Hey, everyone! Chrissa here!
And today we're at Gaylord Palms to experience ICE! featuring a Charlie Brown Christmas.
If you're thinking of heading over to check out ICE this year, I'm
going to go over all of the details of this amazing event to help you decide
if this would be worth it for you and your family.
So let's get into it.
The Christmas celebrations at Gaylord Palms is going on now until January 3rd.
And in addition to the ICE event, there's a ton of other Christmas activities
that are going on all throughout the entire resort that will also go over
the ICE theme this year for Gaylord Palms is a Charlie Brown Christmas.
And if you've never been to an ICE event, this is where you can experience
some beloved Christmas classics with larger than life ice sculptures.
We arrived on a Sunday morning and made our way to the Alpine Village,
where you can find the entrance to ICE! when it's time for your reservation.
You can scan your ticket, and here you can learn about the talented artisans
from China who carve the 2 million lbs of ice over
six weeks to create the amazing display that you are about to walk through.
And if you're
curious to know just what ice feels like,
you can touch it here before you make your way into the event,
because there is a very strict no touching policy once you are inside.
Next, you'll pick up your parkas and they do keep it a frosty 9 degrees.
And I highly recommend
bringing some gloves, a scarf, and maybe even a warm hat to keep you warm
because it is really, really cold in there.
When you're snug in your parka, you'll get a chance to take a parka photo
and then enter the main event, ICE! which is always absolutely
awe-inspiring to walk into.
Throughout the exhibit
there will be iconic scenes from the 1965 animated Christmas classic
that you'll immediately recognized.
In the very front room, you'll see Charlie Brown in front of the ICE! logo that’s welcoming you in.
Just next to him is Snoopy on
top of his red dog housed with a stack of bones.
And the colors and details are just amazing.
You'll almost forget that you're looking at giant blocks of ice.
Once you're finished in the front room, you'll walk past
this huge Christmas tree archway and into a second area
where Charlie Brown and Linus are hanging out behind this brick wall,
just as they do in the start of the film.
Just next to Charlie
And Linus is a scene of a few of the Peanuts gang ice skating,
including Snoopy, Lucy, Schroeder, Sally, and Linus.
Next is poor Charlie Brown checking his mailbox.
And of course, nobody send him any Christmas cards.
Then you'll see a few scenes in front of the facade of the school.
First there is Lucy offering Charlie some psychiatric help for $0.05.
Then there's a couple of wreaths
on a fence over here, which makes a fun of photo op.
Then there's Snoopy gathering some supplies for the Christmas
lights and display contest.
And even Charlie Brown
writing a letter to Santa for his little sister Sally.
And this entire school facade is completely made of ice!
When you walk in, you'll walk
through an ice tunnel just past the kids lockers
and into a next room where the kids are putting on a show.
And the whole gang is here.
Sally, Lucy, Franklin, Pig Pen playing the cello,
Schroeder on the piano, Snoopy on guitar,
and Charlie Brown as director.
This is also the room where the famous ice slide is located.
The ice slide makes an appearance every single year, and kids and adults alike are welcome
to climb atop this two story ice slide and take a plunge
down these ice chutes.
After you're done
enjoying the ice slide, you’ll enter the next area
where you'll walk through a Christmas tree farm and find Charlie
Brown and Linus with their sapling tree that just needs a little love.
Next is the famous Linus speech,
explaining the true meaning of Christmas.
“For behold I bring you tidings of great joy.”
“And on Earth peace and good will towards men.”
The next room has Charlie Brown next to Snoopy's
doghouse with his prize winning display that you can even crawl through
Just across from
Snoopy’s doghouse is a live ice artisan where you can watch
as he creates more amazing sculptures.
The final Charlie Brown Christmas scene has Charlie and Snoopy
in the center of the room by his tree with the rest of the Peanuts
gang around the outside singing Christmas carols.
And every ICE! experience concludes with a separate area
with this intricately carved nativity scene.
This display is carved using crystal clear ice for a dramatic finale.
And some really fun facts about the ice experience is that it covers
over 20,000 square feet, with sculptures
soaring up to 20 to 30 feet in height.
The ice experience is kept
at a bone chilling nine degrees Fahrenheit.
So thankfully, they do provide those signature blue parkas.
The ICE artisans travel all
the way from Harbin, China, which is known as the Ice City.
and Harbin, China is the home of the world’s largest annual ice and snow sculpting
festival, and Harbin stays at below freezing for almost half the year.
The ice experience is carved from over
2 million pounds of brightly colored ice.
And if you stacked all 6700 blocks, they would reach higher
than 17 Empire State Buildings.
There is no time limit to your walk through in ICE, but they do say that
the average time is between 20 to 40 minutes
to be able to see it all.
After enjoying ICE! you'll head back into the Alpine Village
where you'll return your parka and will want to head over to the
Snowy’s Snack Shack to grab a hot cocoa to warm back up.
Snowy’s Snack Shack consist of three separate snack booths:
Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, and a beverage booth in the center.
There is a single line for the register, and then you'll pick up your food
from the booths after you've placed your order.
We got a center of the bun from Cinnabon, a pretzel from Auntie Anne’s and, of course,
some hot cocoa to warm up our fingers after seeing ice.
When you've thawed out the rest of the Alpine
Village is very similar to previous years,
you'll find all of the merchandise in the middle of Market Square retail.
And here you can pick up all kinds of ornaments, beautiful Christmas
decor, apparel and so much more.
And this year there's also a wide variety of Charlie
Brown merch, including ornaments, magnets, plushies and clothes,
a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, which includes a Linus blanket.
And of course, a bunch of these are really cute figurines.
Across the way is a Build-A-Bear workshop, which has these really fun holiday
themed bears and other stuffed characters that you and the kids can build yourself.
If you're interested in building a gingerbread house instead.
Also returning this year
is the Alpine Sweet Shop where you can decorate gingerbread.
The Alpine Workshop is where you can find the Elf Training academy.
Both of these are separately ticketed experiences.
Santa's workshop also is here and where you can take photos with
the Jolly Saint Nick himself for an additional fee.
And there’s also Mrs. Claus Christmas Traditions, which is another separately ticketed experience
On the other side of
the village is where you'll find the Snow Factory, where you'll get to enjoy
a few other experiences that include the snowball build and blast.
Where you can build and toss real snowballs and boost
the power of the snowmaking machine to earn points in this experience.
There's also the snow flow mountain
where you can slide down the factory conveyor belt that has frozen solid
and slide down tubes in a thrilling, plummeting
slide down a hilly ice coaster.
There's also snowfall in snowfall plaza, which is always really fun.
For the adults in the group.
You can also find a snow bar located here
if you just need a bit more holiday cheer
after you've enjoyed all of the fun at Alpine Village,
you'll have to head of further into Gaylord Palms to enjoy
all of the beautiful events and decor throughout the resort.
One of the first areas that you'll come across is Saint Augustine,
where you'll be able to walk around
a small scale recreation at the Castillo de San Marcos, which is completely
decorated in Christmas decor.
Right next to the Castillo is their 60 foot Christmas tree and light curtains
where you can find the light show. Throughout the night
The tree and curtains of light will dance and dazzle to music.
This is free for everyone to experience and is a sight to see
If you're here at night.
All along the walkways throughout the atrium
you'll come across the trees for the Christmas tree stroll.
There are eight elaborately decorated Christmas trees
throughout the four and a half acre atrium.
If you've never been the Gaylord Palms before, the atrium is huge and consist
of several separate areas that represent different parts of Florida,
including Key West, Saint Augustine and the Everglades.
There's also a Snoopy scavenger hunt this year that you can participate
in for $15.
This scavenger hunt will take you all around the resort
to find all of the clues.
And when you finish, you can redeem your prize.
At the Alpine Village, Guest Services.
In addition to this, Gaylord
Palms also has a ton of other ticketed shows and experiences
that include a naughty or nice escape room, a Cirque Spirit of Christmas
show, which you can get a glimpse at if you're here in the atrium.
Since they soar up to 35 feet in the air during their performances.
So if you are planning on experiencing ICE!, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Tickets for ICE start at $32.99
for adults and $22.99 for children.
And tickets must be purchased online in advance.
When you buy your ticket, you'll choose a time for your reservation.
But once inside, there's no time limit.
So you can take your time and go at your own pace.
You should also know that you will need to pay for parking, which is expensive.
At $35 plus tax, which came out to $37 for parking.
There are five different Gaylord Resorts across the U.S.
and each one having a different theme.
They do cycle through the five themes.
So make sure to see Charlie Brown
while he's here because he won't return for another five years.
And I highly recommend bringing some gloves, a scarf
and maybe even a warm hat to stay warm because it is extremely cold in there.
And you can use all that you can get.
If you're looking for even more holiday
events to experience in Central Florida, then you'll want to check out my playlist
that just popped up on the screen.
In this playlist, you'll find holiday events from theme
parks, small events, and even drive thrus.
Until next time, everyone.
I hope you have an amazing day and go out and enjoy some Florida sunshine.