Summer is always the busiest time of year for theme parks, and so those parks are always looking for something new and exciting to draw people in. Universal Orlando Resort opened the Jurassic World Velocicoaster last summer, and this summer, while it doesn’t have a massive new ride this year, it does have something that looks quite exciting, especially if you’re a fan of classic Universal movies like Jaws, E.T. and Back to the Future.
Yesterday Universal Studios Florida officially opened its Summer Tribute Store, which could also be seen as the Steven Spielberg Tribute Store, as it covers two of Spielberg’s best movies, Jaws and E.T., and a third he produced, Back to the Future. The store, of course, is full of cool merchandise related to the films, but it’s not just the stuff, it’s the store itself that looks so good you’re going to want to check it out.
Visit Elliott's Room, Doc Brown’s Garage, And More
Each area of the store is designed to look like a piece of the movie that it’s from. The E.T. area is Elliott’s bedroom where he kept E.T. stashed. The Back to the Future part is Doc’s garage and fans of Back to the Future are going to love it. It’s covered in clocks, a massive amplifier, and even a scale model of the town of Hill Valley. The Jaws area is Quint’s boat shack, with an obviously nautical theme. You’ll have to visit to find out if the room just plays the classic Jaws theme all day long.
Even if you’re not looking to buy any of this merchandise, these rooms look amazing and are worth wandering through. And while you’re doing that, you might reconsider whether or not you need to buy any of this cool stuff.
Taste Delicious Movie Themed Treats
But even if you don’t want the stuff, you still need to eat, and the final room at the Summer Tribute Store is designed to look like a movie theater concession stand, complete with appropriately themed treats. These look incredibly delicious and worth trying out. That E.T. cake alone is beautiful. It looks almost too good to eat.
Theme Parks always do a remarkable job creating worlds within their attractions but one place Universal Orlando Resort really stands out is in its Tribute Stores. Yes, they are merchandise locations designed to get people to buy stuff, but it’s for exactly that reason that going this hard on the design is maybe not that necessary, and yet, Universal Orlando does it anyway.
Since it’s called the Summer Tribute Store, we can expect that it will only be around for a few months. The good news is that there will certainly be more well designed tribute stores that follow it. When summer ends Halloween will be right around the corner and we can be sure a new tribute store for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights will be a part of that.
