Gumball Rally 2015 Results

This is the post you’ve been waiting for! Thanks for your patience.

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, the Gumball Rally is a competition to see which team can complete the most attractions at the Disneyland Resort in a single day. To keep the game fun and challenging, elements of the game are changed from year to year to keep all the teams on their toes. The 2015 event was the 9th such competition hosted by MiceChat.com and the most challenging to date.

This year’s Gumball Rally started out the night before the big race, with a carb-loading (or chicken-loading) dinner at Tangerine Cafe at The Anabella Hotel. Attendees got their packets – weeelllll, MOST of their packets – no game booklets til game day, sorry folks!

Early registrants also got a look at the gorgeous trophy created by Charlie Arnold for this year, inspired by Disneyland’s 60th Anniversary, and were able to pick up logo t-shirts and pins to remember the event. There was good food and great camaraderie, and just about everyone hit the hay early because Satruday would be the Big Day.

Home base for the morning was, once again, the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney, and, just like last year, we took over the entire joint. Check-in was a breeze this year, thanks to fantastic organization by Tiffany Wilhelm and Michele King. Due to the expected heat, our fearless leader Dusty Sage took time to remind the teams to hydrate, (which you should do even if you’re not doing a Gumball Rally, says Noe) and then broke the stunning news to them:

Things that Gumball Rally Participants Must Not Do in the 2015 competition:
Cheat. Split up. Use phones. USE FASTPASS (Gumballers: “WHAT!?!”). Use disability passes. Use Single Rider. The playing field was leveled this year and everyone had an equal chance. But wait! There’s more!

Two Parks, No Waiting – Choose Wisely
At the Picnic Area, where the rally officially started and finished this year, team captains were given a choice: Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. The rally was spread out over both parks. Teams needed to complete the booklet from one park to receive the booklet from the other park.

A crack team of spotters made sure that everyone played fair and had a great time, while other volunteers stayed in the picnic area to trade maps and assist the teams.

What Constitutes a Nub?
Players had questions about certain attractions: on Autopia, the answer could be seen best from one track. In Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, there were questions about what constituted a chicken leg and what constituted a “nub”. Soarin’ was closed altogether. The scoring team took all of this into consideration when doing the counts at the end of the Rally. If you answered the Soarin’ question, you were disqualified. The main rule of the game is to only answer questions for attractions you have completed, whether you know the answer or not!

As afternoon began to move towards evening, teams began to arrive just outside the picnic area to cheers and applause! Exhausted but happy, everyone rested a bit before heading over to The Anabella Hotel’s pool area. VIPs enjoyed a lovely dinner poolside, then everyone gathered for the evening’s festivities, including the annual tradition of soaking those tired tootsies in the pool and jacuzzi. Ahhhh. Sweet relief.

Hastin Zylstra (AKA Monorail Man) knocked it out of the park with this year’s game show. How dedicated is our Hastin? He stood at the Disneyland crosswalk in polo and khakis, holding a clipboard, and surveyed 100 people leaving the park. Survey says: RALLY FEUD! Contestants had to guess what the majority of people said about their Disneyland visit. Some of the day guests’ answers surprised us Disneyland veterans! It was a lot of fun. The boys even built a set! They had a working buzzer and lighted podium and scoreboard!

The prizes were donated by Fairy Godmother Travel, the main sponsor of the event. Teresa Cory, the head fairy godmother, even dressed the part!

Next: the moment of truth. Special awards were announced: 

• Best Team Name – Bambo
• Best Team Logo – The Hitchhiking Ghosts
• Team Spirit Award – Wilderness Explorers
• Gumball Rally Traditions – Michelle & Jean Onstad – Pink Elephants
• Individual Spirit Award – Lola Thomas

Followed by the Gumball Rally winning teams. They are:

Below are listed the results of teams who scored 20 points or more. If you don’t see your team on here, it’s correct to assume that your team was number 59. . . . or . . . you might have been disqualified. A few teams were caught either splitting up or using fastpass this year. One team violated the “Obey Disneyland rules and castmembers at all times” rule and had an argument with Disneyland Security. A big no no and an immediate disqualification. Be a good sport folks, the spirit of the Rally is all in good, clean, honest fun!

Where total scores are tied, return times were used to break the tie.

Place	Team Name	DL Score	DCA Score	Total Score
1	Grim Grinning Hosts	17	12	29
2	Team Excuse Me…	15	12	27
3	Gumball Adventures of Pooh & Piglet	16	11	27
4	The Abominables	16	11	27
5	T-Town Tinkerbells	16	11	27
6	The Hitchhiking Ghosts	15	11	26
7	Dream a Fantastic Dreamers	16	10	26
8	Tweedle He and Tweedle Mum	16	10	26
9	Purple People Movers	15	10	25
10	Team BAD	14	11	25
11	Fastest Riders in the Wilderness	14	11	25
12	Powered By Pixie Dust	18	7	25
13	Scarers of the Month	14	11	25
14	Poor Unfortunate Soles	15	10	25
15	Mara’s Eyes	13	12	25
16	Los Disney Hermanos	14	11	25
17	TEAM NESBITT!	14	10	24
18	No Time for Snack Bar	12	12	24
19	Why is the Rum Always Gone!?	13	11	24
20	RIDERS OF THE LOST PARK 2!	14	10	24
21	n3bws	13	11	24
22	Matterhorn Mounties	14	10	24
23	The California Adventurers	13	11	24
24	2 Fast 2 Furious	12	12	24
25	Beauties and the Dad	14	10	24
26	Preston’s Silly Samphonies	13	11	24
27	Chicken Gumball	13	10	23
28	Skip The Drama Stay With Mama	13	10	23
29	Avengers	12	11	23
30	Kevin’s a Girl?!	12	11	23
31	D-Land Junkies	13	10	23
32	Wilderness Explorers	13	10	23
33	Neverland Travel Company	13	10	23
34	Stan Grunkle Stan	14	9	23
35	The Three Caballeros	13	10	23
36	The ARIELists	12	11	23
37	Ghoulish Delights	13	10	23
38	Off With Your Head!	11	11	22
39	Team Toto-GO!	12	10	22
40	Timmy and the Rats	12	10	22
41	Mickey’s Agents of M.O.U.S.E.	12	10	22
42	Bambo	12	10	22
43	Tourists in Tiara	13	9	22
44	Scruffy Nerfherders	11	11	22
45	The Chemists	12	10	22
46	The Crystal Tsums	14	8	22
47	The Fantastic Fantasmic Dragons	11	10	21
48	The Beatle Girls	11	10	21
49	Trident	12	9	21
50	The Wonderlanders	12	9	21
51	The Californians	11	10	21
52	Vegas Rebels	10	11	21
53	Goofballz	11	10	21
54	Team Wonderland	10	10	20
55	Beauty and the Beast	10	10	20
56	Villains in the Outfield	10	10	20
57	No Longer a Planet	10	10	20
58	The Orphaned Dwarfs	11	9	20

In terms of fun and friendship, everyone was a winner! Thanks so much to all of our teams for  your spirit and energy. You are truly the ones who make this event so much fun!

We have a gallery of images for you to enjoy from the 2015 Rally. Much thanks to Alan Kawaratani for the photos. Please scroll all the way down for all the images.

Speaking of thank yous . . . it takes a huge team to pull together the Gumball Rally. While this isn’t a complete list, these are the people who were responsible for key tasks this year.

• Event Producer:  Dusty Sage
• Rally Coordinator and Keeper of the Gumballs: Michele King
• Staffing/volunteer coordinator: Tiffany Wilhelm
• Game Show:  Hastin Zylstra (Host, Designer, and Producer), Dan Peterson (Set design), Teresa Cory of Fairy Godmother Travel (Prize Fairy)
• Pasta Party: Jennifer Chavez (Party Producer), Michele King (Registration)
• Gamebook writer: Matt Juergens
• Game Book Layout and Event Graphics: Anthony Hays
• Gumball Trophy Producer: Charlie Arnold
• Greeters: Lu DeLucy. Rick Wright, Peter Smith, Shelly (Fab) & Noe Valladolid,Teresa Cory
• Registration team: Michele King (lead), Michelle Hamand, Melissa Parsons, Jacqueline LaRiccia, Donia Bencke, Jeffrey Niederauer, Carol Bischoff, Stephanie Fix, James Freitas, Shelly Valladoid, Troy Parsons, Chris St Clair
• Photographer: Alan Kawaratai
• Scoring Team: Michelle Hamand (lead), Matt Hamand, Matt Juergens, James Freitas, Melissa Parsons, Michele King
• Ride Testing Crew: Matt Juergens (lead), Michelle Hamand, Matt Hamand, Tiffany Wilhelm, James Freitas, Melissa Parsons, Hastin Zylstra, Dusty Sage
• Spotter Crew: Thank you to our amazing team of spotters who spent a hot day in the parks keeping an eye on everything!
• Results Column and Photo Round Up – Shelly Valladolid & Dusty Sage

And a HUGE thanks to our wonderful sponsors who made this year’s event possible:

Next year will be our 10th anniversary of the Gumball Rally and will be held on May 14th.

To commemorate the occasion, we are offering a Disney Cruise the day after the Rally.

MiceChat 3 Night Baja Cruise – May 15, 2016
Have you been wanting to try a Disney cruise but not spend a lot of money to do so? We’ve got a special 3 night Disney Wonder cruise just for you. Those of you living in Southern California won’t even need airfare as this is a trip to Baja Mexico leaving and returning to beautiful San Diego, CA. This trip leaves one day after the world famous MiceChat Gumball Rally (Our 10th anniversary of the big event), consider this a SAIL-ebration. Book this one soon, rates are at their lowest now and will rise quickly.

For more details on the Gumball Rally cruise, you can email us at

[email protected]. Our magical Fairy Godmother will fill you in on all the details.

Thanks to each and every one of you for a fabulous Gumball Rally. Next year’s Rally will be Disneyland only and will be more of a traditional challenge (but with some fun 10th anniversary surprises). You can join the mailing list for the 2016 Rally:

Pasta Party Photos

ESPN Zone Photos

Rally Park Photos

Anabella Hotel Award Party Photos