we’ll start with the basics. Like “what is MouseFest?”
Well, MouseFest is, as I’ve described it before, a kind of “gathering of the tribes” of the Disney Internet community.
Born out of the annual meets of the RADP (rec.arts.disney.parks Usenet newsgroup) community, MouseFest is the brainchild of AllEarsNet’s Deb Wills and Passporter’s Jennifer and Dave Marx. While sitting around, winding down after the seventh annual RADP meet in 2002they wondered why the gathering of Disney fans couldn’t include all of the various Internet communities. So they set about creating that event.
The 2003 MouseFest was a fairly large gathering, compared to the expectations of the organizers, with over 300 people filling the Copabanana nightclub at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel for the inaugural Mega Mouse Meet.
My, how things have changed! Last year, over 2,000 Disney fans from around the country and around the world registered for MouseFest. This year, with registration switching to an optional paid model, nearly 800 people have already signed up. With those who did not sign up, we’re expecting this year’s crowd to be even bigger than last year. In fact, we’ve got a 19,000-square-foot ballroom, and we’ll probably fill the place!
Compared with the couple of dozen hosts in the first year, this year we’ve got 25 web sites, 17 podcasts, and a dozen and half books represented by nearly 100 team members!
The MouseFest cruise will take place aboard the Disney Wonder from December 2-6, with the land portion running from December 6-10.)
Of course The Big Event at MouseFest is always the Mega Mouse Meet, where all of the participating communities, web sites, podcasts, authors, and so forth host tables in a large ballroom at the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel (this year, we’re in ballroom Atlantic C), and anyone that wants to talk to any of them can stop by and schmooze with as many people as they care to meet. There’s even a kids’ table in case your children would rather color and play with stickers or listen to a story than walk around the room with you.
Oh, did I mention that there are also door prizes and other giveaways? In
fact, MousePlanet is presenting a great door prize! For the second year in
a row, our door prize will include a hotel stay! Thanks to our friends at
the Downtown
Disney Resort Area Hotels, our door prize will include a three-night stay
at the Doubletree
Guest Suites in the Downtown Disney area. Also included will be an Owner’s
Locker with two years of unlimited visits, courtesy of MousePlanet sponsor
Owner’s Locker.
(If you’ve been listening to our MouseStation
podcast, you already know about these folks!) We’re also including a copy
of Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World, the latest
book by MousePlanet’s David Koenig.
At the Mega Mouse Meet, you’ll be able to meet MousePlanet folks such as Mike Scopa, Brian Bennett, David Koenig, Jeff Kober, Mike Demopoulos and me. (But why would you want to meet me, anyway, with all of those other folks there?)
But that’s not nearly all! MousePlanet is sponsoring a whole boatload of meets, starting at 1:00 p.m. Thursday with the kick-off to the land portion, MouseFest 101. This meet (at the lower seating level of the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station) is targeted at the first-time visitor to MouseFest and the return visitors who still aren’t sure about the best way to approach the event. Professor Mike Scopa and I will talk about the event’s history, some of the key meets, introduce some of the key players, and give you advice on how to plan your MouseFest schedule. We’ll finish with a Q&A session before we segue straight into Dave Marx’s Chairman’s Reception, which will be held in the same location.
Immediately following the reception is another always-popular MousePlanet-sponsored meet, as Mike Scopa hosts his fourth annual Dole Whip Meet at Aloha Isle in Adventureland. While the first meet was essentially a private affair, due to the small turnout, it would not be surprising to see over 100 people there this year.
MousePlanet’s next meet won’t be until Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., as we present David Koenig’s Stroll in Card’s Footsteps meet. Starting in front of the Art of Disney store on the west side of Spaceship Earth, David will be leading a walking tour of Epcot while discussing the park as it was when it opened in 1982, illustrating it with stories from his new book, Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World.
The Mega Mouse Meet is scheduled to run from 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. (though registered MouseFest attendees can get in starting at noon). Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m. (after we race to clean up from the Mega Meet) will be our third annual MousssseFest, held at Boulangerie Patisserie at Epcot’s France pavilion. Note that, if I’m not there exactly at 5:30, wait a few minutes. I may just end up buying mousse for everybody, depending on how many people show up.
On Sunday morning, it’s time for the third annual Mini-MouseAdventure, a shorter, non-competition version of MouseAdventure, MousePlanet’s signature event. We’ll kick off at the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station at 10:00 a.m., then send you into the park for about 90 minutes of game play, helping you to search out parts of the Magic Kingdom that you never knew were there. We’ll reconvene at the Noodle Station shortly before noon to review the answers, distribute answer keys, and compare stories.
Our final event of MouseFest is our MouseStation Podcast Hustle-tini Meet. We’re combining the various passions of my co-host, Mike Demopoulos, to meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Pop Century Resort (his favorite resort, because he used to work there) to drink bluetinis (his favorite drink) and then do The Hustle in the lobby at 6:00 p.m. (his favorite special event). We’ll also do some recording for the podcast before and after the dancing.
Oh, and we’ll also be represented at PodFest on Friday at 3:00 p.m., hosted by Lou Mongello of the WDW Radio Show (and the Disney World Trivia books), as Mike Demopoulos and I will be there with the MouseStation Podcast and Mike Scopa will be there with the WDW Today crew.
But those are merely a fraction of all of the meets being held. In fact, there are 22 cruise meets and 88 land meets scheduled as of this writing! If you’re not sure which meets you should attend, stop by MouseFest 101 and we’ll give you some pointers.
And the fun won’t end there! When MouseFesters get home, they’ll be able
to participate in our first Virtual MouseAdventure for a chance to win a dinner
for two at Tutto Italia and a basket of other Disney goodies worth over $100
(including a copy of Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World
by MousePlanet’s David Koenig)! It’s only open to MouseFest attendees, though.
If you’re going to MouseFest, make sure that you attend one of our meets or
visit our table at the Mega Mouse Meet to get your entry code!
But you know something? For all of the excitement at all of the meets, the best part of MouseFest is the people that you meet that you never knew existed. People from other Disney Internet communities that you never met before. It seems that every year, I run into someone that I just enjoy spending time with and chatting. From Will Garmer (a.k.a. WillCAD) to Byron Hunt, from Kim Button to Kelly Monaghan, and all of the other site webmasters, podcasters, authors and so on, it’s amazing how many friendly people there are to get to know and share your love of Disney.
For more information on any of the meets that we’re co-hosting, go to our MouseFest events page. For more information on MouseFest in general, go to the MouseFest web site.
If you can’t make it this year but want to plan ahead for next year, the dates for 2008 are December 7-11 (sea) and December 11-15 (land). Dates for 2009 (December 6-10 and 10-14) and 2010 (December 5-9 and 9-13) have already been set, as well.
Come and join us! You’ll have a blast!
