 Yesterday, Renée made her way over to Universal Orlando Resort to check out the awesome Mardi Gras festival and a couple of pics of Velicicoaster progress. The park is looking great, even better due to the lack of crowds. Let's head in!! Written by Renée Girard  Spending a few hours this afternoon at Universal Orlando!  First, a quick stop at Islands of Adventure. I absolutely love the details in Port of Entry, and with low crowds today, it’s great to look around and enjoy it.     Only a 15 minute wait (posted at 45) for Hagrid’s is pretty perfect.   Velocicoaster looking good, as always. Can’t wait to ride!    Let the good times roll! Mardi Gras celebration is happening all over Universal Studios.     RIP  RIP 2.0  The parade floats are all over the park, offering a modified experience where you can still see their amazing sets and costumes, and also collect beads!     The food festival is the headliner for Mardi Gras at Universal this year. The sampler card is a great value to get, but I most likely won’t be back due to blockout dates   I kept it simple with a vegan bratwurst  And Purple Haze beer  The entertainment team members were all outstanding and gladly posed for some socially distant selfies. 
 More treats can be found in the Tribute Store, where I easily could have had one of everything, but narrowed it down to the bananas foster cheesecake pop and vegan skull brownie (a favorite of mine from HHN, too!).
 Continuing on with the Tribute Store, the amount of detail put into it for each event, and now especially Mardi Gras, is stunning.
 I hope Universal continues on with the amazing theming for all of their events with the Tribute Store. To me, it’s more of a walk-through experience than a store.
  I was definitely spoiled by the lack of crowds in the store, and the park overall, for that matter. If you can get to Mardi Gras at Universal Orlando, definitely do it now before spring break hits, and enjoy everything! 
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Universal Orlando Jurassic Coaster Construction and Bourne Stuntacular Technical Rehearsals6/17/2020  It's the middle of June, and we're starting to get updates from parks that are open throughout the country. And it's a nice change of pace. Today we've got an update from Universal Orlando Resort from Andrew where the Jurassic Coaster is moving very quickly. Also, the Bourne Stuntacular has entered the Technical Rehearsal phase. Written by Andrew Singleton Bringing you a little construction update on the new Jurassic Park roller coaster coming to Universal Orlando.  Progress is speeding along with a large portion of the track now in place.   Twisty, Twisty, Twisty, Twist.   This thing is moving along SO quick. Editors Note: Any chance this is open by December? =)  An overview of the construction area.   Over at the studios park, the Bourne Stuntacular has entered Technical Rehearsals.  It was just as exciting and explosive as you'd think.  Social Distancing in the queue    We hope you enjoyed this quick update from Universal Orlando! Related Videos
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 Last week I was out in Orlando for a training conference. As luck would have it, the most inexpensive conference hotel happened to be Cabana Bay. So I figured I'd take advantage of my surroundings to explore some of the non-park offerings of the resort. I had hoped to head into the parks one day, but given that I only had a few hours on one of my days it wasn't meant to be. But I had a great time exploring what the resort has to offer away from the parks. Let's check it out! Written by Gregg Condon After taking the red-eye from LAX I arrived at Cabana Bay around 7:30am last Monday. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to check in that early but that turned out to not be an issue at all. I was able to check in, get something to eat and head up to the room to take a bit of a nap before my first training session at 1:00pm. Hi Orlando!!    The first day of the trip was obviously catching up on sleep, but I did make my way to/from the Convention Center for some pre-conference sessions. I utilized the I-Drive Trolley on the first day since there was no shuttle on Monday. It took me a couple of trips to figure out where the closest place to catch the Trolley was from the hotel. Something that won't be a problem when Universal opens their two new hotels (more on that later). The first day I took a bus to CityWalk, then a boat to Portofino (as I thought the easiest place to catch the trolley was at the DoubleTree).   On the way back that afternoon, I took the shuttle back to the DoubleTree but made my way to the Water Taxi by way of the Hard Rock.       I then transferred to the next WaterTaxi to Sapphire Falls. Which meant I was able to get Water Taxi POV for pretty much the entire route. Check it out below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.   LOVE the spiral staircase at Sapphire Falls    The trek back from Sapphire to Cabana was a bit longer than I anticipated, but after a day of traveling and training, it was nice to stretch the legs a bit.   Love the Cabana Bay merchandise!
 Also made sure to take advantage of the free-refill cup for the duration of my stay. This came in very handy as I ate more meals in the hotel than outside of the hotel.  Morning two, as I headed out to the shuttle to OCCC.  The hotel shuttles didn't quite fit my conference schedule on Tuesday, so it was back on the Trolley. Which allowed me to get a couple of good looks at the two new Universal Hotels (and I figured out that the actual closest trolley stop was here and not the DoubleTree).   I know some are asking why I didn't just Lyft/Uber (trust me, I did), but I always love exploring a city on foot. It just gives you a different feel.   After a bit of a rest in the room, I met up with Sean from California, Florida, European Coaster Kings for dinner at Cow Fish and a visit to both Fun Spots. But that's a different update. =) Day 3 was about a 12 hour day at the convention center, but I did take the time when I got back to do a bit of a tour of the hotel. Let's Bowl!!   I ate breakfast, dinners and snacks pretty much exclusively at Bayliner Diner, I was very impressed with the food choices and the staff was spectacular.  The pool area's are kind of amazing. If it was a different kind of trip I can imagine spending a lot of time in the lazy river.  What's up Volcano Bay  Cabana Bay Lobby  More pools. I didn't realize that the hotel had interior and exterior corridor rooms, I had just asked for "whatever is available" when I checked in. So if you have a preference, be sure to request it. Personally, I was happy to have a room with an interior corridor, away from the pools as that's not what I was there for.   My last stop before heading up to the room to pack was the store to do some shopping. They had Hagrid's merch out.   I was very tempted to buy this hat, but have a rule that I don't wear merch until I can ride the ride. Plus, I prefer fitted hats. I wish more parks would have them as an option.  Phone cases in a variety of styles  And of course, lots of Magical Creatures   Thanks Cabana Bay for a fantastic stay.  I was totally blown away by Cabana Bay. I knew I would love it, and it's retro style, but I wasn't sure how much. Sure, I wasn't really there for relaxing and enjoying the hotel, but even as a conference goer it fit the bill. We're talking about a family trip to Orlando in the near future, definitely think Cabana Bay will be where we stay for our Universal portion. Stay tuned later this week for additional updates from both Fun Spots and SeaWorld Orlando where we discover there are still good people in the world. Related Videos:
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