eat, drink & be terry: ICE! Advice

It's been ICE! time at the Gaylord Palms for weeks, and I was kinda thinkin' we may not make it this year; time slips by so quickly during December! The theme is "Shrek the Halls", and we reallyyyyy wanted to see it, as we're Shrek fanatics (as in, we know every line from the original Shrek, and have compared Jack to him on many occasions). Linds has never ICE!'d, so we pulled out our winter gear and set out to have some fun with her while she's home for Christmas. (For my family up north, ICE! is a themed display of ice carvings at an enormous convention center in Orlando...the temp inside is 9°, so it's the closest we get to a "wintery" Christmas!) I bought tickets on the 'net for the 7-7:30 entry, and we figured it would be really busy. Nope! We got inside about 20 minutes early, and they let us right in. Sweet! The pictures were all taken on my phone, so they're not great, but you'll get the idea : ) It takes about 30 minutes to walk through, and when we came out, it was PACKED! Note to self: go at the same time on the same day next year!

Shrek! Fiona! Our heroes! Ehrigs love talking animals. And ogres.

Isn't this amazing?! How do they get the ice so green?! This sculpture was really big.

Dragon, Donkey's love. She was just playin', we weren't in any real danger ; )

Mike Myers narrated Shrek's voice, reading "Christmas for Village Idiots", and a Shrek-styled "Twas the Night Before Christmas in the Swamp". So clever!

The Nativity scene at the end is breathtaking. Kinda literally! We were so cold our fingers felt like they were going to fall off! As we exited the display, we laughed as we watched folks going in without the recommended complimentary parka; a couple guys were in just shirts and slacks. They'll know what 9° feels like without a coat in about 30 seconds!

Now...on to look at the hotel, which is unbelievably huge. It boasts several restaurants in its Florida themed wings. There was a live show under the Majestic Christmas tree, featuring singers and a performance by a cirque-inspired acrobatics team. Fantastic!

The St. Augustine area, built to look like the castillo. It's so amazing you forget that you're inside! I really felt like we were walking around St. Auggie!

The light show in the Atrium is incredible!

The tree changes color, and the hanging lights flash to the music being performed onstage. Wow!

Sunset Sam's Fish Camp Restaurant, with a 60' long boat named the Gaylord, naturally. There's a regular restaurant as well as the eat-onboard boat. And don't forget...this is all INSIDE the hotel!