Grand Floridian's life-size gingerbread house opens for its 10th year

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The life-size gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is celebrating its 10th anniversary this season. The house is constructed each fall in the lobby of the Walt Disney World resort hotel and is decorated almost totally with edible materials under the direction of Executive Pastry Chef Erich Herbitschek.

The house opened a couple of mornings ago to a long line of guests, and will operate daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through December.

The gingerbread house is a working bake shop with cast members selling edible treats including cookies, lollipops, gingerbread ornaments, chocolate Disney characters, miniature gingerbread houses, traditional Stollen bread and more. Items range from $2.50 for a large chocolate cookie to $75 for a signature chocolate box with truffles.

Here’s a brief idea of what goes into making the edible decor:
• 1,050 lbs. of honey
• 800 lbs. of flour
• 600 lbs. of chocolate
• 600 lbs. of powdered sugar
• 180 lbs. of apricot glaze
• 140 pints of egg whites
• 35 lbs. of spices

It takes Grand Floridian cast members more than two months and 840 hours of labor to produce, cut and bake the 5,089 “shingles” used to decorate the gingerbread house. Over the years, it has been featured on the Travel Channel, Food Network and numerous other outlets.

In true Disney fashion, the house also contains several hidden Mickeys placed there by the bakery team.

A ribbon-cutting for the 10th anniversary, along with the release of a limited-edition trading pin, will take place Friday at 1 p.m. Chef Erich will be on hand to sign the pin and Disney cookbooks.

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11 Comments

  1. Our family of three just decided to come down, 14 hour drive, for Thanksgiving! Could you tell me if they have discount tickets or giveaways….just wondering. Do you have any info on where else to get tickets. We are going to visit Sea World and Universal hopefully too! Thanks

  2. My ex-wife and I stayed in the GF for our honeymoon in ’99. I remember them putting up the gingerbread house in the lobby and, oh, how wonderful that smelled!

  3. What is the last day for the Gingerbread House to be on display? We want to bring the grandchildren over to Orlando on Friday, January 2.

  4. Is there an admission fee to get into this hotel for the gingerbreadhouse, or can we just enter the hotel and walk around