2024 Mardi Gras

[SeventyOne]

Random thoughts on second concert night:

• Parade remains incredible. That said, fewer beads because (1) a lot of kids v. Universal adults, which is understandable, and (2) so many float riders videoing with their iPhone instead of throwing beads, which is not. I just want Jimmy Fallon to stand at the start yelling at them, "Live in the moment! Put the [curse word] iPad away!!!" like he did at the Tonight Show concerts
• AAR seemed to deliver everything fans, including my wife, wanted. Fun show, lead singer clearly enjoying himself in the more casual venue. Weird question: are Orlando fans just used to EPCOT concerts, or is there a generational shift away from encores? It seemed obvious to me they'd be back out to play "Move Along" but a huge segment of the crowd left after "It Ends Tonight," like they assumed that was it.
• The big one: staffing is definitely an issue. Food booths had longer lines than HHN. Finns had the longest line I've seen in 23 years--literally out the door. Meanwhile, I saw zero beer carts, most of the traditional temp bars are missing. Concert went to "capacity"--had a lone TM on the left-side pathway waving his flashlight at his sign as guests streamed on by. Doesn't bode well for Universal's ability to staff a third park.

 

[Mad Dog]

Random thoughts on second concert night:

• Parade remains incredible. That said, fewer beads because (1) a lot of kids v. Universal adults, which is understandable, and (2) so many float riders videoing with their iPhone instead of throwing beads, which is not. I just want Jimmy Fallon to stand at the start yelling at them, "Live in the moment! Put the [curse word] iPad away!!!" like he did at the Tonight Show concerts
• AAR seemed to deliver everything fans, including my wife, wanted. Fun show, lead singer clearly enjoying himself in the more casual venue. Weird question: are Orlando fans just used to EPCOT concerts, or is there a generational shift away from encores? It seemed obvious to me they'd be back out to play "Move Along" but a huge segment of the crowd left after "It Ends Tonight," like they assumed that was it.
• The big one: staffing is definitely an issue. Food booths had longer lines than HHN. Finns had the longest line I've seen in 23 years--literally out the door. Meanwhile, I saw zero beer carts, most of the traditional temp bars are missing. Concert went to "capacity"--had a lone TM on the left-side pathway waving his flashlight at his sign as guests streamed on by. Doesn't bode well for Universal's ability to staff a third park.

Some people need to get a life when it comes to overuse of smartphones. One day in the future, they'll ask themselves, why did I waste so much of my life playing around with a tiny screen phone instead of enjoying and experiencing life..........When the Universal AP thread reopened the other day they had many of the same staffing complaints. Discussion was immediately turned off by the moderator. Seems like it's a touchy subject.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The big one: staffing is definitely an issue. Food booths had longer lines than HHN. Finns had the longest line I've seen in 23 years--literally out the door. Meanwhile, I saw zero beer carts, most of the traditional temp bars are missing. Concert went to "capacity"--had a lone TM on the left-side pathway waving his flashlight at his sign as guests streamed on by. Doesn't bode well for Universal's ability to staff a third park.

I know some of us are starting to sound annoying/redundant when we continuously bring this topic back up again... but it's true. I seriously don't know how Universal will properly staff a 3rd park.

Mardi Gras entertainment is solid as it always is, and food options this year are unique and so far so good. A bit pricey however compared to similar Epcot festival options... $10 at Epcot gives you a decent portion of poutine with actual chunks of meat, Mardi Gras was good... but nowhere near the the value of the Epcot version.

Tribute Store is the nicest I've seen for Mardi Gras yet, but very compact and small. Should get better over the next few days once the newness wears off.

 

[Brian G.]

I think it was more of an ops issue than staffing. We went to two booths. The beignets line, while veryyyy long, had us out after 10 min. The Colombia booth on the other hand was bringing orders as received - which took us 20 minutes. Once they switched to splitting it between drink orders and food orders, the line went much faster.

But admittedly- that’s my experience from 2 booths.

 

[Mad Dog]

.Saturdays seem tough at Universal. It must be all the locals show up day. Even on the slow weeks of the year, Saturdays are almost always crowded. So Saturday Mardi Gras, with big name bands, are just going to be crazy. I'll just be there part of one Saturday during my one week only Mardi Gras vacation. I'm staying away from rides for the most part on Saturday, and will be happy to just soak in the atmosphere. I'll do the rides the other days.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I think it was more of an ops issue than staffing. We went to two booths. The beignets line, while veryyyy long, had us out after 10 min. The Colombia booth on the other hand was bringing orders as received - which took us 20 minutes. Once they switched to splitting it between drink orders and food orders, the line went much faster.

But admittedly- that’s my experience from 2 booths.

I know I harp on this a lot, but no fault of TMs, just the way they are told to operate the booths. They also need to bring back actual queue stanchions, too many lines are blocking pathways causing unnecessary congestion.

.Saturdays seem tough at Universal. It must be all the locals show up day. Even on the slow weeks of the year, Saturdays are almost always crowded. So Saturday Mardi Gras, with big name bands, are just going to be crazy. I'll just be there part of one Saturday during my one week only Mardi Gras vacation. I'm staying away from rides for the most part on Saturday, and will be happy to just soak in the atmosphere. I'll do the rides the other days.

They'll probably wait for Epic's capacity, but at some point, they might be forced to block out weekends for the lower-tier APs. I'd imagine eventually Universal will make the Seasonal or Power pass a weekday-only pass eventually.

 

[Mad Dog]

I know I harp on this a lot, but no fault of TMs, just the way they are told to operate the booths. They also need to bring back actual queue stanchions, too many lines are blocking pathways causing unnecessary congestion.


They'll probably wait for Epic's capacity, but at some point, they might be forced to block out weekends for the lower-tier APs. I'd imagine eventually Universal will make the Seasonal or Power pass a weekday-only pass eventually.

Perhaps with seasonal. But Sundays aren't usually crowded like Saturdays, they're more like the weekdays, so there's no need for Sunday restrictions. Extreme crowds are mostly a 'Saturday thing'.

 

[MrRoamer]

Quick review of Saturday, it was a good day but had a few misfires

It was definitely busy but didn't feel overwhelmingly busy. Ops felt very strange with the New Orleans booth splitting orders into two lines.

I got the gumbo (really good) and the jambalaya (overcooked and bland) which had me going to two different lines to pick up each item. The drinks I got were meh, the blackberry and pea flower one. The barricade by Transformers during the concert is still a pain point, I really don't see the reason it causes frustration and confusion

Not sure if it was bad luck or what but I found bugs in two of my drinks (fruit fly in one and lil worms in the other) and one in the jambalaya (looked like it could have been a baby beetle or roach), but its outside in Florida so who knows it happens.

All American Rejects was a disappointment, not nearly as good as they were last time we saw them and it was just an odd show.

Parade was fantastic!!!

Writing this makes it seem like it wasn't a great day which it definitely was, just some pretty big misses.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Not sure if it was bad luck or what but I found bugs in two of my drinks (fruit fly in one and lil worms in the other) and one in the jambalaya (looked like it could have been a baby beetle or roach), but its outside in Florida so who knows it happens.

Uhhh…this seems pretty concerning and abnormal lol. In all the outdoor food festivals in Orlando I can’t remember ever having a *bug* problem. And it’s not even like it’s mid-July or the peak of heat/humidity.

 

[MrRoamer]

Uhhh…this seems pretty concerning and abnormal lol. In all the outdoor food festivals in Orlando I can’t remember ever having a *bug* problem. And it’s not even like it’s mid-July or the peak of heat/humidity.

We're from here so we know how it can be so I typically err on it was just a thing that happened. Other than the issues they used to have with the beer lines getting gross I really haven't had any problems so was thinking probably just bad luck but yeah.

The fruit fly was from the pop up in front of the Animal Actors show where I got the blackberry drink which was dark, I got a gin and tonic there afterwards in the same blinky cup and that's where I saw the tiny worms (3-4). At first I thought it was just fruit pieces from the blackberry drink but thinking back that's probably unlikely. Those all looked like they weren't alive

The bug in the jambalaya was definitely alive and crawled out from under some rice and fell. I looked to see if there was any more and didnt see any so figured it could have just fallen from one of the trees

 

[Brian G.]

Perhaps with seasonal. But Sundays aren't usually crowded like Saturdays, they're more like the weekdays, so there's no need for Sunday restrictions. Extreme crowds are mostly a 'Saturday thing'.

Yeah. Opening NIght of Mardi Gras last Saturday was chaos; but the next day was more than tolerable. You could've gotten a decent parade spot 20 minutes from the start time.

 

[Neo]

I went to the parade Sunday, skipped Monday (my nephew was disappointed with the beads from Sun so elected to go ride Gringots instead), road the Earth float on Tuesday, then went to the parade again on Wednesday.

Sunday, stood in front of Minion Blast and hardly got any beads. Did the Dine and Ride on Tuesday and we ran out of beads right about that spot. By the time we made the turn by Today Cafe, pretty much our entire float was out. Wednesday watched the parade across from Transformers and cleaned house on the beads.

If you go wanting beads, get pretty close to the beginning of the parade and remember that it runs in the reverse of previous years.

 

[Mad Dog]

I went to the parade Sunday, skipped Monday (my nephew was disappointed with the beads from Sun so elected to go ride Gringots instead), road the Earth float on Tuesday, then went to the parade again on Wednesday.

Sunday, stood in front of Minion Blast and hardly got any beads. Did the Dine and Ride on Tuesday and we ran out of beads right about that spot. By the time we made the turn by Today Cafe, pretty much our entire float was out. Wednesday watched the parade across from Transformers and cleaned house on the beads.

If you go wanting beads, get pretty close to the beginning of the parade and remember that it runs in the reverse of previous years.

Thanks. Great tips.

 

[IzzyB]

Random thoughts on second concert night:

• Parade remains incredible. That said, fewer beads because (1) a lot of kids v. Universal adults, which is understandable, and (2) so many float riders videoing with their iPhone instead of throwing beads, which is not. I just want Jimmy Fallon to stand at the start yelling at them, "Live in the moment! Put the [curse word] iPad away!!!" like he did at the Tonight Show concerts
• AAR seemed to deliver everything fans, including my wife, wanted. Fun show, lead singer clearly enjoying himself in the more casual venue. Weird question: are Orlando fans just used to EPCOT concerts, or is there a generational shift away from encores? It seemed obvious to me they'd be back out to play "Move Along" but a huge segment of the crowd left after "It Ends Tonight," like they assumed that was it.
• The big one: staffing is definitely an issue. Food booths had longer lines than HHN. Finns had the longest line I've seen in 23 years--literally out the door. Meanwhile, I saw zero beer carts, most of the traditional temp bars are missing. Concert went to "capacity"--had a lone TM on the left-side pathway waving his flashlight at his sign as guests streamed on by. Doesn't bode well for Universal's ability to staff a third park.

Yes the phones and not throwing beads was annoying for sure, but we did get beads. The lines for food were insane so we opted for HP land, wow, I thought with all the food lines being bad it would be fine and it wasn't too busy, some tables empty but AGAIN the ops there are horrible. First off I felt like the guy up front was a bouncer. He told us to get a table, we did, I got the number, got my kids orders, and went up front to order. He literally jumped in front of me and said can he help me. I said yes, I am going to order. I need special things like no ice (I have a sensitive tooth right now). He paused and thought about it for a bit before finally relenting and letting me go up to order where again SO many employees behind that counter, one register open. What are all these employees doing? Then I sit down they bring our dessert first, who the heck does that?!? We waited, finally started eating it since it was ice cream, finished it slowly, to sit and wait and wait, before I finally asked will we ever get dinner which it did then come out in a couple minutes. Ops in that whole park need fixed, not just the stands.

Perhaps with seasonal. But Sundays aren't usually crowded like Saturdays, they're more like the weekdays, so there's no need for Sunday restrictions. Extreme crowds are mostly a 'Saturday thing'.

It is because those of us with kids in school we tend to go Saturday so they get sleep Sunday night.

Uhhh…this seems pretty concerning and abnormal lol. In all the outdoor food festivals in Orlando I can’t remember ever having a *bug* problem. And it’s not even like it’s mid-July or the peak of heat/humidity.

I agree, I have eaten at food stands at SW, Disney, and Uni and NEVER have had bugs in drinks or food. That is gross. And I live in Florida and I am absolutely not used to bugs in my food. That is another huge ops issues. Worms?!?! That has NOTHING to do with outdoors.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

I agree, I have eaten at food stands at SW, Disney, and Uni and NEVER have had bugs in drinks or food. That is gross. And I live in Florida and I am absolutely not used to bugs in my food. That is another huge ops issues. Worms?!?! That has NOTHING to do with outdoors.

Yeah it was the worms that got me too

I think Mardi Gras may be my favorite theme park event outside of HHN, so I’m not trying to clown Universal here…just genuinely nervous now that I’m in for extra protein in my jambalaya whenever I make it over there.

 

[MrRoamer]

Yeah it was the worms that got me too

I think Mardi Gras may be my favorite theme park event outside of HHN, so I’m not trying to clown Universal here…just genuinely nervous now that I’m in for extra protein in my jambalaya whenever I make it over there.

I didn't think much of the tiny worm thing because she had asked if I wanted lime in my drink, so I figured it was tiny lime pieces but I think she squeezed in that lime concentrate stuff instead. That said when I noticed them I got a straw and got them out.

I wouldn't over think it, I'm sure it was just bad luck or something looking like something else (not the other two instances though those were 100% for sure)

 

[Neo]

Random thoughts on second concert night:

• Parade remains incredible. That said, fewer beads because (1) a lot of kids v. Universal adults, which is understandable, and (2) so many float riders videoing with their iPhone instead of throwing beads, which is not. I just want Jimmy Fallon to stand at the start yelling at them, "Live in the moment! Put the [curse word] iPad away!!!" like he did at the Tonight Show concerts

Just wanted to chime in, as someone who was on a float the 4th night of the event...

We were encouraged to take pictures and videos on the float and were told we'd be SUUUUUPER TIRED if we threw beads the whole time. We didnt't get tired and ran out of beads pretty early (they should have told us to save beads for the child viewing area by the old prop store, we had no beads left at that point) so think if they provide more beads for the floats (or, I guess, speed them up...a lot of micromanaging floats through turns) that might clear up that problem.

 

[Wesker69]

We were encouraged to take pictures and videos on the float and were told we'd be SUUUUUPER TIRED if we threw beads the whole time.

So basically, it seems like they wanted to rely on social media to generate more people interested in going.

Isn't the whole point to throw beads the entire time? I guess I'm just used to the onslaught of beads when the parade was ending & headed backstage. Unless they don't provide as many beads as they used to, which sounds like the case

 

[OrlandoGuy]

So basically, it seems like they wanted to rely on social media to generate more people interested in going.

No, they’re trying to save money on beads lol

 

[Jake S]

No, they’re trying to save money on beads lol

Comcast execs be like