Hey, everyone!
Chrissa here!
And Universal's Mardi Gras celebration just began at Universal Studios.
And this year they have a ton of delicious food, events,
musicians and, of course, an amazing parade to top off the night.
If you are thinking of heading out to Universal's Mardi Gras event,
I'm going to go over all of the details in this video.
So Laissez Les Bons Temp Rouler!
Universal's Mardi Gras celebration will be going on now
until April 16th and has a ton of amazing food
booths, concerts and, of course, an awesome parade.
This year there are over 20 different food booths
that are spread throughout Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure
and Citywalk that not only celebrate Mardi Gras
but Carnival celebrations all around the world.
And I am so excited to get to see all of these
celebrations since I grew up celebrating Mardi Gras.
It's definitely a celebration that is very dear to my heart.
But before you even arrive at Universal for the day,
you’ll want to download the Universal Orlando Resort Official app
to get all of the details
on all of the food booth locations, events and concert times.
This app will be your best friend throughout the day
and will let you know where each food booth is and its menu.
The food booths open up at 11 a.m.
and if you are planning on
grabbing a lot of the food and beverages while you're here, then you'll want
to pick up the food and beverage card that will save you a bit of money.
You can pick up the food and beverage card for $65 for a $75 card
at any of the food booths throughout Universal Studios.
They each come with a complimentary lanyard for easy access.
If you are a fellow annual pass holder like me and planning on attending
multiple times, then you can purchase a $150 food
and beverage card for $120.
In addition to that, you will also be able to use
your annual pass discount on each item that you purchase.
The majority of the food booths are going to be located
at Universal Studios.
However, there's a couple that are located at Islands of Adventure
in the Port of Entry area right at the front of the park,
as well as a few that are located in Citywalk.
These booths tend to serve the staple
Mardi Gras dishes as well as a few others.
One of the very first food items
that I wanted to grab while I was there was the Beignets.
So I headed straight to the French Quarter to grab an order.
Beignets is one of my favorite dishes from home,
so I could not help but start my day with a serving of these.
“Oh, my God it’s good!
It’s just like, it's just like home.”
These beignets come in a bag and are smothered in powdered sugar.
So you want to make sure to eat these very carefully.
“The trick is to not breathe.”
but either way, just expect
to be covered in powdered sugar when you're done.
While we
were in line, I also noticed that this food booth was serving the
King Cake, so I decided to go ahead and pick that up too.
I thought that it might be like a jumbo slice serving of king cake,
but it ended up being the entire king cake with the baby and all.
If you're not familiar with the tradition of King Cakes,
they are usually served
with a little plastic baby Jesus that’s hidden within the cake.
Once the cake is cut up and sliced, if you find the baby Jesus in your piece
then you get good luck and prosperity for the rest of the year.
But you are responsible for buying the king cake the next year.
They don't tend to prehide the baby Jesus in the cake any more for
of course, choking reasons.
But it's still a fun tradition to see the baby on your
cake when you receive one.
Once we finished with
that we ended up
exploring the rest of the French Quarter area where you can find a few Mardi
Gras displays like these jesters and the king and queen of the parade,
as well as a few additional food booths around the corner.
First, I wanted to make sure to pick up the Jambalaya
and the Gumbo, which were both delicious.
The jambalaya is made with mixed rice, andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp,
peppers and tomatoes topped with a crawfish.
And the gumbo is a stew of shrimp,
andouille sausage, bacon and trinity over white rice.
And if you want a taste of classic New Orleans,
these are definitely two dishes that you’ll want to try.
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While we were here, I also had to try the Fried Green
Tomato Po' Boy, which ended up being one of my favorite dishes of the day.
The fried green tomato po' boy is served with flash
fried green tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pickles, Cajun
remoulade sauce, and is served with Cajun kettle chips.
This po' boy is surprisingly good and is a great vegetarian
option while you're here.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that while you're in the area,
you'll want to make sure to keep an eye out for the live musicians that perform
a few times throughout the day because they're fantastic.
After I saw the live performers,
I had a craving for some crawfish, so we ended up
heading to Central City to pick up the crawfish and shrimp boil.
This crawfish and shrimp boil is a mixed bag of crawfish,
shrimp, andouille sausage, potatoes and corn on the cob.
And since I'm a huge fan of crawfish boils, I just loved this,
even though I probably would have preferred it to be a bit spicier.
I loved the andouille sausage.
It was so good.
Another one of my favorite food items that I picked up while I was there
was the Ube Ice Cream that’s served in a sesame seed bubble waffle code
that you can find in Japan located in the New York area.
This ube ice cream is a soft serve ice cream that comes in a toasted
black sesame bubble waffle cone that is made fresh to order
and topped with cookie crumbles, pocky sticks, and a panda cookie.
Ube is one of my favorite ice cream flavors and is made of a purple yam
like a sweet potato and has a light vanilla flavor
that you can only usually find in Asian markets and it's so delicious!
I definitely recommend trying this if you're looking to try something new.
It's definitely something that I am always
open to getting again and again.
A couple of other international flavors that I got to try
was the Pav Bhaji from India, which is a spiced vegetable stew
that is served with toasted King's Hawaiian roll.
And it reminded me a lot of the flavors in a chicken tikka masala,
which is always one of my go to dishes at any Indian restaurant.
And since I was in the area, I also picked up
the Indonesian style chili crab with fried Mantou which is a softshell
crab tossed in sweet and spicy crab stew
and is served with fried sweet buns.
But there are so many additional flavors that I definitely wanted
to try this year.
So if you've tried
anything that you've loved, let me know down in the comments below
and I'll make sure to check them out on my next trip out to Universal Studios
and give you a shout out on my Instagram.
Once you’ve tried all of the Mardi Gras dishes that you can handle,
then you'll want to make sure that you take the time to check out this
year's Tribute Store in its brand new location on Hollywood Boulevard.
And at this year's tribute store, you'll enter into a 1930s
jazz ballroom, complete with full Jazz Bandstand.
And if you look above you, you'll find all of the posters
of each of the countries featured this year, as well
as their corresponding Carnival celebrations.
If you're looking for specialty Mardi Gras merch
like T-shirts, masks, mugs, glasses and more,
you'll be able to find the widest variety of choices in the tribute store.
Once you've passed through the front Jazz Room,
you explore the back alleyways of New Orleans
that features an amazing tree, dim lights covered with mardi gras beads.
And in here you'll find the darker side
of Mardi Gras merch like Voodoo dolls and T-shirts featuring Death
and Skulls as well as light up apparel and candles.
I loved the walls covered in jazz band fliers, and once you've passed through the back
alleyways, you'll walk into an old forgotten
New Orleans speakeasy, complete with piano covered in spiderwebs.
If you want to leave your mark while you're here,
you do have the option of paying to have your photo added
on one of these bottles that are featured here
in the old speakeasy bar until the end of the Mardi Gras event.
It's about $80 and you get to keep the bottle at the end,
which is shipped out to you.
If you are looking for delicious
desserts, you can find this amazing dessert display
that has a huge selection of beautiful desserts to choose from.
The entire tribute store
is definitely a celebration of Mardi Gras
and will be your go to place for any specialty merch
that you're looking for throughout the season.
If you don't make it
into the tribute store, you can also find a selection of Mardi
Gras merch in the main Universal store in the front of the park,
as well as
shops in Citywalk.
Once it gets later in the day, you'll start seeing parade performers
start making their way out into the park to get the party started
for the parade in the evening.
There are two ways that you can enjoy the parade
as a bead catcher or a float rider.
If you're going to be at Universal for a few days.
I highly recommend trying to do both.
As a bead catcher, it does allow you a lot more time
to enjoy the evening and explore a lot more of the festivities.
The parade starts on Hollywood Boulevard and makes its way around the park.
You can check out any of the park maps to see the parade route
to help you plan where you want to be for the evening.
If you are an annual passholder there is a section that's
completely dedicated to us on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard.
I highly recommend making your way over there if you do have a pass,
because it essentially allows you to catch the parade twice.
Once as it’s going out.
And then also, as it's making its way back around,
you'll definitely want to catch this parade.
It is amazing.
Universal has the floats made by the same companies
that make the floats for New Orleans, and they're spectacular.
Each one is more beautiful than the next.
And I really loved each and every single one of them.
My favorite of the entire bunch
was King Gator, who finished the parade with his puffs of smoke
that came from his nose and this awesome confetti drop.
He truly is an amazing ending to an awesome parade.
If you've already been a bead catcher before,
then you may want to sign up to ride on the floats.
This year
there's a couple of different ways that you can sign up for a float ride.
If you're an annual pass holder you can reserve a spot for the float
for you and up to four additional pass holders on select nights
throughout the season.
I did look into this option,
but it looks like it's all booked up for the entire year.
But don't worry, there's a couple of additional ways to get on a float.
The main way is to get on the virtual queue that opens up at 3 p.m.
on the day of your visit.
You'll want to make sure that you do this really quick
because reservations tend to go very fast
if you don't get selected for the virtual queue.
Your last option is to do the float ride
and dine experience, which is what we opted to do.
For the float ride and dine experience you'll get your choice
of having dinner at one of four restaurants.
Two at Universal which is Finnegan’s and Lombards Food Grill and two
in Citywalk that include Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar
and the NBC Grill and Bar.
We were already planning on eating at Lombard Seafood Grill
anyways, so when we saw that we could eat at Lombard's,
it was definitely two birds with one stone sort of deal for us.
And our meal at Lombard's was delicious and we had our parade
lanyards waiting for us at the restaurant
when we arrived.
Once we finished our meal, we made our way over to animal actors
where we checked in, got assigned to our float,
and then got into our parade costumes.
And then we just waited until it was time
for us to head back to the parade floats.
Please know that riding the parade floats will cut out
about 2 to 3 hours out of your day.
So you'll want to make sure that you allocate for this time
if you are only visiting Universal for one day.
Our favorite float hands down was King Gator and we were so excited
that we got assigned to Gator during our float ride.
They do encourage you to take photos and film your experience
once you've made it out onto the parade route and wow!
What an experience!
It definitely is one of my favorite experiences
that I've ever had in a theme park, and we're definitely making sure
to make this a tradition for us every year moving forward.
They give you plenty of beads to throw out
and they do say to pace yourself because you want to make sure
that you have enough beads to make it to the end of the parade.
And our float host Bryan was awesome as he gave us
instructions on how to throw the beads and when to anticipate the confetti drop
so we can make sure to get our photos.
I can't tell you how fun it is
to see so many people just vying for your attention.
It made you feel like a rock star for about 30 minutes as
you're riding on this float.
It is
one experience at Universal that you'll definitely
want to mark off your bucket list because it is awesome.
After the parade on select nights,
there's also concerts all throughout the season.
On the night that we went, Patti LaBelle was performing,
which was an amazing way to start off the Mardi Gras season.
The concert and the parade do run back to back,
so you may have to hang out a bit closer to the concert stage
if you do want to make sure that you get a good spot for the concert.
If you don't make it in time to get a good spot,
there are giant screens that you're able to watch
from afar after celebrating all day long.
If you're not quite ready to finish partying at the end of the night,
then you're in luck because the party continues in Citywalk
with Mardi Gras parties happening at Pat O'Brien, that includes
stilt walkers and exclusive food and drink offerings.
There's also an amazing atmosphere
that's happening at the Cursed Coconut during the Mardi Gras season.
There were decorations and details all throughout the Cursed
Coconut, including on the dance floor.
You'll definitely want to make sure to check out
both floors of the Cursed Coconut while you're there.
If you watched this and wondering what Universal's other Big Three
events are like, then you'll want to check out
my playlist that just popped up on the screen.
In this playlist, I'll walk you through past Halloween
and holiday events so you'll know exactly what to expect.
Until next time Everyone, I hope you have an amazing day
and go out and enjoy some Florida sunshine.