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| ICE at Gaylord Palms |
Below freezing temperatures
in Florida? Not a chance right? While you would think no, the answer is
actually YES! Well, if you visit ICE at Gaylord Palms, that is. Below is my
review of the ICE spectacular as it took place in 2018.
The theme is A Christmas
Story. The iconic tale of a young boy who wants a Red Rider BB Gun for
Christmas.. But you know what they say.. You’ll shoot your eye out!
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| A Christmas Story sign |
My family and I went to
Gaylord Palms on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. While Disney and Universal
were packed to the brim, ICE was empty. This was the PERFECT weekend to go! We
decided to stay on site for one night. The hotel was amazing from its
decorations to its staff and we are so glad we got the opportunity to take it
all in!
I requested an early check
in for 8:30 am with an Atrium view room. To my surprise I was notified that my
room was ready before we even got to the hotel. What a nice surprise to be able
to bring my bags upstairs and not have to worry about dealing with obtaining
them in-between activities.
Our schedule looked
something like this:
10:00 am Story time and
cookies with Mrs. Claus
11:00 am meet the big man
on campus, Santa Claus
12:00 pm was a break for
lunch
1:00 pm snow tubing
2:00 pm view the ice sculptures
3:00 pm Build a Bear
holiday treats
4:00 pm gingerbread cookie
decorating with the gingerbread man
5:00 pm Santa’s Snow Throw
5:30 pm Reindeer Post
Office to write our letters to Santa and confirm what we asked for earlier
6:00 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Christmas Tress
Stroll, Scavenger Hunt and cirque De Soleil Dream of Christmas Light Show
8:30 pm Sugary Sweet Story
Time with the Sugar Plum Fairy
Phew, are you tired yet? Believe
me, I am exhausted just typing out this schedule and we thought for sure the
kids would be dead by the end of dinner on this kind of schedule.
Of a special note, much
like Disney, you can buy an ICE photopass. It is $99 for unlimited photos. It
is good from the day you buy it until the last day of ICE so use it! We bought
it and in 1 day they took 60 pictures on it.
I am pleased to report that
we waiting in next to NO lines and by 11 am we had completed Story time, Santa,
tubing and lunch. In fact, we had allotted 1 hour for tubing during the day.
The kids went back all day long to go down those slopes. For Florida babies
this is as close as they were getting to real runs and they had the best time!
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| Meeting Mrs Clause and Snowflake |
Mrs. Claus read the
children ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas with her elf helper, Snowflake. If
any of you have seen Frozen Sing A Long at Hollywood Studios, Snowflakes’ act
was much like the Royal Historians. It was such fun! Adults and Children were
given chocolate chip cookies and milk to enjoy during the story.
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| A special talk with Santa |
Santa was one of a kind. He
spent individual time with each child and made sure we got lots of pictures to
take home. He also took multiple family photos and nobody felt rushed despite
their being other people in line behind us. He even gave each child a good luck
token with his picture on it to take home.
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| Family pic with Santa |
The actual Christmas Story
ice sculptures were amazing! The detail that goes into this exhibit is like no
other. See photos below for just how awesome it really is!
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| Christmas Story Ice Sculptures |
Build a Bear has a pop-up
shop set up right outside of Santa so be sure to be prepared for that! They do
not honor coupons but do honor Build a Bear gift cards. This trip each of the
kids was allowed to get 1 holiday theme friend to bring home.
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| Ugly sweater cookie |
The sweet shop offers
multiple different options for gingerbread decorating from houses to men to
ugly sweaters. We chose the sweaters as 6 came to a box and that meant one for
each of us.
We ended the night with the
Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker Prince reenacting the Nutcracker story.
This was very entertaining and a fun interactive way to get the kids involved
with some songs. All adults and children were provided with Sugar Plum flavored
hot chocolate in a fun take home glass mug.
All in all, the ICE
spectacular was just that, spectacular. We are already looking forward to next
year and we can’t find to find out what the theme will be!
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| "I double dog dare you!" By: Rachel Hollingsworth
Rachel@traveltimetravel.com
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