Visiting Gaylord Opryland Resort each Christmas season is one of my favorite family traditions. Whether we visit for the evening to have dinner and look at the lights or stay overnight and explore the hotel, we always make special memories.
Another Christmas tradition I always look forward to is watching Christmas movies together as a family. This year we were able to not only watch some of our favorite Christmas movies, but we also experienced some of them in a really fun way at Opryland! We visited their new I Love Christmas Movies Holiday Experience. It is a walk through interactive experience featuring scenes from some of my all time favorite Christmas movies: A Christmas Story, The Polar Express, Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and The Year Without A Santa Claus. We were able to step into more than 13 scenes from these movies that made us feel as if we had walked onto the movie sets.
We also rode the Delta Riverboat, which is an indoor boat ride that winds through a 4.5 acre indoor garden. The boat ride offers a unique look at all of the Christmas decor and lights including their largest Christmas tree that stands 48 feet tall.
After a fun-filled night, we snuggled into our hotel room where we sat on our balcony and looked at the magical Christmas lights in the Cascades atrium. The hotel also has several wonderful options for dining. We had dinner at Paisano’s Pizza and stopped by the Delta Market Place to grab a delicious hot breakfast sandwich before we headed home the next morning.
We were really impressed with the precautions Opryland took to make everyone feel safe with new protocols for the current circumstances. As a part of Marriott International’s family, they put in place a multi-pronged approach designed to meet the health and safety challenges presented by COVID-19 as outlined in Marriott’s Commitment to Clean.
Opryland is a very special place that holds so many memories for us. Nathan and I visited there our very first Christmas together in 2005. I love that we have been able to keep the tradition going strong 15 years later.