 Hey friends tonight, we are hanging out at Universal Studios Orlando, and we are going to be celebrating Mardi Gras This is such a cool event with amazing food from all around the world some really cool Entertainment and an awesome parade, so I figured we come on out eat some food throw some beads and just have a beautiful Universal Studios kind of day any hoos Let's go do this And here we are we have made it Universal Studios, Florida Universal's Mardi Gras International flavors of carnival taking place February 4th till April 16th, and I am so excited I can't wait to try all the food and show you guys around Like I mentioned there is this awesome parade at the end of the night with some really catchy music And there's people tossing beads and you can actually go on the floats Like you can be in the parade and throw the beads to all the guests and it's really cool They have a virtual queue that they released that you could do it or you can do a dining experience where you pay 86.99 I think it is and you get a three course meal and a guaranteed spot to go on the floats So I think we're gonna try to do that today. If not, then we're just gonna watch it a Part of the Mardi Gras festival you can actually get a food and beverage card And you get to actually save some money So if you pay $65 then you get a 75 card $75 card and lanyard and then for annual pass holders if you pay $120 you get a hundred fifty dollar card and a lanyard And I like this I like when festivals like food things well They have like cards like this so you can go around because I think it's more convenient Universal has actually invited me out so that I can give you guys a better look at some of this year's Offerings and we're gonna do a little special event and then we're gonna head on out go to our dinner get ready for the float and try some food Something else that's really cool about this event You don't even need to go into the park itself because they have tons of activities out on city walk And all you have to do is just come in like paid a park and they have the cursed coconut club That is really cool It's kind of a Mardi Gras or voodoo themed a bar and then they've got patty O'Brien's some food stands like that We're inside the park are actually out on city walk So you can actually just come and enjoy without actually buying a park ticket This year's Mardi Gras has food from over 17 countries around the world and because we're doing a little special event They're gonna give us some of the items so that we can try now But once we go in the park I plan on showing you around to some of the different booths and then don't forget I think we're gonna try to still get dinner so that we can ride the float Looks like they've got some fresh Benye's for us to try might as well get myself a bag of Benye's and then they have Babor cata cata and it's kind of like a rice pudding like a sticky sticky sticky rice I don't think I've ever had anything like this. I think it's Indian So I'm gonna try it. This is kind of adventurous for me because I'm eating something I literally have no idea what it is actually. I know it's some type of rice, so we're going for it I don't know. It kind of looks like blueberry filling though. Oh That's delicious. It tastes like rice pudding I actually do enjoy this a lot. I Also decided at trying some of the Mufongo and this looks really good. It's got a little shrimp in there I don't think I've ever had that before and here's just a quick peek at the Benye's in the bag The Benye's in the bag. I like when they do this because then you can shake it up and make sure they got extra sugar on them Might as well try more new things and since I tried that little rice pudding dish I think I'm gonna do the most Little more fun. I've never had this before so I have no idea what the taste or the texture is I'm just gonna try it. I'm gonna give it a go Okay It's very good reminds me of stuffing actually This is actually really really good. I do like it, but now It's time for the Benye's. It's time to get down to the Benye business These Benye's are so light and fluffy and you know Benye's go good with Mardi Gras along with Hurricanes and Jambalaya and gumbo which I can't wait to try some Jambalaya and gumbo because you know that it's Definitely a must but nice little Benye's a good way to start. So here we go. Cheers. Oh Yeah That's a good Benye It's definitely a Benye and not a Ben. No, but look at that So delicious. That's the way now I've never had Benye's from like say New Orleans before so I don't know if they should be Airy or should they be thick and you know kind of like fluffy all I can like describe Benye's is how I've had them either here in Universal or Disney or oh Disney land. So I don't know which one is kind of more traditional, you know Look at me being fancy trying new things Trying new things once I thought I was done Something brought me back for more and that is the liege waffle with strawberries and cream. Look at this I literally was just like, you know what? I'm done, but I can't pass up a liege waffle. It looks too good. I Love how these waffles are kind of doing like a big like if they're the kind of like very trendy right now You get the liege waffle over an f-cott. I see them all over the place In fact, there is a restaurant near my house that just sells Leage waffles like they sell waffles and like chicken and stuff like that. So I'm excited to try this one because it looks pretty good It looks a little flaky actually you can actually pick this up and have like a waffle taco. Oh wait a second that does exist I feel Seriously just look at this. All right. Here we go That got on my nose, but it is amazing look at my nose The sugar crystals are amazing. This is much too good honestly so good Well, that was a lot of fun I'm glad I got to try a little bit of the sampling of the different items in the food booths Now we're gonna actually make our way over to Lombards because that's where we actually got our dining reservation For our dine-in float ride But we do want to try some more of the items like I said Maybe some jambalaya some gumbo and it's all smaller portions So you get to actually enjoy and try different things without actually getting full but the Lombards that's a three-course meal Like I mentioned they have some of the food booths actually right out on city walk and this year They're even having some over at islands of adventure and 17 different countries Look at the taste of the Mediterranean So they have like a grilled octopus with rice and then a crepe Cezette, I've never even heard of this, but it comes with Grand Marnay orange sauce which sounds amazing And then over on this side. I think they actually have like a New Orleans style food right next to Fat Tuesday Kind of appropriately right here I wanted to wear something a little bit Mardi Gras-ish and I didn't know what to wear and since I've come to Universal Studios I decided to wear my Tiki tunes Nickelodeon Roosevelt and look at this shirt. It's like a 90s nostalgic all wrapped up in one Look at all the characters on there. I love this shirt so much Now that we have made it into the park You can actually see a lot of the entertainment just hanging around the characters And this is cool because you get to see it during the parade and then actually just throughout the whole entire day I love it. It's so festive. Oh, and they even got some beads Very nice my friend The parade has several themed different floats Of course, they always have like their returning favorites like the river boats and the king and queen float But they always have new ones and on opening night I actually was here and I was throwing beads, but I wasn't making videos and I was on serpent So I'm excited to see what float we actually get this time and the performance that you'll see walking around Some of them are all separately themed to different things too One of the things I have to say about Universal Studios is their entertainment is honestly next level It's also important to point out that everybody celebrates the Mardi Gras season even Scooby and Shaggy look at that That is kind of cool The Mardi Gras float in Dine experience is actually 84.99 per person and you can choose between Finnegan's Lumbar's NBC or cowfish, which are all amazing restaurants Lumbar's is the one that popped up now They all have separate availability yet to pick the restaurant first and you could do this in the Universal app and Once you do that They give you like a little lay in your and you're able to go and actually have a reserved spot for the floats themselves And it's hard to get on those floats like those virtual cues go like that Little street performance too Seriously, there is just non-stop entertainment throughout the whole entire day And it only gets better as night time closes in I love it so much And here we go We have made it to our restaurant Lumbar's seafood grill And they even have a special Mardi Gras dish on the menu and you know, we're definitely gonna have to get that Now that we have checked in they gave us our little lanyards We had a prepay for this so we just sit down order what we want And then we can leave and I also found out that we get our annual past discount It was 84.99 on the app, but when we booked it, I think it was a little cheaper So our AP our like our AP discount ended up being around 55 dollars per person and that's amazing I mean, that's that's a that's a deal and a half Lumbar's is such a pretty restaurant every time I come in here I say it like I feel so elegant eating here We got fish fountains and the lobby Nice carpet the chairs are fancy It's very nice Look at big fish tank right in the center of the room Now that we have made it to Lumbar's I want to go over the menu with you try to figure out what we're going to eat and Have a little fun Here is a look at the menu and because we're doing the dining package It's all three courses. So we get one appetizer one entrée and then one dessert and they've got some nice things for appetizers I've got street shrimp cocktail calamari tuna poke and then for entrees because it's Lumbar's it's a lot of fish So like they have the fishermen's basket fishing chips They've got uh, brand zeno But what i'm interested in is this bayou shrimp and it has the little mardi gras sign next to it So that's like a special or a favorite that they're doing just for the mardi gras season And it looks good and then dessert. I don't know what to look and see but I think i'm going uh I think i'm going calamari and bayou shrimp a little bayou shrimp I have eaten here before in the past and the food is always amazing It's so good, especially if you love fish and i'm excited to dive into the uh Calamari that I got but more excited for probably the bayou shrimp down by the bayou Here is the calamari and at first I got nervous because I was like what's that red sauce under there I hope it's not like something I wouldn't like but it's the good old marinara And that's what I like some nice little calamari the italian way Joining me on the parade float tonight is a really fun crew Look at you guys already and I like the shirts. Look at these are actually fitting very very fitting like Oh, yeah, there is yeah, there's a lot of them So I hope we get that one that would be cool And then we also have ashlyn and promise and chris the gang's all here everyone's having fun Yeah, we party large Here we go it's time to try the calamari it's very crispy I can already tell lots and lots of good texture here Oh, that is good Chris, what did you order? What did you order? It's a pub sub bloody mary. All right, this is the Cadillac old-fashioned. Oh the Cadillac. Yes apple pie old-fashioned Yes, this is the classic old-fashioned. Wow, I believe someone ordered a public sub bloody mary This is the carnivore bloody mary and the soma district right here. Holy moly We're like all like we don't know what to say And just like that dinner has arrived I ended up getting the shrimp bayou or the bayou shrimp The only thing is is I don't see any of the sausage on here. Did you see any sausage or is it in it? It's in the cake. Wow Yeah, there's like a little fried grits cake there the shrimp looked good And then the sauce is good and then I think we have some cream spinach under there So we're going to dive right on in. I only wish they had more than four shrimp You know what I mean? I feel like shrimp should only come out like six and 12 six and 12 Six and 12 A half dozen a baker's dozen I'm going to try the shrimp on its own first and then we're going to try it with the grip cake I do like a little grip cake. I don't think I've ever had it before but now that I know sausage is on the inside Cut that's my kind of cake Wow The power of that shrimp That's good Now I'm going to try a little bit of this grip cake here. Oh, it's got a little spice to it It's creeping in on me creeping in. Look at that Honestly, it looks like a crab cake Crab tree. There we go. Let's grab a little bit of this a little bit of that Seriously look at that It looks so good. I really do like this a lot I feel like I need to get more. I just wish I had a little bit more shrimp. That's all I'm looking for Everybody else had some good food though. It's all gone. It's all gone. I'm the slow eater. Where'd it go? Was it that good? What'd you have? Swordfish I missed the song. I'm gonna have to watch your video now. I'm I missed it all Enough of the bayou shrimp business. It's time for desserts. Look at all these desserts They got a chocolate cake a key lime pie a mocha triangle. I went with the key lime pie though Look at that. Oh, yeah, that could be a dessert Here we go a little key lime pie time Key lime pie time. I like that got the end piece I like it I'll trade you some of my key lime pie for some of your mocha triangle That's a deal. That sounds like a good trade. That's a good deal. We're gonna scuba do a little scuba do scuba do There we go That's the way cheers That was amazing such a great value honestly Because like I said if they just sold an individual lighting lane so that we can go and do the bee tossing I probably wouldn't just pay for it. You know what I mean and to have it all together the food was great But I didn't notice that because today is like not a weekend The parade starts earlier than I thought and we have to go check in at 455 before five o'clock So we're gonna head over there and check in so that we can get ourselves our nice little gowns find out what float We're on and then I don't know. Hopefully we can try some more food once we're done If not, I'm gonna be tossing a lot of beads As we're making our way over to the check-in area, you can see we've got some of the stands here Good old belgium and then germany over there I love that they have multiple stands and they have all good drinks and food items This might be one of the best food festivals in Orlando itself Hi, I'm looking at those lige waffles. Those are the stuff right there right there. That's them right there They're so good Amazing, yep Here we go, we have made it over to the check-in area We have our credentials And also if you ever do want to ride the floats, they do do a last-minute drop sometimes So you can always try again with the virtual queue Now we have to get our sashes. I'm so excited to be gator like we're team gator and that's the last Float it's one of the biggest floats too. So it's gonna be our job to bring it home Like we gotta we gotta go hard. We gotta go. We're bringing it. We're going all the way Gator right here team gator I love it. There's a good color on it. I know I like it. I like it. That's so cool and they have all the different Costumes for the different floats. I do want to be riverboat one day Feet don't fail me now whoo feet don't fail me now feet don't fail me now team gator It's gonna be the gator team your beat captain. They're gonna bring you over to where you have to go Team gator The next time you see us, we're gonna be on the float. So here we go Yeah, so many beads So many beads under hand or to the side full experience. I ended up leaving with a bunch of beads And a bunch of confetti Look at that You just toss it everywhere. I mean it really doesn't matter at this point Look at the ground I'm like Scoop some of that yet cleanup crew coming in Yeah So many people I was tossing beads to and it was awesome Everyone that was calling out my name and recognized me. I really love that and it was cool Also seeing a lot of friends like Jackie was out there And there was a big group of people in like a separate viewing area that I got to say hi to And then also a little friend made me a little star Beady thing. She made this isn't that nifty? I love it Show me this magic trick You are the magic Now it's time to clean up all of the confetti And that's how the confetti gets vacuumed up Since the park closed at seven o'clock I figured we'd come out to city walk and explore some of the Mardi Gras festivities that they have going on out here They have the new Orleans stand and they have the yaku-men. It's kind of like a ramyun And I kind of looks good. I'm excited to do try this. Look at this braised beef poached shrimp and seven-minute egg over noodles with spicy beef broth yaku-men They also have an old baby beer and it's made by crooked can a local brewery here in winter garden And it tastes like king cake. So it's like a king cake beer. And I I don't think I can pass it up King cake beer you remember that one time you brought a gigantic king cake to uh, uh, port Orleans Yeah I don't know who got it. I remember I just remember Maria bringing a gigantic king cake in Yeah, what cheers oh, baby. Oh, baby I'm excited to give this a go Oh, yeah Here is the yaku-men and it looks so good get a couple shrimps in there I got the egg. I wonder if it's super spicy. I can see the beef in there too. It's a good portion pretty big old cup They actually give you a chopstick fork. Look at this promise to me to open it. Yeah, she said that's a real dingle hopper It's a real dingle hopper. I could look at that chopsticks right in my hair. You don't even have to work to you Yeah, you pinch it or you fork it. That's intervention You fork it All right, I'm going to use my special What did you call them? Chorks Try to find myself some noodles. Oh It doesn't work effectively I'm gonna say it doesn't work effectively I can get one noodle and one piece of beef There we go. That works It's good. I don't like the noodles. I like the beef. The beef is good Not so much the sauce. I'm not not so much the noodles out Yeah, it's very slippery Very very hard to pin down there, but the beef is good. Look at the noodles. They just keep flopping off I tried using the tongs or the the chopstick side the tongs Yeah It is tongs Enough of the yacum in business. I think that's how you say it We're gonna move along and I think we're actually gonna head up to paddle bryans again That's where we started off our day. Maybe that's where we're gonna end it We were gonna make our way back on over to paddle bryans But it looks like they closed it off for a private event a company rented out all of city walk Wow, that's a good company right there Right, what a party. What a retreat a team building exercise Since that's actually closed off. I figured the only thing that's open actually over here is antohitos And uh, yeah, I mean we're celebrating mardi gras, but we could get a margarita This place is actually a really good restaurant They've got some nice guac and chips and I think we're just gonna grab a little uh a little margarita Mardi gras margarita. I don't even know if that doesn't even sound right. Mardi gras margarita It's probably super loud in here, but I got the watermelon margarita. You guys want to cheers real quick Chris got a watermelon margarita too Cheers Big ol margaritas And with that we ended the night with a little watermelon margarita, which was fantastic I mean the watermelon margarita was way better than I thought it would be but we had a great day Mardi gras was fantastic throwing the beads I wish we could have tried a little bit more of the food inside there But the park closed at seven o'clock and that was like so early because the last time I came I think it was open till nine o'clock And uh, yeah, it's been a fun amazing time Thank you Universal Studios for inviting me out and being able to show you guys all the cool snacks and the beads and everything like that And I hope you enjoyed the video because I enjoyed making it. We'll see you next time Bye And a good Mardi gras tradition. We got to sacrifice our beads to the tree I'm doing them all at once