Marriott International's ice!™ attraction will operate at eight U.S. resort properties this holiday season — its broadest deployment since the experience launched in 2001 — with two venue debuts and three brand-new licensed themes designed to drive overnight package bookings and F&B-anchored programming across the portfolio.
The signature frozen experience debuts at Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista, Calif., and JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix this fall, while returning to Gaylord Hotels in Nashville, National Harbor, Kissimmee, Aurora, and Grapevine, as well as JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort. New intellectual-property themes — Harry Potter™, Home Alone™, and Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas™ — join established draws including How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Polar Express™, and Elf™.
Scale of the Production
More than 300 master artisans from Harbin, China spend approximately 40 days hand-carving 60,000 ice blocks — totaling more than two million pounds — into floor-to-ceiling scenes at each location. The attraction is maintained at 9 degrees Fahrenheit and includes two-story ice slides, immersive passageways, and character vignettes spanning more than 10 scenes per theme. For resort operators, the production underscores how large-scale, ticketed seasonal activations can anchor multi-day stays and elevate ancillary revenue streams, from themed character dining to holiday retail.
Resort Lineup and Dates
The eight-property schedule runs from early November 2026 through early January 2027. Gaylord Opryland in Nashville opens first on Nov. 6 with the new Home Alone™ theme, followed by Gaylord Texan (Nov. 13, Harry Potter™), Gaylord National and Gaylord Palms (Nov. 13–14), JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge (Nov. 18, Elf™), Gaylord Pacific and Gaylord Rockies (Nov. 20, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Nightmare Before Christmas™, respectively), and JW Marriott San Antonio (Nov. 23, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer™). Most runs close Jan. 3, 2027.
Operator Implications
The expansion of ice! to non-Gaylord JW Marriott properties is a meaningful signal for hospitality food and beverage operators watching how major hotel brands monetize holiday periods. Seasonal attractions at this scale require months of advance supply-chain coordination, staffing ramp-ups, and culinary programming alignment — categories that resort F&B teams are increasingly expected to anchor rather than support. Johann Krieger, Regional Vice President of Marriott International, noted the brand has "welcomed tens of millions of guests over the years," and cited growing family demand for holiday destination travel as the driver behind the expanded footprint.
Beyond ice! itself, each resort layers in themed character dining, ice tubing, live stage performances, pop-up Christmas villages, and Santa experiences under the broader So Much Christmas umbrella — a programming model that keeps guests on-property and spending across meal periods. For the hospitality industry, the bundling of ticketed attractions with overnight packages represents a proven strategy for shoulder-season yield management now being applied to the competitive holiday window.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
