Now for the Gingerbread House, which is not only life size, but also serves as a Bake Shop where you can buy gingerbread ornaments, cookies, and houses, and even replica gingerbread roof shingles! I had told my mum about the Gingerbread House at Grand Flo and she said she would love to see it one day (I truly hope I can take my mum with us one year) but in the mean time she’d be happy with a gingebread shingle! You can also buy peppermint bark, cupcakes and other sweet treats.
Remember what I said about photographing the tree? It was even worse for the house – my lighting is all over the place. I really should have gone back to try and get more photos, but we just ran out of time. Oh well, there is always another visit!
Now, the Gingerbread House isn’t just gingerbread, it is built on a wood frame – but everything on it, and even the poinsettias are (theoretically) edible. (Not that you would want to after they’ve been on public display for several weeks!)
When we visited, it was the 19th year of the Gingerbread display. Each year, the Grand Floridian pastry team, led by Executive Pastry Chef Erich Herbitschek, spend over 400 hours baking the gingerbread and over 160 hours constructing and decorating the house – crazy! The gingerbread is a traditional Austrian recipe and the whole display contains 1050 lbs of honey, 800 lbs of flour, 600 lbs of chocolate, 600 lbs of powdered sugar, 140 pints of egg whites, 35 lbs of spices, and, of course tons of Creativity, Disney Magic and Pixie Dust!
There are also lots of Hidden Mickeys dotted around the house. To celebrate it’s 19th year, there were 19 Hidden Mickeys to find… I think we found about five of them!
It’s something fun to do while waiting in line for the Bake Shop, because there will more than likely be a line. We waited a good 30 minutes before reaching the counter. You can see lots of goodies in the photos below. I can’t remember now exactly what we bought, and I don’t appear to have taken a photo of anything either (that I can find).
I know we bought some gingerbread shingles as gifts, and we also bought a cute cupcake, which we managed to drop at some point between buying it and getting back Home – so no photo of that either.
I really wanted to buy one of the Gingerbread Houses, but 1) getting it home safely and in one piece on the plane was going to be a problem; and b) the price of $80 it was a bit too steep, even for me and my frivolous Disney spending!
If you don’t want to wait in a long line, you can also buy some of the gingerbread treats from the Resort shop nearby – Sandy Cove Gifts & Sundries. In here we bought some peppermint bark, as they didn’t have any at the House. And they also had several decorated cookies that weren’t available at the House either – so worth taking a peek in here too.
After spending a good hour or so at the Grand Floridian, we made our move back to Poly. There were some lighted reindeer topiaries outside which were pretty, and we stopped by the Resort fire pit where we roasted a couple of marshmallows.
Capt. Cook’s
Once back at Poly, we popped into Capt. Cook’s to grab a quick dinner.
Main Course…
Me: Pork Fried Rice – Traditional Fried Rice with Slow-Roasted Pork ($8.99)
Him: Hawaiian Flatbread – Marinara, Pineapple, Onions, Ham, Mozzarella and Parmesan ($10.99)
The Boy: Pepperoni Flatbread – Marinara, Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Pepperoni ($9.99)
I don’t have photos of the flatbreads (the pepperoni one below is from a previous day), but I do of the pork fried rice, which was delicious! The flatbreads (fancy name for pizza!) were standard. As a Quick Service/Counter Service (I’m never sure what the correct term is, as Disney seems to use both), Capt. Cook’s is a good one in my opinion.
Capt. Cook’s » Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Bill: $29.97 + Tax: $1.95 + Tip: $0 = $31.92
TiW Discount: $n/a
Total Paid: $31.92
I’ll end today’s report with a couple photos of Poly’s Christmas decorations. Tomorrow we are over at Epcot for the International Festival Of The Holidays!
Read about the day after:
Day 5: Festival of The Holidays
Epcot / Epcot International Festival Of The Holidays / Happily Ever After Fireworks from Poly
Read about the day before:
Day 3: Disney Resort Christmas Tree Trail Part 1
Art of Animation / Pop Century / Caribbean Beach / Old Key West / Port Orleans French Quarter / Lunch at Sassagoula Float Works & Food Factory / Port Orleans Riverside / Wilderness Lodge / Dinner from Captain Cook’s