Eggs-plaining the Egg-stravaganza -- The 2016 Hunt Is Over!!!

[figment_jii]

I am realizing that, although the individual threads on this new website have all sprouted pages and seemingly gotten longer (or, to be more specific, rather than 15 posts per page we now have 20 posts per page in a thread), the actual pages on the forum itself seem to be moving and changing much faster. There must be fewer threads per forum page now than there were on the previous platform. In the past, a thread that may not have moved down the pages for weeks will now move down the pages in a day or two.

I think the old forum averaged about 50 thread titles per page and the new one has about 40. When the new forum debuted, there was only 20 per page and things moved really fast off the first page. Up on the WDW Restaurants board, things were falling off the first page after a few hours! I'm glad the current forum has more threads than 20! I do also think that there are just more folks posting questions, so threads are moving down quicker.

Not super expensive prizes, but just something that is a step or two above the plastic character eggs.

Maybe something like a pin or something along those lines...

I guess that must have turned into a problem, as they probably ran out of certain eggs and had an abundance of other eggs. So this year they can't do that.

I wondered if that was the reason why they were tracking how many of each prize egg was being handed out. It seemed odd because they should all be handed out at about the same rate (if it's a random selection process) over the course of the day. That being said, if you really wanted a specific prize egg and were willing to be a little patient, it wasn't necessarily that hard to figure out which prize egg was under each cover. Just pay attention to the guests ahead of you and see which cover they selected and which prize egg they got.

I don't understand the anger that lady seemed to have in the FB post either. I could understand more if it was a small child that didn't get the character egg they wanted or got one of a character they didn't like or didn't know. As much as the hunt is fun, for some kid's it's more about the toy than looking for an egg they can't touch or play with. So, if that lady had been a 2 or 3 year old kid, I could see being disappointed if she did not get her favorite character or if she got some character she don't like (e.g., like the little boy who really didn't want the Tinkerbell egg), but I'm betting she's a lot older than 2 or 3!

 

[Mysteryincorp]

We went today and had a blast with the egg hunt. One or two eggs were a little difficult to find and my five year old was not very patient. The park was very crowded and made maneuvering around a little difficult but it was super fun. We did both parks back to back, had lunch and played in the bugs land splash area. We arrived at 1100 and left at 3:30. We did nothing but hunt for eggs and Man, My feet were tired!!!!
I will definitely do it again next year.
As for eggs we got approached by a little boy to trade our goofy egg for a tinker bell which we happily obliged.mand then got a goofy egg at DCA!

 

[ten6mom]

Bumping this up.... anyone been trying to get maps today? Anyone know if they're still in stock?

 

[NavFam5]

As of 10am this morning, both CA & Dland had maps. Best place to get the maps are: Elias & Co (CA) & Disney Showcase (DL). I first went to Radiator Springs, but they had sold out. Cast Members were so nice about letting you "guess" which egg to get as a prize. They did warn that some of the eggs might be gone by tomorrow. The White Rabbit was very popular and was gone as of yesterday. However, as I was picking prizes, more came in stock. I was able to collect all 6 egg prizes.

 

[ten6mom]

Thank you, NavFam5. I will keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow!

 

[donaldanddaisy]

I agree that cast members were very nice about helping us get the eggs we wanted. We bought maps and went right to pick our eggs, it was just easier this way. On the 2nd day at DCA they stamped our maps when we redeemed. They didn't do that at DL. Guess we could have gone back with our maps again but we didn't have them with us that day. We got a White Rabbit a thumper and two Plutos and my daughter was very happy

 

[Mom2Joce]

This was the most fun and our first time. My 8yo son went crazy for this and just HAD to find all the eggs...so super cute!

 

[Sherry E]

Happy Easter, everyone!

Wow -- this Egg-stravaganza came and went in the blink of an eye, didn't it?!! It's not a long event to begin with, but for some reason it seemed to zip by at lightning speed this time around. In the past I've seen comments from people on Facebook that indicated they wished the egg hunt lasted longer -- like beyond Easter. It doesn't really make sense to have an egg hunt after Easter, but I do wish the event could be stretched out to a full 2 weeks instead of 10 days. Or, it could start at the same time the Springtime Roundup starts and last until Easter.

Next year it will be interesting to see how the Spring-ish events play out, and when they begin. Spring will officially begin on a Sunday in 2016 (March 20th), but I doubt that the Springtime Roundup would begin on a Sunday. So, will it open on Friday, March 18th... or on Monday, March 21st??

As for the Egg-stravaganza... Easter Sunday falls on March 27th in 2016 (it drives me nuts that the date for Easter jumps around so drastically between March and April ). So, if the pattern of this year and last year repeats itself in 2016, the egg hunt would have to begin at least as early as Friday, March 18th. If the Egg-stravaganza begins on Friday, 3/18/16, then I think the Springtime Roundup would have to begin on that date as well. So people could very likely be hunting eggs and posing with the Easter Bunny for photos in the final days of winter.

In any case, I ended up (sadly) not being able to do the Egg-stravaganza this year because some things came up. If only it had been a 2-week event instead of 10 days, that would have made a difference. At least the Springtime Roundup is still going on for a while beyond today.

Nonetheless, from all that I have seen and read, I am very glad that it appears the map supply was abundant and never ran out -- that's an improvement from last year -- and I'm also glad that many of the hiding places for the eggs were different this year. I think there may have been one or two that were the same or very similar/close to last year's hiding spots, but I have seen a lot of different spots (in photos) than what was available last year. That's a good thing -- as I explained in my write-up on page 1, I think that switching up the hiding places for the eggs is going to be crucial to this event having a long shelf life and a strong "repeat" value. If the eggs keep popping up in the same spots every year, that will reduce the need to make the Egg-stravaganza an annual tradition for a lot of folks.

And as for the confusing/misleading clue(s) -- I think that it is deliberate. Since most of the eggs are so easy to locate, whoever puts the egg hunt together throws in one or two clues that are a bit more challenging -- it happened last year too (the Toy Story Midway Mania clue, in particular). I would expect that next year's Egg-stravaganza maps will have another one of 'those types of clues' to confuse people as well. It's good to have a clue or two that actually requires people to have to do some searching on an egg hunt. I don't see it as a bad thing, because the majority of the eggs are easy to find.

It's also great that the CMs were helpful in making sure the guests got the prize eggs they wanted!

Did anyone go to the Easter cookie decorating demonstration at the Grand Californian Hotel this week? I think it started a few days ago and it lasts through today. The Disneyland Today Facebook page said there would be samples too - https://www.facebook.com/Disneyland...0.1428260758./857721100966804/?type=3&theater

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[Belleandtinker]

Unfortunately, we told our son about the Easter Egg Hunt as part of the DL/Easter Fun day today. They had maps for free because they were out of prizes. Son was okay. DH was pisses (as well as I). It's Easter morning 5 minutes before the park opens on Easter and they are OUT.

Yes, yes - I know the fine print says until supplies last, but isn't the point of having an Easter Egg Hunt is to have it ON Easter?

Better luck next year?

 

[Sherry E]

Unfortunately, we told our son about the Easter Egg Hunt as part of the DL/Easter Fun day today. They had maps for free because they were out of prizes. Son was okay. DH was pisses (as well as I). It's Easter morning 5 minutes before the park opens on Easter and they are OUT.

Yes, yes - I know the fine print says until supplies last, but isn't the point of having an Easter Egg Hunt is to have it ON Easter?

Better luck next year?

That's too bad that they ran out of prize eggs (I wonder why they had enough maps but not enough prizes?), and some quick-thinking Disneyland VIP should have come up with a replacement prize of equal value (even if it wasn't egg-shaped!). I guess they felt the free maps and stickers were enough.

I definitely think that the goal should be to try to have enough maps and prize eggs (or whatever the prize may be) to last through Easter, but I guess they can't anticipate how many people will participate. There should have been an equal number of maps and eggs, though, so I am confused about that.

Did you still do the hunt anyway? If you had the maps and stickers, you could do the hunt and find the eggs and then just buy a little prize for your son. Or was it specifically the plastic character egg prize that your son was looking forward to?

 

[Pucka1378]

We did not get to the parks until 7pm and we got a free map at DCA no stickers. We did the hunt but did not finish. We enjoyed it.

 

[Sherry E]

We did not get to the parks until 7pm and we got a free map at DCA no stickers. We did the hunt but did not finish. We enjoyed it.

They were giving out the maps without the stickers?? I had no idea. So there were plenty of maps, but no stickers and no prizes. That's crazy! I can't remember if the stickers were included inside the plastic sleeve with the maps last year, or if the stickers were handed to us separate from the maps (I put the sheet of stickers back inside the plastic with the maps every time I found an egg, so that's all I remember!), but it sounds like they were definitely separate this year!

 

[Tyggress]

Hi Sherrie,

We took our son to DL for Easter yesterday, and yes indeed they were handing out the maps for free (with NO stickers) because there were no prizes left to be had.
We did still have fun pointing out the eggs we saw as we went about our day, and based on the pics in your original post, I know they were not all in the same place as last year.

What I found weird, is there were people there doing the hunt with maps and stickers in hand, because they had bought them several days prior and then waited until Easter to do the actual hunt. But if the parks were out of prizes, I would feel bad for those kids knowing they waited until Easter, would fill the maps with stickers, and then have Disney tell them "sorry...no prizes".

It would appear that this activity is more popular than Disney anticipated...hopefully next year they will be better prepared (and have the same amount of maps/stickers/prizes).

 

[donaldanddaisy]

Wow, I feel lucky that we got maps, stickers and prizes now! Yes, the stickers were inside with the map, so again, how could they possibly have ordered fewer stickers than maps? So strange!

 

[Sherry E]

Hi Sherrie,

We took our son to DL for Easter yesterday, and yes indeed they were handing out the maps for free (with NO stickers) because there were no prizes left to be had.
We did still have fun pointing out the eggs we saw as we went about our day, and based on the pics in your original post, I know they were not all in the same place as last year.

What I found weird, is there were people there doing the hunt with maps and stickers in hand, because they had bought them several days prior and then waited until Easter to do the actual hunt. But if the parks were out of prizes, I would feel bad for those kids knowing they waited until Easter, would fill the maps with stickers, and then have Disney tell them "sorry...no prizes".

It would appear that this activity is more popular than Disney anticipated...hopefully next year they will be better prepared (and have the same amount of maps/stickers/prizes).

Looking at some of the photos of the eggs' locations this year I think I established that the Ghirardelli location was a repeat from last year, and there may have been one other repeat -- but it appeared that most of the hiding spots were different this year.

You make a very good point about the kids whose parents bought the maps before doing the hunt -- because the fear was that the maps would sell out quickly and they were trying to be prepared -- who ended up with no prizes because they waited until Easter to do the hunt and collect the prizes. Now it seems that not only are people going to have to buy their maps ahead of time -- even days before hunting eggs -- but they will also have to claim their prizes before doing the hunt. Some people did that anyway -- they got their prize eggs immediately after buying the maps, just to get it out of the way so they wouldn't have to wait in line for a prize later on. But now it seems as though more people are going to be forced to do that very thing because there appears to be no guarantee that there will be enough prizes to cover the maps and stickers closer to Easter!

Wow, I feel lucky that we got maps, stickers and prizes now! Yes, the stickers were inside with the map, so again, how could they possibly have ordered fewer stickers than maps? So strange!

It seems strange to me too. I thought that the stickers were included inside the package with the maps, but then I began to second guess myself about it. I don't understand how there could have been a shortage of stickers (or prizes) if each map came with a sticker sheet -- and there should have been a prize egg to go with each map that was sold. Weird. Whatever the case, hopefully Disney has realized that this issue needs to be fixed by next year when the Egg-stravaganza inevitably returns.

 

[rwhistler92]

They were still giving out prizes last night. I think the free maps were more like colored photo copies of the originals
I was surprised to see the eggs where taken down this morning (at least at Disneyland).
I am still sad I didn't get my Mr Toad egg. I just did't feel right asking a child to switch eggs with me.

 

[ten6mom]

We went to Disney Showcase (?) on Main Street about 20 minutes after 8 and they had a CM at the door telling us that the maps were sold out. Regardless, we had a great time.
It was more of a "normal" Disneyland trip and not specific to Easter, but oh well.

 

[lorijohnhill]

I know Disneyland still had egg prizes as of 8 am Easter morning. There were limited choices available , but they still had them. We were able to sweet talk the manager into swapping out our eggs with different ones. We had gotten Thumper and the White Rabbit on Friday at DL, then we did the hunt on Saturday in CA and they said the only eggs they had left were Thumper and White Rabbit. I was really glad we were able to swap out on Sunday. We ended up with Mr. Toad and Goofy to go with the Thumper and White Rabbit we already had. So that worked out nicely.

 

[Tyggress]

Looking at some of the photos of the eggs' locations this year I think I established that the Ghirardelli location was a repeat from last year, and there may have been one other repeat -- but it appeared that most of the hiding spots were different this year.

Oh goodness...it sounds like I might have offended you with my statement about the eggs being in new places this year. I was only meaning to confirm that yes, I agree, they appeared to be in different spots. I'm sorry if I came off sounding rude or combative. Or, maybe I'm being over-sensitive to your reply. It's been a weird morning.

 

[HappiestHaunt]

We did the hunt at DCA on good Friday. We actually redeemed for the prize first. We did actually finish the hunt, but did not feel rushed to do so, since my DD had the prize in hand already. It was a good time and hopefully one we can do again in the future.