Grand Floridian Gingerbread House and More 2015 Holiday Fun
Walt Disney World‘s theme parks are world famous for their holiday decorations, but their hotels aren’t far behind when it comes to decking the halls, and the flagship Grand Floridian resort is certainly no exception. The 17th annual erection of the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House is always a sure sign that Christmas is on it’s way, and 2015’s confectionary cottage looks as delicious as ever.
Let’s begin with a look around the Grand Floridian lobby, which once again sports one of the most magnificent indoor Christmas trees you’ll find on Disney property.
I love the oversized Victorian-style ornaments that hang on the tree, especially the swans and bird cages.
Smaller trees and festive wreaths also enliven the rest of the hotel lobby.
Moving on to the Grand Floridian Gingerbread house, I happened to stumble upon the daily baker’s demonstration. At 1 p.m. every afternoon, a member of Disney’s culinary team gives a brief lesson on the proper construction of a gingerbread house. There’s no need to sign up; simply show up in the lobby a few minutes before the free event.
Attendees are presented with recipes and blueprints, so you can try your hand at making your own gingerbread house (albeit a much smaller one) at home.
Best of all, the demonstration concludes with a free sample of fresh chocolate-covered gingerbread!
After the class, I took a close look at the details on this year’s ginormous Gingerbread House.
These signs share some sweet statistics on what goes into this tasteful 17-year tradition.
If all those sweets got you salivating, the back side of the house has a retail window offering a full range of tooth-rotting treats. The shop is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
In case you are curious how much these visions of sugarplums cost, here’s the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House’s complete menu:
Guests wishing to see the Grand Floridian’s holiday decor first hand should be aware that hotel security is currently cracking down on parking for those not staying in the hotel. You’ll need the name of a registered guest that you are visiting, or a reservation for one of the on-site restaurants, in order to get through the guard gate. Another option is to park at the TTC and take the resort monorail to the hotel.
For those unable to get there in person, I broadcast my visit on Periscope. Here’s an archive of the video in case you missed the live feed:
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We spent two of our days checking out resorts and saw all the monorail and the Epcot area deluxe resorts. We were not impressed at all with the other monorail resorts. When the kids and I walked into the Grand Floridian yesterday morning we actually all gasped and commented on how beautiful the decorations were. The gingerbread house is amazing and the tree was beautiful. Do yourself a favor and if you get to only one resort while the decorations are still up make it this one. It was amazing and so was the breakfast at 1900 as well. IT was a great last morning at the world.
Truly amazing spectacle and the scent of gingerbread is wonderful…. we were lucky enough to experience this a couple of years ago.
But, all year long, LOOK DOWN!
Don’t miss the exquisitely crafted characters in the marble flooring…
Chip and Mrs Potts outside the Garden View tea Room, and carefully check out the floor of the atrium outside Grand Floridian Café (four Disney favourites). Similarly inside the 2nd floor entrance to GF from the monorail….
Haven’t checked out the area inside the first floor entrance, but suspect it will have subtly hidden characters too. We must have walked over them dozens of times until this fall when my wife spotted them. Even Floridian friends who lunched with us at GF café hadn’t noticed them before (and he is a CM).