Disney is TEASING us with a new mystery.

If you’re a Disney Parks history buff, you’re likely familiar with the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (S.E.A.). But if you’re not, allow me to educate you. This “secret” society has ties to many Disney attractions around the world. Its members include many fictional characters from the backstories of Disney rides, and as new rides and characters are added, the backstory of the S.E.A. grows. And now, it looks like Disney is planning a big reveal!

If there’s an adventure-related Disney attraction, ride, or offering in the parks (without a previously-establed IP), it probably has some kind of tie to the S.E.A. Think Jungle Cruise, Mystic Manor in Hong Kong Disneyland, Tower of Terror in Tokyo DisneySea, or Trader Sam’s in Disney World and Disneyland Resort. Those are just a handful of the more than two dozen Disney locations that have ties to this fictional society. It’s woven so deeply into the backstories of Disney that fans have become heavily interested in it.

So when Disney announced that the S.E.A. would be present at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, and that they’d be there to share a never-before-seen artifact, we knew we had to check it out! Walt Disney Imagineering hosted a special panel where they introduced some new history of the S.E.A. and revealed a mysterious crate. A crate which, when opened, was EMPTY!

Well, we suppose there was one thing in the crate — a letter. The letter noted that a new villain has stolen the artifact, and now it’s up to Disney fans and S.E.A. enthusiasts to find out who did it! We were told that follow-up clues would be shared on the Walt Disney Imagineering Instagram account after D23. This quest will likely lead us to some new information for an upcoming attraction or offering.

The first clue was posted on the Instagram account shortly following D23. You’ll be able to solve these clues either by walking through Disneyland or looking up pictures of the park online at home. You can read the first clue below. WARNING: Do not scroll past the Instagram post below and continue reading this article if you want to avoid spoilers. Or, just figure out the riddle on your own and then come right back!

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Here’s our interpretation of this first clue — the description given in the riddle is clearly Main Street, U.S.A., and it seems to lead you straight to the cinema. Outside the cinema is the ticket-taker, named Tilly (wave to Tilly, everyone!). The end of the riddle asks what she’s drinking, which is tea. The first letter to know is ‘T.’

Each clue will reveal a new letter, and those letters will need to be unscrambled to reveal the name of the villain who took the artifact. So far, we know from this riddle that the villain is an S.E.A. reject. Though it’s not confirmed by Disney, it’s possible that these clues could tie into a new project for Disneyland…ya know, since they’re using Disneyland as the background of the scavenger hunt?

And now Disney has revealed yet another clue!

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Now, it’s safe to say that this clue was much trickier than the first. But after some time we think we’ve figured it out! The clue says “find another letter where steam fills the air” which we think means the Disneyland Railroad! Now to figure out the exact letter another part of the clue explains “the view from this car is quite presidential” and the presidential car on the train is named the Lily Belle so we think the next letter is L.

We’ll be on the lookout for more clues and we’ll let you know what we discover. This is a fun way for Disney fans to learn about the next news, and we’re excited to uncover each answer as we go!

Learn More About Disney’s Secret Society From This Older Post of Ours!

Are you trying out this scavenger hunt? Tell us in the comments!

With the sitework for the brand new Coco attraction underway and construction starting soon at Disney California Adventure, Disney offered more on what to expect at the ride when it opens on Pixar Pier in the coming years.  Following a performance of “La Llorona” by Los Lobos, Neil Patrick Harris and Disney Imagineers gave D23 […]

The post D23 2026: New details revealed for Coco ride at Disney California Adventure appeared first on MiceChat.

In a surprise announcement at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2026’s Disney Experiences Showcase, Disney revealed that an all-new Tomorrowland is in development for Disneyland!  The thrilling announcement came as part of the big Disney Horizons: A Carousel of Progress Disney Experiences Showcase at the Honda Center.  Here’s what was announced and what we know: […]

The post D23 2026: BREAKING – NEW Tomorrowland announced for Disneyland!!! appeared first on MiceChat.

As always, Walt Disney Imagineering pavilion at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event is a must-do for theme park fans.  This year’s pavilion, Imagineering: Horizons, takes on a Carousel of Progress theme, giving fans updates on projects underway around the world. From Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure to Piston Peak at Walt Disney World […]

The post D23 2026: Walt Disney Imagineering shows off new Horizons for the parks appeared first on MiceChat.

Our friend and Disney University alum, Doug Lipp, is back with the final part of his 3-part letter to Disneyland. In Part 3, he applauds expansive new projects and the leadership team’s renewed passion for improving show quality, while simultaneously offering improvement suggestions for an area of concern: In addition to growth, Disneyland must maintain […]

The post Dear Disneyland, I’m Worried About You – Part 3 – Plussing The Show appeared first on MiceChat.

The next generation of Audio-Animatronics is no longer a concept. Disney has put its new projection-mapped face technology into a Disney theme park attraction for the first time, and it shows up in one of Disneyland’s oldest scenes. The skeleton pirate atop the gold in Pirates of the Caribbean contains the first projection-mapped Audio-Animatronic face for a Disney theme park attraction. What he can do now wasn’t possible on any Disney figure before this.

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What Just Debuted at Disneyland

The figure on top of the gold in scene 11 of Pirates of the Caribbean is the same greedy pirate guests have passed for 59 years, frozen as a skeleton. Disney has now brought him to life using a new hybrid system that pairs a traditional animatronic with a real-time projected face. It is the first park installation of the next-generation Audio-Animatronics technology Imagineering revealed last year.

Disney frames the result as the character’s full backstory. In its announcement, Imagineering said the new technology lets the pirate show a story guests never saw, calling it “the story that’s been there all along.” The story runs as a loop: the pirate finds a single cursed gold coin, the spell freezes him the moment he picks it up, his arm later drops the coin and frees him, and his greed pulls him back to grab it again. Imagineering describes three distinct moods that carry him through that cycle.

At the time, Disney named characters that could benefit, including Mike Wazowski, Lightning McQueen, and Hades, and fans wondered whether the tease pointed toward Monstropolis, Piston Peak National Park, or Villains Land. The Pirates figure is the answer to the most basic open question from that reveal: where the technology would show up first. It debuted in a classic scene rather than a new land.

Calibration is where the project shines. A camera system in the scene normally needs visible targets to locate an object, but the heavily costumed pirate did not lend itself to that, so Imagineering built the calibration markers directly into his bandanna. Those markers stay invisible to guests. They activate under UV light, so the system calibrates at night when the markers glow yellow, and the UV lights switch off during the day. The scene uses two projectors, with only one active at a time, and the second standing by as a backup. Disney also built redundancy into the tracking itself, so even if a motor fails and the figure moves incorrectly, the projected face stays aligned.