Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Gaylord Palms Ice Spectacular!

 
 
For Thanksgiving my family and I traveled to my mom's for the holiday. We enjoyed the week of my moms delicious home cooking. What also was a treat was visiting with old and some new friends.
 
 
 
 
 
Before leaving for Orlando, my mom asked if my family would like to go to see an ice display at Gaylord Palms.  I had never heard of this before, so I looked it up on the web. I was amazed at the beautiful artistry. The day we went, we drove up to the hotel were the display is in a enclosed tent right next to the hotel.
 
The local t.v. station gave a preview on their morning show about the display the day before we went. The sculptures are designed by a group of artisans from China.
 
 
 
 

The sculptors start creating the gorgeous pieces in August, and the show opens up Thanksgiving weekend and goes throughout the holidays. All the ice combined, weighs two million pounds of hand carved ice. Yes, two million!



The theme for the show this year is the Nutcracker.
 
 
 
cute little panda
 
 
The temperature is only 9 degrees, so we had to come prepared with coats, gloves, hats, and scarves.  When we checked in we are given another parker to put over our coat. There are places during the tour where their are fans blowing. They told us those spots have temperatures of 7 degrees.
 
 
 
 
 Jordan is wearing the yellow hat.




 
Clara is given a Nutcracker from her godfather Drosselmeyer.

 
 
My fingers and toes were so cold after we passed a few rooms.
 
 
 
 
 
This is the beautiful Nativity scene display. I almost got goose bumps looking at the images in awe.



 
This is actually a real person showing us how they carve the ice.
 
 
 
 
 
 
After we left the Ice show, we walked into the main atrium of the hotel. There they had a Christmas show with an ensemble. They each took turns singing some good classic tunes. During some of the performance we were amazed by an acrobatic act on a ring suspended above us.
 
If you are ever in the Orlando area during Thanksgiving or Christmas; this is a definitely something I would recommend.

5 comments:

sammysgrammy said...

A nice warm hot chocolate is called for after this exhibit. It truly is amazing !

2justByou said...

Wow! What a great event. I love these kinds of exhibits.

Valerie said...

I've watched videos of this on youtube! I'd love to check out the Winter display sometime. Sadly, next time we're in Florida the holiday will be passed. Maybe a few years from now. :)

mary ann said...

Awesome! i love family events like this =)

SarahBeth said...

Looks like a lot of fun! We have Gaylord Ice too -- this year it's featuring Frosty the Snowman!