Orlando Live 2018 Mardi Gras at Universal Studios

Our journey continues at Universal Studios where we celebrated the annual Mardi Gras parade.

Today we spent the day in Universal Studios apart from a short break in the hotel’s pool. The highlight of the day was the Mardi Gras parade. However, prior to the parade we spent the day touring attractions and had lunch at Lombards.

The park was heaving and must have been close to full capacity. Yet again our Universal Express Pass proved to be invaluable. Queues for regular lines were over 1 hour for the majority of attractions. I do wonder how good value a day at Universal would have been today without Express Pass.

For lunch we visited Lombards a fish restaurant which also serves a fair quantity of meat dishes.

Food was very good and I felt also good value. We booked a table online first thing in the morning. This proved to be wise as guests asking at the podium for a table faced over a 1 hour wait.

Universal’s Mardi Gras celebrations are an annual event that occur between February and early April. The celebrations include Cajun  food stalls, a nightly parade and a concert series. The event is inspired by the New Orleans’ Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras celebrations. However, the Universal version is a strictly family affair.

The concert series is held on certain nights during the festivities. Unfortunately there was no concert scheduled this evening. However, artists who have performed this year include BUSH, Jessie J & The Beach Boys.

The parade was a wonderful spectacular of light with dazzling performers, crazy costumes, sensational floats and beads. There was a lot of beads!

Great family fun.