Christmas At Opryland Hotel with Kids
Have you experienced Christmas at Opryland Hotel with kids? To be completely honest, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel had not been on my radar at all until I saw some ads for the Ice! experience while staying with my in-laws who live in Middle TN. It’s not an outing that I have ever heard my fellow Chattanooga moms talking about, but the exhibit sure looked neat. I had actually never visited the Opryland Hotel and had no concept of what it was like. When my husband, who visited once as a child, started pulling up pictures of the hotel, I instantly knew it would be a great overnight trip to help break up the long second half of my daughters’ Christmas Vacation. (We didn’t go back to school until January 8th this year. If you know, you know.)
In this post, I’ll share a little about our experience as well as lessons learned that might make your experience even better than ours!
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Christmas At Opryland Hotel with Kids – How We Got Our Room For Free!
I would be remiss not to mention that we were actually able to book our room for free. (Well, it was almost free. We still had to pay tax.) My husband, Ben, has taken somewhat of a deep dive into credit card travel rewards and point hacking this year. I absolutely love to travel, so I certainly can’t complain!
Before we booked our trip to Maine last summer, he opened Chase Sapphire preferred card. With our sign on bonus and additional earned points, we were able to book our flights and rental car for free (minus taxes). He also opened a Marriott Bonvoy card. Its sign on bonus included 3 free nights at Marriott properties (up to a certain point limit). We used one stay our first night in Portland, ME for a place to crash after a late flight in. We used our second free night to book this stay at the Gayloard Opryland Hotel!
We are very intentional about not carrying a credit card balance. Carrying a balance and having to pay credit card interest would negate the travel rewards for us. We also avoid making unnecessary purchases just to earn more points. We view that as a slippery slope. Do your own research and assess your own family finances! We just love that we are able to earn point towards travel through our every day expenses and wish we had known more about this option sooner.
Opryland Hotel’s Ice Experience
For us, the main Christmas at Opryland Hotel event was the Ice! experience. We booked our entry tickets with our hotel room for an additional discount. The year we went, Frosty The Snowman was the theme. I believe the theme changes from year to year. All of the ice sculptures were really quite impressive! Our daughters (ages 9, 7, and 4) were mesmerized. However, their favorite part, by far were all the ice slides!
A helpful tip:
It is very cold in the Ice! exhibit. When they say it’s 9 degrees in there, they mean it! You are provided with a heavy blue parka before your enter the exhibit. As you can tell from the picture below, we also brought along hats, gloves, and snow boots. (Ben actually forgot his gloves and his hands were quite cold. Don’t be like Ben.) Even with the parka, our youngest two were starting to shiver and shake by the end. Bring your insulated stuff!
We had debated whether we should bring along their snow pants, but opted to pack light. We mistakenly thought we would access the exhibit from inside the hotel. Many of the Christmas activities are actually located outside. The Ice! exhibit is in a detached out building. It was a chilly night, so we regretted not dressing in more insulated layers, which would have made the ice exhibit tolerable for longer and would have allowed us to take in more of the festive outdoor activities such as the nativity scene and ice skating.
Eating at the Opryland Hotel
We were at the hotel for dinner the night of check in and breakfast the next morning. Check in was at 4pm CST (which is 5PM our time). It was getting close to dinner time for us. As soon as we unloaded in our room, we headed out to find somewhere to eat before our Ice! entrance time of 6PM. Cascades American Cafe was near our room so we headed there. We probably arrived at the hostess stand at around 4:45pm and were seated immediately. By the time we left about an hour later, there was a long line of people waiting to be seated. Get to dinner early if you can!
The girls got a big kick out of the fun setting. We were seated in a booth that looked like a little cave carved out of the stone wall. It was a great spot to start taking in our surroundings in the atrium.
Do Note:
We visited the Opryland Hotel during a timeframe when I was trying to avoid gluten due to some health issues. I was surprised to find that the menus at the hotel restaurants did not indicate gluten-free options, something even small local restaurants in Chattanooga do. The only menu I found that specified gluten free options was the room service breakfast menu which I utilized the next morning.
For breakfast, we opted out of visiting Cascades’ breakfast buffet. With our girls being somewhat inconsistent eaters (sometimes they eat a lot, sometimes they eat like birds), we strongly doubted that we would get our money’s worth out of the breakfast buffet. Instead, Ben took the girls to the Conservatory Cafe which serves Starbucks menu items. I enjoyed a brief window of alone time in the room to get ready for the day and opted for some gluten free room service. Eating in the hotel is certainly pricey, but we viewed it as part of the experience and were happy to indulge considering our room was free.
Our Room for Christmas at Opryland Hotel with Kids
As we were booking this trip, we realized that we haven’t stayed with our children at a true hotel since our oldest Caroline was an infant! We took her with us to Arizona and ended up being stranded in the bathroom while she napped and forced to go to bed when she did. Ben and I have had a few hotel stays since then, but when bringing the girls along, we’ve opted for condos and AirBnB’s to give us more space and multiple bedrooms.
Trying to explain the difference between a hotel and condo/BnB resulted in lots of hilarious questions on our trip to Nashville:
“There’s only one room?”
“How many bathrooms are there?”
“How empty is this place going to be if there’s no kitchen and no living room?”
“Will we have a balcony?”
“Is there a door to the bathroom if it’s one big room?” “Will other people share the room with us?”
Just staying at the hotel ended up being a really fun experience for them! They loved the “spinney chair”, mini fridge, and our little balcony that opened up to the atrium.
Plan Ahead…
It may be helpful to know that the Gaylord Opryland Hotel can be rather loud at night. We could hear music wafting in from the atrium until at least 10PM CST. If you need a quiet environment to sleep, you may want to bring earplugs along. I was grateful that Ben packed the girls’ clock that turns green when it’s time to get up. It has a built in sound machine that helped us block out some of the noise.
Exploring Christmas At Opryland Hotel with Kids
We took some time to explore the hotel atriums at night and during the morning before our checkout time. The decorations of Christmastime at Opryland Hotel are certainly magical to behold! Really, the hotel on its own is quite the sight! After our visit to the Ice! exhibit, we indulged in some soft serve ice cream and enjoyed taking in the Christmas lights and music. The next morning, we spent more time exploring all the atriums. There were more activities available such as boat rides, carriage rides, and gingerbread house decorating, but we opted for just exploring instead. Our girls were delighted by all the little waterfalls, fountains, and statues.
Experience Christmas At Opryland Hotel Yourself!
In conclusion, Christmas at Opryland Hotel with kids was a great experience for everyone involved! I would highly recommend visiting the Ice! exhibit with your kids and viewing the decorations of the hotel. Overall, we really enjoyed the beauty of the gardens and seeing something new. With it being only 2.5 hours from Chattanooga, I would recommend it to other Chattanooga Moms as well! It’s well worth adding it to your Christmas Break plans next year! Our girls were quite interested in the Soundwaves water park, so I’m sure we’ll be making another trip in the future as well!
Kelley Hoagland is a wife, mom of 3 girls, and Chattanooga Photographer who loves to travel!