With more attractions in the mix, there will be more souvenirs to buy in Central Florida in the coming months. Not that we have a shortage of t-shirts in these parts and parks, but it can still be fun to browse the shops, find clever designs, and then think, “but when would I actually wear that?”
Recently we walked past a number of stores selling upcoming productions, current special events and related shows.
Ground Dollars
At Universal CityWalk, there’s the Epic Universe preview center, a standalone store dedicated to the Universal Orlando theme park opening next year. Merchandise surrounds a large model of Epic, showcasing its land, attractions and adjacent hotel, the Grand Helios.
In the store, four of the five lands now have specific merchandise on offer, including Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, and Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. (Celestial Park is currently a strange land.) The four also have themed portals as photo opportunities.
What you see for sale in the preview center is a variety of T-shirts, mugs, hats, lanyards, plush characters, cups and the like. Super Nintendo is bursting with color. Wizarding World leans on the message “for in dreams we enter a world that is all our own.”
Dark Universe, dedicated to Universal’s classic monsters, has perhaps the largest selection at the moment with several black shirts featuring lightning bolts and dark creatures.
For our money, we like the more generic navy blue T-shirt ($27) with the Epic logo front and center the best. It’s the one you’ll see most outside of stores, especially among young adults and teens. Of course, this is the first theme park in Orlando they’ll ever build, and the big logo works on social media.
Horror paradise
Across the CityWalk plaza at the Universal Studios Store are many Halloween Horror Nights-related options. There are specific T-shirts for the event’s haunted houses, mostly black, though the “Ghostbusters” fare is a bit lighter.
We went back to the more generic looks, although they were pretty rock ‘n’ roll with bleeding skulls, skeletons, ravens, frowning pumpkins and disembodied eyeballs. A sticker warns that this is “blacklight-reactive apparel.” Sticker price: $35.
Some choices are outside the box, including green flannel shirts and a denim hooded vest with HHN logos. A coffin-shaped Horror Nights advent calendar, various Lil Boo items and an HHN ’24 Christmas ornament are less predictable than you might expect.
And then there’s the Chucky popcorn bucket with a blood-spattered cord. “I talk! I light up! I see you!” the sign reads. The price is $44.99, including your first refill of popcorn. (There’s a How to Train Your Dragon popcorn bucket next door for $34.99, but it can’t talk, light up, or see you.)
‘Drawn to Life’ Rules
Less scary is the Cirque du Soleil store at Disney Springs. It’s located on the ground floor of the theater where “Drawn to Life” has been produced since late 2021.
There are simple “Drawn” logo options, but there’s also the graphic appeal of a shirt featuring the production’s Wheel of Death contraption, a sort of spinning, double-headed hamster wheel for acrobats. (The shirt, which retails for $35, doesn’t mention Death; it’s probably a good move for a show with “Life” in the title.)
The store isn’t as colorful as a Cirque show, with black, silver, and gold clothing on one side, pretty fancy stuff. But nearby is a small clearance area with our new favorite sale sign: Special Prices.
Feeling of blue
A new store recently opened in Icon Park, the future home of Blue Man Group shows. Although the production is aiming for shows by the end of the year, it is already selling merchandise. The store is still understated and is located next to Brother Jimmy’s BBQ restaurant on the south side of the complex.
The store features familiar props you may have seen during the Universal Orlando show, including oil drums, plastic tube-powered xylophones, elaborate costumes and marshmallows.
On the T-shirt side, the ones featuring real-blue men with paint splatters seem like a logical buy ($34). There’s also a small selection of Cirque merchandise, since Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group acquired Blue Man Productions in 2017.
The store will remain in place even after the theater is built. It is located behind Icon Park, in the shadow of the Orlando Eye, just off Universal Boulevard.
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