Wow!  Sorry for the delay in posting about MouseFest 2008.  It was absolutely exhausting and we went from one event to the next until we passed out in the room. This was my fourth MouseFest and I do not ever remember getting this tired during any of the previous events.  Just goes to show how big the event is getting.

To make up for the delay, I'm going to post about my favorite "meet," today.  It was the Hidden Mickey Meet with Steve Barrett.

We started off at Spoodles at Disney's Boardwalk and made our way around Boardwalk, Beach Club, and the Yacht Club.  We saw some great hidden Mickeys, as well as one that was questionable and up for a poll by attendees.  It was almost an even split.  Here's the one that was questionable:

This was in the Ariel statue at the Yacht Club Resort.

This next one is very hard to see in person, as it's blue on blue.  The flash on the camera actually highlighted it quite a bit.  It's on the globe in the Yacht Club and to find it, you find Madagascar, look for the serpent, and it's just below the serpent.  According to Steve, the story goes that a child poked a hole in the globe with a pencil and the hole was patched with the hidden Mickey.

This next one was my personal favorite of the tour.  It's on a picture in the Yacht Club, in a hallway on the way out to see the statue of Ariel.

The first hidden Mickey Steve showed the group was found on the spotted horse in the carousel display in the Boardwalk lobby.  The picture does not give a good idea of scale, but the whole horse is only about 3-4", so you can imagine how small it's "spots" are and how difficult it would be to pick this one out.

There were many more, so be sure to check out the Flickr album from the meet and see all the others.  Oh yeah, and keep your eye out for these the next time your down in Disney World.  I was shocked to see how prevalent the Hidden Mickey is in the World.

We came down to Orlando for MouseFest 2008 - the largest gathering of Disney fans, yesterday. Today, we will begin our MouseFest activities in earnest, including blogging about the events and posting photos and videos.

MouseFest has many events throughout the parks for Disney fans of all ages.  Today's designated parks are Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios.  Tomorrow will be the biggest event of MouseFest, the Mega Mouse Meet.

Keep checking back throughout the weekend for updates.

The planners and organizers for MouseFest 2008 at the Walt Disney World Resort have released the Park Day schedule. This will determine the location of MouseFest activities and probably your Advanced Dining Reservations during the week. Can you believe it's only about six months away?! Here is the schedule:

Thursday 12/11/2008: Magic Kingdom (Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is optional in the evening)
Friday 12/12/2008: Disney's Animal Kingdom/Disney's Hollywood Studios
Saturday 12/13/2008: Mega Mouse Meet/Epcot
Sunday 12/14/2008: Magic Kingdom (Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is optional in the evening)
Monday 12/15/2008: Disney's Hollywood Studios/Epcot

For the "split days" (Friday and Monday), activities will start in one park and transition to the other. There will probably be simultaneous/overlapping events in both parks during the early afternoon on those days, so if you want to make lunchtime Advance Dining Reservations, choose your preferred park and restaurant now, rather than wait until the final event schedule has been posted (sometime in October).

MouseFest dates for 2008: Cruise - 12/7-12/11/2008 Walt Disney World 12/11-12/15/2008

Please remember to think of our travel partner, Destinations in Florida, when booking your resorts, dining, cruises, and tickets for MouseFest 2008.