Newsletter 11 December 2006
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More holiday happenings! Including info on the Give-A-Gift and Holiday Quest events!
Yavn Speaks!
Home For The Holidays!
Well, after a week plus of being on the road, I'm very happy to report the 'Yavn World Tour' is finally over and I'm back at home! It was a full week of Disney Park goodness - last week I was at Walt Disney World and on Saturday and Sunday I was at Disneyland! Very few people get to see both parks in the same week, but it always amazes me how each park is special in its own unique way. My pal Jake will tell you all about the trip and all of the cool stuff we saw (including our Winter Summerland Mini Golf rematch – not to worry I putted my way to another victory…).Before getting into this week's news, thanks for your patience during the 'Build Your Space Mountain' Ride Competition. We took a bit longer to finish the room judging and awarding the prizes but in the end finally awarded the winners – part of reason results were delayed was because we had so many great rides to check out (it was really difficult to pick the winners), the bigger reason was that most of the team was traveling and we didn't quite get everything sorted out before we took off. And yes, I got your comments about not letting you know what the prizes were up front, sorry. In the future we will let you know what cool stuff you can win when we launch the event. All in all though, I hope everyone had fun – and again, I'm sorry for the delays.
Give and Receive!
You asked for it, so it's back for an encore this year. As promised last week here is the skinny on this year's Give–A–Gift!Give A Gift! Do you have a friend in VMK who deserves a special gift? Maybe you're worried you won't be able to find them in the game to give them the gift, or maybe you want to give it secretly. Well, we have a special item set aside for just such an occasion. Just let us know who that special someone is and just like Santa, we'll deliver the goods. Here's how it works:
– Beginning Friday December 15, click the 'Contact Us' link and select the Give-A-Gift option.
– Tell us the name of the VMK friend you want to give a gift to. Be sure you give us their VMK character name and this is important - spell it correctly! Sorry but we can't deliver gifts to invalid names.
– You can give a gift to as many Friends as you like, but YOU MUST USE SEPARATE ENTRIES FOR EACH PERSON.
– 500 credits will be deducted from your VMK credits for each gift you give. If you don't have enough credits, your gift won't be delivered.
– Gifts are delivered anonymously - your friend won't know you gave it to them unless you tell them.
– The final date to Give-A-Gift is Sunday, December 21, 2006 and all gifts will be delivered Tuesday, December 26, 2006.
You won't know what this year's gift is until the 26th of December!
Holiday Quest
Just a quick reminder that the Holiday Quest is live on both coasts! Visit either Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and complete the Quest before January 2nd to get those Holiday cards!
The Decorative Holiday Snowman is one of three collectable Holiday cards you can get by completing the Holiday Quest.
Can't make it to the either park before the holidays are over? Then why not play the in-game Santa Clause Quest? The Quest is based on all three Santa Clause movies, just get out those DVD's, watch and you could score a Cooke Tree!
The Cookie Tree.
Holiday Goodies Galore!
Looking for more Holiday goodies to deck your virtual halls? Warm up next to the Towntoon Fireplace or satisfy your sweet tooth with the Yellow Candy Cane, both are now on sale in the Emporium - but you knew that already, right?
So who's up for a peek at next week? Check this out:
Take a seat on Santa's Chair (reindeer not included)…
Celebrate New Year – Come On!
Made any plans on ringing in the New Year? If not, join us here! VMK will be staying open an additional 3 hours so we can ring in the New Year with our friends on the West Coast at Disneyland! Yep, you heard that correct VMK will operate from 7AM PST - 1AM PST on December 31st! We're planning to ring in the New Year with special events and prizes so be sure to stop by. (A little birdie told me about a cool new hat, but that's all I can say for now...)Aside from all that we're busily putting the finishing touches on the updates that are coming in January - I'm sure you're excited to see them, we've got lots of cool stuff, including A NEW LAND... OK, gotta get back to work, lots of cool stuff to get finished up. Keep checking the Newsletter for more details!
See you in the game, Yavn
Jake's Blog
Same as five weeks ago
Tips
Tips, Tricks Hints and How To's
Get Creative In Your Rooms
With the ride competition quickly approaching, remember, VMK Staff loves to see creative uses of ride pieces when judging rooms.
Did you know you can combine the different ride tracks? You can connect them together in your rooms to make it look like players are going through different environments. Try hiding the transition pieces behind furniture or trees to create the illusion that the ride is going into a different area. What's better than leaving the cold tundra of Everest then sliding down a waterpark slide in sunny, warm VMK?
Try experimenting with drops. All of your pieces don't have to line up perfectly height-wise. You can link uphill pieces to take you up high, then have a sudden drop down to a lower level piece. This looks neat when you alternate the ups and downs to give the riders a bouncing effect.
Dear Yeti
You've Got Questions, Yeti Has Answers
My family just got back from visiting Walt Disney World in Florida. We stayed at the Grand Floridian - where in the lobby they have a huge life-sized gingerbread house! Is it real? And how do they make such a huge gingerbread house?
- Percius
Dear 'Sweet Tooth' Percius,
I am happy to report that the gingerbread house in the main lobby of the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is indeed real, and real tasty too I might add! How do they make such a massive sugar shack? Well, a team of pastry chefs work for weeks crafting the house. In all, they spend over 400 hours baking the thousands of pounds of ingredients, including 35 pounds of spices, 1,050 pounds of honey, 800 pounds of flour, 600 pounds of sugar, 140 pints of egg whites and 180 pounds of apricot glaze. The house is so big, it even has its own shop inside that sells, gingerbread houses.
Do you have a question for me?
Send it to me through the Contact Us section at the bottom of this page. Be sure to have your VMK registration info with you (the email and information you registered with) and select "Dear Yeti" from the drop down menu. Each week I'll answer a question or two here in the Newsletter.
Push's Trash Trivia
What President declared December 5th as Walt Disney Recognition Day?
Know the answer?
Send your answer using Contact Us at the bottom of this or the main VMK webpage. Be sure to have your VMK registration info with you and select Push's Trash Trivia from the drop down menu. Out of all the correct answers, three players will be randomly drawn as the winners and sent a cool prize. But hurry! Only entries submitted by the close of game on Friday will be accepted.
Here's the answer to last weeks Trash Trivia question:
Q: The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights present by SYLVANIA is a special holiday event held at Disney-MGM Studios featuring millions of dancing lights synchronized to beautiful holiday music.
On which famous US city "street" does this spectacle take place?
A: ''New York Street.
Did you know: Almost 80% of the lights in Osborne of Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights are from the original Osborne collection. Jennings Osborne started the tradition when his daughter asked to have the family home in Little Rock, Arkansas covered in lights for Christmas, way back in 1986.
Every year the light show continued to grow with the family even purchasing the home next door to expand their every growing light show. By 1994 what started as a 1,000 light display had grown to more than 3 million! Local officials and traffic jams brought the show to end in Little Rock, but just a year later in 1995, Walt Disney World invited the Osborne Family to bring their holiday magic to Disney-MGM studios and share it with the rest of the world.
Congratulations to the 3 lucky (and randomly picked) players that sent in the correct answer for last week's question!
starpanda
Dark_Pegasus
Capn.Bones
Your prize is on its way!
Top Players
What makes a Guest Room award-worthy?
Guest or Game Rooms that stand out show originality in concept and design. It could be a use of conventional furniture in unconventional ways, the use of a theme or color, or humor. Game rooms that get the nod offer a new game idea or a new twist on an old favorite. In all rooms we look for room owners who welcome everyone with a smile and show a willingness to answer questions about their room.
Check out this week's Best Guest Rooms and Best Game Rooms.
Best Guest Rooms
 | Spend Christmas is Town Square with See.low! Take a drive around this little snowbound town nestled into the hills of VMK. Pass the little homes and tree lined streets surrounding the beautiful holiday display in Town Square! |
 | Come and have a seat in a Winter Wonder land with Phillip and his little buddy TheMetal. Come and chat with this gentle giant robot in his holiday retreat. |
Best Game Rooms
 | Can you collect all of your Christmas presents in time? Spin the generators to get your Present Delivery the quickest. The first to collect three presents gets a great prize from sportobssed. |
Best Player Quests
 | Come visit Urakan and his I Task Quest. It seems easy enough but is it? Follow the clues and uncover hidden items as you jump from teleporter to teleporter. Collect all the items in record time and win an excellent prize! |
 | Celebrate the season with LadyDooley and her Christmas in VMK Quest. Deck the halls and jingle those bells on an exciting quest through the merriest virtual kingdom of all! |
Players who have been previously recognized for their design talents will receive the VIP award.
VMK Cards
Have you ever wondered what cards you are missing in your collection. Well there is now a great new way to discover all the cards for VMK. Check it out!
Scam Alert
Trading!
When trading, make sure that you get a fair deal by double checking the trade window. You can see what you are giving and what you are getting. Always make sure what you are trading for is in the trade window. If you think a trade isn't fair, please don't trade. There are plenty of opportunities to find what you need.
Safety Corner
Reporting Problems to VMK Staff
When you have a problem with something or someone in the game, make sure your report to us includes as many details as possible regarding the situation. Our staff wants to help you, but to do that, we need to understand the situation clearly and what you want to have resolved.Having as much information as you can provide will help the staff take care of the issue quickly and effectively. Likewise, if we don't have all the information and have to go back and research what happened it will take us MUCH longer to answer you concern and fix the problem.
When you're reporting any problem, include the players name and location, the time and date, and most importantly, clearly explain what happened. If you're telling us about a chat that took place or a ban inquiry, you can repeat the conversation or instance. Just be sure to include who said what (using a specific player name) - and before you get into talking about the actual chat make a note that you're about to relay a conversation that has already taken place.
Quests
In-Park Quests!
Going to Disneyland® Park or Magic Kingdom® Park? Play the in-Park Quests! Learn more here.
<strong>High School Musical Quest</strong>! Watch the movie, visit the Parks and answer all the questions to win cool stuff!
Get the <strong>Thrill Seekers Ques</strong>t for the Walt Disney World® Resort here!
The Tomorrowland Quest is still available: Download it here.
Contact Us Tips
Problems? Contact Us!
When you use Contact Us to ask a question or report an issue, please be aware of the following:
If you use AOL or EarthLink for e-mail, you won't receive our response, as AOL e-mail filters block our replies. Please provide an alternative e-mail in the Contact Us form where it asks for your e-mail address.
Some Spam Filters will automatically block e-mail from an unknown source unless you tell the program to allow it: To get email from VMK, allow mail from [email protected]. (Please note this email address does not receive e-mail except via the Contact Us form.)