Day 10: A Whole New World

Keys to the Kingdom

Hi everyone! McKenna and Alyssa here, checking in for today’s blog post. This morning we had the opportunity to take the Keys to the Kingdom tour, a behind the scenes look at Magic Kingdom. This 4-hour tour really did open up “A Whole New World” to us. The tour focused on the 4 pillars that all Disney cast members uphold: safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. While we thought that the tour would focus on the backstage operations that contribute to the safety and the efficiency of Walt Disney World, we were amazed by how every element of Walt Disney World is designed to enhance the Disney experience. In other words, it’s all about the show.

The coolest part of the tour was seeing all of the hidden details that contribute to the show. My (McKenna) personal favorite was learning about all of the names printed on the windows of the storefronts on Main Street. It was so awesome learning that each of the names was carefully selected to recognize people who had made significant contributions to the Walt Disney Company. These included family friends of the Disneys who helped with land acquisition for the new theme park and the best friend of both Walt and Roy Disney. The most recently added name was Meg Crofton. She retired as Disney World’s president June 1, 2015 and was honored in October. To keep with atmosphere of Main Street, each honoree is given a title or a time-period-appropriate business that corresponds with their contributions to the company.

My (Alyssa) favorite part of the tour was learning about the Roy and Walt’s partnership. Before today I did not know that Walt Disney had an older brother. It turns out not only did he have a brother in Roy, he had a best friend. Roy was an integral part in the making Walt’s visions for Disney World a reality. Since Walt passed away from complications from lung cancer before the park was opened, Roy was the one who took charge and made sure that not only did the park open on time, but that the project was also below budget. Our tour guide then went on to describe the opening day of Disney World during which Roy started to give the dedication, but was overcome with emotion at the loss of his brother. As a result he left the stage, and returned with Mickey, who he saw as the embodiment of Walt. 

As we moved through the park, and the utilidors underneath the park, it was evident that the history of the family and the company is closely linked with the showmanship and presentation of Walt Disney World today. Throughout the park, for instance, you can see examples of both earlier audio animatronics like the bears in the Country Bear Jamboree and current audio animatronics like those found on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

After riding Pirates of the Caribbean, we headed down to the utilidors. Unfortunately, we can’t really talk much about what we saw and what we were told because there is nothing more important than preserving the magic. However, we found that by the end of the tour, Disney World seemed even more magical to us because we discovered just a portion of the work that goes into putting on the spectacular show that is Magic Kingdom.

Probability and Liar’s Dice

However, since this May X is not entitled Mouse and the Mouse, at some point the fun had to stop at Magic Kingdom so that we could have a different kind of fun learning some math. Today’s class was a bit different. And so begins my (Alyssa) tale of sorrow and great loss. To introduce the new topic of probability, the class was divided into two groups and taught the game of Liar’s Dice, made famous by Pirates of the Caribbean.

This game is basically a more risky, dice version of the card game B.S. Each player guesses the total number of dice of a particular number held by the collective group of players. Each subsequent bet must increase in either dice value or number of dice. For example, if the person before you guesses there are at least 4 dice showing the number 5, you could bet that there are at least 5 dice showing the number 5 or 4 dice showing the number 6. When a player gives a bet that seems too high the next person can call “liar.” At this point, all players show their dice. If you are correct that the player’s guess was too high, he or she loses a die. If you guess incorrectly you suffer the loss. Once you lose all five of your starting dice, you are out.

Once the game started, one by one my worthy opponents fell. With four people left, I was in the lead with four dice. However, the tides quickly turned when the other players started teaming up against me. I would like to note, I played a polite and completely innocent game by rarely challenging the claim of the player before me. Despite their mischievous methods, I was able to use my "expansive" high school knowledge of probability, and my keen power to tell when people are bluffing to outlast both Molly and Dr. Hutson. However, since it was 3 versus 1 they whittled me down to two dice, and I could not recover my losses. While my blogging partner may seem docile in her account of Disney let me assure you that she is devious when it comes to betting and weighing her odds. She also has a knack for disarming opponents with talk of pizza!  So at the end of this game Maria, and unfortunately McKenna, won the highly coveted treats.

Just to defend myself (McKenna) a little bit, Alyssa played a phenomenal game. I do have a fair amount of experience with dice games, and we might have teamed up on her just a little bit! In the end, our friendship survived my victory, and my parents are even more concerned that I’ll run off to Las Vegas instead of finishing my education. For more on that, visit my bio page (http://mathandthemouse.blogspot.com/p/mckenna-luzynski.html).

After our strenuous class, we were given the rest of the evening to meet with our groups to work on our new projects. This time, we will be using genetic algorithms to create the optimal route to visit a certain list of attractions in Magic Kingdom. With the rest of our free time, we will be washing clothes and catching up on our sleep so that we can tackle tomorrow’s challenges—whether they come in the form of genetic algorithms or Liar’s Dice!

Written by:

Alyssa Ciurlik and McKenna Luzynski