How Do I Find Caches In Disneyworld?

[Tard]

I am going to Disneyworld in Orlando, FLA and am curious if there are any micros hidden within the park. However, I'm not sure how to search for that, I can't figure out how to get GPS coordinates for the actual parks. Normally I geocache in Washington State and I have a good set of maps, I can look up an area, get exact coordinates and enter those as my 'search center'.

 

I leave Tuesday morning, if someone could help me I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

[+Firefighter Skippy]

Try searching for Orlando FL.

I was looking at Google Earth in that area the other day and noticed several caches in that area but they are virtual or puzzle caches. Remember, Disney IS private property and permission is needed for hides, which probably wont be allowed there.

[magellan315]

Start with this virtual cache located in the Magic Kingdom and click on the nearby caches link.

[Tard]

Yep, that does it for me, perfect, thanks!

[+Isonzo Karst]

There are no physical caches in Disney. There are some virtuals.

[Mr.Yuck]

There are no physical caches in Disney. There are some virtuals.

Yes. There were several physical caches, but they're gone, and it's a long story. The Magic Kingdom virtual with a nearby caches search will work. You'll find six virtuals on the grounds of WDW, including Magic Kingdom. If you're one of those people who get shuttled to and from the airport, and use Disney Transportation, that's about all you'll be able to get.

[+Lone Duck]

I recall reading somewhere (here or Usenet, I can't remember) about GPS use at Disney World. It seems the poster was hassled by Disney security for using a GPS, not for caching but simply tracking their route while around the place.

 

I did have my GPS with me last Spring when I was there, the people checking baggage had no problem with it.

[+IndyTechNerd]

Used mine last week to find 4 of the 6 virtuals there. Didn't go to Animal Kingdom or Fort Wilderness to get the ones there. No one paid any attention. The Magic Kingdom cache is hardest to get dead on because of parades and the Cinderella thing, but it's doable.

[+reveritt]

Pay lots of money and stand in line for a long time.

[+Deliveryguy428]

You don't unless they are virts, all physical type caches were removed a while back which I'm sure we can find later material on this week when they reinstate the search function

[+fishingdude720]

I just got back. I found all of the virtuals in Disney World. also suggest doing the O.C.C.C. TB Hotel which is located behind the convention center not too far up I-drive past Sea World. It is a huge container back in the woods. Just be careful for rattlesnakes. I brought my GPS in with no problem, just slip it in your pocket because they probubly will think it is a bomb

[Mr.Yuck]

You don't unless they are virts, all physical type caches were removed a while back which I'm sure we can find later material on this week when they reinstate the search function

To make a long story very short, The WDW TB Hotel in Downtown Disney sparked an incident with Disney security, and led to all physical caches being removed from WDW. Just guessing, there were close to 10 physical caches. As far as discssion in these forums, I'm sure it happened.

[Mr.Yuck]

Used mine last week to find 4 of the 6 virtuals there.  Didn't go to Animal Kingdom or Fort Wilderness to get the ones there.  No one paid any attention.  The Magic Kingdom cache is hardest to get dead on because of parades and the Cinderella thing, but it's doable.

Animal Kindom sounds interesting (never did it either), but it has no real criteria for logging, which is kind of lame. As far as Magic Kingdom, there is a shockingly little used walk way from Main St. to Tomorrowland I believe, which offers an excellent view of the castle and picture taking with GPS oppourtunities. While doing the virts, be sure to profusely thank the owner of MGM Studio and Epcot, who has had to deal with well over 1,000 confirmation emails since they were placed. I'm sure he just deletes them all without even opening, but at least there's a valid email address, and they remain open

Edited January 30, 2006 by TheWhiteUrkel

[Tard]

I'm doing the picked-up-by-Disney and staying on-site thing, but I've locked several virtual caches into my GPS, probably will walk right past them during the week. Just another fun thing to do while eating a corndog and wearing a Hawaiian shirt looking like a tourist....

 

Thanks for the info, in today's world it's no surprise they don't allow physical caches anymore.

[+Bjorn74]

Girlgeek and I will be dropping out of the Disney circuit several hours before our flight home in May to get a car and hit some caches. I think that's the only way we could really do it well. Maybe we'll scout out some local help to plot an efficient route from the airport.

[+RockyRaab]

I used to live near there. As a NASA spokesman, I got the VIP treatment pretty often (tour of the undergound, secret entrance to Space Mountain head of the line - stuff like that). I'll tell you this:

 

It's probably a balance of nature or yin and yang thing, but for all the "happy face" and smiles you see among the paying guests, if you get crosswise with their Security, you will experience an entirely new attitude. That place has more security - physical, electronic and other - than anyplace but the US Embassy in Baghdad. Maybe even more than THAT! They are SERIOUS at Disney.

[+JDandDD]

We did many of the physical caches before they were pulled. It really is a shame since this added a great deal to our Disney experience. Even though we had been several times over the years geocaching took us to a lot of spots on the property that we hadn't seen before. Wonder if anyone knows whether Disney is open to caching on some basis. Would be nice to see it back under proper controls.

 

It would appear that the cache in question must not have been approved by Disney. It also was across the road on Team Disney (Disney office complex) rather than at Downtown. Cachers crossing the road and looking in the bushes would look very much out of place.

 

JDandDD

[Mr.Yuck]

I'm doing the picked-up-by-Disney and staying on-site thing, but I've locked several virtual caches into my GPS, probably will walk right past them during the week. Just another fun thing to do while eating a corndog and wearing a Hawaiian shirt looking like a tourist....

 

Thanks for the info, in today's world it's no surprise they don't allow physical caches anymore.

Corndog? No. You have to eat a Turkey leg. Why, I don't know, but it's the no. 1 delicacy at Disney. Yes, all my posts to this thread were from the perspective of someone who gets picked up at the airport, and uses Disney mass transit (monorail and buses). Rest assured it all runs on time, and you can go anywhere you want to go and do anything. Renting a car is just a waste of time and money.

[Mr.Yuck]

We did many of the physical caches before they were pulled. It really is a shame since this added a great deal to our Disney experience. Even though we had been several times over the years geocaching took us to a lot of spots on the property that we hadn't seen before. Wonder if anyone knows whether Disney is open to caching on some basis. Would be nice to see it back under proper controls.

 

It would appear that the cache in question must not have been approved by Disney. It also was across the road on Team Disney (Disney office complex) rather than at Downtown. Cachers crossing the road and looking in the bushes would look very much out of place.

 

JDandDD

My last trip (my only as a geocacher), I concentrated mostly on the physicals, so I can still grab most of the virts next time. I even bused to "Lake Todo Estrella" at the All-Star resort, which was one of the very few full-sized caches. It was a great find. My last trip was before the TB hotel was even placed (it only lasted about 6 months), I just know about it. The owner of that TB hotel, a local, used to do a great job of maintaining all the physical caches, which were all admitedly "vacation caches" placed by people.

Edited January 31, 2006 by TheWhiteUrkel

[+sbell111]

... Wonder if anyone knows whether Disney is open to caching on some basis. Would be nice to see it back under proper controls.

...

I spoke to someone at Disney about this a while back. I was told that they prefer not to work with an outside company for this sort of thing and I was denied flat. I've had plans to contact someone else higher up the food chain, but I haven't gotten around to it.

[+sbell111]

...Renting a car is just a waste of time and money.

We used to do the same thing. We realized that waiting for transportation and sitting through any stops prior to ours was wasting our time and lessening the experience. We went back to renting a car and really like the speed and flexibility.

[+JDandDD]

...Renting a car is just a waste of time and money.

We used to do the same thing. We realized that waiting for transportation and sitting through any stops prior to ours was wasting our time and lessening the experience. We went back to renting a car and really like the speed and flexibility.

We tried the transportation once and never again. For our last 14 trips its the rental car route. It saves so much time it is absolutely worth it, even when you stay a monorail resort.

 

Sbell1, nice to hear that you have been in contact (thanks for the reply) and not surprised that you got turned down. They are rightly very security concious. If you find someone further up the food chain and want some support for how much caching adds to the Disney experience contact me and I'll help as I can. They may be missing out on a very positive thing for their business.

 

JDandDD

[+Sevilon]

We had saved a bunch of caches that were in Celebration, Florida (which is connected to WDW), but never had the chance to look for them while we were at Disneyworld recently. We did, however, do a geocache on the Disney owned island in the Bahamas- Castaway Cay. A cast member gave me a hint while I was looking for it. I guess even the Disney rules are more relaxed on an island!

Edited July 23, 2006 by Sevilon

[+parker313]

I'm doing the picked-up-by-Disney and staying on-site thing, but I've locked several virtual caches into my GPS, probably will walk right past them during the week. Just another fun thing to do while eating a corndog and wearing a Hawaiian shirt looking like a tourist....

 

Thanks for the info, in today's world it's no surprise they don't allow physical caches anymore.

Corndog? No. You have to eat a Turkey leg. Why, I don't know, but it's the no. 1 delicacy at Disney. Yes, all my posts to this thread were from the perspective of someone who gets picked up at the airport, and uses Disney mass transit (monorail and buses). Rest assured it all runs on time, and you can go anywhere you want to go and do anything. Renting a car is just a waste of time and money.

No way! You know how much money we saved by driving off property for all our meals?!

 

Of course, we just drove there in the first place, but dang, that food on-site is $$$!

[+markp99]

but dang, that food on-site is $$$!

...and crappy.

[+sbell111]

but dang, that food on-site is $$$!

...and crappy.

Some of it's pretty good. You just have to choose carefully; just like everywhere else.

[+ohio_hiker]

You may also want to look for the disney benchmarks.

 

Check out this web site:

Disney Benchmarks

 

Chris Blank

[+malamute1]

I went to the big mouse factory in june and had fun doing the virtuals as that was all that was available. I managed to log a few in between Disney and the Bahama Bay Resort that we were staying at, but they were mostly tourist types near strip malls. Tried to do springtime cache in celebration, but it was missing, It has since been replaced and it is worth the trip celebration ended up being a neat little town to visit, and has a few traditional caches.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

You know, with how expensive the Disney parks are, I'd rather use my time to enjoy the park for its intended purpose. I can go caching for free just about anywhere else.

[namiboy]

You know, with how expensive the Disney parks are, I'd rather use my time to enjoy the park for its intended purpose. I can go caching for free just about anywhere else.

 

you are correct sir.

[+Teach2Learn]

You know, with how expensive the Disney parks are, I'd rather use my time to enjoy the park for its intended purpose. I can go caching for free just about anywhere else.

 

True, though I think I'd want to find at least one virtual and/or benchmark there so that it could be included in my unofficial caching scrapbook. The remaining 99% of the time would be rides and attractions in the theme parks and recreation/relaxation at a resort hotel. Okay, I want to go now.

[+arpegio]

I used to live near there. As a NASA spokesman, I got the VIP treatment pretty often (tour of the undergound, secret entrance to Space Mountain head of the line - stuff like that). I'll tell you this:

 

It's probably a balance of nature or yin and yang thing, but for all the "happy face" and smiles you see among the paying guests, if you get crosswise with their Security, you will experience an entirely new attitude. That place has more security - physical, electronic and other - than anyplace but the US Embassy in Baghdad. Maybe even more than THAT! They are SERIOUS at Disney.

 

I can vouch for that. I was there on 9/11/01 and the park went to Defcon 10. We had to show ID to get in/out of our resort. I think Disney's self-importance as a terrorist target is a bit far-fetched, but they do live in their own little world.

 

On the bright side, I was there a few more days, and after 9/11, they opened the park back up, and since all flights were cancelled and most people left, we had the park to ourselves. There will probably never be anything like it again. We rode all the rides with no lines; hung out with the characters (because there were no children). I remember eating in the cafeteria that had a buffet and it was perfect, untouched and we were the only ones there, and micky and goofy were throwing chairs across the room at each other to amuse themselves.

[+Team Teuton]

Yeah, you don't want to leave a handgun in the room safe when you check out either. They hate that.

[+sbell111]

You know, with how expensive the Disney parks are, I'd rather use my time to enjoy the park for its intended purpose. I can go caching for free just about anywhere else.

On the other hand, I know of many families who went to Disney and looked for other activities to use up a day or two to cut down on costs. If you are there for a week, each day that you don't go to a theme park (and eat there) will save you hundreds of dollars.

 

Hit the parks, have fun, but get out and check out the area. I would suggest a drive to Winter Park. It is a beautiful little town just outside of Orlando. It has several very good caches and is the home of my alma mater, Rollins College.

[dwarven1]

Yeah, you don't want to leave a handgun in the room safe when you check out either. They hate that.

I'd love to hear the story behind that...

[+K0BKL]

I will never have the money to go anywhere near Orlando,

let alone any theme parks.

Must be nice to have that kind of cash!

[+BlueDeuce]

My wife earned our family a trip to Disney World through her business. That came from a lot of hard work for her and our family, but as one of the perks for doing well, and not always being home in the evenings or weekends, we’re going to take it and enjoy it to the fullest extent. It’s not always the Got-Rocks family that gets to go to Disney.

 

As for not caching while you are there, oookay your choice. Let’s see, had my picture taken in front of the Magic Kingdom Palace, claimed a cache. Was waiting for a parade to start and spent a few minutes playing picture search at the (amazing) Tree of Life, claimed a cache. Got tired of standing in line and went and claimed a cache. Peace of mind restored.

 

Personally, I recommend NOT taking a GPS into the parks. It’s one less thing to carry (and lose) and if you study the cache or print off info you don’t need a gps to get to the location. You still do have a few steps to do to claim the find. They are not all just a ‘gimme’ cache.

 

Oh, and definately do the Fast Pass tickets. Go to a big ride, get a Fast Pass, come back later. It's a mistake not to. Trust me. Feel free to Ignore everything else I said except about the Fast Pass tickets.