By Brandon Hill on March 7, 2023 • ( Leave a comment )

2021: Disney – Animal Kingdom – Pandora – Satuli

Ever since Disney started doing special things during the Disneyland 50th anniversary celebration I have wanted to be selected for something special. Well in November 2021 it happened for us at Satu’li Canteen in Pandora at Disney’s Animal Kingdom! Since we were still dealing with Covid precautions you had to order your food online and then go inside to pick it up – and then eat it outside. When I went to pick up our order they told me that we were the family of the day! At first I didn’t know what was going on, but then I realized that they were doing something special for us!

We got to sit in the special seated area that you can see in the picture above and we had a dedicated cast member, Luis, who gave us special treats and desserts – he was so great that we asked to have our picture taken with him at the end. We were the only people eating in the inside part of the restaurant and it was a special moment for us. It made me love Disney even more. So much so that I had to make a scrapbook spread just of this experience.

I selected papers out of a Safari cardstock pack to match the feel of pandora and the decor of the restaurant and tore one sheet down the middle so that it could border the spread. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the Na’vi silhouette – and you will see the leftover cutout be used in a later project. I was also able to download the restaurant logo from the internet, and then use my Cricut to cut that out as well. You will see that I added Mickey Mouse ears to the logo – these are the left-over cutouts from the Animal Kingdom Title Page.

The certificate was given to us by Luis at the end of our dining experience and I knew that it had to make it on to its own spread. I bordered the three photos in brown to match the border on the certificate. The photo on this page is of the outside of the restaurant where we would have eaten if we had not been selected.

Some people have asked me why I don’t write these stories onto the pages to help me remember, and my best answer is that that is why I write this blog. The pages and spread serve as the art, and this blog helps to tell the story.

Thank you, Disney, for making us feel very special on this day!

Currently, for most of my scrapbook creations I have also created videos that show me putting them together and talking about the experiences as well as the techniques that I am using. So please enjoy watching this spread being created and assembled: