CTM Universal Ep 138 - Mardi Gras 2027 Dates Announced, Five Guys Opens in City Walk & Looking Back at Closed Attraction at Islands of Adventure

So the first story we have is the 2027 Universal Mardi Gras International Flavors of Carnival.

Just rolls off the tongue there.

You just call it Mardi Gras if you want.

The dates have been announced for this.

So this annual festival will run February 6th through March 27th.

And this is actually a week shorter than they did in 2026.

And I

believe that was a week shorter than it was previously, wasn't

it? Well, here's the thing.

The least amount of days this year since 2017 at only 50 days.

Yeah, they definitely went a little, they got a little too aggressive how long they were having Mardi Gras go on.

well back in 2021 because i even looked this up i was very curious uh it went 86 days um and that so basically

wine territory

but do you remember 2021 i think it's because it was coming off the pandemic and they wanted people to come but like yeah um it's so it had the the days i think it was february something early february to like early april is what it was set at yeah and they kept extending it

they

extended it like twice like into may and we're like what is Well, that's

also when you had a lot of...

I guess the term is revenge travel.

That's when Universal got – because Disney had so many – which is kind of interesting in retrospect because Bob Chapek's book is coming out where he's defending all this stuff.

But all those – all the changes at the parks that Disney had, Universal was already going in a – they were already eating in a market share.

But that definitely boosted them because people – it was much simpler to go to Universal.

And I think they were trying to like, oh, have this event go on longer to handle the crowds.

But I think there's a sweet spot for festivals.

Yeah.

I feel like the same thing for like Epcot as well.