Tips for experiencing Ice! at Gaylord Hotels this Christmas season

One of my family’s favorite holiday traditions is visiting Gaylord Opryland in Nashville. With its magnificent glass atriums, lush landscaping that magically brings the outdoors in and endless activities and restaurants, it’s beautiful any time of year, but especially so during the holidays.

But it’s not just a Nashville thing. There are four other Gaylord resorts across the country in Kissimmee, Florida; Aurora, Colorado; Grapevine, Texas; and National Harbor, Maryland. Together, they collectively light up the holiday season with more than 7 million Christmas lights (that’s 295 miles of lights if you stretch them out end-to-end), 110,000 feet of garland, 600 Christmas trees and 30,000 poinsettias.

Related: 10 holiday destinations for festive family fun

That’s a whole lot of Christmas, but that’s not even the main attraction. The hotels also display life-size, walk-through winter wonderlands using 36,000 blocks of ice (that’s 12 million pounds), hence the name of Gaylord’s flagship holiday event — Ice!

If you plan to add Gaylord Hotels’ Ice! to your lineup of holiday traditions, here’s everything you need to know before you ho, ho, go, including how to find discounts for 2024.

Each property’s Ice! event is unique

This year, Gaylord Ice! is coming to six properties across the U.S. — all five Gaylord Resorts, plus, for the first time, JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa. Each property invites guests to experience immersive (and cold!) walk-through displays centered around various popular Christmas movies. While each display is different, they all have one thing in common — they are made from thousands of blocks of ice colored and carved by world-renowned experts into holiday masterpieces that will delight guests of all ages.

Across all six properties, expert ice carvers from Harbin, China (which is home to the largest ice and snow festival in the world), travel to the U.S. to transform those 12 million pounds of ice into whimsical and surprisingly realistic holiday displays that are sometimes upward of 30 feet tall. The highlight of the event for kids — and kids at heart, like myself — is sailing down a frosty slide made of ice. There’s also a shorter slide designed for kids too small or frightened for the full-size slides.

This year’s Ice! themes are:

• Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center: “The Polar Express,” Nov. 22, 2024, through Jan. 1, 2025
• Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center: “Frosty the Snowman,” Nov. 8, 2024, through Jan. 4, 2025
• Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center: “Elf,” Nov. 15, 2024, through Jan. 4, 2025
• Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Nov. 15, 2024, through Jan. 5, 2025
• Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center: “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Nov. 15, 2024, through Dec. 28, 2024
• JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” Nov. 23, 2024, through Jan. 5, 2025

Book early and look for discounts

Some Ice! activities, like character breakfasts and visits to the carved ice displays, have timed entry reservations. The earlier you purchase your tickets, the better chance you’ll have of getting the exact date and time you are hoping for. This is especially important to do if you plan to visit on or around a holiday or on weekends when the event is even busier than normal.

Booking early also opens up more opportunities for discounts on Ice! and the other activities at Gaylord properties. For a limited time, you can save on tickets and vacation packages as Gaylord Resorts celebrates the launch of Ice! tickets for 2024, but you can expect additional discounts around Black Friday. Be sure to follow Gaylord Hotels on social media to stay current on available discounts.

Gaylord Rockies — Aurora, Colorado

• Save up to 20% with the Festive Favorites Pack. You can get access to Ice! featuring “The Polar Express,” the Mistletoe Scavenger Hunt and the Elf Training Academy.
• Save up to 30% with the Holiday Deluxe Pack. Includes everything in the Festive Favorites Pack, plus access to the Gingerbread Decorating Corner and Mrs. Claus’ Christmas Traditions.
• Save up to 50% with the Ultimate HoliDAY Pass. Includes everything in the Holiday Deluxe Pack, plus Tier 2 seating at Cirque: Frost.

See all Gaylord Rockies offers

Gaylord Opryland — Nashville, Tennessee

• Save up to 20% with the Festive Favorites Pack. You can get access to Ice! featuring “Frosty the Snowman,” Snowman Scramble Scavenger Hunt and ice tubing.
• Save up to 30% with the Holiday Deluxe Pack. Includes everything in the Festive Favorites Pack, plus ice skating, the Gingerbread Decorating Corner and hot cocoa.
• Save up to 50% with the Ultimate HoliDAY Pass. Includes everything in the Holiday Deluxe Pack, plus the Snowball Build & Blast.

See all Gaylord Opryland offers

Gaylord Palms — Kissimmee, Florida

• Save up to 20% with the Festive Favorites Pack. You can get access to Ice! featuring “Elf,” TwElf Days of Christmas Scavenger Hunt and Snow Flow Mountain ice tubing.
• Save up to 30% with the Holiday Deluxe Pack. Includes everything in the Festive Favorites Pack, plus Snowball Build & Blast and the Gingerbread Decorating Corner.
• Save up to 50% with the Ultimate HoliDAY Pass. Includes everything in the Holiday Deluxe Pack, plus Elf Training Academy, Mrs. Claus’ Christmas traditions and Cirque: Spirit of Christmas.

See all Gaylord Palms offers

Gaylord Texan — Grapevine, Texas

• Save up to 20% with the Festive Favorites Pack. You can get access to Ice! featuring “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Reindeer Games Scavenger Hunt featuring Rudolph and the Misfit Toys and Snow Flow Mountain tubing.
• Save up to 30% with the Holiday Deluxe Pack. Includes everything in the Festive Favorites Pack, plus the Gingerbread Decorating Corner and Snowball Build & Blast.
• Save up to 50% with the Ultimate HoliDAY Pass. Includes everything in the Holiday Deluxe Pack, plus ice-skating and the Christmas Carousel.

See all Gaylord Texan offers

Gaylord National — National Harbor, Maryland

• Save up to 20% with the Festive Favorites Pack. You can get access to Ice! featuring “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Merry Snoopy Christmas Scavenger Hunt and Snow Flow Mountain tubing.
• Save up to 30% with the Holiday Deluxe Pack. Includes everything in the Festive Favorites Pack, plus access to the Gingerbread Decorating Corner and Mrs. Claus’ Christmas traditions.
• Save up to 50% with the Ultimate HoliDAY Pass. Includes everything in the Holiday Deluxe Pack, plus Snowball Build & Blast and fountain-level seating at Cirque: Spirit of Christmas.

See all Gaylord National offers

JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country — San Antonio, Texas

• Save up to 20% with the Festive Favorites Pack. You can get access to Ice! featuring “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” ice tubing and The Grinch’s Wonderful Awful Idea Scavenger Hunt.
• Save up to 30% with the Holiday Deluxe Pack. Includes everything in the Festive Favorites Pack, plus Snowball Build & Blast and Mrs. Claus’ Christmas Traditions.
• Save up to 50% with the Ultimate HoliDAY Pass. Includes everything in the Holiday Deluxe Pack, plus access to the Gingerbread Decorating Corner.

See all JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country offers

There are a lot of festive activities

The splendor of Ice! may be what gets you through Gaylord’s door, but the walk-through displays are hardly the only thing you can do when you visit a Gaylord Resort during the holiday season; there are enough activities to keep your family entertained for a full day or an entire weekend.

The offerings vary slightly from property to property, but you’ll find experiences like snow tubing, holiday-themed scavenger hunts, gingerbread decorating, ice skating, ice bumper cars, family-friendly escape rooms, horse-drawn sleigh rides, photos with Santa, holiday character breakfasts and more.

After several years of visiting, our favorite activities are the Ice! walk-through, ice skating (they have pushchairs that you can use to balance and help young kids), the scavenger hunt and the ice bumper cars.

Most activities require an advance ticket purchase, but during my family’s last visit to Gaylord Opryland, we spent as much time strolling through the atriums and marveling at the dazzling decor and dozens of Christmas trees (which you can do for free) as we did building snowballs and sliding down the tubing hill.

Dress appropriately

Spoiler alert: Ice! is cold. Very cold. Nine degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact. The kind folks at Gaylord will provide you with one of the lovely blue parkas pictured above, but you’ll also want to make sure you are wearing closed-toe shoes, pants and gloves so you can comfortably enjoy the experience.

The jackets have hoods, but you may also want to bring a hat to retain some much-needed body heat. If you have them, bring touchscreen-friendly gloves, because there are photo opportunities around every corner, and frozen fingers don’t take the best pictures.

If you are also planning on tubing or ice skating during your visit, you’ll be happy you packed your cold-weather gear, even if the temperatures outside are warmer than they are inside. If you happen to forget a hat and gloves, you can purchase them at the resort.

Build in some downtime

After several holiday visits to Gaylord Ice!, we’ve learned a few things that influence how we plan our itinerary.

There is so much to do that we packed almost every available second of our first visit with the above-mentioned activities. When our youngest son was too exhausted to swim at the indoor water park and fell asleep in his stroller, I knew we should probably cut back on activities or add another night to our stay.

Related: The best hotels to book in Nashville for the full Music City experience

It’s also worth mentioning that the sheer size of most Gaylord resorts means lots of travel time between your room and whatever fun activity you are headed to, so it can start to feel like you never stop to rest unless you intentionally build in some downtime.

On our next visit, we scheduled only two to three daily activities. We left time in between to return to our hotel room for a snack or, after visiting the Ice! walk-through, for snuggling in our beds to warm up.

Even if you aren’t staying overnight and are only visiting for the day, I would recommend choosing only a few activities instead of trying to do it all. Part of the fun of being at a Gaylord resort is exploring the shops, eateries and gardens that span the gorgeous glass atriums — you want to leave plenty of time for spontaneous wandering while you are there.

If you are staying on-site, I recommend taking an hour or so after you check in to do a lap around the resort and get the lay of the land. It’ll help ease the stress of trying to make it to any activities with scheduled tickets at the correct time.

Hotel guests receive extra perks

Other than the obvious perk of earning and redeeming your Marriott Bonvoy points and enjoying free night certificates at all Gaylord properties, overnight guests also receive Ice!-specific perks. All overnight guests can utilize the “Chill Pass” for front-of-line access and shorter wait times when visiting Ice! This complimentary perk is included with your stay, so you don’t need to do anything additional to utilize it, but you do still need to purchase a ticket for Ice!

Overnight guests can also take advantage of “Extra Cool Hour,” a benefit that allows hotel guests to enter Ice! one hour before it opens to day guests. Fewer people means shorter lines and more trips down the ice slide.

The easiest way to gain access to the event during Extra Cool Hour is to make your room reservation before you purchase your Ice! tickets.

When you purchase your Ice! tickets, filter the ticket type to “Overnight Guests Only” and choose your preferred date and time. You should receive a code in your prearrival confirmation email that you can enter during the purchase process if you choose a time during the first hour of the day. Alternatively, you can purchase a room and Ice! ticket package and you will receive email instructions on reserving a day and time to visit the attraction.

Because entry to Ice! is timed, it didn’t feel overly crowded when we visited during normal operating hours, but as we near the holidays or if you visit during the weekend, the Chill Pass and Extra Cool Hour may come in handy.

Book an atrium-view room

The unique glass atrium design is what makes staying in a Gaylord resort so special.

My family loves to wake up in the morning and throw open the balcony doors to listen to the rushing waterfalls and see the decor. We usually eat breakfast out there, as well. When the sun sets in the evening and the atrium darkens, the twinkling lights and glittering decor take on an entirely different — and magical — appearance.

Staying in an atrium-view room can cost anywhere from around $70 to $100 more per night than staying in a standard exterior-view room, but I got it for no additional cost — and you can, too.

As a Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite member, I am eligible for a complimentary room upgrade when I stay at a Marriott Bonvoy property, based on availability. You can earn Gold Elite status with 25 eligible stays per year, but you can earn it much faster with a travel card that automatically grants you Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status (you will have to enroll online or by calling your card’s customer service and giving them your Marriott Bonvoy number), such as The Platinum Card® from American Express.

Related: Guide to Marriott and Hilton elite status with the Amex Platinum and Business Platinum

I decided to roll the dice and booked an exterior-view room with the hopes of being upgraded to an atrium-view room. The upgrade typically can’t be guaranteed until check-in, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to call prior to our arrival and have them make a note on the reservation. I spoke with a friendly customer service agent who made a note on my account. I expected to have to wait until I checked in for the upgrade to be confirmed, but the next time I opened the Marriott app, my room type showed as an atrium-view room.

I’m not a huge gambler, but this one paid off, and I saved some cash.

Bottom line

With five resorts across the country, there’s a good chance you aren’t too far from a Gaylord resort.

During the holiday season, each one offers festive activities, decor, treats and drinks (scientifically, a hot toddy can help you warm up after you’ve been in the cold) to help your family make lasting memories and traditions that will keep you coming back to Gaylord year after year.