In the winter of 1990, guests could see all their favorite street sets from the romantic comfort of a horse-drawn carriage. Horse-Drawn Carriages Image: Universalīefore Universal’s holidays even had a name, they had horses. The liability may be too steep or the modern crowds too overwhelming, but you just can’t beat ice skating for festive recreation - and SeaWorld is already renting skates for $15 a pair. If Universal wanted to beat the heat outdoors, concerts permitting, a rink would fit nicely in front of its Music Plaza Stage. Disney ran their own frozen pond in 2014, kept chilled in the former Backstage Pass building. The most obvious, if not necessarily the easiest to nail down, is a soundstage. Minus a picture or two of the Marx Brothers tackling Santa on skates, there’s almost no surviving account of where it even was.īut there are plenty of places it could one day return. The rink did not last long, already history by 1994. The full-size ice-skating rink certainly helped.Īs with most of Universal’s primordial celebrations, details are scarce and photographic record nearly non-existent. It might’ve only lasted a few days like its spookier counterpart at the time, but the effect was undeniable. A proto-Plummet toboggan was constructed. For the 1992 “Old Fashioned Christmas Party,” no expense was spared. Not that Universal went soft on the merrymaking in its early days. Sure, other parts of the park may call for swifter TLC, but maybe the time is finally right for that roller coaster. The plot where it once stood, roughly bordered by The Cat in the Hat and now-unoccupied Sharp Aquos Theatre, remains wide open. Now that Universal holidays, and the resort as a whole, are cozier than ever, the time is right for a return to the Mount.
The case could be made those early Grinchmases started the ball rolling toward the Tribute Stores and scavenger hunts featured today. If anything, the Snow Plummet just fueled rumors and anticipation about a full-blown Mount Crumpit roller coaster that, to date, have come to nothing.īut despite its humility, the slide gave Universal Orlando a seasonal edge in its shakiest days.
Any guests bold enough to wear shorts in December quickly learned the error of their ways.Įven though the slide was aimed more or less exclusively at kids, reviews were still mixed. It operated similarly to Fievel’s counterpart next door, but instead of water, the Grinch kept riders moving with a steady coating of freshly shaved ice.
In the heart of the fiberglass mountain was a 60-foot-long slide. It also happened to be pretty cold, in a relative sense. The unused queue for the all-but-cursed Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s Very Unusual Driving Machines attraction was repurposed into the Grinch’s famously cluttered lair.īut the hottest draw for guests big but especially small was a scaled-down Mount Crumpit hiding behind Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish. In addition to the expected Jim Carrey impersonator, the cockeyed halls were decked with 35 wreathes, 55 stars, and eight soap-snow machines. Since the 2000 release of Ron Howard’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Seuss Landing has provided a convenient Christmas centerpiece for Islands of Adventure. Mount Crumpit Snow Plummet Image: Universal These six festivities, some grand and others no more complicated than a little red felt, all deserve celebration anew. But across the resort’s 30-odd years of cheer, some traditions have left enough of a mark to consider reinstatement. The history of those Universal holidays, as loosely recounted last year, is even more slippery than that of Halloween Horror Nights. That meant trees on the roof rack of Ecto-1 and Delancey Street done up for Hanukkah. Potential copyright infringements aside, that was the spirit - ring in the holidays by any means necessary. There was even a performance from the Orlando Bell-Ringing Choir (the Marx Brothers covered in jingle bells). One of the earliest festivities was a skit-and-song extravaganza starring the park’s early players, from the Ricardo clan to Fievel’s extended family. Then again, Universal’s post-Halloween celebrations have always been a little outside the box. Universal Orlando Resort may not have a hard-ticketed Christmas party like the resort down the road, but with everything included with ordinary admission, it doesn’t really need one. And that’s not counting the returning Macy’s-approved parade or Grinchmas. The burgeoning cult of Earl the Squirrel. The brand new Mistletoe Pines Village in CityWalk. Over the last few years, the holidays have truly become Universal.