Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval at Universal Orlando Resort has brought the music and joy of New Orleans right here to Orlando for over 30 years, creating its own unique traditions. Of those is the ever-iconic Tribute Store, a staple of Universal events.
The Tribute Store is not just a gift shop, but a larger-than-life shopping experience adding to the overall story of an event. “The Tribute Store is unique in that it is an experience first,” says Greg Duffy, assistant manager of visual merchandise. “And if you do it right, not only does it become almost more of an attraction, but it kind of changes the mindset of the guests going in.”
Greg, who has worked on nearly 20 Tribute Stores since 2021, calls this year’s Mardi Gras store the “best of” past Mardi Gras iterations, even including ideas that didn’t make it into past stores. “The idea for this one was a visual representation of how the music of New Orleans and Mardi Gras makes you feel,” he explains. “You start in this little roadhouse dive bar and the music kind of begins to take hold. As you make your way through the streets of New Orleans to the French Quarter, the music grabs you and pulls you. Everything becomes a surreal representation of the different ways that music can resonate with people and make them feel in the city.”
Let’s take a walk through Mardi Gras’ greatest hits in this year’s Tribute Store!
The Honky-Tonk Never Shuts
Superfans will recognize the immediate nod to Baron Tonton: the mischievous and indulgent spirit of Mardi Gras with a love of sweet treats (felt) and Carnival music, right at the façade of the store. Entering “Tonton’s Roadhouse” through a giant purple skull, guests are met with the familiar sights and sounds of a dive bar. Immediately visible are trays of shot glasses (and, hey, unused ones you can purchase!), a billiards table, and endless advertisements and flyers of upcoming events.
Adam Hostetler, an assistant concept designer on the visual merchandise team, often spearheads the cheeky visuals that have become so integrated into Tribute Stores. So much so, he has lovingly become known as the “Easter egg guy” on his team. “If you see a bulletin board in a store,” he says with a chuckle, “it is probably me.”
The space closer to the bar is positively covered in posters of varying sizes. “We knew we were doing this dive bar,” Adam says, “and they kind of just gave it to me and said, ‘go.’ We needed to come up with labels, band posters, the stage proscenium and all that. I ended up with over 25 different bottle labels, and about 20 or 30 different poster types. Some of them are direct callbacks to previous stores, others to experiences both still here and not.”
As for Adam’s favorite label or poster, he says, “They’re all a lot of fun, but The ‘Captain Jake’s Spicy Rum’ one comes to mind: I drew the character of Captain Jake and Bruce the Shark as kind of an homage to the vintage cartoons of Universal past. I think the one that I’ve seen the most people react to is the Earl Lort one. Just having Earl on a bottle of non-alcoholic acorn liqueur — that seemed to get a lot of laughs.”
I asked Adam how he develops these materials, and how he has so many ideas. “I try my hardest to pay attention to the social channels as well as seeing how guests interact with the parks. I’m a fan of the parks, so, I try to make sure we can keep some of that alive.”
Progressing further into the bar, you’ll find a stage that the in-house band has stepped away from, leaving the sounds of blues guitar in their wake. Here, you can adopt your very own little beignet, straight from the kitchen itself. You then enter the kitchen area, where you get a taste of the nightly shenanigans the staff gets up to. Pro tip from Greg: You may want to open the fridge!
That Old Time Zydeco
Exiting out the back of the bar, you enter the streets of New Orleans, but in a zany and surreal way. The music becomes louder, and the streets are painted somehow in the direction of the music, drawing you into the feeling. After exploring some back alleys, you are drawn into a shack littered from floor to ceiling with all kinds of mysterious materials, before emerging into a Louisiana above-ground cemetery.
“We call the shack ‘the House of Tonton,’” Greg explains. “It’s kind of a little bayou shack full of all sorts of mystical accoutrement. And then you step into a part of an aboveground cemetery, and you see a little fun, surrealist, animated version of a Baron Tonton and his buddies dancing in the graveyard.”
Guests may notice an abundance of crawdads throughout the otherwise eerie scene. “We had a box of tiny crawdads, and played ‘hide the crawdad,’” Greg describes. “There’s a little statue of an angel in the cemetery with her hands out. I just put two crawdads in her hands, and it immediately became one of our favorite props in the store because it is just very silly.”
Even in the most ominous of Tribute Stores, Adam finds a way to loop back to a wider audience with humor. “We love the jokes and the puns. I’ve found that they resonate with more people: if you make something a little bit funny, it really evolves the space,” he says. “I love when people walk through, even during the creepiest of stores, and have a little bit of a laugh. Because at the end of the day, it’s still a gift shop. You still want people to be having a good time. And I think that the jokes, as silly as they might be, you remember them.”
Leaving the cemetery, you then enter the Hotel Anna Marie, a callback to a previous Mardi Gras Tribute Store. Luckily for us, the hotel overlooks the French Quarter and is, yes, covered in crawdads. And stepping outside the hotel will give you a real treat…
It’s Carnival Time
“When you enter the French Quarter, it’s just a party, man. You’re smack in the middle of the street, in between two parade floats. There’s confetti coming down, the smell of beignets is in the air. I mean, it all comes together to a head,” Greg states, gesturing to the giant skull float that we have found ourselves in front of.
A series of “food carts” offer a chance to pick up some Mardi Gras essentials: beads, masks, King Gator swag, and more, while joyous carnival music plays from up above. For as much as this store references the rich culture of Mardi Gras’ past, this room ties it together with what brings us here today.
It’s such a great party, even some familiar friends didn’t want to miss it. “Earl the Squirrel’s truck is parked out back, and he and Gerg have taken a road trip down to enjoy the festivities of Mardi Gras, New Orleans,” Greg says, pointing inside the truck. You can see Earl and Gerg’s many maps and snacks they packed to get to Mardi Gras, and they’re presumably out having a blast.
After having such fun in this year’s store, I asked Greg what makes a Tribute Store, really. “I think for me, the big thing that makes a Tribute Store as a whole is the people that make it. That’s the magic of any Tribute Store, what makes it unique, what makes it the experience, what makes it stand out. And what has made it successful is the minds and the hands of the people that made it.”
What is your favorite element of this year’s Mardi Gras Tribute Store? Let us know in the comments!