How Universal Orlando’s CityWalk Has CHANGED (And What’s Coming Next)

Universal Orlando’s CityWalk has gone through some pretty big changes over the years! In this video I’m sharing with you some of the biggest ones that have come to the dining and entertainment district and then talk about the potential EPIC future coming to CityWalk.

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00:00 Intro
00:37 Before CityWalk
02:48 NBA City
04:28 Old Hard Rock Cafe
05:59 NASCAR Cafe
07:11 The Groove Nightclub
08:55 In Memoriam
10:12 The Future Of CityWalk

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you know I think sometimes coming the
universal it’s so easy to talk about all
the things that have changed in the
Parks and all the rides used to be here
and this and that you know there’s lot
of history in the Parks but there’s also
a lot of history here in CityWalk as
well in fact there is a point here
Universal when none of this existed so
that’s what I’m going to talk about in
today’s video we’re going to go over the
then and now of CityWalk I want to talk
about some of the biggest changes that
have happened to this part of Universal
Orlando and talk about some things that
might be coming in the future so step
off of the moving walkway and get to
join me for another episode of Vincent
Vision
watch oh my gosh something is rattling
hi everybody it’s me Vincent coming to
you from City Walk it’s a beautifully
cloudy day it’s not super busy right now
I’m sitting in the way too big comically
large Margaritaville chair here in front
of Margaritaville and I thought today
would be a fun day to talk about all the
different changes that have happened
here in CityWalk over the years
but maybe not in this chair maybe just
like somewhere normal so I think the
first thing I need to mention with
CityWalk and which might be a pretty big
shocker to a lot of you guys is that
there’s actually a point in time where
like CityWalk didn’t even exist it’s so
integral to like the universal
experience you go through the moving
walkway you park your car you go to the
restaurants all that kind of stuff but
before 1999 before Islands of Adventure
had opened up CityWalk wasn’t a thing
this was all built with universal when
they expanded Ed to having two theme
parks and hotels and it was known as
Universal Studios Escape that was what
this whole place was called and that
didn’t really work out I think it
confused a lot of people so they
switched it to Universal Orlando resort
CityWalk was an addition that came along
in like Universal’s second phase from
like 1990 all the way until 99 you would
just like park your car in front of
Universal Studios Florida right up there
right by the gates if you paid for like
preferred parking or whatever they used
back then and you would just like stroll
right into the Park not something I
actually got to see in my lifetime I
never came here to Universal before 1999
though I wish I did cuz there’s a lot of
things I would have loved to experience
it’s just crazy to think that all of
this was like not here at the beginning
because it feels so important it feels
like so essential to your Universal trip
City Walk you know there’s a lot of
changes like that here in City Walk
things that are very very popular now
were not always here and I would like to
try and show off some of those today I’m
going to focus on more of like the
bigger changes as well there’s been a
lot of small changes throughout the
years small stores have been switched
into new things I kind of want to focus
on some of the biggest ones that at
least I remember from my personal memory
so let’s go pay a visit to our first
stop which is right over here that is
the Tome chocolate Emporium and for a
very very long time before this place
came to be in 2016 this was NBA City so
before there was tuum there was NBA City
okay not the NBA experience not to be
confused with the Disney Springs thing
that opened for like a year and then
closed this place was open for much
longer and instead of being welcomed by
the big Factory with all the steam
coming out that you see here in tusum
you would see across the water a
gigantic basketball player welcoming you
in to the NBA City and this restaurant
was just like a typical like American
food restaurant actually to be honest I
never ate here I came here as a kid but
I do remember there was like a lot a lot
of basketball stuff I think before the
NBA experience this was like the NBA
place to be here in Orlando as soon as
you walked in you pass by all these
basketballs that had handprints of all
these famous players like Shaquille
O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and you get to
like put your hand up against it and see
how gigantic their hands are compared to
yours I remember they had all the
jerseys they had a bunch of games you
know all the basketball games and stuff
like that but yeah this was what was
here and it was the same size it was
just as big as tuome it was a two-story
restaurant here and I guess if you were
a fan of NBA and basketball and you
wanted a place to eat after riding
roller coasters at Islands of Adventure
you could go to NBA City fun thing about
tuome I was actually talking to jacqu
the robot at the restaurant and I
mentioned to him that this used to be
NBA City and he said and I don’t know if
this is truthful or not but the lights
in the restaurant could be a reference
to NBA cities since they are shaped like
basketballs again I don’t know how
truthful that is but it is fun to think
about leave a comment down below if
you’ve actually eaten at NBA City and if
you remember the food being any good or
like if you’ve been to any of these
places cuz some of these might end up
being some pretty deep Cuts now my next
stop on on the tour is right next to
tucum this is the Hard Rock Cafe with
actually it being a combination of Hard
Rock Cafe and Hard Rock Live this makes
this the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the
entire world there’s a lot of them but
what’s actually fun to talk about with
this one here is this is actually not
the first Hard Rock Cafe here at
Universal long time ago they used to
have one connected directly to the park
it was all the way in the back of
Universal Studios where kind of like ET
and all the kids own soon to be
DreamWorks land stuff is now and you
could actually enter the park from there
you would go up these stairs and there
was like a big guitar that you would
walk down this looked like the pantheon
you know like a kind of like a Greek uh
Temple this is something that was a
little bit before my time as well so I
just kind of live off of the pictures
and videos that I could find on the
internet but it’s cool to see that like
Hard Rock Cafe was so successful that
like it found itself here twice at
Universal this is a cool restaurant a
lot of cool stuff to see in here I’ve
actually never eaten here at least it’s
been a very very long time since I’ve
eaten here one of the most random and
popular fun facts about this place is
that all the way tucked in the back of
the restaurant here they have a piece of
the Berlin Wall which is crazy it’s so
random just tucked here in the back like
this but it’s there you can see it you
can just walk down this little path or
cut through the restaurant to get here
and look at it there’s also another uh
sort of fun fact trivia with the Berlin
Wall here at Universal apparently they
used to be a lot more graffiti on it
when it first came here but the legend
says that some third shift park services
custodian power washed the Berlin Wall
which I don’t know how truthful that is
it’s just a legend of tall tail but it’s
pretty crazy if that actually did happen
another place that a lot of people think
about when they come here is NBC Grill
and Brew I mean it’s like very hard to
miss it’s this gigantic screens playing
all these different games all these
sports games but before it was the NBC
Grill it was the NASCAR Cafe a different
kind of sport but a very same type of
restaurant this is like American Bar
Food American Pub food you know the
wings the burgers the beers all that
kind of stuff but instead what made this
a little more unique they had a lot of
different racing cars all around the
restaurant I remember there was like one
out at the entrance you can take
pictures with uh they had an arcade and
then right here I just like went in
there a lot as a kid the building was
pretty similar layout though like I I
remember you would go up to the second
floor and it was pretty identical to how
the NBC Grill is laid out now but it’s
kind of fun fun to see got to have a
sports bar here at Universal right like
it it seems like a good addition to City
Walk and like maybe NASCAR isn’t for
everybody but you can do like a kind of
a big generic NBC sports restaurant eh
little corporate Synergy going on makes
sense makes sense NBC Grill is a pretty
solid spot I would have to say good
place if you’re just looking for like a
simple beer and like some sort of kind
of some American food but we will never
forget the NASCAR Cafe that used to
exist in its place one of the newer
additions to City Walk is the universal
great movie escape this is Universal’s
take on an escape room experience
they’ve got two different rooms based
off Back to the Future and Jurassic
world very cool very immersive I feel
like I want to do these again cuz it’s
been a minute since I did them last time
I did it was when I first opened up and
here in CityWalk this is kind of like
the only attraction experience that they
have here everything else is like
restaurants and stores but before it was
the great movie Escape it actually used
to be a nightclub known as The Groove
yes that is right folks way back when
many years ago Disney Springs formerly
known as Downtown Disney and Universal
Orlando here at CityWalk had a lot of
night life you know Disney Springs had
Pleasure Island and Universal had the
groove and this was like a night club
that would open till 2: a.m. you can
come in here and I don’t know just like
dance the night away I guess it’s so fun
to see how the theme parks have kind of
like strayed away from that type of
experience a lot more like
familyfriendly experiences now like
Escape rooms but there are still some
nightclub late night bar kind of things
that you could do here at Universal
there is rising star karaoke which is
like a place you can go and sing with a
live band backing you up which is tons
of fun I’ve done it before there’s Pat
O’Brian’s which is like a New Orleans
style bar with like Julian pianos lots
of big drinks and then there’s Bob
Marley’s Tribute to Freedom which is a
restaurant but they also have a bar big
party atmosphere there live music going
on there all the time still a lot of fun
ways to have like a nightlife experience
here at Universal Orlando but you can
actually get some really fun drinks here
at The Great Movie experience as well
before you go into your escape room now
a lot of these places that I’ve talked
about have been some of the most obvious
changes to City walk but there have been
tons of different changes throughout the
years as well almost too many to talk
about so I want to do like what they do
with the Oscars to like in memorium this
is a little in memorium to all of the
old experiences here at City Walk in
Orlando out I will
remember
you will you
remember
me don’t let your
life pass you
by weep Not
For The
[Music]
Memories I’m so tired but I can’t
[Music]
sleep standing on the edge of something
much too deep
it’s funny how we feel so much we cannot
say a word we are screaming
inside we can’t be heard now I spent a
lot of time in this video talking about
the past the history of City Walk I
thought it’d be fun to also talk about
the future of CityWalk things that may
or may not be showing up in the coming
years one of the biggest there used to
be a store here right in the center of
CityWalk it was called the universal
Legacy store it was a really cool store
that had tons of old school props of
Universal rides and experiences had a
ton of merchandise as well it was a
place that celebrated the past of
universal and people are saying that
sometime later this year we will get
something that’s going to talk about all
of the future of universal which is epic
Universe the theme park right around the
corner people believe that this space is
going to become the preview Center for
epic Universe which would be pretty
amazing if true now Universal has had a
preview Center before they did it for
Islands of Adventure when that Park
first opened up kind of like as uh show
you all the new things that are coming
to the brand new theme park Disney did
something like that very recently with
Epcot in the past couple years when they
talked about all the different plans for
the park I’m excited to see what the
Epic Universe version of a preview
Center looks like if that’s what’s going
to take this place here I just want to
see the big model of the park that they
show in that video which it’s so cool so
excited to see that look forward to
hearing an actual confirmation from
Universal about that and as of recording
this video we actually got some news
that two of the stores right at the
front of CityWalk which has been here
for a while are going to be going away
in April very very soon Quiet Flight and
Cinnabon are going to be going away
forever and we don’t really know what’s
going to replace them a lot of people
have theorized that this may be the spot
for a Super Nintendo World store here at
CityWalk and I I think that makes a lot
of sense Nintendo merchandise sells like
crazy and even before Super Nintendo
opened up in California they they had
stores selling the products so like I
think it makes a ton of sense also it
gets people excited for epic universe so
I yeah I think that’ll work now is it
going to be this gigantic store like The
Quiet Flight store I don’t think so
maybe it’ll probably take the Cinnabon
space cuz I I don’t think there’s that
much Nintendo merch but I’m pretty
excited to see that and whatever ends up
replacing that but I didn’t really have
cinamon as much as I maybe should have
and I did like the Quiet Flight store
I’ve actually gotten a couple things
from there it was like the most normal
out of the stores here in CityWalk but
the thing I’m going to miss the most and
I I think a lot of people are going to
miss is that super cool surfboard photo
op that they had there you know rest in
peace to that I hope they find a way to
keep that cuz I think like there has to
have been like a million pictures that
have been taken there since the place
first opened up but my friends that is
going to wrap it up for me a lot of fun
history here at CityWalk and I hope you
enjoyed some of the things I’ve talked
about if there’s anything that I didn’t
mention that you think was worth
mentioning please let us know Down Below
in the comments I love this kind of
history and there there is a lot to it I
don’t know all of it I’d love to hear
some experiences from those of you who
actually experien things like NBA City
and the groove and all of that and what
you’re looking forward to once the
potential epic Universe preview Center
opens up the potential Super Nintendo
World store we will see we will see I’m
very very excited but I’m actually going
to get on out of here like the day that
I’m filming this it’s like very very
windy it’s like a like a they got a
storm coming folks so I am going to get
on out of here say goodbye to CityWalk
and thank you guys for watching another
Vincent Vision please if you haven’t
already be sure to like And subscribe
for more Universal videos like this one
and I’ll see you at the next one bye-bye
[Music]