Hi Everyone,

It is the end of another year. It has been a challenging year in many ways. The prices of almost everything has gone through roof. The prices of cryptocurrency have gone through the floor. It has been, at least, a double whammy for many of us. Sadly, 2020 and 2021 were also tough for different reasons. We had Covid-19 restrictions, the awful Covid-19 jabs, and the deliberate segregation of society based on acceptance of these jabs. The restrictions and jab certificates kept me at home more than I wanted to be. Therefore, in 2022, I wanted to make up for being confined to my home for the previous two years. In the final third of 2022, I managed to make up for those years with a few trips out. I have to thank my sister (@vegoutt-travel) the most for these trips out as she arranged pretty much everything.

I normally write two end-of-year posts. One posts is a summary of some of my most significant content for the year and the other post is a summary of some of my personal activities for the year. This year will be a little different. These posts are focused on the fun places and events that I explored and attended during the year, or should I say the final third of the year. We made no plans in the first half of the year. We were unsure about Covid-19 rules and how they would affect travel and venues. In early 2022, it became apparent that the Covid-19 push was coming to an end and the second half of the year would not be a problem.

In Part One, I will share my experiences relating to the Jurassic Live Event, Disney on Ice, and the Beauty and the Beast Musical. In Part Two, I will focus on my trip to London where I visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour, and watched both parts of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Play. Both of these posts will be filled with photographs.

Jurassic Live

In September, we (my mum, brother, sister, and I) attended the Jurassic Live Event. Most of my life, I have been a fan of dinosaurs. I have visited dinosaur themed parks, been given dinosaur toys, watched dinosaur movies, played dinosaur video games, and been to dinosaur live events. I describe my passion for dinosaurs in my post Jurassic World Evolution 2 Frozen Adventure (Video). The post contains a video of the huge park I designed after I had unlocked everything in the game.

Jurassic Live was not my first Dinosaur Live event. In Australia, in 2011, my sister and I attended the Walking with Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular. This was an amazing event that featured life size animatronic dinosaurs. They included giant sauropods like the Brachiosaurus and carnivorous theropods like the T-Rex. A couple of years later I watched a similar show based on the story ‘How to Train your Dragon’. That show consisted of giant dragons instead of dinosaurs.

The Jurassic Live Event was not on the same scale as these two other shows. It was a much smaller local production that was touring the UK and Ireland. The event was also not performed in an arena as it was organised when Covid-19 rules were still in place. Instead, it was held in the university sports centre. The show was condensed so that it could be presented on stage instead of in an arena-like-setting. The venue did present some problems due to lack of space, and limited and appropriate lighting but the production team and cast worked around it quite well.

The show had a simple storyline that involved guests (the audience) visiting a secret dinosaur sanctuary. A new trainer also arrived on the same day. This trainer had several accidents that resulted in losing a baby Triceratops, releasing a Velociraptor, and allowing a T-Rex to escape. The show concluded when the oversized Velociraptor fought the undersized T-Rex and won. They were both then returned to their enclosures. The baby Triceratops showed up again as well. The show was geared for a younger audience and had a bit of a pantomime feel to it, which included interaction with the audience. The dinosaurs were not to scale but they still looked and moved quite convincingly. Below are some of the best photographs we took from the event.

Apatosaurus Nessie

Apatosaurus Nessie (10 seconds later)

Triceratops Trixie and Spike

Triceratops Trixie and Ranger Joe

Stegosaurus Herbie and Ranger Amber

Triceratops Trixie and Stegosaurus Herbie

Velociraptor Flo

Velociraptor Flo Escaping

T-Rex Suzie

The Jurassic Live team do more than just the live shows. Their dinosaurs can even be hired out for events such as parties and weddings. To find out more, go to their website at jurassic-live.co.uk.

Disney on Ice

In mid-November, we (my sister, bother, and I) attended Disney on Ice. This event was held in an arena. In the middle of the arena was a very large ice rink. Everything in the show was performed on ice. The show was broken down into short versions of some of Disney’s most famous animated movies. These included:

Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast
Tangled
Moana
Little Mermaid
Cinderella
Sleeping Beauty
Princess and the Frog
Coco
Frozen

The first half of the show was hosted by Mickey and Minnie Mouse and the second half included Goofy. They would come on and introduce most of the short stories. They provided a bit of information about the stories as well as added a bit of comedy. The addition of Goofy made the second half funnier.

Along with the skating, there were some voice overs of important scenes acted out on ice. This was then followed by some of the most famous songs from each of the movies. Most of the performances were just glimpses into the stories. You will need to see the movies to get a better idea of the storylines. Little Mermaid and Frozen were performed in more detail than the other stories. Little Mermaid was performed just before the interval and Frozen was the last performance. The show lasted about 2 hours.

The best way to describe the show is through photographs and video. Below are some photographs and Gifs created from several short videos taken from each performance from the show. Enjoy!

Aladdin

Beauty and the Beast

Tangled (Rapunzel)

Moana

Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty

Princess and the Frog

Coco

Frozen

Finale

See Actifit Post for initial discussion on Disney on Ice.

Beauty and the Beast

About ten days after we watched Disney on Ice, we (my mum, sister, brother and I) attended the Beauty and the Beast Musical. I rarely watch musicals. They tend to be expensive and movies are cheaper and more convenient to watch. This particular outing was not as expensive. We got a discount because we attended Disney on Ice and my bother goes cheaper because he is in a wheelchair. We got the box seats on the lower level. Lots of space for all of us, even the big wheelchair. It was also great as we were the only people in the box. People did not need to move past us.

The musical was great to watch. I was a little concerned at the start as I could not see the corner of the stage nearest to us (approximately 5% of the stage). This happened to be where the witch was standing when she turned the prince into the beast. After that first scene, we could see all the actors and props very clearly. The show was very impressive in terms of how quickly and effortlessly the sets could be moved around. They transformed the village into the woods, or into beast’s castle within seconds as the actors moved into position. The transformation of the prince to beast at the beginning was very impressive. I was not sure if it was the same actor or if they did a quick swap. It turned out to be the same actor. He must have slipped a mask on when the lights flashed. There were other aspects of the musical that were very cool. The little boy who played ‘Chip the Tea Cup’ looked like a floating cup/head on top of a tea trolley. I am guessing they made use of well placed mirrors.

The storyline of the musical followed very closely to the Disney movies. I believe they had all the same characters. The plot developed the same way the movie did and most of the same songs were used. The show included some additional dances and a few songs that I had not heard of before. The song ‘By Our Guest’ was an extended version of the one in the movies. The interval occurred quite late into the musical. It was at the point when Belle ran off into the woods to escape the beast. The second half of the musical moved quite quickly. The fight between Gaston (story antagonist) and the Beast was a little brief. The transformation of the beast back to prince was impressive as well as the transformation of the other cursed characters from his castle. Overall, we had a very enjoyable evening out. I could not include many photographs as you are not allowed to take any during the performance.

See Actifit Post for initial discussion on the musical.

---- End of Part 1 ----

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.