Tidbits From the Land of The Mouse

As has been well-documented, one of the things I enjoy most at the Disneyland Resort is the hunt for Hidden Mickeys.  Truth be told though, as much as I may write about it, it really does make up a very small portion of what I enjoy at the Park.  Truth even more be told (so wrong!), I kind of don't even think about it anymore.  I've sort of trained myself just to be looking.  Typically when I go I will have a short list in mind of ones I have already seen that I need to photo (if I pass them) or a new one I've heard about online or something, but I'm usually too busy standing in lines or eating (or walking!) to really think about it much.

I know, and accept, that a lot of people just don't get the whole thing.  Seems silly or superfluous or whatever.  And that's fine.  But it's my blog, and I'll write about whatever the heck I want.

But for those who might actually care, there are two main reasons I hunt for them:

1. It's just something fun to do.  It's something fun to do while you're just wandering around.  Much better in my opinion than watching other dads yelling at their kids, or listening to kids yelling, or listening to whoever yelling.  There's a lot of yelling at Disneyland, don't ya know?
2. The competitor in me wants, in the face of all odds stacked against me, to be the first to spot any given Mickey in the Park. 

Now, the truth is, I suppose it would be really hard to judge who was the first to find a Mickey.  I accept that someone, at the very least the Imagineers who placed it there to begin (you geniuses, you!), has probably seen it before.

But I can do the next best thing, and that's check it against the Yellow Book (Steven M. Barrett's guide), or the Hidden Mickey's Guide website, or my personal favorite, FindingMickey.com by Rosemary & Neil Garcia.  I figure if I check it against these two (who seem to know the most) and they don't have it, I may at least get in prime position of being credited as the person who found it.

Hopefully you'll see where this is going.  On a trip recently I spotted a Mickey somewhere in Disneyland that I can't find listed anywhere in any book or any website.  I have submitted it to both websites, and I have in fact heard back from both of them.  I got an email from Steven Barrett last week that said he would personally check into it next time he was at Disneyland (not sure when that will be), and I heard back from Rosemary & Neil today (they live very near Disneyland) saying they had been to the park yesterday to check it out, confirmed it, took a picture, and are going to put it on their website and credit me with the find.

I won't give too much away yet about where it is and all, but you can bank that when it does go up and gets posted, I'll put it here post-haste.

The competitor in me is pretty happy this morning.  Ah, the little things.