Universal’s Mardi Gras Festival Left Us Wanting More

Check out our review of the Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval Festival. At the festival, you can immerse yourself in a world of vibrant colors, music, and culture. But is it enough?

Mardi Gras

The biggest Mardi Gras celebration takes place in New Orleans with citywide festivities and colorful parades. These parades happen during the day and at night, leading up to Mardi Gras and the Rex parade. Beads in gold, green, and purple are given out, and eating king cake is an iconic part of the celebration.

Universal Orlando’s Mardi Gras Festivities take place on select dates from February 3 until April 7.

But you don’t have to leave Orlando to get in the fun! Universal Orlando is celebrating Mardi Gras now for all guests to take part in.

Parade

Universal’s Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval party is a one-of-a-kind experience where the streets of Universal Studios Florida come alive with floats inspired by New Orleans celebrations from around the world. In addition, you can catch some beads and enjoy all the new Elements floats that keep the party going.

The floats were beautiful, but I was hit with beads several times and the competition was fierce to catch beads. For me, this took away the fun from the parade.

If spots are available, you can reserve a spot on a parade float on the same day. The best way to ensure a spot on the float is by buying the Mardi Gras Float Ride and Dine Experience or making a reservation online through the Universal Orlando Annual Passholders’ system.

If you enjoy throwing beads at people this may be for you, but I found the bead throwing annoying.

Many of the floats represent earth elements such as wind and sun. There were other New Orleans-themed floats, too. While the floats were visually stunning, they became very repetitive having one float after another throwing beads to everyone.

The parade would have been better with more variety in the floats.

Performers were placed in between floats with elaborate costumes and many of them were walking on stilts. Many of the performers were flamboyant and not to everyone’s taste.

Universal’s Mardi Gras website states that guests would see performers throughout the day, but we only saw them during the parade. Note that other than 2 floats, the only people in them are the bead tossers.

Food

Come and discover a variety of tasty dishes from around the world at Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval. You can enjoy sweet, savory, and spicy flavors at the international booths.

Food booths are located throughout the Universal Orlando theme park.

I tried the king cake (that had a plastic baby in the center) and the beignets. Unfortunately, both of them weren’t good and I ended up throwing them away after a few bites. Check out my review on these dishes HERE.

You can taste the German Chicken Schnitzel and the Mexican Chilaquiles Verdes, amongst other dishes here.  Hopefully, the other booths were better than what I tried, but I have low expectations of them after being disappointed by both desserts.

More Mardi Gras Theming

On my recent Universal trip, I was excited to meet all of the characters. One of my favorite characters I met is the Scooby gang: Daphne, Freddy, Scooby Doo, Shaggy, and Thelma.

Universal Orlando doesn’t post character meet times so it is difficult to catch them. Team members working at character spots have a list of when they meet so be sure and ask them.

They were fun to talk with because their voices and mannerisms resembled the cartoon characters they portrayed. However, they were hard to catch because Universal doesn’t post character meeting times on their app or website so I found myself running around trying to catch them.

The Scooby gang were the only ones wearing something unique for Mardi Gras.

Here, you’ll find lighted buildings as shown above and extra Mardi Gras theming at various places. This added a cool touch to the park.

Merchandise

You’ll find bead necklaces, alligator popcorn buckets, t-shirts, and so much more Mardi Gras-themed merchandise. I spotted several stands and most stores have a Mardi Gras section.

Mardi Gras merchandise is sold at various Universal Stores, but be sure to check out the Mardi Gras Tribute Store. Hopefully, you’ll have better luck than me finding it.

Universal’s website touted a Mardi Gras Tribute Store that has extensive theming and cool interactive elements. However, there are other store Tribute Stores, and I couldn’t find this one.

Concerts

As part of the celebration, Universal hosts free concerts. Take a look at the performance schedule below:

February

• 17 – Nessa Barrett
• 18 – KC and the Sunshine Band
• 24 – Barenaked Ladies

March

• 2 – DJ Khaled
• 9 – Ava Max
• 10 – Queen Latifah
• 16 – Luis Fonsi
• 17 – Zedd

This is a pretty solid line-up and is included with your park ticket. The concert venue is cool because it’s on the main street (from the entrance) inside the park.

There’s a large grassy area to enjoy the performances, and because of the venue’s central location, other guests can enjoy the music too.

Since we visited on a Monday, there wasn’t a concert that night.

Final Thoughts

I’m not really into Mardi Gras, but since it Universal Orlando had a festival going on with Mardi Gras theming, I was ready to check it out. Decorative touches throughout the park set a festive tone and the addition of international food booths adds variety to food choices.

I didn’t spend very much time on Mardi Gras activities because there weren’t any other than the parade.

One final tip: If you’re really into catching beads and competing with nearby guests, then gather early at the start of the parade. Otherwise, find a spot further down the parade route for a less crowded space to view the parade.

Have you been to Universal for their Mardi Gras celebration? Or, would you like to go? Let us know in the comments and share this post with someone who loves festivals.