A Virtual Tour of Disney’s Grand Floridian Gingerbread House

Last week I posted about the awesome and totally free Christmas Tree Trail at Disney Springs. If you missed it, you can check it out here. Today I thought I’d share another fun and free Christmas activity at Disney World, a tour of the amazing gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first gingerbread house to grace the beautiful lobby of Disney’s Grand Floridian. The house has grown in grandeur and detail over the years and is now a Disney World Christmas tradition. Many of us decorate our own gingerbread houses over the holidays, but probably not to this scale. Disney also uses fresh materials and coordinates each portion of the house for a beautifully unified and thematically-appropriate look.

That’s not exactly how the gingerbread activity goes down in my house.

Regardless of our less-than-perfect gingerbread creations, the act of decorating these holiday homes over the years holds special memories to me.  Perhaps that’s part of the reason I was so excited to see Disney’s gingerbread house at the Grand Floridan this year. Tradition, memories and great smelling gingerbread in a beautiful resort for free?

Yes, please.

The Grand Floridian is an easy boat or monorail ride from Magic Kingdom. I took the picture above after leaving the monorail station and first walking into the second level of the resort. As you can see, the gingerbread house is easy to spot. It’s also beautifully themed to match the Victorian-styled hotel and large enough to fit the scale of the massive lobby.

Maybe it was just my excitement, but I felt like I could already smell the gingerbread too.

Here’s a slightly closely look at the gingerbread house from the same location. You can clearly see the scale of the home relative to the guests walking nearby. There weren’t too many people around when I visited, around 7:30PM on a weekday evening. In true Disney style, there are guide ropes and signs to direct traffic for the busier time periods.

The detail on Disney’s Grand Floridian gingerbread house is exquisite. The windows are lit from within and decorated with their own tiny windowboxes. I also like the soft lighting under the eaves and dormer window. If you look closely you can barely see the handle and frame for a secret full size door hidden behind the first two windows on the left.

The decorations on the other side of the house are even more impressive. A beautifully intricate balcony stretches around the side and the front of the house. The space is fully decorated with multiple Christmas trees and Santas. Under the balcony is a classic Victorian covered porch, complete with ornate white posts and snow covered steps. I love the twinkling lights on the roof, the smattering of snowflakes throughout and the tiny white-picket fence.

The back of the home, where the guests are standing in the photo above, doubles as a snack shop. You can purchase a variety of sweets, including gingerbread “shingles” like the ones used to create the house.

Here’s a closer look at the side detail of the home. Can you spot the miniature village on the balcony?   The overall effect is so beautiful and cozy, I wanted to linger for a while.

As I stood there looking at the perfect gingerbread house, I started remembering all of my mismatched, slightly crooked, candy-encrusted homemade gingerbread houses of Christmases-past. One year we decorated the roof with Frosted Mini-Wheats. Another time we incorporated pretzel rods as support beams. I remember trying to shape a chimney out of caramel, paneling out of sliding licorice and trees out of inverted ice cream cones. We enforced a strict no-peeking rule once each family member was assigned a portion of the home to decorate, which pretty much guaranteed our completed home would be chaotic clash (celebration?) of our unique styles.

I loved it.

And I loved the Grand Floridian gingerbread house too, for its beautiful perfection and its ability to trigger these less than perfect memories.

If you’d like to see the Grand Floridian gingerbread house for yourself this year, it will remain on display through January 1. If you hope to visit in future years, Disney typically opens the gingerbread exhibit around November 14 or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

You can reach the Grand Floridian by bus from Disney Springs or any of the four theme parks. You can also take the boat or monorail from Magic Kingdom.

If you take the monorail, you might want to make a quick stop to visit another holiday gingerbread house at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.  Although it’s not quite as striking or well-known as the Grand Floridian gingerbread home, it’s still a holiday treat to behold. (pun intended!) This year the Cinderella Castle themed house at the Contemporary sports an it’s a small world style. It’s sleek, modern and minimal design blends perfectly with the Contemporary themed resort.

And yes, you can buy sweet treats there too!

Or you can attempt to make the massive treat yourself by following Disney’s impressive list of ingredients.

You may need to make multiple trips to the store.

Before you head for the door though, thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this fun, free and festive Disney World activity wherever you are today! Happy Holidays!

Add a little (gingerbread) magic to your world!