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

[rwhistler92]

Sorry Sherry - I didn't think that the note about Fantasy Faire was a spoiler. I felt it was a correction, because the map is misleading and the CMs seemed to be sending folks off to the right place as much as they can so they don't "waste time" (their words) looking in the wrong place. I'll write up my own thread on this year's hunt when I get home so that this thread stays spoiler free.

I appreciated the "correction".
While I do want to have fun finding the eggs, I don't want to waste the limited time I do have at the parks.
I can't wait to hear about other people's 2015 egg hunts.

 

[donaldanddaisy]

I appreciated the "correction".
While I do want to have fun finding the eggs, I don't want to waste the limited time I do have at the parks.
I can't wait to hear about other people's 2015 egg hunts.

Agree! Only a day to do the parks so like the hints! But I understand others would not.

 

[Sherry E]

If people want spoilers and actually want to see photos of where all the eggs are located, some folks have posted photos in the comments under Disneyland Today's (on Facebook) Egg-stravaganza post from yesterday - https://www.facebook.com/Disneyland...3136044758648/854045548001026/?type=1&theater

I'm sure you can also find Egg-stravaganza photos on some of the blogs like Mint Crocodile's page. I'm sure Micechat will have something up with photos by Monday morning. Someone from The DIS (one of the mods or podcast members) could possibly have something up this weekend. The hunt only lasts until next Sunday -- so it's not like there is a whole season of egg hunting upon us. It's a short-lived event, so many people will post about it now.

I'm not sure if I'll do a trip report, but I was thinking of doing a thread like this one, but for the 2015 egg hunt where we can talk about the eggs, the locations and share photos. Basically, it would be one big spoiler thread, but for folks that aren't getting to the parks this year and want to see what happened, they can and for those of us that we're lucky enough to be here, we can share our experiences! I probably won't get to it until Monday at the earliest, so maybe someone else will start one before then.

In terms of the CM, I think they were trying to be helpful. Those weren't the only ones handing out clues or telling folks where to go specifically. So if you don't want any spoilers, you'll need to avoid the CMs in the general areas of the eggs as much as possible.

Or, we can wait until the hunt ends on April 5th (which is not that far away), and just post everything/share our experiences here.

I don't think we need dueling Egg-stravaganza threads anymore than there needs to be dueling threads of other kinds. If that were the case, I wouldn't have taken the time to put this one together if another thread were going to begin within a few days of this one.

If you must post photos of the eggs before the hunt is over, just post them here in this thread so everyone can enjoy them.

I know the Cast Members were trying to be helpful, but last year they also didn't want to spoil people's fun so they didn't reveal any info until people specifically asked. It is a hunt, and it's a hunt with very little challenge for the adults. Some folks actually like to have a tiny bit of a challenge. As I mentioned on page 1, I didn't mind that there were a couple of eggs that I couldn't spot immediately last year, because everything else was so easy. Actually searching for a couple of the eggs made the hunt more fun.

I missed the hunt last year, maps were sold out by the time I got to the parks, so we made sure we got them first thing today. The CM said the purchase limit was 25, seems like an odd number because that would give you 4 complete sets and 1 extra egg. Also, instead of hunting and bringing back the maps, we could just go straight to the redemption table and if you had 6 maps, you can just get the complete set of eggs (or blind pick if you really wanted to).

I don't want to give out any spoilers but there was one clue that gave us a lot of trouble, even the CMs we asked didn't know the answer.

No worries about the spoilers, swooshbear! Go ahead and post them. It seems like most people want to read them. I just have to stay away until I do the hunt myself.

I think that the people who put the clues on the maps will deliberately add a couple of them that are misleading or very vague/non-specific -- they could easily make them more specific or precise, but 95% of the eggs are so super easy to spot and many will be spotted without the maps. They throw in a couple of them that are less easy to figure out to add some element of a challenge.

I appreciated the "correction".
While I do want to have fun finding the eggs, I don't want to waste the limited time I do have at the parks.
I can't wait to hear about other people's 2015 egg hunts.

You're going to see many of the eggs without even having a map -- they are that easy to spot. Believe me when I say that there is not much challenge to this egg hunt at all, and it would not have been a major inconvenience to stop at one place only to find out the egg is in a different spot nearby. In fact the CMs probably would have told you as soon as you got to the incorrect location.

But, that said, it seems that people want spoilers, so spoil away in this thread and I will disappear until after I've done the hunt. I don't think we need to have 2 Egg-stravaganza threads -- that just negates the work that I already did here -- so if people want to see and post photos before the Egg-stravaganza ends then post away!

 

[Gisele]

Ok so what about my chocolate easter egg please. Anyone? Buellar? Anyone?


Lol no really.....

 

[Sherry E]

I'm bumping this thread again (it had fallen to page 3), so that people who return from the Egg-stravaganza can report here on their experiences. People want to know!

 

[Ofred]

We just got back from disney and did the egg hunts in both parks. We had a lot of fun both looking for the eggs and talking to people looking for them too. We were given hints and also gave hints.

 

[Amommy21]

So is this sold out?

 

[Sherry E]

The maps are not sold out yet. Last year they sold out about halfway through the hunt -- several days before Easter, which couldn't have gone over well with the little ones who wanted to get a map and do the hunt on Easter (even though they would have spotted a lot of the eggs without a map, they wouldn't have been able to claim a prize without a map). I think they sold out in DL first, and then in DCA the next day or so.

I would have to assume that Disney ordered more maps, because they realized they had a hit on their hands and that more people would be doing the hunt this year. I think that expanding the hunt to 2 parks really worked wonders for the popularity of the Egg-stravaganza, as it made it more of a substantial activity that could take up a few hours, at the very least. When it was part of Limited Time Magic in 2013, I don't think it was quite as popular (it was only held in DCA that year, not in DL too).

If spotting random eggs is all anyone wants to do, and they don't care about the plastic character egg prize that is given when the map is shown at the redemption location, it's easy to spot a lot of the eggs just walking around the parks. Maybe not all of them, but many of them will be spotted (especially if you look in the sorts of places I detailed on page 1). If that character egg prize is super important, then the map will be needed.




As I predicted (and if you didn't already check the website), Mint Crocodile/Magic Eye has a blog about the Egg-stravaganza -- http://mintcrocodile.blogspot.com/

To be honest, I stopped at the title and did not look any further but I think there are photos of the eggs' locations in the blog (as there were on the website last year).

MiceChat also included a tiny bit about the Egg-stravaganza in today's update, but from the lack of photos it seems that maybe no one from their team has done this year's hunt just yet - http://micechat.com/98080-s0-shiny-disneyland-update/ (Also, MiceChat misspelled the name of the event in two places, but shhhhhhh! Don't tell them! ;-) )




Here is another blog full of spoiler photos of where the eggs are hidden this year -- when I first opened up the page it opened to an egg in a specific location, so I quickly scrolled up to get to the title and I didn't look at the other eggs: http://land.allears.net/blogs/lauragilbreath/2015/03/disneyland_eggstravaganza_2015.html

 

[Amommy21]

Oh my husband read on some blog they were already sold out... maybe they are at WDW?

 

[Sherry E]

Oh my husband read on some blog they were already sold out... maybe they are at WDW?

Hmmm. I wonder. That would be super fast -- even faster than last year. The Disney Parks Blog would post an update -- probably an update to their original blog about the Egg-stravaganza -- and mention that maps were sold out in one or both of the parks, but so far there is no such update (I just checked the original blog). Now it is possible that if maps are sold out in one of the parks, it will take until tomorrow morning for the Parks Blog to update.

Or, it could just be that the maps are sold out at Epcot.

Does your husband remember which blog he was reading?

ETA: Someone is saying on the Disneyland Today Facebook page that the Cast Members are not allowing guests to pick a prize egg that they want if they happen to pick one they don't want. In other words, on page 1 I described how, last year, if we picked a prize we didn't want the CMs would let us try again and would eventually let us take the prize egg of our choice. However, a girl on Facebook is angry that this is not the case this year, and that we cannot get the egg of our choice.

 

[figment_jii]

When I was there last weekend, it varied a little depending on the CM manning the redemption table. None of the ones I saw would not allow guests to select a specific prize, but some would give you hints about which cover to select if you asked. You still had to select a cover, but some of the CMs would narrow down the choices to one or two to help you pick the one you wanted. None of the CMs I saw allowed guests to exchange their prize egg once selected if they got the one they did not want; instead they suggested that the guest try to find another guest to trade with.

The CMs were also suggesting that you pick-up your prize as soon as you buy your map (or at least during the day) to avoid the long line of guests redeeming their maps for their prizes at the end of the day. I did notice that the CMs were more willing to give clues out when the line was short or there was no line. When the line was long, it was pretty much just choose a cover and move to the next guest. You did not have to finish the hunt to redeem the prize. I noticed that by the end of the day, the line in DCA was probably about 20 to 25 guests long. So there is some merit to picking up the prize earlier, when the line is shorter...

 

[Sherry E]

^^ Yes, that kind of falls in line with what happened (or what I observed/experienced) last year -- the CMs would more or less narrow down the choices of which dome to select if they knew there was a specific egg underneath it that someone said they wanted, and if the first chosen egg was one that was not wanted.

I don't know if you saw the comment from the girl on the Disneyland Today Facebook page (it was posted this afternoon, I think), but she is quite angry about it and is demanding that Disney go back to what it was doing last year. She is threatening to never hunt for eggs again because of this new practice!

No one has to do the hunt at all to redeem a prize. They don't even have to apply any of the stickers to the map (like, for example, if they want to keep the stickers separate from the maps). All they have to do is buy a map to get the prize, and show it so it can be stamped.

 

[figment_jii]

I was watching guests redeem the maps and it was pretty cute in some cases. One family decided to redeem the maps without doing the hunt, but as soon as the kids selected the cover and got the prize egg, the parents took the egg and said they could have it back after they finished the hunt! I did also see one person unhappy about not getting to select/exchange the egg they got...it was kind of their own fault, but also not entirely...they had two maps and let their kids choose the dome. The first kid (probably about 5) selected and the second child (probably about 3) selected the same egg immediately after, so that family ended up with two of the same egg. The mother asked about re-selecting, but the CM said "no" and that's when the CM suggested finding another guest to trade with. In another case, I did see a little boy ask about the Tinkerbell prize egg, because he didn't want that one! It was a pretty interesting process...some guests were clearly looking for a specific egg, while others didn't seem to care which one they got. I did notice that the CMs were keeping track of which egg was being won.

I just saw the Facebook post...sigh...

I did notice that they just posted/edited the Facebook post about 2 hours ago...I'd like to think that they wouldn't be promoting the egg hunt if they were sold out of maps!

 

[Sherry E]

That's what I was thinking -- I haven't seen an update stating that the maps are sold out on any of the Disney Facebook pages or on the Parks Blog's original Egg-stravaganza post. So maybe it is Epcot that has the sold out maps (if any are actually sold out)??

And Disney must have ordered some extra maps this year -- now that doesn't mean that maps can't or won't sell out. They may still sell out -- and soon -- but I would certainly hope they wouldn't be silly enough to order the same short supply of maps that they ordered last year, knowing that the event is growing in popularity. They have to also allow for spontaneous hunters -- people who didn't know there was a hunt going on and who decide to do it when they get to the parks.

I was quite surprised at the anger and frustration expressed by the person on Facebook. I understand wanting to be able to choose your own egg and not get a duplicate of the one you just got in the other park, but they're just plastic eggs at the end of the day. It's not like they're Faberge eggs or something. Her comment made it sound as if a lot of money had been spent.




This is a fun Facebook page to follow -- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Findraybrown-Artist/456556691050979?fref=nf

Ray Brown is one of the talented egg decorators at the Springtime Roundup, and he is also responsible for many of the incredible character pumpkins at the Halloween Carnival during Halloween Time. I don't think Disney has him doing anything for the holiday season -- at least not that I am aware of -- but I wish they would put him on the task of creating character snowmen/snow people or gingerbread characters. Maybe he could create a whole series of character ornaments or something? Character Christmas trees?

 

[figment_jii]

Some folks get really invested in things...still, I agree, it seems odd to get that upset about the prize egg. I can kind of see it for the Vinylmations, which can cost upwards of $18, but by the same token, you know how it works when you buy the Vinylmation or, in this case, the egg hunt map! I feel sorry for the CM that had to deal with her; hopefully she wasn't that mean to the CM!

I tried looking up the Epcot Egg Hunt, but the WDW Facebook and Twitter pages are both silent about the egg hunt. They're focused on the March Madness game! I suppose there could have been a huge run on maps last night and today, but I saw the maps available in several locations throughout DL on Sunday morning. And it looked like they had a pretty good stack of maps at each location. I tried asking one CM how many maps they had, but her answer was they're selling quickly, which wasn't really an answer.

Those eggs look pretty cool. Some of the finished ones at the Spring Round up were pretty impressive!

 

[Sherry E]

You know -- and now I can't remember which website/blog I was looking at because there have been quite a few since this year's Springtime Roundup opened -- but I noticed that some of the eggs at the Roundup look (exactly) the same as many of the eggs from last year's Roundup! Lol. I am guessing that what happens is that there are some eggs -- much like the pumpkins -- that Ray Brown and the other artists create right there, on the spot. But then there is probably a supply of decorative eggs that will be brought out every year, and those are the ones that were in the display case (covered by chicken wire) last year and this year.

Well, now that you've done the Egg-stravaganza for the first time, figment_jii, how do you feel about my hope/idea that there could be an eventual multi-level hunt? I know that's what I thought after last year's hunt, and I'll have to see how I feel after this year's too. I don't know if it would ever happen, but do you see any potential in that idea (of including a more challenging level), or is there some obvious problem with it that I am overlooking? For example, they could keep the current easy hunt for the small children, with the same kinds of prizes and hiding places, but then also add in another level for folks who want something a bit more challenging. The second level could involve maps that are slightly more expensive (maybe $7.95 instead of $4.95), and much smaller eggs hidden in much trickier hiding spots around the parks (on a ride, perhaps??). The prizes could be slightly better as well. And, they could possibly implement a time limit of a sort -- maybe requiring that people have to finish the hunt by a certain time that same night in order to get a certain prize. I suppose it could cause some extra chaos, with frenzied egg hunters running to and fro and being generally rude (like the people I described on page 1 who were trying to climb around me), but hopefully it could be controlled chaos.

 

[Kristina4109]

I am not telling my daughter about the Egg-stravaganza just in case they sell out before Wednesday. She's already excited beyond belief to do Frozen Fun, so the egg hunt would just be icing on the cake. The plan is that my husband will take her directly to Frozen Fun while I go to Elias & Co. to buy the map as soon as we enter the park.

I really hope we can do this, but by keeping it a surprise it'll save us from having her disappointed!

 

[figment_jii]

Having a multi-level hunt would be an interesting idea, but I don't know how well/easy it would be to implement it. Unfortunately, I think having two hunts in one park would probably just confuse a number of guests (and, probably, CMs). The CMs already take a lot of time explaining how to do the current hunt, so having to explain there are two levels might really slow things down at the point of sale. I can imagine that a lot of guests would ask "how hard is the hard hunt?" and "can my <fill in the age> child do the hard hunt?" and so forth.

I don't think they'd hide eggs inside the attractions or even inside the queue areas that are not visible from the outside. If they hid it in the ride, then the guests would have to ride the attraction to find the egg and that could really slow things down and frustrate hunters - especially if it's a ride that has a long line and/or it wasn't something you'd normally ride and/or unexpectedly breaks down. Same for the queues. It's already a busy time of the year...so, it seems like they want the egg hunt to be something guests to do while they move about the parks; not something that will tie up guests in lines for attractions (and hence not shopping or eating)...although, maybe they could hide more in shops or CS locations to boost traffic in those areas.

Overall, until they see a drop in the interest in the current egg hunt, I don't really see DLR opting to change the egg hunt. With DLR, it seems to take a while for things to change and once they've found something that works, it seems to re-appear for a number of years.

 

[ten6mom]

Wow, the woman on the Disneyland Today Facebook post sounded whiny and spoiled. My goodness.

 

[Sherry E]

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 am not telling my daughter about the Egg-stravaganza just in case they sell out before Wednesday. She's already excited beyond belief to do Frozen Fun, so the egg hunt would just be icing on the cake. The plan is that my husband will take her directly to Frozen Fun while I go to Elias & Co. to buy the map as soon as we enter the park.

I really hope we can do this, but by keeping it a surprise it'll save us from having her disappointed!

That sounds like a smart plan -- most likely the maps will still be available tomorrow and you should have no problem, but it's good to not tell your daughter about the egg hunt just in case something goes wrong. Be sure to come back here if you can and let us know how it went!

Having a multi-level hunt would be an interesting idea and would be fun, but I don't know how well/easy it would be to implement it. Unfortunately, I think having two hunts in one park would probably just confuse a number of guests (and, probably, CMs). Maybe they could do an "easy" hunt in one park and a "hard" hunt in the other park. The CMs already take a lot of time explaining how to do the current hunt, so having to explain there are two levels might really slow things down at the point of sale. I can imagine that a lot of guests would ask "how hard is the hard hunt?" and "can my <fill in the age> child do the hard hunt?" and so forth.

I don't think they'd hide eggs inside the attractions or even inside the queue areas that are not visible from the outside. If they hid it in the ride, then the guests would have to ride the attraction to find the egg and that could really slow things down and frustrate hunters - especially if it's a ride that has a long line and/or it wasn't something you'd normally ride and/or unexpectedly breaks down. Same for the queues. It's already a busy time of the year...so, it seems like they want the egg hunt to be something guests to do while they move about the parks; not something that will tie up guests in lines for attractions (and hence not shopping or eating)...although, maybe they could hide more in shops or CS locations to boost traffic in those areas.

Overall, until they see a drop in the interest in the current egg hunt, I don't really see DLR opting to change the egg hunt. With DLR, it seems to take a while for things to change and once they've found something that works, it seems to re-appear for a number of years. Still, if enough folks ask for a harder hunt, maybe it will happen!

Good points.

I think that having an easy hunt (the existing one) in one park and a more challenging hunt in the other park would actually be a great idea! It would eliminate any confusion of two hunts going on in one park. Really, all the hunt would need would be smaller eggs and more creative/less obvious hiding spots, forcing people to have to work a bit harder to find them....and then there would be slightly better prizes. Not super expensive prizes, but just something that is a step or two above the plastic character eggs.

Wow, the woman on the Disneyland Today Facebook post sounded whiny and spoiled. My goodness.

It's too bad. It's a fun event -- and I think the whole point of it is to have fun doing the actual hunt. The small prize is just kind of a bonus, but it wouldn't be my sole reason for doing the hunt. My fun comes from hunting down the eggs in the parks. I know what she means about the difference between this year and last year -- last year the CMs were being a bit more flexible. If after a few tries the guests were still not getting an egg they wanted for some reason, the CMs would let them take the one they wanted. 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. But it's just not anything that's worth getting angry over. If I ended up with two identical eggs and couldn't switch them out, it would be fine. I would have already enjoyed myself during the Egg-stravaganza itself.