Animal Kingdom – Live Eat Colour

Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Pictures

Published on March 7, 2017September 4, 2017 by Vanessa GregoriaLeave a comment

If your an animal lover and not crazy about Disney princesses you’re going to love Animal Kingdom. This park is dedicated to natural environment and animal conservation. It showcases animals from Asia, Africa, the conservation efforts by Disney and the animals of the past. It was also probably the least busiest of the parks, although the day was so hot it was easy to see everything.

My favourite entertainment was the Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo – The Musical. The Lion King showcased amazing African singers, beautiful costumes and high energy dance troupe. Finding Nemo was probably the best combination of puppetry and acting I have ever seen. The actors performed for both the puppet and themselves. The storyline followed the movie on point. Both were really enjoyable and I recommend the Fastpass for these shows, for better seats. The evening show, Rivers of Light was probably my least favourite of all the parks. Maybe we were just tired after 5 whole days of Disney, but I could of skip it for a nice dinner.

Our favourite attraction was definitely the Kilimanjaro Safaris. We did a couple of times, so we got to see different animals and as we were taken on different trails. It’s amazing how animals have created their own African habit by treating the land as they would back at home. The reserve that the animals live on is so extensive, so they have plenty of space between each other. I also enjoyed cooling down on the Kali River Rapids. I really didn’t enjoy Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. It was themed really nicely but the ride itself was too rough for me. Marco and Sally really enjoyed it, but the did get a sore neck after going on it again.

I also enjoyed the walk through exhibits. I was able to do the ones in Africa and Asia. The Discovery Island exhibit was closed on the day. Another attraction I would have loved to see was DINOSAUR, but unfortunately it was also closed for refurbishment.

For lunch we dined at Yak and Yeti Restaurant. We ordered the Asian dishes, which were really fresh and delicious. For dinner, we ate at the Flame Tree Barbeque, which was not as good as I expected. I would have preferred to go to a restaurant as the counter food was not that impressive. This park probably has the most snack and drink stops, which is really handy on a hot day. I wish I would have taken more time to relax and have a mocktail.

So here is our day in Disney’s Animal Kingdom in pictures. You can click on the photos for a closer look. If you’re planning a trip to the park check out my Disney’s Animal Kingdom Guide and my Tips for Florida Disney Parks.

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Tips for Florida Disney Parks

Published on February 27, 2017September 4, 2017 by Vanessa Gregoria4 Comments

My love to Disney was invigorated with my recently trip to the Disney Parks in Florida. It truly is the happiest place on earth, well at least my happiest place. The characters, the rides, shopping, food, it was all amazing and went above and beyond my expectations.

I did a lot of planning before we visited the Disney parks. I’m so happy that I did take this time since I didn’t do this when I visited Disney Sea in Tokyo. Besides the language barrier, we were very confused seeing people go ahead of the line, didn’t get good positions for performances and waited so long for a table in a restaurant. We also lined up for 2.5 hours for a ride that we weren’t really sure was a ride.

So if you’re planning a trip here are some of my tips. Do as much research as you can to maximize your time and less stress on the day. If your budget allows I really recommend the Disney restaurants. Each is really unique and I enjoyed the food at most of the restaurants. Some of which were the best food memories from our entire trip. We also had some bonus Character time we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

For Guides to each Theme Park view links at bottom of this post

Before you get there:

Do you ride and restaurant research
- Demand will be high for the best and you don’t want to be waiting all day
- Age and Height requirements
- Make a list for recommended and time permitting
Consider staying at a Disney Resort
- Extra ‘magic time’ means arriving and leaving before crowds
- Easier commute to hotel
- May save you money in car hire and tipping hotel bus driver
- Hotel’s that offer free trip to Park may do many stops before arriving
- You receive a ‘MagicBand‘
Book-in everything as soon as you buy your tickets ei. FastPasses, Restaurants
Fastpass for busiest rides
- Eg.The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had no FastPass available closer to visit and was 70 min+ wait times
- Book in three FastPasses as early and close together as possible
- You can’t book another until you have used all three passes first
Research most recommended rides and Average wait times
Restaurants are not a must, but nice to get away from crowds (aircon), experience themes, cuisines and try the best food Disney has to offer
- Some Restaurants have 6-month wait ei. Cinderella’s Table
- Booking times should be adequately spaced between meals times
- Consider a meal plan, might save you money
- Look at menus and consider your budget
- Look up Restaurant ratings
- Beware of cancellation policies for each restaurant
Keep checking your Disney account to alter FastPass and bookings as new times become available.
Bring a pram with shade cloth
- Disney hire prams are made of plastic = hot
Allow two days for the Magic Kingdom and one day for each of other Parks
Get to know the map, long walk between areas
Factor in Live Shows, Parades and Night performance in your schedule
Download My Disney Experience app on your Smartphone
- Easily view and alter Fast Passes and Restaurant bookings
- View wait times

When you arrive:

Get up early to get in quicker and get on as many rides
Be aware once you arrive to drop off you will still need to take a Disney boat, tram or tourist road train to the Disney parks = Get up early
Bring a pen and get your map
Go directly to FastPass or best rides if wait times are minimal this early
Don’t get too caught up in taking photos when you arrive, you will have plenty of time
As you are using your FastPasses, see if you can alter for early times
As soon as all FastPasses are used book next pass
Visit Characters when wait times are low or you have space before next FastPass
- May need to prioritise on a busy day
Restaurants may still require waiting even with your booking
Each shop will have items that aren’t anywhere else
- Most character items available at World of Disney (Disney Springs)
- Convenience stores near parks will have old Disney merchandise for much lower price eg. T-shirts, keyrings
You can’t see it all, but then you just might if you plan well!

Wow I didn’t realise I had so much to say. I will share some more posts of my photos.

For a more detailed information on each Theme park check out my guides:

Guide to the Magic Kingdom

Guide to Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Guide to Epcot

Book Review: Animal Kingdom

Published on January 12, 2017September 8, 2017 by Vanessa GregoriaLeave a comment

Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom was my first colouring book that began my obsession with adult colouring. I received it as a gift from my uncle and it was exactly what I needed to relax and be creative. At the time my baby was only a few months, so this was the only outlet I had when she was sleeping.

Millie is a Welsh artist and who published her first colouring book Animal Kingdom in 2014. Her book was extremely successful. It was translated in 31 languages and reached the Amazon Top Ten list. She has since bought out three more adult colouring books, including Tropical Wonderland, Wild Savannah and Curious Creatures. Her popularity in the colouring realm has gone on to birth a product family with her distinctive style. Millie Marotta themed calendar, diary, journals, stationary, postcards, wall decals and tableware can be found on her website or from online retailers, book stores and art stores.

Animal Kingdom has a soft white cover, decorated with her line drawings and coloured with random flecks of gold, blue and pink. Inside there are 96 line drawings, which are printed back and front. The paper is high-quality and is bright white in colour. The illustrations include a range of flora and fauna but are primarily centred around animals. A few of the pictures do have suggestions on how to colour the animals. There are a few double page spreads of larger images of animals or repetitious illustrations, which are slightly different and extend onto both pages. The paper takes pencils, pastels, water-based markers and gel pens quite well. I’m not sure this is the best paper for watercolour though. This book does come in the Delux Edition, which has thicker paper and is single sided, which would be more appropriate for watercolour and alcohol markers.

After receiving this book I purchased a tin of 36 Derwent Studio pencils. I didn’t realise that these pencils were meant for sketching and I found them rather hard. They were also less vibrant than other brands, harder to blend and very scratchy. However, at the time I was ignorant and was just enjoying the process. You will probably notice the indents in the paper from pressing so hard. I found it really difficult to get much pigment out of them and it was almost impossible to layer.

The turtle was my very first picture that I coloured. It took me a while to colour all the individual sections. At the time I was really happy how it turned out and really enjoyed colouring it. Now I look back and realise how far I’ve come.

I began craving more vibrant colours, so I bought myself a 12 set of Jasart Premium Colour Pencil. These pencils are inexpensive, quite smooth and the colour is more concentrated.

This first picture was coloured with only Jasart pencils. You can probably already see a difference compared to my earlier work. The following pictures use both Jasart and Derwent Studio pencils. Although the results are still scratching, there are more pops of colour.