geocaching at the world

[Rayman]

To the best of my knowledge, there were once seven physical geocaches in Disney World, but the last of them were pulled by Disney security in April 2005. They were located at these locations: Tom Sawyer Island, the Norway stave church, at the lake near All-Star Movies, Coronado Springs, and two in Downtown Disney West Side. I also believe there was one near the walkway to the International Gateway from Yacht & Beach Club, but I can't find the geocache listing for it. All that is left now are six 'virtual' caches where you need to go to a certain place and look for clues to answer a question(s). There is no physical cache container there. It should also be noted that there are nine active caches down in Celebration.

As an avid geocacher for several years, I would love to see some in Disney World again since I missed when all the above caches were hidden. Will it ever happen? I highly doubt it. In the meantime, you can visit some waymarks instead.

Edit: Wow, I didn't realize that was my first ever post. I thought I made one before, but I guess not.

 

[theverynk]

*Confunded look*
I'm still lost.

 

[bugsbunny]

To give a somewhat brief idea and history....

GPS devices were regulated by the Dept. of Defense that they couldn't pinpoint withing like a 100 yards or something. I forget the exact amount. I had some friends that were into geocaching but it wasn't very fun to do when you could only get within 100 yards or feet of a very well hidden object in the woods, etc.

What you do is take something like a coffee can or a used army surplus ammo container and put some trinkets and a log book in there. Then you hide it in the middle of no where or "plain sight" and the post the long/lat coordinates on a geocaching website.

Then you go look for this stuff with your new GPS that you paid $900 for and wander around because you can't get close enough because of the DoD regulations. I did it once and was like "this is supposed to be fun? I'd rather drop my wallet in a lake and look for that. It woudl be the same effect!" :shrug:

Then the DoD dropped all the GPS regulations in the late 90's (I beleive) and now you can get within a few feet of where you need to be. At that point, I found it pointless other than doing it once or twice for the "Neato!" factor. I mean, whats the difference if I told you that there is a box at the corner of First and Main or if I told you that there is a box at 35N at 73W? IMHO.

I did do it when I went out to Yellowstone and borrowed my buddies GPS since I was looking for ghost towns in teh middle of no where. Found one that was "protected" by a roving band of big horn sheep. They look cute from far away, but not real close up!

I did find a dollar bill in one cache out in Yellowstone that had a wheresgeorge.com stamp on it. Ran the serial numbers and found that it came from Florida, then to Hawaii, and then left in Yellowstone. I took that and I can't remember what I left for it was years ago.

But I can't see goecaching EVER taking place in WDW. First off, people would be trying to bury stuff in a park or ending up where they should not be. Second, if they did outside a park, you will end up with people pulling over on the shoulder of a road and then trekking into gator filled swamps in search of a box holding dime store trinkets!

now that GPS is everywhere and that you can run Google Maps on your phone, goecaching has fallen to the wayside in any urban area and in a rural area, I cant see driving 43 miles given the price of gas!

 

[Phonedave]

do you think that disney will ever allow geocaching at the world or even make geocaches themselves to put in the world. Also this whole disney night night kingdom thing does seem very possible to me with the whole interactive harry potter land so do you think if they did this night kingdom they might even incorporate geocaching into that. If you do not know what geocaching is go to www.geocaching.com

In a word - No

Groundspeak - the company that does geocaching, among other things, does not allow caches on any property that requires an admission fee, so that rules out posting caches on the geocaching servers

There used to be Geocaches at WDW. There was a very nice one hidden in the rafters of the Stave Church in Norway. There were also a couple outside of DTD and along with world gateway, among other places. WDW sort of turned a blind eye to them untill one day a guest saw a person hiding or retreiving one, and called WDW security to report a bomb. After that WDW pulled all the caches on site.

I found a few of them while they were still there - I haven't geocached in quite some time. I had 229 finds in something like 6 or 7 states when I stopped about 2 years ago. I may have to start again, it will get me back out hiking.

Here is the cache that was in Norway

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d56a336e-06da-4bd5-a2c9-626024f0b644

There are also some active virtual caches in WDW still

I am Phonedave over on the Geocaching site as well.

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=f621fee1-60d5-4b29-ac8a-c8e35c77a757

If that floats anybodys boat.

-dave

 

[Andrew54]

hmm... are there any caches in Disney World yet? Ill be checking when I go in December, I think disney should jump in on this and have their own.

 

[Laura]

me, I do it when I go out hiking or camping all the time and there are also entire groups dedicated to urban 'caching also. It's not always as simple as it seems.

My husband and my 8 year old do the whole geocache thing whenever they are camping or hiking as well. My son loves doing it.

On 2 occasions a friend and I were taking Disney vacations within a couple days of each other, so we have tried TWICE to leave a little hidden note for the other to find when they arrived, in very obscure places that we didn't think even the most meticulous janitor would find in a million years. Well the janitors obviously DID find them - both times. We had no luck and haven't tried again since. :lol:

 

[Nemo14]

Uponastar (Dot) left me something under a window sill last month since I was going the day after she left. All I found there was an old piece of gum though, so I called her and thanked her for the gum.:king:

 

[unkadug]

Disney frowns upon guests leaving hidden packages at the parks.

 

[DisneyCanadian]

So it's like searching for Hidden Mickey's, but not Hidden Mickey's. You are looking for something completely random with the help of a GPS device.

 

[Oriolesmagic]

I've always wanted to try doing that but just never have gotten around to it.

 

[unkadug]

I've always wanted to try doing that but just never have gotten around to it.

here ya go:

 

[Oriolesmagic]

here ya go:

Haha thanks man.:lol:

 

[Phonedave]

So it's like searching for Hidden Mickey's, but not Hidden Mickey's. You are looking for something completely random with the help of a GPS device.

Well not completely random. There are some popular cache cases - nalgene bottles, M&M tubes, Ammo Cans and Altoids Tins (which are popular but horrible, they leak, rust, and fall apart)

Most people who cache for a while develop what is called "cache sense". You would be suprised how you develop a sense to spot hiding places. I have found caches without even looking, just out hiking. You see somthing like a fallen tree, but the end of it has branches leaning up against it. It immediately appears "not normal". SO I go over, move the sticks and bingo, there is an ammo can in there.

-dave

 

[Andrew54]

Disney frowns upon guests leaving hidden packages at the parks.

It only really would need to be a log, but oh well. Its not like theres not enough to do at Disney anyway! I just thought it would be a neat idea to have a little micro tube.

 

[Phonedave]

It only really would need to be a log, but oh well. Its not like theres not enough to do at Disney anyway! I just thought it would be a neat idea to have a little micro tube.

It would be fun, but the problem is not with the cache size, but with the searching for it part.

Part of what makes urban caching so difficult is that it is right in the public eye.


Searching for micros while other people are watching you is not that easy. People get all jumpy and call the cops. It's happend to me before, thats why i tend not to urban cache.

I can see why WDW had them removed.

-dave

 

[pilka214]

people used to geocache in the world a few years ago... however it caused some security problems.

a person would leave an m&m mini tube in the viking museum in the norway pavilion. However guests seeing someone replace a small tube above an exhibit called it into security so now geocaching is no longer allowed in WDW

 

[dznygirl64]

So this geo thing is all about leaving trash around for other people to find?Wow sounds like hours of fun.Put down your books turn off your computer and go out and enjoy real life.

 

[Phonedave]

people used to geocache in the world a few years ago... however it caused some security problems.

a person would leave an m&m mini tube in the viking museum in the norway pavilion. However guests seeing someone replace a small tube above an exhibit called it into security so now geocaching is no longer allowed in WDW

It was not only that one. Off the top of my head, there was a micro tethered to a lampost outside the international gateway and another one by the bus stop at DTD.

There were a few others that I can't recall right now.

All have been removed (and there was an M&M's tube and a Altoids tin - both were outside the Stave Church, up in the rafters. People had problems with it because it was quite high, and hard to reach)

-dave

 

[KrumBen]

now that GPS is everywhere and that you can run Google Maps on your phone, goecaching has fallen to the wayside in any urban area and in a rural area, I cant see driving 43 miles given the price of gas!

LOL! I guess you don't geocache much at all. Urban hides are a blast! In all fairness, your post is 4 years old but even still...

Disney has contacted FGA and asked if we'll go to one of their cast member trainings to provide information about geocaching. I can't wait to see where this goes.

 

[jmenjes]

If anyone is into Munzee (munzee.com), there's a lot of virtual Munzees all around WDW. I scored just over 2700 points from Munzee hunting back in December at the World.