A team of master ice carvers is hunched over blocks of ice inside a 9-degree hall at Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee this week, racing to transform roughly 2 million pounds of ice into scenes from The Polar Express before the holiday season begins. The artisans plan to spend about a month sculpting approximately one dozen larger-than-life scenes from the 2004 film inside the resort's walk-through exhibit, which covers 20,000 square feet.
According to WKMG, the master carvers were beginning to shape the massive ice blocks into the train-themed world moviegoers know from the animated classic. That work is part of a broader production effort: the full 2026 edition of ICE! featuring The Polar Express is scheduled to run from November 13 through January 3, 2027, serving as the flagship centerpiece of the holiday season at the resort, according to Gaylord Hotels.
The Polar Express theme isn't new to Gaylord Palms — it previously anchored the resort's ICE! exhibit back in 2019 and is making its return for 2026 after seven years away, brought back due to popular guest demand, per FOX 35 Orlando.
Forty Artisans Travel 6,400 Miles to Hand-Carve the Scenes
The sculptors come from Harbin, China — known as the country's Ice City and home to the world's largest annual snow and ice sculpting festival, where many of these artisans first honed their craft. A team of roughly 40 of them has traveled more than 6,400 miles to Kissimmee to hand-sculpt the entire exhibit over four to five weeks, a scale of international craftsmanship detailed by The Points Guy.
The build relies on roughly 6,000 blocks of ice weighing about 400 pounds each, including clear, white, and custom-dyed colored ice. A chemist formulates the dyes using a specialized process designed to keep colors bright for the duration of the season, the Orlando Guy reports. Sculptors shape the ice using chainsaws, chisels, hand tools, and grinders, and they freeze more than 1,000 LED light tubes and color-changing spotlights directly into the ice so the finished sculptures glow from within, according to a PR Newswire release.
Eleven Scenes, a Train-Car Photo Spot and Towering Ice Slides
Once complete, the 20,000-square-foot walk-through will showcase 11 scenes from the film, including a train car photo spot featuring ice-carved waiters juggling hot chocolate cups and an 11-foot-tall ice Santa at the North Pole, FOX 35 Orlando reports. The scenes trace the story of a boy boarding a Christmas Eve train bound for the North Pole.
Visitors will also find a slide room dubbed Glacier Gulch, featuring five two-story-tall ice slides set beside a massive black ice replica of the Polar Express locomotive, representing the film's mountain descent sequence, according to Gaylord Hotels. Because the exhibit hall must stay at 9 degrees Fahrenheit continuously to keep the ice from melting, every guest is outfitted with a signature blue hooded parka provided by the resort before stepping inside for the self-guided tour, WDW News Today notes.
A National Brand Rooted in a Florida Resort's Theme Rotation
ICE! began in 2001 at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee, and the brand has since expanded to eight resort locations nationwide by 2026, spanning Gaylord and JW Marriott properties, per PR Newswire. Gaylord Palms rotates its holiday story theme each year, and this year's return to The Polar Express follows recent years that featured Elf in 2024 and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 2025 — the latter two covered by Hoodline in prior seasons.
Gaylord Palms' 4.5-acre glass-enclosed garden atrium houses native Florida plants and live animals, including juvenile alligators and Florida game fish, in a climate-controlled setting, according to Experience Kissimmee. The resort's 9-degree frozen hall and its atrium provide visitors with distinct environments.
Advance ticket reservations and parka distribution remain standard requirements for visitors due to venue capacity limits and climate control, FOX 35 Orlando reports. With the carving crew still mid-build as of this week, the finished attraction is set to open to the public on November 13.
