2/18 Blue Man Group Enhanced Show, Universal Golf Course Construction, Park Photos

Hi everyone!

We attended a special preview of the Universal Studios Orlando Blue Man Group enhancements that start on February 24th. This was our first time seeing the Blue Man Group perform. I took some photos of the golf course construction as we left, and a friend sent us some photos from inside the park that day.

According to the press release we received, the Blue Man Group show “will take guests on an incredible journey where they’ll join the Blue Men as they discover, engage, and explore the world’s obsession with cutting-edge technology”. Blue Men interact with GiPads (gigantic Ipads), and the finale we were part of included giant balls (think beach balls but much larger) being pushed and played with as music played.

We arrived to the Aquos Theater around 9:30am, and the show started at 10:30am.

Here are some photos from the show, of which co-founder Chris Wink said, “Our team of artists at Blue Man Productions has created fun, even astounding new visual aspects of the show, and our music team has given us great new sound”. 

Everyone seemed to enjoy playing with the large balls (but eventually, we were told to move the balls to the front of the room – with some adult humor involved).

We probably saw about half of the show. I didn’t know quite what to expect, I’ve seen little bits of the Blue Man Group here and there – including a segment for the Early Show in 2007 when it taped at Universal Studios Orlando. Unlike Cirque Du Soleil’s La Nouba, it’s pretty hard to describe. I thought the music was fantastic, and the show segments quite interesting and fun. And when big life-size puppets came out near the end, both of us were reminded me of the Tapestry of Nations puppets from Epcot. We were in the splash zone, but no paint was hurled our way for the preview.

Here is more from that day!

I haven’t seen an exact date yet for the opening of mini-golf, except for “early 2012”. These are construction photos from Thursday.

 

The next page consists of park photos and notes sent to us, including construction of Gru’s House at Despicable Me, new banners, and Jaws construction walls with movie posters.

A friend of ours spent some time in the park after the Blue Man Group – thanks to Stephen B. for the pictures! He also added some notes for us, and I liked them enough to keep them as is (and not just for reference).

Banners and Parade route: These are banners they have up for their 100 Years of Movie Memories celebration (I believe the first time the Universal Orlando Resort has really had a year-long celebration and the biggest instance of synergy between the movie studio and the parks) and also some areas where they have re-paved the parade route where the original texture was not smooth enough for floats to drive over.

Jaws Demo: These are photos of the Jaws demolition. There’s also a shot of the games of skill that they’ve moved to the bridge that goes between Simpsons & Jaws, as well as the shark photo op that remains intact.

Lagoon Show: These are photos of the setup for the new lagoon show (another component of the year-long celebration) as well as Gru’s house being built at the entrance of the new Despicable Me attraction.

Movie Poster Timeline: These are photos of the construction walls hiding Jaws demolition. If you walk from San Francisco to Fear Factor, the movie posters are arranged to show the history of Universal Pictures. Damon & Pithias, their first release, is on the far right of the wall next to Lombard’s. This is similar to the first portion of the tram tour in Hollywood where you travel down a winding road that is flanked by movie posters arranged in order of when they were released. It’s interesting that some of the posters are from movies that inspired attractions that are no longer featured at Universal’s parks.

Thank you again to Stephen for the photos, and to Universal Orlando for the preview of the Blue Man Group enhancements!