Walt Disney World has introduced the refurbishment timeline and revealed the brand new Birdcage Foyer Bar Coming Quickly to the Grand Floridian Resort. With this, there are impacts to the visitor expertise and choices on the flagship resort, extending by Christmas 2025. One such impression is not any gingerbread show–this shares particulars and our commentary in regards to the information.
Let’s begin with fast background. A staple of the vacation season at Walt Disney World is the life-sized Gingerbread Home on the Grand Floridian. Final 12 months, this fan-favorite custom celebrated its twenty fifth Anniversary, and was formally open beginning November 6, after starting development in mid-to-late October.
The edible show all the time attracts a giant crowd of friends desperate to admire its white chocolate sweet canes, edible snowflakes, sugar poinsettias, and an 88-pound white chocolate Santa. The gingerbread itself is baked with 1050 kilos of honey, 800 kilos of flour, and 600 kilos of confectioners’ sugar. The decorations characteristic 700 kilos of chocolate and have over 10,000 items of gingerbread. The crew spend over 500 hours baking the gingerbread and 480 hours bringing all of the dazzling particulars to life.
To have fun the 25 years of vacation custom, there have been 25 hidden Mickeys scattered all through the Gingerbread Home at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort final 12 months. There was additionally a limited-edition assortment of twenty fifth anniversary merchandise together with a pin, decoration, cookie jar, magnet, tumbler, t-shirt, and extra out there for buy.
If our experiences the previous couple of years had been any indication, there’s additionally alway enormous crowds and lengthy strains within the foyer. We’ve come to view the Gingerbread Home on the Grand Floridian considerably just like the Cinderella Fort Dream Lights: an funding made by Walt Disney World that paid huge dividends by way of gross sales–not essentially within the reserving of journeys or resort stays, however through PhotoPass, meals & beverage, merchandise, and extra gross sales.
A go to to the Grand Floridian is a quintessential holiday-time expertise, and it’s one of some must-do stops on our Free Self-Guided Walt Disney World Yuletide Resort Tour. That’s what we advocate doing within the morning earlier than attending Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Social gathering (in the event you choose to do this upcharge) or maybe simply in your non-parks day. It’s one among our favourite issues to do at Walt Disney World, and we make a degree of doing it yearly–together with separate visits to most of the accommodations.
As with the opposite monorail loop resorts, it’s additionally simple to go to the Grand Floridian the identical day you do Magic Kingdom. Whether or not or not it’s earlier than heading into the park, strolling over on the strolling path for a noon break, or after the park closes (our favourite possibility), it’s definitely worth the detour due to its elegant Victorian decor, grandiose icon tree, and the fantastic gingerbread home.
That’s usually all true, however it sounds prefer it gained’t be the case at Christmas 2025.
Walt Disney World has introduced the next: As a part of the continued enhancements at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, phased updates to the foyer, conference middle and choose areas will start April 14. Parts of the foyer will shut at instances, and Friends could encounter modifications to their path of journey.
Whereas development exercise might be noticeable throughout daytime hours, efforts might be made to reduce disruptions, and all swimming pools, eating and different facilities will stay out there. As Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa continues its renovations, the gingerbread show is not going to be out there in the course of the vacation season in 2025.
On its face, this rationalization is smart.
Development taking place by late 2025 would undoubtedly impression Walt Disney World’s capability to construct the Gingerbread Home on the Grand Floridian. As famous above, that often begins in mid-to-late October.
So even when the foyer renovations are executed by Veterans Day and the normal kickoff to the Christmas season, that’s nonetheless not sufficient lead-time to have the Gingerbread Home–which is constructed in plain sight within the foyer–executed by then.
There’s additionally the truth that development is all the time topic to delay, and even when the intent is to have the foyer executed by early November and even mid-October, there’s no assure that’ll occur. There are lots of shifting components and a number of groups concerned in bringing the Gingerbread Home to life, so the secure transfer is to easily err on the facet of warning and cancel the fan-favorite show for Christmas 2025. It’s disappointing, however it’s pragmatic.
Some followers may surprise why Walt Disney World merely doesn’t relocate the Gingerbread Home to elsewhere on the Grand Floridian.
My guess is that it’s a matter of crowds and congestion. That there’s nowhere else that may soak up the visitor site visitors that the Gingerbread Home attracts, and even when there have been, that may spill over into the foyer. Folks aren’t going to come back to the resort for the Gingerbread Home within the conference middle or wherever, and not enter the foyer to additionally see its decorations (hopefully there’s nonetheless a Christmas tree).
If the foyer challenge is delayed and development continues to be occuring in November or December that takes a part of the house out of fee, which means extra folks crammed into a fair smaller space. As a lot as we’d like to see Walt Disney World discover a strategy to deliver again the Gingerbread Home for its twenty sixth 12 months, it most likely comes right down to pragmatism.
Longer-term, I can’t assist however surprise about the way forward for the Gingerbread Home on the Grand Floridian.
My first thought when trying on the Birdcage Bar idea artwork is that the foyer goes to be fairly busy with that plus the Christmas tree and gingerbread home in the course of the holidays. The primary constructing is already a mad home in the course of the vacation season, and this can simply exacerbate it.
Not solely will this be yet one more factor that induces crowds within the foyer, however it can focus them. Frankly, I don’t understand how the Grand Floridian goes to have this birdcage bar and Christmas tree and gingerbread home. One thing’s gotta give–or transfer. My guess is that “one thing” would be the Gingerbread Home.
It’s doable that the Grand Floridian will transfer the Gingerbread Home into a unique house for Christmas 2026 and past. As talked about, there’s the conference middle and different areas away from the closely trafficked foyer.
However as additionally talked about, all of them lead to the identical points with spillover into the foyer. On condition that, we wouldn’t be in the slightest degree stunned if the Grand Floridian Gingerbread Home by no means returns. To be abundantly clear, that is purely speculative on our half. Not even a rumor, and positively not official.
I simply know that Walt Disney World receives rather a lot of complaints from paying friends in the principle constructing of the Grand Floridian every Christmas about noise and crowds, most of that are guests to the resort. Sooner or later, I wouldn’t be stunned if these “win out” over the the profitable merchandise, meals & beverage gross sales of the Gingerbread Home. Perhaps the show might be again in 2026, however I really feel like its retirement is inevitable–and possibly by the point Villains Land opens.
One other chance is the Gingerbread Home shifting to a different resort totally. On this case, it wouldn’t be “shifting” a lot as it will be Walt Disney World retiring one show and introducing one other.
This has already began to occur, sort of. For the previous couple of vacation seasons, Animal Kingdom Lodge has had edible animal shows. These have grown in scale and measurement, however nonetheless will not be “large enough” to justify a devoted journey from most friends. Introducing an precise Gingerbread Lodge (a la Humphrey’s Lodge from ~6 years in the past at Wilderness Lodge) would tip the scales.
I’m of two minds about this. Selflessly, I’d love extra followers to make the trek to AKL and at last uncover what’s unquestionably one of many high resorts at Walt Disney World, its super culinary scene, good themed design, and many others. Selfishly, I like Animal Kingdom Lodge in the course of the vacation season, and recognize how quiet it’s as in comparison with the monorail loop and Crescent Lake Resorts. I’d prefer to maintain it that method. (I feel it most likely would keep that method given the transportation limitations.)
I additionally wouldn’t be stunned if Walt Disney World tried one thing related with whichever Disney Trip Membership resorts they’re making an attempt to promote. Incentivizing visits to Fort Wilderness over the vacation season with a cool show can be savvy because the campground actually shines at Christmas-time. “Oh, by the way in which when you’re right here, tour this new mannequin DVC cabin that we’ve conveniently situated within the Settlement!”
Guests to the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Village Resorts and overcrowding has been a difficulty for some time. We’ve been warning readers about reserving the principle constructing of the Grand Floridian at Christmas for years, based mostly on each our personal damaging experiences and experiences from others.
Likewise, one among our greatest trepidations in regards to the Island Tower on the Poly (except for how hideous it seems on the skin) is the burden it’ll placed on the resort’s already strained infrastructure. The resort’s DVC level stock isn’t even shut to totally bought out but, and we’ve already seen a few of these points throughout latest visits.
Walt Disney World has tried to handle the issues with monorail loop resort site visitors lately, whereas on the identical time constructing new issues to induce much more demand. That is exactly why they’ve restricted customer parking at these (and different) resorts, restricted Cell Order at instances, and required wristbands for fireworks viewing.
In the end, there are different measures that Walt Disney World might take to manage crowds on the Grand Floridian and Polynesian that may assist management crowds and permit the Gingerbread Home to return. One can be requiring keycard entry or confirmed eating reservations to achieve entrance to the grounds. That is precisely what Tokyo Disney Resort does with each Toy Story Resort and Fantasy Springs Resort. I’m guessing Walt Disney World doesn’t need to go that far, particularly since they like to string the needle on the sort of factor (crowds equal income!).
It’s additionally totally doable that I’m taking my very own psychological comparability of the Grand Floridian Gingerbread Home to the Cinderella Fort Dream Lights too actually. Within the latter’s case, it’s seeming increasingly more like a ‘short-term hiatus’ supplied Walt Disney World cowl for making a seemingly everlasting determination they knew can be unpopular. For probably the most half, followers might be understanding that the Gingerbread Home isn’t returning this 12 months, as foyer development is a logical rationalization. And if it doesn’t come again in 2026, that’s quiet information, not a recent announcement.
The response can be very completely different if Walt Disney World got here out at the moment and shared that the Gingerbread Home is being completely retired. Right here’s hoping I’m overanalyzing this, being too conspiratorial, and the Grand Floridian Gingerbread Home is again and higher than ever for Christmas 2026!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Walt Disney World cancelling the gingerbread home at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa for Christmas 2025? Assume it’ll be again at Christmas 2026? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
