Universal Orlando plans daily parade, night show

ORLANDO, Fla. — Universal Orlando, with an eye on bolstering attendance, has announced ambitious plans for a daily interactive character parade and a nighttime light and pyrotechnics show at the theme park highlighting the company's 100 years of moviemaking.

The interactive parade and the Morgan Freeman-narrated evening show — with images from Universal movies projected onto screens created by waterfalls in the middle of a lagoon — is the most significant addition to attractions at the Universal Studios park since the hugely successful Harry Potter attraction opened in 2010 at Universal's other Orlando property, Islands of Adventure.

Jim Timon, senior vice president for entertainment at Universal Orlando, said the parade and night show will debut sometime this spring, although specific dates weren't announced.

Daily parades and nightly fireworks displays have been featured at Walt Disney parks for years. Until now, Universal has done parades only occasionally, usually as part of seasonal offerings at Halloween and Christmas.

The night show will celebrate the company's movies through the last 100 years and will run 18 to 20 minutes. The three high-definition screens projected on waterfalls will be surrounded by 70 LED-lighted fountains and pyrotechnics, Timon said.

"This is very much a big end-of-day spectacular," Timon said. "This is the big show we send our guests off with, with the Universal brand and message and emotion and impact."

The "Universal Superstar Parade" will feature characters such as Nickelodeon's Dora & Diego and SpongeBob SquarePants. Timon said each float will be set up as a separate show with its own special effects and musical score that can be featured individually around the park when not in the parade.

John Gerner, managing director of Richmond, Va.-based Leisure Business Advisors, said it's important for Universal to keep changing and improving the Universal Studios park to give Harry Potter fans a reason to spend a second day on the property after visiting Islands of Adventure. Also, he said, Universal has to step up the competition with Disney, whose major expansion of Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom is reopening in stages later this year and next.

"You want your guests to stay overnight, and you want them to stay at the resort … (so) they definitely needed to bolster the two-gate approach," Gerner said.