Universal's Superstar Parade: SpongeBob Set

I was never a huge fan of parades. But with the help of my son, there's one parade in town that I enjoy every performance every time I see it. At one point, with the exception of Islands of Adventure, you could find a daily parade at every local theme park(SeaWorld too?). Universal's Superstar Parade is still running daily at USF and is my favorite of all current parades in town. It's underrated, and almost a hidden gem. I know it doesn't have some steampunk fire breathing dragon. But there's another one of those around these parts and viewing it isn't limited to once a day.

The parade is broken down into four different casts:

• Despicable Me
• Spongebob Squarepants
• Characters from the movie "Hop"
• Dora The Explorer

There are two very unique qualities to the parade. Throughout the day, each cast comes out by the Horror Makeup Show and performs 2-3 different routines each time. For example, the cast of the Spongebob set will come out(random time given just for the sake of giving examples) at 11am, they might perform this number:


They'll go back in around 11:25am after a meet and greet with guests, and then the Hop characters come out at 11:30am. Each cast rotates throughout the day, and I believe this area has been dubbed "The Superstar Partyzone". If it's not official, I'm totally taking credit if it takes off. This would be the next performance from the Spongebob cast(not our video):



After that performance, there is just one more meet and greet opportunity before the parade. A couple of the characters will come out right near the gate by the Horror Makeup Show. It's usually one of the stilt walkers, a couple of the dancers in blue (they are called the "Jellyfish")  and Squidward. It will be a quiet meet and greet without any music or performance.

The other unique quality of the Superstar Parade I enjoy is the way it stops and performs as opposed to constantly moving. There are two spots along the parade route where each cast performs a dance routine. There are some aspects that make the dance unique to each cast, so you almost have to see the parade more than once to fully appreciate that. And believe it or not, you can do it in the same day! The parade comes out next to Beetlejuice's Graveyard and finishes next to Horror Makeup. The first dance performance stops with the Despicable Me float in between the entrance to Twister and the corner where Macy's is. And the Dora float, which is bringing up the rear, will be stopped almost in front of Starbucks. Once that performance is finished, it continues around and will stop again right before Mel's. You can backtrack by Transformers and catch another cast perform the dance that you didn't see the first time! Here is the Spongebob cast performing the Superstar Parade dance at it's first stop by Revenge of the Mummy:



There are rumors of the parade changing in 2015. I'll be very sad to see it go because Harry loves the rollerskating fish so much. I'll be interested to see what would be replacing it. The current state of the parade gets a lot of flack because of how scaled back it has become since it's debut. Numerous performers have been cut from the show, as well as pieces of the sets have been removed. Either way, the song is infectious and we love it in our house. It really grows on you and it's one of our most favorite shows in any theme park. Here's a video of the parade from Singapore and a possible preview to what might be coming(not our video):


Until next time, enjoy it!

mikey