Cast Members Partake In Annual After-Hours Activity with New Theme This Year, Goofy's MysTIKI Tour

Goofy's Mystery Tour, a popular after-hours event exclusive to Cast Members, took on a different identity and theme this year, becoming Goofy's MysTIKI Tour.

What’s Happening: 

• Recently, an annual event just for Walt Disney World Cast Members took place, with hundreds descending upon Disney’s Animal Kingdom for this year’s edition of Goofy’s Mystery Tour. 
• However, this year, the event took on a bit of a different identity as Goofy’s MysTIKI Tour, inspired by the classic attraction, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. 
• The annual event, which has evolved over more than 30 years, is a cast-exclusive puzzle filled event filled with storytelling, teamwork, competition, and a bit of nostalgia. 

• With Goofy as the host, the teams traverse a park after hours. In this instance, that would be Disney’s Animal Kingdom, to solve puzzles and trivia in a fun filled race that started as a bold experiment over three decades ago. 

• Cast Members from all lines of business at Walt Disney World can form a four-person team and compete. Each team also has the opportunity to make their fourth member a family member or friend who doesn’t work at Walt Disney World, allowing for one special guest to join. 
• This year’s event at Disney’s Animal Kingdom featured 300 teams of four - meaning 1,200 Cast Members and their friends and family were able to partake in the trivia, puzzles, and challenges. 
• Goofy’s Mystery Tour - or MysTIKI Tour - is one example of the exclusive offerings that make working at Walt Disney World special, and is perhaps a small reason why Walt Disney World has a staff retention rate of over 80%, with an average tenure of 12 years. With over 80,000 Cast Members, Walt Disney World remains the largest single-site employer in the United States. 

Years Gone By: 

• I participated in Goofy’s Mystery Tour when I was a Cast Member many moons ago, and what I want to know is if those who compete must still do what could be the most challenging aspect of the whole event. 
• At the time, which was in the late 2000’s (back when the Streets of America at Disney’s Hollywood Studios were still a thing), the four-member teams were all locked to each other via linking bungee cords. 
• This was for a number of reasons, but largely so one member couldn’t look up answers and return - or even separate and work on multiple puzzles at once. 
• Many Cast Members who are fortunate enough to compete will usually talk about the memories they made - but one clue (which also dates when I did the event) stumped everyone on my team and will remain with me to this day. 
• It was a numbers puzzle, and you had to solve an equation using the numbers provided by the clue. The number we couldn’t figure out for our lives (at the time) was accompanied by the clue “Bruno’s Perfection.”
• Now it seems easy to figure out that the number is 10 - a clear reference to Dancing With The Stars, but at the time, the show was very early on into its run and the clue flew over our collective team's (and many other team’s) heads.