HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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AO Sig
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HAPPY MARDI GRAS

Post by AO Sig »

We are spending it at the second-most busy place today, Walt Disney World (chance to visit daughter in college, plus son's college Spring Break). I have seen tons of Mardi Gras shirts, etc. I commend those people who realize that wearing an LSU shirt does not count as a Mardi Gras outfit (have seen tons of Saints and LSU garb since we arrived Friday).

My daughter was given the opportunity to ride in the Mardi Gras parade over at Universal; they have been putting on parades daily for about 2 weeks, and she revelled in the experience.

We came equipped for the day; several shirts from Perlis have been worn yesterday and today (love the "Mardi Craw" shirt, but is a bit cool today for it), plus we have beads for the day.

I hope y'all have a safe and pleasurable Mardi Gras!
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gerryb323
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

Post by gerryb323 »

Busiest after Mobile, I'm guessing? Seriously though, Rio probably is in the top 2
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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AO Sig wrote:We are spending it at the second-most busy place today, Walt Disney World (chance to visit daughter in college, plus son's college Spring Break). I have seen tons of Mardi Gras shirts, etc. I commend those people who realize that wearing an LSU shirt does not count as a Mardi Gras outfit (have seen tons of Saints and LSU garb since we arrived Friday).

My daughter was given the opportunity to ride in the Mardi Gras parade over at Universal; they have been putting on parades daily for about 2 weeks, and she revelled in the experience.

We came equipped for the day; several shirts from Perlis have been worn yesterday and today (love the "Mardi Craw" shirt, but is a bit cool today for it), plus we have beads for the day.

I hope y'all have a safe and pleasurable Mardi Gras!
TWO WEEKS??? They run their Mardi Gras celebration from early Feb until April (started Feb 9 this year). Blain Kern builds their floats (he builds their Halloween parade floats, too). It's actually quite nicely done. Back in 1998 I had to miss MG in New Orleans for a sales conference and we got to watch their parade, instead. Certainly wasn't Endymion or Bacchus, but it was fun, nonetheless. Glad she got to ride a float! We almost road tripped down there a couple of weeks ago (we have annual passes), but the timing didn't work out.
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sr
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

Post by sr »

Link to live coverage -- Zulu just passing Gallier Hall

https://www.wdsu.com/article/mardi-gras ... e/26646768
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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AO Sig wrote:We are spending it at the second-most busy place today, Walt Disney World (chance to visit daughter in college, plus son's college Spring Break). I have seen tons of Mardi Gras shirts, etc. I commend those people who realize that wearing an LSU shirt does not count as a Mardi Gras outfit (have seen tons of Saints and LSU garb since we arrived
My daughter was given the opportunity to ride in the Mardi Gras parade over at Universal; they have been putting on parades daily for about 2 weeks, and she revelled in the experience.

We came equipped for the day; several shirts from Perlis have been worn yesterday and today (love the "Mardi Craw" shirt, but is a bit cool today for it), plus we have beads for the day.

I hope y'all have a safe and pleasurable Mardi Gras!
We are at disney as well.
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AO Sig
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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Poseidon wrote:
AO Sig wrote:We are spending it at the second-most busy place today, Walt Disney World (chance to visit daughter in college, plus son's college Spring Break). I have seen tons of Mardi Gras shirts, etc. I commend those people who realize that wearing an LSU shirt does not count as a Mardi Gras outfit (have seen tons of Saints and LSU garb since we arrived
My daughter was given the opportunity to ride in the Mardi Gras parade over at Universal; they have been putting on parades daily for about 2 weeks, and she revelled in the experience.

We came equipped for the day; several shirts from Perlis have been worn yesterday and today (love the "Mardi Craw" shirt, but is a bit cool today for it), plus we have beads for the day.

I hope y'all have a safe and pleasurable Mardi Gras!
We are at disney as well.
We are eating at Enzo's Italian at Disney Springs tonight, then Rose and Crown tomorrow for lunch (Ash Wednesday means Fish and chips). My wife, son and I all have outfits from Perlis. Look for my gray jacket with an embroidered Tigger on the back! Here until Friday
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Johnny4
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

Post by Johnny4 »

Some cool pictures from Mardi Gras in the 1970's.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ga ... gras-1970s
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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AO Sig wrote:We are eating at Enzo's Italian at Disney Springs tonight, then Rose and Crown tomorrow for lunch (Ash Wednesday means Fish and chips). My wife, son and I all have outfits from Perlis. Look for my gray jacket with an embroidered Tigger on the back! Here until Friday
Disney Springs is about the only part of Disney we enjoyed. Hollywood Studios was OK because my daughter got to do Jedi Training and took on Darth Vader with a light saber... and I imagine the new Star Wars attractions will make it even better... but the Magic Kingdom had not progressed since I was a teenager and experienced it in 1978. The transportation system, that everyone seems to love, actually sucks balls. Our hotel room (Caribbean Beach Resort) was rode hard and put up wet... and it had been renovated in recent years.

Our trip to Universal last fall made us 100% converts. CityWalk is probably a notch below Disney Springs in regards to food options... but I imagine they will fix that over time. The rides at Universal are far more engaging and the Harry Potter world stuff was staggeringly good...and of course, Simpsonsland was my nirvana.

My daughter loved every minute of our trip there. We are going back at the tail end of spring break to get more value from our annual passes. We are timing it so we are hitting the park as everyone else is leaving.
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AO Sig
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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Johnny Mac wrote:
AO Sig wrote:We are eating at Enzo's Italian at Disney Springs tonight, then Rose and Crown tomorrow for lunch (Ash Wednesday means Fish and chips). My wife, son and I all have outfits from Perlis. Look for my gray jacket with an embroidered Tigger on the back! Here until Friday
Disney Springs is about the only part of Disney we enjoyed. Hollywood Studios was OK because my daughter got to do Jedi Training and took on Darth Vader with a light saber... and I imagine the new Star Wars attractions will make it even better... but the Magic Kingdom had not progressed since I was a teenager and experienced it in 1978. The transportation system, that everyone seems to love, actually sucks balls. Our hotel room (Caribbean Beach Resort) was rode hard and put up wet... and it had been renovated in recent years.

Our trip to Universal last fall made us 100% converts. CityWalk is probably a notch below Disney Springs in regards to food options... but I imagine they will fix that over time. The rides at Universal are far more engaging and the Harry Potter world stuff was staggeringly good...and of course, Simpsonsland was my nirvana.

My daughter loved every minute of our trip there. We are going back at the tail end of spring break to get more value from our annual passes. We are timing it so we are hitting the park as everyone else is leaving.
My daughter has annual passes to both places; the Universal is good for 18 months, so she told us "look how much money I saved!" Given that annual passes include parking, one visit a month covers a large part of the pass. Disney annual pass also covers parking; both places are charging $25 a day, so it pays off if you are regular visitor.

Johnny- next time you are there, look for a young lady at the sales kiosk near Jurassic Park named Allison; she is one of my daughter's best friends. Regarding Disney and dated- Disneyland is a lot worse, in terms of lack of change- not much different since I went there while doing an internship just west at Long Beach memorial. The new Star Wars area will be a real game-changer. And at Epcot they are building a new Marvel comics-based attraction. So they are trying to update themselves.

And Pete, you are right, they had the Mardi Gras celebration for 4 weeks. My daughter loved riding on the float and throwing the beads; plus, she left with a bunch of good quality strings of beads akin to the numbers we used to get at the parades in NOLA.
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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For my troop it will be HS tomorrow and Epcot thursday or Friday. About the whole Disnyy thing... Walt was Disney's original appeal was 'the place where everyone can feel like a child.' This was what Walt envisioned. The more I have gone over the years the less it feels like that and the more it feels like a place to take women and children where adults can count on top notch customer service. As much as it pains me to say, Universal is doing a better job lately of "making adults feel like kids again." This is especially true for older boys and men. Disney went totally in on small children or cutsey entertainment after Lion King...IMO. The 8 year old and up boy demographic fell off and Simpsons, Comic book heroes, Jurassic park, and Harry Potter took over. Disney just dropped the ball. I say all of this being only 36 and having seen the change over the last 30 years.
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

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A couple of comments on the different approaches between Disney and Universal. If you look at approaches to Halloween, each has its own extra event, but they are different. Disney has its Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party, with trick or treating (quality candy), lots of villains and Disney characters in "costume". Contrast that to Universal and their "Halloween Horror Nights," with a scary maze, lots more areas devoted to various horror movies- The shining, Freddy Kruger, etc.

My son is autistic, and he loves everything Disney. He knows where he wants to go, and he looks forward to trying new attractions when they come out. The stability of Disney has kept his comfort levels up. He has been to Universal and enjoyed a variety of the attractions (loves the Minions and Shrek attractions), but his aversion to trying some of the more "extreme" rollercoasters (he tells me "I don't want to go upside down") limits what he will do there somewhat.

We had talked about a trip to London and France this summer (was nixed when we realized that the trip would coincide with the 75th anniversary of D-Day, making the things we want to do because of the expected crowd), and both expressed a desire to go to Disneyland Paris one time. Our son also wants to go to the Harry Potter experience outside London (which I saw with Amanda- is incredible).
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Re: HAPPY MARDI GRAS

Post by Johnny Mac »

in regards to customer service, I honestly think Universal brings it to a higher notch than Disney. Disney is fantastic, don't get me wrong.. but Universal turns it up to 11. We went to the park for my daughter's birthday and EVERY employee wished her happy birthday when they saw the birthday button. EVERY EMPLOYEE. Having that birthday button got her selected for the "wand choosing you" ceremony at Ollivander's wand shop.

My daughter has reached the point where she's going on the big coasters... my favorite coaster on the planet is the Hulk and she went on it with me a couple of times... she got a little freaked out on the Mummy ride because of the flames.. but she told me she's over it for our next trip there. My wife is "peace, out" on any major coaster, so it's just Juliana and myself doing the thrill rides.

The biggest advantage of Universal over Disney is the fast pass access. Disney, you have a limited number and have to schedule months in advance for the best rides.. at Universal, you walk right onto most rides, depending on the crowds. Over 2.5 days in the parks in October, my daughter and I waited in a line once, not including the 1 time on the Hulk they shut the ride down to add a second set of cars (that's actually a 20-30 minute ordeal).
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