Universal Orlando Mardi Gras Trip Report 02-24-07

[kcnole]

Good afternoon,

I'm finally getting around to getting all of my pictures uploaded online and getting this trip report done. I took my wife down to Universal last Saturday for us to enjoy the Mardi Gras party and for her to see her favorite musician, last years American Idol contestant, Taylor Hicks. So this is our report.

We got to the park around 11:30 and began our long entrance from the parking garages to the parks where we came across some Mardi Gras shirts:



and



Once we got into Citywalk we noticed the work being done on the new Blue Man Group building:





as well as the upcoming Inked tattoo shop



as well as the newly re-opened Nascar Grill



we then headed over to IOA for lunch at Mythos. This was the first time I'd ever been disapointed with lunch there. They no longer had the asian pad-thai noodles and the ooey gooey caramel chocolate banana cake just wasn't as good as it normally is. I couldn't quite put a finger on why.

Anyhow, after that we walked around the Islands for a bit skipping all the rides. We did however finally get to see a dinosaur being born.





On the way out of the park, we noticed the Mardi Gras ads there as well:



Then it was over to the studios for the rest of the day where I rode the newly refurbished JAWS attraction 3 times. It was in the best shape I'd ever seen and I loved it.



The Mardi Gras decorations were up all around this park in force:






then it was off to the French Quarter for some food, good music, and nice entertainers:















While we sat around for a bit I took a few artsy shots:






Then it was off to the Mardi Gras stage for none other than:



Taylor Hicks










I've posted my thoughts about some of the problems with the concert portion of our trip in another thread already so I'm not going to go into them again. Taylor did a good job and my wife was glad to see him. It was just disapointing to see her get hurt right before his show. She still managed to have a good time however.

All in all the Mardi Gras event is a fun one although they need to address a few safety issues in my opinion. I recommend going however as there is a ton of great things to do and the mardi gras area is really fun and the entertainers are top knotch. Unfortunately we missed the parade due to my wifes injury but from the bits and pieces I saw of it, it looked like a very nice parade as well.

I will leave you with a bit of video I got of Taylor's opening performance if you're so inclined to view it. Thanks for reading.

[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="<A href="http://www.youtube.com/v/EiIn7MBaCgA"></param><param">http://www.youtube.com/v/EiIn7MBaCgA"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EiIn7MBaCgA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

[PeaJay18]

Thanks for the phots - good to hear Jaws is getting some love!

[mikeland]

Ooh ... great pictures! Looks like you had a (mostly) great time.

[thrax]

were is the dinasour hatching

[kcnole]

That's in the Jurassic Park Discovery Center in IOA.

[TDLFAN]

Oh god... Taylor Hicks?? No wonder I left town that weekend. At least DONNA SUMMER had a 20 piece orchestra and much more fun music to party to earlier in her Universal Mardi Gras concert.