Universal Mardi Gras 2025. Thirty years of celebrating NOLA. Laissez les bon temps rouler. Gators, beads, food, parades and dancing.

Robo56 · Apr 10, 2025

Thursday, February 27th

It was a wonderful trip up to Universal for Mardi Gras. I had wonderful stay at Sapphire Falls as always. I can’t say enough good things about this resort.

I was sad to leave, but I had wonderful time.

Then a wonderful thing happened our Granddaughter M decided to fly down for a week in March and she wanted to experience Mardi Gras at Universal.

So I made reservations for us to do an overnight at Sapphire Falls for her to attend Mardi Gras. It was a win win as I would be able to enjoy some fun time with her at the parks as well as being closer to the airport for her flight back home the next day.

She spent the week enjoying the warm weather in Florida. She enjoyed some pool time, beach time and the day before she flew home some Universal Time.

Wednesday, March 26th.

We left the house at 6:45 am and stopped by Starbucks for our morning coffee and a breakfast sandwich.

We traveled up to Sapphire Falls our resort for the night. We were greeted on check in by Gary, He was very nice and helpful. There was no else in line so there was no wait.

After check in we parked the SUV in the parking garage and we made sure to get our day started.

I always gauge how busy the resort is on how full the parking garage is. It was pretty full. We also noted a convention was going on.

We stopped in the gift shop at Sapphire Falls to look around. There was new ButterBeer merch.

The puffy purse was really cute and they designed it to look like a barrell.

Then we were off to CityWalk. We decided to walk as the Water Taxi line was long. It is a nice walk to CityWalk on the path.

Not sure if I had shared this anywhere in the trip report, but I was professionally fitted for a good pair of tennis shoes before my trip to my home in Florida. I still put protective tape on the ball of my foot, but these shoes have made a world of difference to my hiking the parks.

I took M to the Epic Universe preview center.

I was wondering if this was magnetic shoulder Niffler.

My granddaughter M loves Universal as much as I do. She was excited to see the preview of Epic.

It is hard to believe M is 27 years old. I remember taking her and grandson P to Universal for many years. It was the best Nana and grandchildren time in the world.

So having her here was awesome.

After we were done in the preview center we headed over to the Big Universal Store in CityWalk.

They had the Mardi Gras merch marked down.

Robo56 · Apr 10, 2025

I noticed that a lot of the backpacks that were usually in the Hello Kitty Store before it was changed to the wicked expericence were now on the shelf’s here.

There was another nice display of the new ButterBeer merch.

Robo56 · Apr 10, 2025

Before long I checked my watch and it was already 11:00. We had talked about where we would have lunch and Confisco Grille won out.

We decided to have an early lunch. As we had seen the sea of humanity coming in from the parking garage and we new it was going to be a busy day.

There was only a few people in the dining room when we arrived. We looked at the menu and decided on the Ahi Tuna Nacho’s as an appetizer.

This has been consistently a very good appetizer every time I have had it and M really liked it too.

M had the Chilled Tuna Noodle Bowl for her entree

It has sesame seared tuna, soba noodles, avocado, red radish, edamame, cucumber, micro cilantro and wasabi ponzu dressing. M really liked this entree.

I had the Pad Thai

I always ask for extra sauce on the side and this dish was very good.

Our waiter Jorel was wonderful and attentive.

What a nice lunch.

After lunch we went to

And rode the Cat in the Hat. This is such a cute ride.

As we passed Circus McGurkus we reminisced about a couple of meals we had had over the years there when M was younger. I will admit the food was not great, but the atmosphere for the little ones is awesome.

Robo56 · Apr 10, 2025

The sun was shining and it was getting pretty warm out. There was a gentle breeze that was slightly cool. We had worn our thin sweat jackets earlier in the morning and they had to come off. We were glad we had them for our lunch at Confisco as it was very cool in there.

It was of course time to head into the Lost Continent. M and I talked about Poseidon’s Fury show. That is now closed. Although it was not a big favorite we always made time to see it when they were little.

I hope Universal is able to incorporate the outside structures somehow into their future plans for the site.

Then it was on to showing M the All Hallows Eve Boutique. I had my eye on a shirt I had seen there last month, but it was gone.

I really liked this little Lithograph I had not seen before.

Robo56 · Apr 10, 2025

We thought some of the halloween T-shirts were cool.

Showing up with this T-shirt at Easter dinner would be a conversation starter…LOL

This store is always so beautifully done.

Robo56 · Apr 10, 2025

Of course had to have a couple of Pumpkin pics

More to come

Robo56 · Apr 12, 2025

Thought I would add this for the Butterbeer merch liking folks.

I was at the Mall the other day and BoxLunch had a couple of Loungefly ButterBeer items.

Small purse.

Backpack.

Wednesday, March 26th continued

Our next stop was Hogsmeade.

There are many fond memories here for us.

I brought son, daughter in law, M and P our grandson to Hogsmeade many moons ago. We were staying onsite and were given the chance to preview Hogsmeade before it opened to the general public.

It is nice that the same option is happening for folks that are staying at the resorts to preview Epic Universe during this preview time. If I understand it you show your hotel room key at the vacation planning desk in the hotel and you are able to buy tickets to Epic if they are available.

It was awesome we were there when the Potter stars showed up and really enjoyed our time there.

We bought a lot of the merch and the kiddos tried ButterBeer for the first time.

It has been wonderful to watch Universal grow the HP parks. I’am looking forward to seeing the new HP park at Epic 3 weeks.

M andI talked about how things had changed some at Hogsmeade.

When it first opened Zonko’s toy shop and Honeydukes shared the same store and of course it was not so busy during the preview.

It was busy today.

I saw that Honeydukes had a new ButterBeer dessert.

It was so busy in fact it was hard moving in Hogsmeade so we decided to take the train over to Daigon Alley.

Robo56 · Apr 12, 2025

It was fun to see the Hogwarts Express chugging towards us with the white smoke bellowing from the trains smoke stack.

We always enjoyed riding the Hogwarts Express between the parks when Diagon Alley opened.

Diagon Alley was busy too, but it is bigger and has more shops to handle a few more folks.

I asked M if she had ever had a Fishy Green Ale and she said she hadn’t. So off we were to the Hopping Pot.

All I can say is this is a weirdly good drink. It taste like a mix of mild mint flavor and cinnamon with blueberry boba in the bottom.

M liked it. We took our drinks and sat down in Knockturn Alley. I told M about the Death Eaters roaming in Diagon during HHN.

I have been in Diagon Alley countless times and I never noticed this arm coming out of what appears to be a Kings mouth. I have stood in front of this spell spot that makes water come down from the umbrella many times.

I always notice something new. There really is so much to see in Diagon Alley.

Universal did a great job with the design of Diagon Alley. It is so immersive.

Robo56 · Apr 12, 2025

Of course we had to gaze a little at the Dragon on Gringotts bank.

I love these old worn witches shoes in Madame Malkin’s Robes for all occasions shop.

We stopped into Ollivanders Wand Shop next and spoke to a wizard about the new second generation wands.

Looked at the various contents that are in some of the wands.

Harry Potter’s wand is made of Holly wood and contains a Phoenix Feather. Mr. Ollivander told Harry the same bird that supplied the feather for his wand also supplied a feather for Voldemort’s wand.

Hermione’s wand is made of Vine wood and has a Dragon Heartstring core.

Dumbledor’s Elder wand was made of Elder wood and contained the hair from the tail of a Thestral.

Ron Weasley’s wand was made of Ash wood and contains a Unicorn hair.

Minerva McGonagall one of my favorite Potter characters wand was made of Fir wood and contains a Dragon Heartstring.

To be continued

Robo56 · Apr 14, 2025

Wednesday, March 26th continued

After we were done in Diagon Alley we stopped for some food that I thought was good last month.

When went to the China cart and I ordered the Duck Xian Bing.

Then we stopped at Germany and bought the Currywurst and Pommes and a couple of cold drinks.

We had a seat under one of the tall umbrella tables by Bruce.

The Duck was not fresh and tasted more gamey then I remembered, but the Currywurst and Pommes were just as good as I remembered.

After we were done I asked granddaughter is she wanted a photos with Bruce. So we got in line as there was a family in front of us.

As soon as they were done a lady walks in front of us and directs her family to the shark. I politely told her we were next and if she wanted photos she needed to get behind the folks that were waiting behind us. She said, “no English”. I motioned for her to go the the back of line and she told her family in very clear English to get in line…..LOL

The then we made our way over to The Tribute Store and had a walk around. M liked the Tribute Store.

Then we walked over to the Five & Dime.

I do love the Universal Monsters inside the store.

One of my favorite people at Universal is Essie. She has worked for Universal many-many years. She always has a smile on her face and she is so kind and helpful.

I will usually pop in the Five & Dime just to say hi to her. She is a wonderful lady.

She took a photo of M and me.

Then M took a couple of photos of Essie and me.

Essie said we needed to pose with our shades on….LOL

Of course my favorite Monster Dracula.

Robo56 · Apr 14, 2025

After we were done looking around the Five & Dime we said our goodbyes to Essie and we walked over to the Wicked Experience.

I had gone to see the Wicked movie with M and the family and almost made it through the entire movie without nodding off. It was a long movie and I’am not exactly a fan of musicals, but enjoyed the movie.

This is really a nice experience to walk through and if you are a fan of Wicked they have a lot of merchandise to look at.

M enjoyed looking around the Wicked Experience.

We got the notice that our room was ready so we headed back to the boat dock to catch the boat back to Sapphire Falls.

After getting back to the resort we retrieved our luggage and headed to our room.

We both took turns in the shower and then I was ready for a nap.

There was knock at our door and management had sent a sweet treat with some water for us.

It was meringue with mango in the center.

It was so nice of them to think of us.

This a great idea for Easter. It looks like an egg.

The room was nice, cool and quiet. I dozed off pretty quick.

To be contiued

macraven · Apr 15, 2025

I always love the many pictures you share with the readers!
Thanks for sharing with all of the readers.

Robo56 · Apr 16, 2025

macraven said:
I always love the many pictures you share with the readers!
Thanks for sharing with all of the readers.

You are so welcome Mac. I’am always happy to share photos with everyone.

disneyAndi14 · Apr 16, 2025

I have met Essie a couple times and she is very nice to visit with! She was full of compliments for me on my solo Christmas trip! Such a sweet lady!
I am enjoying your report. My sister and I spent 3 nights at USO the beginning of March and enjoyed Mardi Gras.

Robo56 · Apr 17, 2025

disneyAndi14 said:
I have met Essie a couple times and she is very nice to visit with! She was full of compliments for me on my solo Christmas trip! Such a sweet lady!
I am enjoying your report. My sister and I spent 3 nights at USO the beginning of March and enjoyed Mardi Gras.

So glad to hear you have met and had some nice visits with Essie. She is a really nice lady for sure.

Thank you, I’am so glad you are enjoying my report. Mardi Gras was fun.

Glad to hear you and your sister were able to attend Mardi Gras and had a good time.

Robo56 · Apr 23, 2025

Wednesday, March 26th continued

After a nice rest it was time to head back to the park for some more Mardi Gras celebrations.

Granddaughter M had rested up too and she was ready to go.

So off we went to the Water Taxi.

It was about 5:30 pm and I wanted to take M to see the Cursed Coconut Club. The Club opens at 5 pm.

It is nice that there was a sign outside saying all ages are welcome. It was really cute when we entered the club there was a DJ playing music and there was a little girl on the dance floor with her mom having a good time dancing.

Needless to say the club is beautiful and very colorful.

M enjoyed stopping in and looking around.

After we were done at the club we headed over to the park.

It was so nice that some of the TM’s involved with the parade were out meeting park guests.

I took M over to see DreamWorks Land. She really liked it.

This Land so nice for the little ones.

It was dinner time and M wanted to try some more of the Mardi Gras food offerings.

She wanted to try some of the offerings at the Mexico booth. So I bought a couple of cold drinks for us and all the food offerings for us to share.

The Chilaquiles bowl was made fresh as we waited. It was a large amount and it was really good. M liked it a lot.

The Quesabirra looked a little rough on the edges, but M said it was good and she really liked the sauce.

The Churro Loops were good as was the chocolate sauce, but the Dulce de Leche was like a blob of carmel in the cup on your right. Not very easy to dip the churro’s in.

There was plenty of food to share.

Robo56 · Apr 23, 2025

We did a little walking around the New York area and the settled on where we would Stand for the parade.

M wanted to try the Beignets so back tracked and waited while they were made fresh.

Beignets in hand we went back to our parade spot. It was on the street facing the Mummy behind Gramercy Park.

The parade started at 8 pm and we could hear the music as the parade began to makes its way towards us.

M tried one of the Beignets and said they were warm and delicious. I tried one and it was very good. Just a warning it is one of those things you have to do the bend forward bite or you will be wearing a lot of powdered sugar.

There were 4 young ladies to the left near me. I’am guessing in the 14 to 16 year old age range and one them was really excited. The TM who was watching to make sure no one stepped in the street (so they would not get hit by the Police doing the figure 8 etc…and the floats). The excited young lady kept crossing the line and going in the street. The TM told her many times to stay behind the white line and as soon as he walked away out she went back in the street popcorn::

. I observed her for a a while and she did not appear to be mentally impaired. She was laughing and telling her friends she was going to catch the most beads.

M and I notice two little boys to the right of us standing by M. They were I’ am guessing about 7 and 10. There were so cute and they were dancing to the music waiting for the floats. They kept telling their mom they were excited to catch beads.

M and I decided that every bead we caught were going to those sweet little fella’s. We would make sure they had plenty of beads.

So now the floats appear they were really throwing beads. I will tell you no matter where you stood you could catch beads.

The young lady I spoke of above was catching beads then running in front of everyone else bumping into people me……..and even diving behind me between my legs of all things. At first my granddaughter and I laughed it off. Then she almost tripped me and I told her nicely to go back to her spot. I told her there would be plenty of beads for her to catch.

She then ran out in the street and was scooping up beads on the street and the TM came back to her a told her she had to stop running in the street.

Finally the TM had to come and stand by her to get her to behave.

I will give it to the folks riding the floats they had taken their bead throwing instructions well and they were making sure to get everyone. People up front and in back along the parade route.

M and I were handing all the Beads we caught to the two little boys and they were in heaven. It was so fun to see them dancing and having a good time.

M was having a great time.

I bent over at one point to pick of a few stands of beads that had fell at my feet and while I was bent over a bunch of beads landed on my back and head and M was laughing so hard as was I as she collected them off my back……LOL

The little fellas we had been giving beads to were loaded down and loved it.

The young lady who had been running in the street was loaded with beads even though she had to keep in place with the TM hanging with her to keep her out of the street.

My thought on the Floats and the beads……The floats are beautiful and awesome.

Catching beads from the floats is quintessential Mardi Gras fun.

I have over the years seen a few adults and young teens making it a sport to catch beads at all cost. I promise if you are on the parade route you will catch beads and plenty of them if you want.

I cringe when I see folks run past the barriers in the street or the white lines during the parade. Universal has all those TM’s out there with their lights trying to make sure folks have a good safe time enjoying the parade.

These are very large massive floats that are being pulled by huge pickups that are taking cues from the TM’s in front of them with lights and directions to make sure they are safely staying on target when turning and navigating the streets.

It is the grandma and Nurse in me that wants everyone to have fun and a safe time enjoying Mardi Gras.

We had a fun time watching the parade.

After the parade was over we headed back over to the Hollywood section and I took a photo of the window above and to the right of the entrance to Pantages Theatre were they have the Monsters Makeup show.

There is a homage to Blaine Kern and Kern Studios for their creative help and direction over the many years of Mardi Gras at Universal with the awesome floats.

Then it was time to head back to the CityWalk and the WaterTaxi back to Sapphire.

It took a couple of boats to get back. It was really busy, but we didn’t have to wait long.

When we got back to the room we took turns in the shower and then packed up so so we would not be in rush in the morning.

Yes, I was out I think before head hit the pillow.

More to come

Robo56 · Apr 27, 2025

Thursday, March 27th

We were up early and got ready to go down and have breakfast at Amatista Cookhouse. I wanted to make sure M had a good breakfast before she flew home.

I have taken family to the breakfast buffet there on a number of occasions and it has always been good.

You can also order off the menu if you don’t want the buffet, but the buffet has so much to choose from.

M and I were seated right away when we arrived and our waiter brought some coffee. There are juices available on the buffet, but they also have other juices like mango, papaya and guava. You just ask for them and they will get them for you and are included in the price of the buffet.

I ordered some mango juice and M wanted orange. We wanted the buffet an off we went.

There is so much to choose from. They have thought of every possible option for everyone.

All of the food that is kept cold are sitting on a frozen service to keep them cold.

I really like the smoked Salmon.

All of the fruit was so good.

Robo56 · Apr 27, 2025

There is omelet station to your right were you can get an omelet with your selected ingredients made fresh while you wait.

We both had a omelet made with our selected ingredients and they were so good.

Our waiter disappeared for quite sometime, but finally showed up again to refill our coffee and juice.

All the food we tried was very good. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Amatista is a very large open and airy restaurant. It so much natural light pouring in. The seating is so nice and you don’t feel like you are sitting to close to others while you are eating.

The buffet if I remember correctly is about $34.00. It is a splurge I know for, but well worth it.

I then paid the bill and give the tip to our server and off we went back to the room.

We gathered our things and It was time to leave. I needed to get M to the airport.

I checked out and we went to garage and loaded our things in SUV.

We got on the I 4 and used the Express lane and we were able to bypass any of the traffic that was slowing down.

It was’t long and we were in Sanford.

We arrived at the drop off lane at the airport and I helped M with her bags.

There was a lot hugging and then she had to go. I told her I would wait in the cell phone lot until I heard back from her that she was through security and at her gate.

It wasn’t long after I returned to the cell phone lot that she called and let me know she was at her gate.

I then started on my way home.

I was missing M already. She is a wonderful granddaughter and I was so happy she was able to make the trip down for a visit.

The trip back home was fairly uneventful. Of course driving on 95 is like being on the INDY 500 track….LOL

I received a text from M saying she had landed back at her home airport about 30 minutes after I pulled in the garage.

I’am so relieved when our precious ones get back home safely.

It was a wonderful time having M in for a visit and I was so glad we were able to get in a Universal trip before she left.

M really liked the Mardi Gras celebration at Universal and It was wonderful having her with me to enjoy some time at my happy place.