Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek
Anyway, when I got home Saturday night, the confirmation e-mail finally arrived. I am going to Enchanted Kingdom!!! My mom wanted to come, but it was a Sunday, and I might arrive home at around 11PM. She has work come Monday so she said she would rather just stay home. Maybe the family can go to EK in the future.
The detailed entry about our day went will be on the next post, for now I will concentrate on Magikalympics. It's a new program Enchanted Kingdom has as a form of team building for big group of friends or companies. This was the highlight as to why we were all here, Enchanted Kingdom wants 50 bloggers to experience the Magikalympics. Actually, some bloggers have already guessed that there will be some games because when we got to the theme park, we were asked to go to the office to get our IDs and other stuffs that included a big scarf. There were five different colors - Green, Purple, Yellow, Orange, and Blue, and I was part of the Blue team. At first I was a bit worried that I don't get to see that much blue scarf, but happy that I am teammates with Fran and Jonel (I met them last year).
After lunch, we were grouped according to colors, and were asked to have an animal mascot. I am not sure why they chose it, but it was really wacky to have the animal "swine" as our mascot. With the issue of Swine Flu, and our color as blue, it kinda matched. Get it? Swine Flu = Swine Blue.
Our team consisted of: AJ (leader), Nina, Fritz, Fran, Jenn (me), Jona, Gail (whom I met in 2008 WordCamp Philippines - she's one of the speakers), Don, Abbie, and Jonel. With the preliminary / warm up game, I already knew I am in the company of wacky people, and I am so happy to be teammates with them.
So here's how the Magikalympics go. It's basically like the Amazing Race, wherein there are 10 pitstops that the teams has to complete. The team with the least amount of time spent will win. Each team started on a different point, so let me just guide you our own journey.
#1 Anchors Away - Teams split into two, five will be the thrower, five will be the catcher. The object of the game was to have the two mini teams sit on the last two rows of the boat and the catcher has to catch 15 tomatoes out of the 25 tomatoes the throwers have (5 tomatoes each thrower). At first we thought the catchers will have to catch the tomatoes by hand, so some of us (including me) volunteered to be the throwers. We realized later that the people who were afraid of the ride has to be the catchers. It was a fun ride, but very scary and it was tough on the abs. Sadly we didn't catch 15 tomatoes, so we were given 2 minutes penalty for it.
#2 Dodgem Bump Cars - The team will be divided into five, the first team will go have to retrieve one flag then bump the next car. As soon as the second team drive to get a flag, a different car will enter preventing the team to get the flag. When the second team bumped the car of the third team, in comes the second different car. The object of this was to get all five flags under five minutes. The Orange team were just about to do this one when we reached the pitstop, so we were able to see how the game was done that allowed us to strategize. The great drivers were the first ones to go, and Jonel and I were the last team to get the flag because none of us were drivers. We finished this one in 2 minutes 55 seconds.
#3 Wheel of Fate - Two separate gondolas will be occupied by the teams (five members each). There was a questionnaire (10 questions each set) that the team has to answer. The answers to the questions will be seen from atop the Ferris Wheel. Should the team get 15 correct answers, they are good to go, otherwise they have to do the ride again, or inccur a two minute penalty. We were able to answer 16 questions, so we were given 2 minutes bonus, offsetting the 2 minutes penalty we had a while back.
#4 Flying Fiesta - All team members must to take the ride then solve a puzzle after the ride. There were two puzzles that we needed to do and thankfully, Jonel was able to quickly do the first puzzle that allowed us to finish fast.
#5 Arcade Building - We were then instructed to go to the Arcade Building where we needed to sing the Karaoke! The song was Spandau Ballet's "Gold," and we need to have a score of 98 to go to the next stop. Our leader said it's just a matter of how loud your voice is, so he volunteered to take the mic, although we would sing, too. We got a score of 98, and were given another 2 minutes bonus.
#6 Grand Carousel - Only six members of the team have to participate on this one, so Gail and Nina went to the shop to buy some water while Abbie and I stayed at the exit to watch our team and their things. Each playing member was given a picture of a horse and they have to ride it. This was the easiest pitstop, if you ask me because while waiting for their turn, they were already given the go signal to locate the horse. If they gave the pictures as soon as they enter the ride, then it would have been a tough task.
#7 Rio Grande Rapids - We didn't take the ride. What we had to do was to guess the movie title in a form of charades. What made this one difficult was that we were very far from each other. Our teammates were in that balcony. The theme was current movies, and they acted "Fast and the Furious 4" and "Seventeen Again."
#8 Log Jam - The team was separated into three mini teams, (3-3-4) and all of us were asked to wear a headband with plastic cup attached to it. They poured water in the cups, and what we have to do was to protect the water in the cup during the ride. It was a tough ride in itself and having to take care of cups on our head made it more difficult! I was teamed with Jonel and Fran. Jonel was able to save half of the water after the first drop, but he forgot to tilt his head come the second drop that all of the water from his cup poured on me! Fran's cup got emptied the first time, so I was happy I was able to save some water from my cup. At the end of the ride, all team members have to pour the water into a container with mark. We were able to hit the mark, so we got bonus minutes again.
#9 Rialto - All of us had to take the ride, watch the mini movie then answer the questionnaire afterwards. There were ten questions, and we just have to get 6 correct answers. We were able to answer the first 6 questions, so in order to save time, we didn't answer the remaining four questions.
#10 Junior Kart Trak - The last stop. The team had to form a line using the items we have on our bodies and reach the end marker in under five minutes. The contents of our bags cannot be used, but the bags were allowed, as well as the contents of our pockets. It was a tough one because the Purple team were just about to finish. We put everything we can in the line, our leader lined his cigarettes one by one, while Jonel lined up all his money (bills and all). Some of my team members even put their credit cards! But I guess the real trooper will have to be Gail, who bravely took off his shirt to put on the line. Good thing she was wearing a big sports bra, which she uses during gym classes. We didn't finish this one so we were given 2 minutes penalty, but it was so fun!
We all then went to the Bandstand to gather all the letters from each of the stop directions and unscramble the letters. The Purple team were the first teams to arrive, but we were named the overall winner after they computed all time (bonuses and penalties). There were only five Gift Certificates for an overnight stay in Tagaytay, so we just raffled who will get the GCs. Gail and Nina took one, while Don and Fritz took the other. The three GCs were raffled and the three Js won - Jonel, Jona, and me (Jenn).
It has been wonderful. All of us 50 bloggers just started speaking our minds and hearts through our blogs, and now we were all together celebrating the spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie. Happy to have been part of the winning team, but happier was I just to be with them.
*** Jenn ***
newlyweds | May 16, 2009 12:50 AM
Wow that looks like tons of fun, gotta love the name of your team. Love the pictures!
♥peachkins♥ | May 16, 2009 7:23 AM
wow..ang saya naman nito..