Award-Winning ICE! Attraction to Debut in Washington, D.C. Area at Gaylord National's Christmas on the Potomac
Award-Winning ICE! Attraction is the Newest Addition to the D.C. Area's Most Extraordinary Collection of Holiday Activities and Entertainment
National Harbor, Md.—( August 13, 2009 ) The capital region has never seen anything like it before! Imagine TWO MILLION pounds of ice, hand-carved by 40 international artisans into a fantastical, indoor winter wonderland. It's called Gaylord National's ICE!™, and it's coming to the Washington D.C. region for the first time — from Nov. 19 through Jan. 10.It's all part of Christmas on the Potomac, Gaylord National Resort's nearly 50-day celebration of holiday revelry. This annual event showcases the area's most extraordinary collection of holiday activities and entertainment in true mid-Atlantic style. And, it's all found at National Harbor, Md., the capital region's hottest new destination on the Potomac River, located just south of Washington, D.C.
Gaylord National's ICE!
Enter a world beyond imagination; an experience beyond exhilaration; a fantastic winter wonderland unlike anything you've ever seen before. From Nov. 19 through Jan. 10, the year's coldest event will warm hearts by the hundreds of thousands.
Only at Gaylord National Resort can visitors step inside a winter wonderland created entirely of 5,000 BLOCKS of ice weighing 2 MILLION POUNDS! Hand-sculpted by 40 international artisans and kept at a chilling nine degrees Fahrenheit, this amazing display of ice artistry will be the only one of its kind in North America.
Produced exclusively for Gaylord Hotels, and only seen at the other Gaylord hotel properties near Orlando, Nashville and Dallas, each location attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. The ICE! attraction has received tremendous recognition since its inception in 2001, including national media coverage by The Today Show, Travel Channel, USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Southern Living and Travel + Leisure.
The attraction is fully interactive, allowing guests to roam inside, around and on-top of scenes. For example, guests can walk across an "ice bridge" over a "river of ice" set amidst a snow forest. Or, they can sit inside a full-sized "ice horse and sleigh" for a one-of-a-kind photo opportunity. There's even a Christmas Castle scene featuring two-story-tall slides made completely of ice, designed for kids and big kids (adults!) to race down.
ICE! will feature ten different, larger-than-life scenes, including:
- Victorian-style winter forest featuring a horse and sleigh
- South Pole igloo with dancing penguins
- A Christmas Castle featuring thrilling, two-story-tall ice slides
- Santa's Toyland, featuring the bearded-one himself created in ice
- And, a breathtaking, life-sized Nativity scene with a 25-foot ice angel
The indoor, walk-through attraction is housed in an enormous structure — 15,000 square feet to be exact — that is specially constructed and thickly insulated to help maintain its internal temperature of nine degrees. To stay comfortable inside, guests are loaned oversized winter coats to wear.
The Artistry of ICE!
NOT your average ice carvers, the master artisans who create Gaylord National's ICE! are from Harbin, China — a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province that is world-famous for its annual Harbin International Snow and Ice Festival (one of the world's largest ice and snow festivals). Every winter, more than 2,000 sculpture artists carve a massive, 100-acre walk-through Ice Park and a full-size Ice City from blocks of ice taken from the nearby Songhua River.
Paying tribute to this world-famous festival, Gaylord National is proud to bring 40 of Harbin's most talented master artisans to the U.S., to showcase their amazing talents in creating this one-of-a-kind attraction. They will arrive in mid-October, staying onsite for more than 30 days, to build and hand-carve the attraction in time for its Nov. 19 debut.
ICE! Quick Facts
- Open daily from Nov. 19 to Jan. 10 (hours will vary)
- Kids tickets are $13.00
- Adults tickets start at $19.99
- Attraction located adjacent to the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor
- Visit www.ChristmasOnThePotomac.com or call 877-352-3629 for more information
Tickets
Online advance ticket sales will begin October 1. Walk-up ticket sales will be available during the attraction's regular operating hours, however, visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets online (in advance) as many days are expected to sell out. To purchase tickets, check hours of operation or find more information, visit www.ChristmasOnThePotomac.com or call 877-352-3629. Daily hours of operation will vary.
# # #
[EDITOR'S NOTE]
ICE! is exclusively licensed, produced and operated by the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. It is accurate to refer to the attraction as "Gaylord National's ICE!" or "Gaylord National's ICE! at National Harbor." (It is not accurate to refer to the attraction as "National Harbor's ICE!".)
About Gaylord National Resort
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center opened April 2008 along the banks of the Potomac River, less than eight miles south of the nation's capital, in National Harbor, Md., a new 300-acre waterfront destination. Gaylord National Resort is the largest-combined hotel and convention center on the Eastern Seaboard, offering 2,000 guest rooms, including 110 lavish suites; 470,000 square feet of convention, meeting, exhibit and pre-function space; acclaimed restaurants; Relâche™ Spa; Pose Ultra Lounge; and a soaring 18-story, glass-covered atrium. For more information, visit www.gaylordnational.com.
Guest Contact
Gaylord National Reservations: 877-432-8674
Media Contacts
Amie Gorrell, Director of Public Relations, 301-965-2111, agorrell@gaylordhotels.com
Carlyle Fairfax Smith, Carlyle International, 703-898-1333, carlyle@carlyleinternational.us
