Travel Calendar

The scientific community is elated after the 40 year search for the Higgs- boson, commonly referred to as the god particle, finally concluded yesterday. But many of us not familiar with Peter Higgs or his work may be a bit confused as to why.

STORY: Holy Sh*t! The God Particle Exists

Well, you know the stories about Jesus turning water into wine, Moses turning a river into blood with a staff, and Moses parting the Red Sea. This particle gives scientists no further insight into how that would’ve happened.  

What it has done is give credence to the theory of the standard model, the theoretical model that describes just about everything observed so far in the world of particle physics. 

It has been observed that different particles are responsible for giving matter different properties. One of the most mysterious and important properties is mass.The Higgs-boson, or “God particle,” is the particle which gives mass to matter. Until July 4th, that was only a theory. This discovery is a major milestone in understanding particle physics.

This may sound like an intellectual wet dream, but many of you are still wondering what’s so special about the discovery and how does it relate to your life. Take a look…

Desert bombshell

Marilyn Monroe is back in Palm Springs, one of her hangouts and hideaways. You can’t miss this “Forever Marilyn” sculpture by Seward Johnson. At 26 feet, the bronze-and-steel piece towers over the local landscape — and tourists have already found respite from the desert sun under that billowing white dress. With the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death approaching Aug. 5, the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism is playing up all the Marilyn angles. You can see the Las Palmas bungalow she lived in; check out her sidewalk star; or stay where the icon stayed (Sand Acre Estate, with Joe DiMaggio, or a hotel now called the Palm Springs Rendezvous). Find details at www.visitpalmsprings.com.

Top hotels (Omaha?!)

Here are the 10 best hotels in the world, as determined by half a million Expedia.com customer reviews. What does it mean when a 3-star Nebraska hotel outranks swanky 5-star properties? It’s all about value for your money, Expedia says.

1. Marrol’s Boutique Hotel (Bratislava, Slovakia)

2. Hotel Al Codega (Venice)

3. Hotel Royal Corin (Fortuna, Costa Rica)

4. Hilton Garden Inn Aberdeen (Scotland)

5. Four Seasons Miami

6. Madison Hotel Hamburg (Germany)

7. Element Omaha Midtown Crossing (Nebraska)

8. Sonnenalp Resort of

Vail (Colorado)

9. Taj Lands End (Mumbai, India)

10. Mr. C Beverly Hills

— Linda Zavoral, travel@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/ buh_byeTRAVEL.

Travel website Hipmunk is battling a patent troll over a patent that covers the display of content in multiple windows.

According to Hipmunk, i2z Technology demanded that Hipmunk negotiate a patent license with the firm by July 2 or face legal action. Hipmunk instead filed suit (below) in San Francisco, asking the court to pre-emptively find that Hipmunk does not infringe on i2z’s technology.

Rakesh Ramde, i2z president, contacted Hipmunk on June 21, shortly after Hipmunk secured $15 million in new funding, and accused the company of infringing on its patent, according to Hipmunk’s filing. Ramde demanded a licensing agreement for the patent, and said that if a deal was not reached by July 2, i2z would “proceed to direct our counsel to file suit against you.”

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Hipmunk pointed to various lawsuits i2z has filed against other tech firms using the same patent, including AOL, Yelp, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Yelp, Hotels.com, and more. This, Hipmunk argued, suggests a “consistent and persistent pattern of litigation” involving the patent in question. “Hipmunk believes i2z will not hesitate to to file suit immediately.”

News of i2z’s efforts did not sit well with tech entrepreneur and columnist Ben Parr, who criticized patent trolls in a sharply worded piece on his personal website.

“Creating a company for the sole purpose of snagging patents and suing other companies? Those people don’t even deserve to practice law. They’re the scum of the earth,” Parr wrote. “We need to find a way to enact some real patent reform and end this despicable practice.”

Parr likened i2z to Lodsys, another patent holder that went after individual iOS developers for patent violations. Apple was later allowed to intervene on the developers’ behalf.

Hipmunk, which was recently named one of PCMag’s 10 Incredibly Useful Travel Websites, lets users choose flights through an intuitive visual timeline. Users look at flights in terms of departure and arrival time and can sort by “agony,” price, duration, and number of stops. An April update allowed users to see appointments along with flight or hotel search results.

For more, see PCMag’s reviews of Hipmunk Flight Search for iPhone (slideshow above) and Hipmunk Flight Search for iPad. Last year, it also added an Android version.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

Hipmunk Versus i2z Technology

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to France, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt and Israel departing Washington, D.C. on July 5.

In Paris on July 6, Secretary Clinton will attend the third meeting of the Friends of the Syrian People. At that meeting, the Secretary will consult with her colleagues on steps to increase pressure on the Assad regime and to support UN-Arab League Special Envoy Annan’s efforts to end the violence and facilitate a political transition to a post-Assad Syria. Secretary Clinton will consult with French leaders regarding next steps on Syria as well as on a number of other key areas of global concern. As part of her ongoing consultations with senior Palestinian and Israeli leaders, the Secretary will also meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss both parties’ efforts to pursue a dialogue and build on President Abbas’ exchange of letters with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Secretary will then travel to Tokyo to attend the July 8 Conference on Afghanistan, where she will reaffirm our enduring commitment to the Afghan people and join the international community in supporting Afghanistan’s development needs for the “transformation decade” to begin in 2015. As part of the mutual commitments made by the international community and Afghanistan at the Bonn conference last December, the Afghan government in turn will lay out its plan for economic reform and continued steps toward good governance. She will also have discussions with Japanese government counterparts on bilateral, regional, and global issues of mutual concern.

In Ulaanbaatar on July 9, Secretary Clinton will meet with President Elbegdorj and Prime Minister Batbold and address the meeting of the Governing Board of the Community of Democracies, as well as an international women’s conference.

In Hanoi on July 10, the Secretary will meet with senior Vietnamese leaders. She will witness the signing of several agreements covering education exchanges and commercial contracts and meet with representatives of U.S. and Vietnamese business communities.

Secretary Clinton will arrive in Vientiane on July 11. This groundbreaking visit to Laos marks the first by a Secretary of State in 57 years. The Secretary will meet with Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and other senior government officials to discuss a variety of bilateral and regional issues, including the Lower Mekong Initiative and ASEAN integration efforts.

Secretary Clinton will arrive in Phnom Penh on July 11 to participate in regional conferences, to both chair and attend ministerial events and to participate in bilateral meetings with Cambodian officials. Regional conferences include the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting, and the U.S.-ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference. Secretary Clinton will co-chair the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Ministerial as well as chair the Friends of the Lower Mekong Ministerial Meeting. Secretary Clinton will also participate in bilateral meetings with senior Cambodian leadership. After Phnom Penh, Secretary Clinton will travel to Siem Reap to lead the largest delegation of U.S. business representatives to Cambodia for an ASEAN event at the ‘Commitment to Connectivity – U.S.-ASEAN Business Forum.’ While in Siem Reap, Secretary Clinton will deliver the keynote address at the Lower Mekong Initiative Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Dialogue on July 13.

On July 14, Secretary Clinton will travel to Egypt to express the United States’ support for Egypt’s democratic transition and economic development. From July 15-16, she will meet with senior government officials, civil society, and business leaders, and inaugurate the U.S. Consulate General in Alexandria.

This will be followed by a stop in Israel on July 16-17, where she will be meeting with the Israeli leadership to discuss peace efforts and a range of regional and bilateral issues of mutual concern.

The coveted look for vacationers this summer is sleek and chic — with an emphasis on sleek.

Many travelers, especially air travelers, are aiming to get up and go with as few accouterments as they can without sacrificing style.

People are thinking about packing light at all stages of the traveling process: from what suitcases they’ll use to the souvenirs they’ll buy.

Stylist Amanda Ross, fashion director for travel-themed Departures magazine, says she thinks about packing when she’s doing her initial shopping. “It really comes down to how you shop and what your wardrobe is about.”

But even more basic is the bag it will go in.

There are more FedEx boxes of clothes and accessories coming into the lobby of Manhattan’s upscale Mondrian SoHo than one might imagine — and fewer luxury-brand suitcases that would complement the handbags that its typical fashion-savvy guests carry, says hotel General Manager Gary Thomas.

He personally uses that send-ahead system. “You don’t have to carry anything then or worry about an extra pound or two, and it’s even more reliable than taking it with you.”

There are also fewer last-minute items, the ones you rarely “need,” tossed in, he says.

“The weight issue has become huge, especially in the past year,” agrees Dan Tarala, vice president of product design and strategy for Victorinox Travel Gear. “It’s the No. 1 thing we hear.”

The complaints started in Europe, he says, but have moved west and east, north and south. When he started with Victorinox almost 10 years ago, the goal was to get a suitcase that could be used for two weeks down to 17 pounds; now it’s 5 pounds.

Of course, consumers want to shed weight without losing any of the features they have come to like or looks they want to wear.

In the world of suitcases, that means wheels still rule. They’ve just changed to smaller, more nimble ones, says Tarala. The evolving trend toward four wheels instead of two might seem counterintuitive, but they can be smaller and better distribute weight. They also encourage a lower profile of the bag, which results in more efficient use of the space inside.

Hard-side suitcases made of polycarbonate, as opposed to soft leather or nylon bags, are gaining wider acceptance, Tarala says. The hard bags need less framing inside. They offer durability comparable to nylon, and the modern design can rival the luxury of leather.

“The shift is not just looking at the main body material,” Tarala says. “We are looking at the overall frame: switching to honeycombs and laminated foam instead of solid pieces, less dense nylons versus metal for hardware and connection points. We don’t want to take anything away from the customer.”

He recommends using a 50-50 split case — the middle divider is the difference between everything inside the bag shifting “all over the place,” Tarala says — and starting packing by filling the voids near the handles and the wheel casings.

Ross puts the heaviest item in first: her shoes. She tries to restrict herself to one pair of flat daytime shoes and a dressier pair of evening heels. They have to go with everything, she says, but she won’t skimp with shoes that are flimsy, even if they are lighter. That would be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Could you get away with only black shoes? Only brown? By starting off thinking that way, you’ll end up organizing your outfits ahead of time, which minimizes extra last-minute stuff, Ross says.

Whether it’s business or leisure travel, Ross wears a lot of dresses on the road. “They’re the least amount of work, the least amount of thought — and the most multipurpose. You can change from a flat to heel and wear the same thing all day.”

She’s particularly fond of seasonless jersey dresses that don’t wrinkle, even if rolled up tight. And, Ross says, there’s definitely no hangers in her bag. “Even if I’m going to an ‘event,’ it could be cocktail to black-tie, I pack my dress in a plastic dry-cleaner bag, folded in half.”

Ross also relies on cashmere cardigans and wraps, which are still needed in summer. They will fold up flatter than you expect, she says.

Jewelry is the one thing she brings knowing that it adds heft to her bag, but it adds even more style. It goes in her carry-on, shopper-style bag with her computer, phone and notebook. Ross says she treats that bag as a mobile office, leaving most personal clutter out of it. She will tuck inside a clutch handbag if a more formal occasion is on the itinerary, and if the trip involves sightseeing, a small day bag with a chain strap.

She leaves her blow-dryer at home. “If a hotel doesn’t have it, I won’t blow-dry my hair, but that almost never happens,” Ross says.

Mondrian’s Thomas says she’s safe leaving it — and a lot of other things — behind. He has traded a nice leather dopp kit for a few key things (his toothbrush, for one) in a plastic bag.

Hotels expect to provide many grooming products, especially with the liquid limits on airplanes, and many hotels, even — and maybe especially — those in remote locations have retail stores.

Thomas suspects some people are “strategically underpacking” so they’ll have an excuse to shop. Buying an umbrella, sweater or rain jacket is probably a smarter souvenir than a tchotchke, he says.

Still, he packs his hair gel. He’s not willing to chance that. “It’s very specific.”

If you missed Part I, make sure to read it here first. To read the post below first, would be like experiencing Labor Day weekend before you’ve done the Fourth of July.

Rogue Wave combines owner Rhett Boyd’s eye for art, menswear and surfing.

Rogue Wave Indigo and Cotton — Charleston

Rogue Wave owner Rhett Lightfoot Boyd, Jr., got his start in Charleston after spending several years in Costa Rica with his wife where he, “surfed his brains out.” Upon moving to Charleston, Boyd worked for a local surf company before breaking Rogue Wave into the town with a series of pop-up shops, including a pop-up in Billy Reid’s shop, before investing in a brick-and-mortar location. Today, the surf-themed location is a place where you’ll find some of the top emerging American brands in Imogene + Willie and Apolis Denim alongside Yellow Rat’s “Surfing Ruined My Life” T-shirt, which always seems to attract attention to whomever wears it, surfer or not.

Boyd says he’s never paid for advertising or developed any marketing plans for the shop; instead he relies on word of mouth. “If we treat people right… if our vision is clear… people will tell their friends,” he said. Sure enough, it was Larry Luk, co-founder of We Are The Process, and KJ Kearney, the creative behind H1gher Learning, who put me up on Rogue Wave. I guess I just saved Boyd some money from Facebook ads.

Just down the block you’ll find Indigo and Cotton, the most well rounded men’s boutique in town, with items from Mark McNairy, Raleigh Denim, The Hill-side, Levi’s Vintage and Jack Spade. Owner Brett Carron, like Boyd, was an out-of-towner who moved to Charleston with his wife — Carron worked in the art industry in New York — and saw a lack of independent menswear shops in the town. “I thought I could bring something fresh to the scene… a lot of new folks are moving to Charleston and bringing something from where they came from. Fresh eyes, creativity and not afraid to take chances,” said Carron. Sounds like the making of a great menswear shop to me. Make sure to check out upstart brands Jed Marne, makers of Guatemalan hand-woven shorts, and Topo Designs, which makes environmentally sound and heavy-duty leather bags.

Indigo and Cotton pays homage to Charleston’s past, and hints at its future.

Standard ATL Sid Mashburn — Atlanta

Another Southern shopping hub, Atlanta, is home to one of the nation’s best minds in the sneaker industry in Standard ATL owner Farshad Arshid. His shop has been profiled in just about every possible publication of merit when it comes to sneakers and street wear due to Arshid’s longstanding connections to the heavyweights (Stussy, ALIFE) in the industry. Case in point, Arshid has teamed with G-Star Raw to expand the brand’s US imprint, and G-Star just opened next door to Standard in one of America’s best shopping destinations, the Lenox Avenue Mall.

“Standard are one of G-Star’s oldest partners in the U.S., and we have built an extremely positive relationship which has led us to this point. G-Star and Standard now have an agreed growth strategy in place and we’re excited to watch this unfold in the short term future,” says Stuart Millar, CEO North America.

Needless to say, when you have the CEO of a major, cool-kid brand talking you up like this, you have to believe it’s a must-see shop for the street style savvy guys around the world.

Photo Courtesy of Sid Mashburn.

Atlanta isn’t just a street wear capital, though, as evidenced by the prep style promoted at Sid Mashburn’s elegant Atlanta shop. Mashburn, a Mississippi native, got his start in local garment houses before spending time designing for J. Crew, Ralph Lauren and Lands End. To say Mashburn understands men’s design, fitting and tailoring would be a gross understatement. He’s built a place that gets rave reviews as a hub of Southern sartorial delight and expert suiting, but don’t let the Southern tag full you. Mashburn has lived all over the country and traveled in Europe extensively giving this shop a much broader perspective. All the better, given the real focus of the boutique according to Mashburn.

“We have a pretty cool shop, but what we really love doing is sowing confidence in guys and girls — we have a women’s shop next door – -who are looking for some help, sartorial and otherwise… we get young, earnest, nervous men and old, wiser, nervous men,” said Mashburn.

It’s not just Mashburn behind the scenes though, as he has a team of gentleman handling shirting and shoes, sportswear and tailoring, accessory selection and customer service. This is the kind of shop that single women would want to go in to find their future husbands. It’s worth noting that Mashburn’s wife, Ann, runs the aforementioned women’s shop, having spent time styling at J.Crew as well as working at both Vogue and Glamour in previous years. The two have five daughters, so perhaps father Mashburn is making sure those prospective suitors are well suited, pun intended. “We have a fantastic in-store team — if you ask, we can almost always make it happen,” concluded Mashburn.

Reserve Supply Co. The Class Room — Houston

Not to be overlooked in the South, Houston has significantly stepped up in the menswear division in the last year or so with the openings of Reserve Supply Co. and The Class Room.

Reserve Supply Co., is located on the up-and-coming Washington Street next door to Catalina Coffee, one of the beloved caffeine spots in Houston, and the blend of emerging locale and liquefied shoppers makes this shop a nice jolt in an otherwise mall-dominated city. What you can’t find at the Galleria Mall — long boards by Sector 9, Tellason Denim, RVCA button-downs — can easily be found in owner Jason Bruen’s year-old boutique.

Similarly, The Class Room offers up what Houston’s style game has been missing with emerging brands such as Bridge Burn, Unis, Shwood and long-time Texas favorite-turned-menswear star Hamilton 1883 shirts. And once you have the shirt and tie, you may as well take up that offer from co-owner Jon Caballero to complete your Don Draper look with a glass in hand.

Just a few of my summer-ready purchases. Socks by Happy Socks (right) Stance (left), hat by Quiet Life Co., shirts by Yellow Rat Company (top) and Rogue Wave (bottom) and tie by The Hill-side (purchased at Indigo and Cotton).

So to wrap this into one nice bow(tie, maybe), fellas, it’s important to remember that traveling often and knowing where to shop can make all the difference in how you remember this summer. You’ll remember what shirt you were wearing when you met the girl you had that fling with on the cruise or in Vegas or what shoes you had on when you walked around in New York or at that music festival or what trunks you had on at the pool at The Palms or in Miami or Brazil.

Here’s a suggestion: wherever you go, tweet at me @joahspearman and I’ll make sure and suggest a good spot for you.

Follow Joah Spearman on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/JoahSpearman

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas — When it comes to new laws, Texas usually saves its bewilderment for ones from Washington. But this scorching summer, it’s a single city ordinance on the popular Guadalupe River that is stirring frustration and confusion.

So, just to clear things up: Boozing while tubing is still legal.

Drinking beer while lazily floating through New Braunfels is a heat-beating tradition for hundreds of thousands of vacationers each summer, but turnout is down and businesses say the reason is clear: a new ban on disposable containers that has heightened tension between businesses reliant on tourism dollars and residents weary of rowdy partygoers who leave behind truckloads of trash.

The so-called can ban doesn’t prohibit alcohol, but that message hasn’t been sticking.

“People are calling saying, ‘You can’t drink in New Braunfels, so why am I coming?’” said Shane Wolf, general manager of Rockin’ R River Outfitters, the city’s dominant tube rental company.

Beer and liquor are still allowed on the river if poured into reusable containers, and neon plastic Chug-a-Mugs that hold up to three beers are now ubiquitous. But while the New Braunfels Convention and Visitors Bureau has yet to release figures, director Judy Young concedes that business has been slower since the ban.

It doesn’t take data to see the effects. At one Rockin’ R store this week, Ross Purdy stared quizzically at a cold six-pack of Miller Lite in one hand and a $20 empty plastic “Bubba Keg” in the other.

“So will all this fit in here? Is this what we’re supposed to use?” Purdy, 40, said aloud to himself, before again scanning the store coolers for his options.

After a few seconds of uncertainty, he gave up and went to the cash register for help.

“No one understands it,” the cashier said glumly.

Local businesses hope that a new city marketing campaign will clarify the ordinance, although it will barely stem their indignation. Fifty-eight percent of New Braunfels voters approved the can ban, not swayed by hotel owners and river outfitters who warned that a can ban would sock the local economy.

Prevailing instead was a campaign that on its face was about curbing litter and environmental stewardship of the Guadalupe and Comal rivers. But motivating a not insignificant bloc of the city’s 58,000 residents was an appetite to clamp down on what many saw as an alcohol-fueled floating frat party with public nudity, sex, fights and loud music.

Finishing a can of Bud Light in a parking lot before heading into the water where it’s verboten, Dana Austin said that at 24, he doesn’t mind the rowdiness. But he said he supports the law’s environmental aims after years of watching tubers chuck cans into the river and along the banks.

“You’d see a frat boy floating up a little bit ahead of you, and they’d sort of do a free throw into the woods,” Austin said.

The Guadalupe and Comal rivers are among the state’s most visited natural attractions, and tubing is the bedrock of local tourism that pumps $469 million each year into the New Braunfels economy, according to Young. But the last three years have been a bumpy ride: Massive flooding in 2010 demolished buildings and buses of river outfitters, and last year’s historic Texas drought left tubers scraping against rocks in shallow water.

As far as trash and rowdiness go, can ban backers are already claiming victory. City data show that 1,800 pounds of litter was collected in and around the river in May — about 15 percent of the amount that had to be cleaned up in May last year.

Other unruly behavior also seems to be on the downturn. New Braunfels police Capt. Michael Penshorn said that on a recent June weekend, police patrolling the river issued 26 citations and arrested four people on charges ranging from minors in possession to public intoxication. On the same weekend last year, police wrote 42 citations and made 17 arrests.

Mike Kubelka, 50, patted his wet bathing suit with a towel before driving back to College Station with his two kids after they practically had the whole Guadelupe to themselves on a slow Monday. Now that he’s a parent, Kubelka said, he doesn’t mind seeing less beer on the river.

“But,” he said, “it gets kind of long out there with nothing to drink.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Minion Float / Image: Universal Studios

Universal Studio Orlando’s newest parade is the hit of the park. Focusing on some of the most popular animated characters today, Universal’s Superstar Parade was a welcome break from all the walking around we did that day. The downside to watching most parades is getting a good seat takes holding down a piece of pavement for an hour or more. The popularity of this parade makes this no exception to the rule.

We were fortunate enough to secure a spot at the first show stop of the parade. This gave us a perfect seat to watch Hop, the Minions and SpongeBob boogie down to the beat.

SpongeBob SquarePants / Image: Dakster Sullivan

After we had a chance to take it all in, I was given the chance to ask Lora Wallace, the show director for Universal Orlando Resort Entertainment, some questions about the parade and what it takes to put it all together. Lora has worked at Universal Orlando for sixteen years.

With various roles under her belt (talent manager, choreographer and assisting in theme concepting), she first started her work at the resort with a parade associated with Halloween Horror Nights, followed by a decade of involvement with Universal Orlando’s annual Mardi Gras parade and Macy’s Holiday Parade events. A few of her roles allowed her the opportunity to work on The Beetlejuice Graveyard Review, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

GeekMom: Why were the characters in the parade chosen to have a float or a part in the parade?
Lora Wallace: All the characters in the Universal Superstar Parade are loved by so many people and are all fun for the entire family, so we felt they were the best fit for our new parade.

GM: How many people did it take from idea to first show to make this happen?
LW: It took a small group of people to start then as the concepts and production grew we grew into hundreds of talented people.

GM: What float was the most fun to work on?
LW: All of the floats have something different and special – The Dora and Diego float features swinging, tumbling monkeys on vines; the SpongeBob SquarePants float features colorful fish on roller skates; The HOP float comes equipped with a slide and marching band style drummers; and the Despicable Me float incorporates the best elements from the film, as well as our favorite characters, Gru, Edith, Agnes, Margo and the minions. They really are all special in their own way and I’ve enjoyed working on bringing all of them to life.

E.B Bunny / Image: Dakster Sullivan

GM: What kinds of things do you take into consideration when planning out the show stops and parade path?
LW: We looked at the best part of the park with the most viewing area for parade and show stops. We wanted to ensure that all our guests got a great view and were able to see all their favorite characters.

GM: The costumes were amazing! My favorite outfit was the one worn by the minion dancers. When planning out the attire for the performers, did you get input from any of the cast or crew that would be wearing them?
LW: As I was a dancer, I was able to get into the costumes and make sure that the choreographed movement was able to be performed while also ensuring the costumes stayed true to the fun-loving nature of these characters.

GM: What is the typical timeline for a project like this to go from idea to first show?
LW: The timeline for each of our productions varies on the show. This particular parade was a few years in the works from the first concept to the final product.

GM: Tell me a little bit about the technology that is incorporated into the floats that is special or different from other parade floats.
LW: The Universal Superstar Parade floats have hundreds of speakers on them, lots of animatronics and moving parts and tons of LED lights. The Despicable Me float also features two huge hi-definition LED video screens featuring a Minion music video for all to enjoy. Each of these floats is also equipped with GPS so that each movement of the floats is choreographed and the floats end up in exactly the right place during the show stops for every parade.

I was given park tickets to check out Universal Orlando’s Superstar Parade. Though I received this benefit, I have given a review that is completely my own.