Knight News took a behind-the-scenes look at the 2015 holiday celebration at Universal Studios Orlando. Opening day kicked off a month-long series of shows, parades and performances, and familiar characters, such as Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch.
The annual celebration runs from Dec. 5 through Jan. 2, 2016. Guests can experience several attractions at the resort:
• Grinchmas ‘Wholiday’ Spectacular – The live rendition of Dr. Seuss’ ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ featured recognizable characters and performances found in the classic holiday tale.
• Macy’s Holiday Balloons Parade Building – Knight News joined in a VIP tour behind the sets of Universal Studios, where characters prepared for later shows and parade floats began to make an appearance.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Vice President John Piper and Executive Director Amy Kule spoke on bringing the parade from New York City to Orlando, where a handful of the original parade balloons make the trip south.
“We really, truly, bring the New York parade here and flavor it for the holiday season,” Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Vice President John Piper said to Knight News. “We combine it with the great talent here at Universal Studios with wonderful dancers. Our costumer works with the costume department here so that you’ll see an integration of Macy’s costumes, Orlando costumes, costumes that were designed by Macy’s and built by Universal and vice versa, even used in the Thanksgiving Parade, so it’s this wonderful mixing but it has a great holiday flavor to it.”
“The great joy about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York is bringing it to life once a year and people come as you’d imagine from far and wide to see it, and it happens in any weather, but it only happens once,” Amy Kule, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Executive Director, said. “The great joy of bringing elements on the road, particularly to Orlando, is that more and more people get to experience the parade on a daily basis.”
• Macy’s Holiday Parade – Universal Studios Orlando began the December showcase of the floats and parade balloons Saturday evening with Christmas lights, movie characters, the Thanksgiving ‘Tom Turkey’ as well as Santa Claus. Performers marched the park streets as did displays of confetti and live music.
• Live performance by Manheim Steamroller – The holiday spectacular’s final event included a live performance from the holiday music symphony on one of six of the nights Mannheim Steamroller will play (Dec. 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20). Light shows matched the performance that closed the evening.
