As Marriott’s Gaylord Resorts prepare to roll into another year of over-the-top holiday programming, indoor water parks and sprawling atriums filled with lights, travelers are already plotting how to turn a 2025 stay into a high-value, high-impact escape.

Across Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Gaylord Palms near Orlando, Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Gaylord National outside Washington, D.C., and other properties, 2025 brings fresh themes for the brand’s signature ICE experience, expanded cirque-style shows and new packages that can be combined with savvy Marriott Bonvoy strategies to stretch both points and budgets.

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Gaylord in 2025: What’s New Across the Portfolio

Gaylord’s 2025 calendar leans heavily into its reputation for holiday spectacle. In November 2025, the brand announced the return of ICE, its walk-through frozen attraction, at six destination resorts, pairing more than 2 million pounds of hand-carved ice sculptures with live shows, character encounters and family-friendly activities.

Each property is leaning into a distinct storyline, turning the all-ages installations into destination events aimed at both fly-in travelers and drive-market families.

In Nashville, A Country Christmas at Gaylord Opryland is set to run from November 7, 2025, through January 3, 2026, anchored by ICE featuring “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” ice tubing lanes and a new large-scale cirque production titled “POMP, SNOW & CIRQUEumstance.” In the Washington, D.C., region, Christmas at Gaylord National will run from November 14, 2025, to January 4, 2026, with ICE built around “The Polar Express,” alongside the returning “Cirque: Spirit of Christmas” staged under the 19-story glass atrium.

In Central Florida, Gaylord Palms is pushing its own spin on the format with a 2025 ICE theme centered on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” turning roughly 2 million pounds of ice into scenes from the 1964 stop-motion classic.

The Kissimmee-area resort is layering the attraction into its annual Christmas at Gaylord Palms lineup, which includes a Snow Factory with ice tubing on Snow Flow Mountain, the Naughty or Nice escape room, and expanded hands-on experiences such as gingerbread decorating and a chocolate workshop.

In Texas, Gaylord Texan in Grapevine is marketing deep savings on bundled passes tied to its ICE attraction, with promotional language highlighting potential savings of up to 40 percent when guests package the frozen walk-through experience with activities such as ice tubing and gingerbread decorating.

For travelers looking at 2025 dates, the picture is clear: Gaylord is positioning each resort as a stand-alone holiday destination, with enough programming to fill a multi-night stay.

Using Marriott Bonvoy To Strategize a Gaylord Stay

For Marriott Bonvoy members, Gaylord properties occupy a distinctive niche. They are fully integrated in the program with earn-and-burn capabilities, but they also use dynamic pricing that can fluctuate sharply around peak periods such as Thanksgiving, Christmas week and New Year’s.

Flexible travelers can use this to their advantage by targeting off-peak dates within the broader holiday windows, often Sunday through Thursday nights outside school breaks, to secure lower point redemptions or more competitive cash rates.

Elite status matters more at Gaylord than many first-time guests realize. While resort-wide upgrades are not guaranteed, Bonvoy Platinum Elite and above can sometimes secure atrium-view rooms or more convenient locations that cut walking time to ICE, water parks and show venues.

Complimentary or discounted breakfast benefits, where available, can offset on-property dining costs that add up quickly during multi-day stays. Travelers who hold co-branded Marriott credit cards can further accelerate point accrual on room charges and bundled holiday packages.

Because Gaylord resorts often carve holiday events into separate tickets, careful packaging is key. Some room offers for ICE and Christmas lineups, particularly at Opryland and National Harbor, include event tickets as part of a nightly rate. Others allow Bonvoy members to book base rooms on points while adding ICE and show tickets separately.

In practice, it can be more efficient in high-demand weeks to pay cash for all-in packages when they bundle multiple ticketed experiences, then deploy Bonvoy points at nearby, lower-priced Marriott brands if rates spike at the main resort.

Members should also pay attention to restrictions. In Nashville, for example, select discounted holiday packages for military and other groups specifically exclude access to the SoundWaves water experience, requiring separate packages or add-on passes for the indoor water park. Reading the fine print before applying points or cash to a booking is essential to avoid surprises at check-in.

SoundWaves and Water Park Play: Timing and Access

The indoor water parks tied to Gaylord properties have become year-round magnets, and 2025 is no exception. SoundWaves at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, a four-acre hybrid indoor-outdoor water attraction, remains the flagship. The resort continues to position indoor attractions as open throughout the year, with outdoor components running seasonally from mid-May through Labor Day on select dates, and 2025 rate sheets show packages and party options starting at around 60 dollars per person for certain group experiences.

Access to SoundWaves is not automatically included with every room night, a detail that often catches first-time visitors off guard. The most straightforward way in is through the dedicated SoundWaves Experience Package, which combines overnight accommodations with wristbands to the water park. Seasonal sales advertised into December 31, 2025, offer up to 20 percent savings for non-residents on select dates, providing an incentive to book specific calendar windows rather than attempting a last-minute add-on at rack rate.

In Florida, Gaylord Palms continues to promote its Cypress Springs water park and South Beach Pool as core family amenities, with slides, a lazy river and separate kids’ play zones. While Palms’ water features are positioned as resort amenities tied directly to the room rate, capacity management can still come into play during busy winter and spring holidays, making early arrival and weekday stays advantageous.

Checking the resort’s operating calendars, particularly for any limited hours or maintenance around January and early February 2025, can prevent disappointment.

Gaylord Texan, with its own seasonal outdoor water attractions, and other properties with pools and splash areas operate on more traditional resort schedules, dialing back certain features outside warmer months. For 2025 travelers, that puts a premium on deciding whether a stay is primarily about water play or holiday programming, then matching travel dates to the experience that matters most.

Holiday Spectacle: ICE, Cirque Shows and Ticket Math

The defining feature of a wintertime Gaylord stay remains the collision of holiday decor, ice sculptures and live entertainment under cavernous glass atriums. For 2025, Gaylord Opryland’s A Country Christmas, running from early November through early January, revolves around the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” ICE installation, ice tubing and the debut of “POMP, SNOW & CIRQUEumstance,” a cirque-inspired show with original music and acrobatics.

The property continues to position itself as Nashville’s ultimate Christmas stop, citing national media attention for its holiday programming.

At Gaylord National, Christmas at Gaylord National will again feature the atrium as a staging ground for the “Cirque: Spirit of Christmas” show, this year set against the backdrop of ICE themed to “The Polar Express.” The show pulls guests into a story of a child rediscovering holiday spirit through acrobats, aerial performers and elaborate staging, while the rest of the resort’s convention center transforms into a Christmas Village with hands-on activities, ice tubing on Snow Flow Mountain and a Snow Factory space for snowball games.

The Florida property at Gaylord Palms is leveraging Rudolph as the heart of its 2025 ICE attraction, promising roughly a dozen larger-than-life scenes carved into a 9-degree walk-through space. The resort is supplementing the frozen experience with the Naughty or Nice escape room, the Snowball Build & Blast, and an expanded lineup of interactive experiences such as gingerbread decorating and a chocolate-making station.

In all three destinations, the economics of ticketing turn on bundling: Gaylord Texan is openly promoting bundled passes that combine ICE with other activities at discounts advertised as up to 40 percent, and similar “all-in” tickets have become common across the system.

For travelers, that means maximizing value is often less about chasing a single discount and more about aligning what a family will genuinely use with the right combination of packages. A multi-night stay during a peak December weekend may justify an “unlimited” style pass that allows repeat visits to ICE and tubing lanes.

A shorter weekday trip might benefit from a more selective package, particularly when paired with Bonvoy points on the room. Doing the math before arrival, including possible discounts for teachers, military members, AAA and other groups, can trim costs without sacrificing the marquee experiences.

On-the-Ground Tactics: Crowds, Costs and Kid Management

Beyond booking strategy and loyalty math, the day-to-day rhythm of a Gaylord stay can make or break the experience. In 2025, the combination of ICE attractions, cirque shows and water parks at properties like Opryland and Palms all but guarantees heavy weekend and holiday crowds.

Families who check in midweek and schedule headline experiences first thing in the morning or late in the evening often report shorter lines at ICE, faster access to tubing hills and more relaxed photo ops with costumed characters and Santa.

Parking and resort fees are another recurring friction point. Some Gaylord properties continue to promote prepaid parking for day guests, particularly around ICE and holiday events, as a way to save both money and time at the entry gates. Overnight guests should factor parking, resort fees and on-site dining into their overall budget, as it is not uncommon for ancillary costs to rival or exceed the nightly room rate during peak holiday weeks.

For Bonvoy members with dining credits or statement credits on co-branded cards, routing ice cream runs, atrium bar tabs and character breakfasts through the room folio can soften the blow.

For those traveling with younger children, pacing is critical. Although ICE tickets may technically allow guests to remain inside the 9-degree exhibit as long as they like, most families cycle through in less than an hour before moving back into the warmer atrium areas.

Staggering high-energy activities such as tubing and escape rooms with lower-key moments like atrium light shows or cookie decorating can help keep kids engaged without burnout. Gaylord Palms’ “Here We Glow A-Caroling” light show, which is included for resort guests and day visitors, is an example of a lower-intensity, high-impact event that can anchor an evening after more strenuous activities.

For multi-generational or group trips, the expansive footprints of Gaylord properties warrant planning rendezvous points and time buffers. Many of the ICE exhibits and cirque shows are housed in or near convention centers attached to the main atriums, and travel time between guest rooms, water parks and show venues can easily stretch to 15 or 20 minutes. Building that into schedules helps avoid missed time slots, particularly for timed-entry ICE tickets.

Booking Windows, Dynamic Pricing and Off-Peak Opportunities

As 2025 unfolds, booking windows are emerging as a key variable in how much travelers pay for a Gaylord stay. Early-bird sales for certain SoundWaves packages in Nashville, as well as seasonal offers on ICE experiences in Grapevine and National Harbor, are already signaling that substantial discounts will be tied to specific date ranges. Gaylord Texan is emphasizing the ability to save significantly on holiday fun when bundling activities in advance, and Opryland’s promotions indicate that savings on ICE tickets can be available for teachers, military members and other groups on designated dates.

Dynamic room pricing layered over fixed-date holiday events is creating pockets of value. On nights when ICE and cirque shows are running but demand is softer, typically earlier in November and in the shoulder period immediately after New Year’s Day, some Gaylord properties are offering more competitive rates and looser availability for packages that include multiple ticketed experiences.

Conversely, Saturday nights in December, particularly those leading into school breaks, are commanding premium pricing that can quickly exhaust point balances or strain budgets.

For Bonvoy members flexible on travel dates, one emerging strategy is to target the opening weeks of holiday seasons. At Gaylord Palms, for example, Christmas programming linked to the Rudolph-themed ICE attraction is scheduled to begin on November 14, 2025, while many Central Florida theme parks roll out their own holiday events later in the month.

That lag creates a narrow window where guests can enjoy full Gaylord programming with lighter regional crowding and potentially softer hotel demand. Similar shoulder windows exist in Nashville and National Harbor in early November and early January.

Travelers should also monitor cancellation and change policies, which can vary by rate type and package. Given the number of separately ticketed events, weather-sensitive activities and potential changes in attraction schedules, booking refundable rooms and flexible tickets when possible can provide breathing room, especially for families coordinating school calendars or multi-household gatherings.

FAQ

Q1. Which Gaylord resorts will feature ICE in the 2025 holiday season?
All six Gaylord destination resorts are slated to host ICE in late 2025, including Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Gaylord Palms near Orlando, Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Gaylord National outside Washington, D.C., and the two additional Gaylord properties within the portfolio, each with its own themed storyline and supporting holiday activities.

Q2. Do Marriott Bonvoy members get free access to ICE or SoundWaves?
Marriott Bonvoy status does not automatically include free admission to ICE attractions or the SoundWaves water park. Access is typically provided through dedicated packages or separately purchased tickets, though Bonvoy points can sometimes be used for room-and-experience redemptions or to offset cash costs during special promotions.

Q3. How far in advance should I book a 2025 Gaylord holiday stay?
For peak weekends in December 2025 and the week between Christmas and New Year’s, booking several months in advance is advisable, especially if you want specific room types, atrium views or bundled packages with multiple ticketed events. Shoulder dates in early November and early January may remain available longer and offer better value.

Q4. Are weekday stays at Gaylord cheaper than weekends?
In most cases, weekday stays, especially Sunday through Thursday nights, are priced lower than Friday and Saturday stays during the holiday season. Weekdays can also bring lighter crowds at ICE exhibits, tubing hills and cirque shows, which is an important consideration for families seeking shorter lines and a less hectic atmosphere.

Q5. Is SoundWaves access included with all stays at Gaylord Opryland?
No. SoundWaves access is generally limited to guests who book specific SoundWaves Experience Packages or add water park wristbands as part of their reservation. Some discounted room offers, including certain military promotions, explicitly exclude SoundWaves, requiring separate purchases for entry.

Q6. What are the main holiday themes for 2025 at key Gaylord properties?
For 2025, Gaylord Opryland is centering its ICE attraction on “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Gaylord National is featuring “The Polar Express,” and Gaylord Palms is showcasing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in its 9-degree walk-through ice exhibit. Additional properties are expected to announce or continue their own themed ICE storylines.

Q7. Can non-hotel guests visit Gaylord holiday attractions and water parks?
Yes, most Gaylord holiday attractions, including ICE and cirque shows, are open to the public with paid admission, even for those not staying overnight. SoundWaves at Opryland, however, is typically limited to resort guests with qualifying packages or wristbands, and day access is not always available for walk-ins.

Q8. How can families save on holiday activities at Gaylord Resorts?
Families can often reduce costs by buying bundled passes that combine ICE with other attractions, taking advantage of weekday pricing, and looking for targeted discounts for groups such as military members, teachers or AAA cardholders. Booking all-in holiday packages rather than piecemeal tickets can also deliver better per-activity pricing.

Q9. Are Gaylord’s holiday events suitable for very young children?
Most Gaylord holiday programming is designed for families, with attractions such as snow play areas, gingerbread decorating and character encounters that appeal to toddlers and young children. Parents should, however, be prepared for cold temperatures inside ICE exhibits and consider bringing gloves and hats in addition to the parkas provided on site.

Q10. What is the best way to use Marriott Bonvoy points at Gaylord in 2025?
The most effective use of Bonvoy points at Gaylord in 2025 will often be to target off-peak nights within the holiday windows, or to book shoulder-season stays when dynamic award pricing is lower. Some guests may also find value in using points at nearby Marriott brands while purchasing day tickets or packages for Gaylord holiday activities, particularly when Gaylord room rates surge on peak dates.