Walt Disney World has announced the refurbishment timeline and revealed the new Birdcage Lobby Bar Coming Soon to the Grand Floridian Resort. With this, there are impacts to the guest experience and offerings at the flagship hotel, extending through Christmas 2025. One such impact is no gingerbread display–this shares details and our commentary about the news.
Let’s start with quick background. A staple of the holiday season at Walt Disney World is the life-sized Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian. Last year, this fan-favorite tradition celebrated its 25th Anniversary, and was officially open starting November 6, after beginning construction in mid-to-late October.
The edible display always draws a big crowd of guests eager to admire its white chocolate candy canes, edible snowflakes, sugar poinsettias, and an 88-pound white chocolate Santa. The gingerbread itself is baked with 1050 pounds of honey, 800 pounds of flour, and 600 pounds of confectioners’ sugar. The decorations feature 700 pounds of chocolate and feature over 10,000 pieces of gingerbread. The team spend over 500 hours baking the gingerbread and 480 hours bringing all the dazzling details to life.
To celebrate the 25 years of holiday tradition, there were 25 hidden Mickeys scattered throughout the Gingerbread House at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort last year. There was also a limited-edition collection of 25th anniversary merchandise including a pin, ornament, cookie jar, magnet, tumbler, t-shirt, and more available for purchase.
If our experiences the last few years were any indication, there’s also alway huge crowds and long lines in the lobby. We’ve come to view the Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian somewhat like the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights: an investment made by Walt Disney World that paid big dividends in terms of sales–not necessarily in the booking of trips or resort stays, but via PhotoPass, food & beverage, merchandise, and more sales.
A visit to the Grand Floridian is a quintessential holiday-time experience, and it’s one of a few must-do stops on our Free Self-Guided Walt Disney World Yuletide Resort Tour. That’s what we recommend doing in the morning before attending Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (if you opt to do that upcharge) or perhaps just on your non-parks day. It’s one of our favorite things to do at Walt Disney World, and we make a point of doing it annually–along with separate visits to many of the hotels.
As with the other monorail loop resorts, it’s also easy to visit the Grand Floridian the same day you do Magic Kingdom. Whether it be before heading into the park, strolling over on the walking path for a midday break, or after the park closes (our favorite option), it’s worth the detour thanks to its elegant Victorian decor, grandiose icon tree, and the glorious gingerbread house.
That’s normally all true, but it sounds like it won’t be the case at Christmas 2025.
Walt Disney World has announced the following: As part of the ongoing enhancements at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, phased updates to the lobby, convention center and select areas will begin April 14. Portions of the lobby will close at times, and Guests may encounter changes to their path of travel.
While construction activity will be noticeable during daytime hours, efforts will be made to minimize disruptions, and all pools, dining and other amenities will remain available. As Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa continues its renovations, the gingerbread display will not be available during the holiday season in 2025.
On its face, this explanation makes sense.
Construction happening through late 2025 would definitely impact Walt Disney World’s ability to build the Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian. As noted above, that usually starts in mid-to-late October.
So even if the lobby renovations are done by Veterans Day and the traditional kickoff to the Christmas season, that’s still not enough lead-time to have the Gingerbread House–which is constructed in plain sight in the lobby–done by then.
There’s also the reality that construction is always subject to delay, and even if the intent is to have the lobby done by early November or even mid-October, there’s no guarantee that’ll happen. There are a lot of moving parts and multiple teams involved in bringing the Gingerbread House to life, so the safe move is to simply err on the side of caution and cancel the fan-favorite display for Christmas 2025. It’s disappointing, but it’s pragmatic.
Some fans might wonder why Walt Disney World simply doesn’t relocate the Gingerbread House to elsewhere at the Grand Floridian.
My guess is that it’s a matter of crowds and congestion. That there’s nowhere else that can absorb the guest traffic that the Gingerbread House draws, and even if there were, that would spill over into the lobby. People aren’t going to come to the hotel for the Gingerbread House in the convention center or wherever, and not enter the lobby to also see its decorations (hopefully there’s still a Christmas tree).
If the lobby project is delayed and construction is still occuring in November or December that takes part of the space out of commission, that means more people crammed into an even smaller area. As much as we’d love to see Walt Disney World find a way to bring back the Gingerbread House for its 26th year, it probably comes down to pragmatism.
Longer-term, I can’t help but wonder about the future of the Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian.
My first thought when looking at the Birdcage Bar concept art is that the lobby is going to be quite busy with that plus the Christmas tree and gingerbread house during the holidays. The main building is already a mad house during the holiday season, and this will just exacerbate it.
Not only will this be yet another thing that induces crowds in the lobby, but it will concentrate them. Frankly, I don’t know how the Grand Floridian is going to have this birdcage bar and Christmas tree and gingerbread house. Something’s gotta give–or move. My guess is that “something” will be the Gingerbread House.
It’s possible that the Grand Floridian will move the Gingerbread House into a different space for Christmas 2026 and beyond. As mentioned, there’s the convention center and other areas away from the heavily trafficked lobby.
But as also mentioned, they all result in the same issues with spillover into the lobby. Given that, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House never returns. To be abundantly clear, this is purely speculative on our part. Not even a rumor, and certainly not official.
I just know that Walt Disney World receives a lot of complaints from paying guests in the main building of the Grand Floridian each Christmas about noise and crowds, most of which are visitors to the hotel. At some point, I wouldn’t be surprised if those “win out” over the the lucrative merchandise, food & beverage sales of the Gingerbread House. Maybe the display will be back in 2026, but I feel like its retirement is inevitable–and probably by the time Villains Land opens.
Another possibility is the Gingerbread House moving to another resort entirely. In this case, it wouldn’t be “moving” so much as it would be Walt Disney World retiring one display and introducing another.
This has already started to happen, kind of. For the last few holiday seasons, Animal Kingdom Lodge has had edible animal displays. These have grown in scale and size, but still are not “big enough” to justify a dedicated trip from most guests. Introducing an actual Gingerbread Lodge (a la Humphrey’s Lodge from ~6 years ago at Wilderness Lodge) would tip the scales.
I’m of two minds about this. Selflessly, I would love more fans to make the trek to AKL and finally discover what’s unquestionably one of the top resorts at Walt Disney World, its tremendous culinary scene, brilliant themed design, etc. Selfishly, I love Animal Kingdom Lodge during the holiday season, and appreciate how quiet it is as compared to the monorail loop and Crescent Lake Resorts. I’d like to keep it that way. (I think it probably would stay that way given the transportation barriers.)
I also wouldn’t be surprised if Walt Disney World tried something similar with whichever Disney Vacation Club resorts they’re trying to sell. Incentivizing visits to Fort Wilderness over the holiday season with a cool display would be savvy as the campground really shines at Christmas-time. “Oh, by the way while you’re here, tour this new model DVC cabin that we’ve conveniently located in the Settlement!”
Visitors to the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Village Resorts and overcrowding has been an issue for a while. We’ve been warning readers about booking the main building of the Grand Floridian at Christmas for years, based on both our own negative experiences and reports from others.
Likewise, one of our biggest trepidations about the Island Tower at the Poly (aside from how hideous it looks on the outside) is the burden it’ll put on the resort’s already strained infrastructure. The resort’s DVC point inventory is not even close to fully sold out yet, and we’ve already seen some of these issues during recent visits.
Walt Disney World has attempted to address the problems with monorail loop resort traffic in recent years, while at the same time building new things to induce even more demand. This is precisely why they’ve restricted visitor parking at these (and other) resorts, limited Mobile Order at times, and required wristbands for fireworks viewing.
Ultimately, there are other measures that Walt Disney World could take to control crowds at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian that would help control crowds and allow the Gingerbread House to return. One would be requiring keycard access or confirmed dining reservations to gain entrance to the grounds. This is exactly what Tokyo Disney Resort does with both Toy Story Hotel and Fantasy Springs Hotel. I’m guessing Walt Disney World does not want to go that far, especially since they like to thread the needle on this type of thing (crowds equal revenue!).
It’s also entirely possible that I’m taking my own mental comparison of the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House to the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights too literally. In the latter’s case, it’s seeming more and more like a ‘temporary hiatus’ provided Walt Disney World cover for making a seemingly permanent decision they knew would be unpopular. For the most part, fans will be understanding that the Gingerbread House isn’t returning this year, as lobby construction is a logical explanation. And if it doesn’t come back in 2026, that’s quiet news, not a fresh announcement.
The reaction would be very different if Walt Disney World came out today and shared that the Gingerbread House is being permanently retired. Here’s hoping I’m overanalyzing this, being too conspiratorial, and the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House is back and better than ever for Christmas 2026!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Walt Disney World cancelling the gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa for Christmas 2025? Think it’ll be back at Christmas 2026? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
