After we had holidayed as much as we needed in the park, the granddaughter insisted we needed to ride the monorail to visit the Grand Floridian before leaving. The gingerbread house is not to be missed if you are ever there at Christmas.
You can’t just drive up and park and visit unless you have a dining reservation (not a bad idea at all), but if you’re in any situation were you can access the internal transportation system you get there via the monorail.
(This can be a trek in some circumstances, so do your homework if you want to do this. Don’t whine in a FB group that nobody told you you can’t just take up a parking space to see the house. Literally everybody, including the Disney website, tells you this, you lazy, whiny assholes.)
It is worth a visit:
That is an actual gingerbread house. The people to the left and behind it? They are waiting in line to buy treats from the booth at the back. People work in this actual gingerbread house. This is the 50th Anniversary of Disney World version, it’s very blingy, but it is still made of baked goods.
After we saw the house and The Dancer said she really wants to stay at the Grand Floridian someday, and her mom explained that we could do it this summer (at least for a couple of days) if she’d switch from dance team to swim team because her competition fees and costume costs would buy a weekend there, The Dancer started plotting alternatives, like waiting until she has a rich boyfriend.
She was kidding. I think.
We stopped into one of the resort shops because my daughter needed a Diet Coke to sustain her on the slog home. The CM working there was a very TALL young woman – if she didn’t play college basketball or volleyball, I’ll eat a bug. She was over 6 ft.
My granddaughter said “You’re really tall!” She replied, “Yes, I am.” They established that yes, my granddaughter is also quite tall for her age, and bonded over being Tall Girls.
Advice from the Tall CM: “People will tell you you can only date guys taller than you. Don’t believe it.”
This tall gal was just working in a meh job in a hotel sundries shop on a quiet Sunday night, but she took the time to discuss being the tallest girl everywhere you go with a random ten year old. It was just…so darn cute.
Then we monorailed back to our cars and drove home exhausted. I really did want to have a room at the Grand Floridian.