Gingy Bells, Gingy Bells, Ginger bells rock ...

For Christmas The Ken Man and I travelled to Sydney to visit family and we stayed in a fairly reasonable hotel. When we checked in on Christmas day all the tinsel was still hanging, the tree was trimmed and in the centre of the foyer was a little gingerbread house.

Let me re-iterate: a LITTLE gingerbread house. Probably the size of a small doll house, displayed on a table.

"Borrowed" from the hotel's facebook page.

It is very pretty and expertly decorated with precision.

But it's not this:

16ft, lifesize gingerbread house in the Grand Floridian Resort foyer

Gingerbread appears to be the No.1 preferred construction material in Orlando. Excellent for luring entertaining small children.

You can go in the backdoor where all kinds of goodies are available at reasonable prices.

Disney released this little video showing construction in 30 seconds!

I bet my Sydney based hotel did not need a cherry picker to construct their house.

Have a look at the window and porch detail:

hmmm ...chocolate.....

Such beautiful work on those poinsettias

Kandy Sparkles from Mouse Chat captured a few things I missed. Go and look at her post - I'll wait here.

Hidden Mickey couch upholstery!

Real smoke coming out the chimney! On purpose - the house hadn't spontaneously combusted in a chemical reaction of bicarb, cleaning fluids and over-sugared children.

So whilst this is the only gingerbread construction large enough for an ensuite off the main, most resorts will construct a similar gingerbready offering to the tourism gods.

The Contemporary Resort had a 17ft tree with a "it's a small world" theme

Oh the irony - it was the smallest gingerbread construction after all.

The Boardwalk Inn has this sort of mixture of a pergola with a loungeroom - showing a fireplace with Santa Donald's feet slowly roasting ( ....hmmmm.... roast duck.....)

The Ritz Carlton had this little shop where they were holding kids house building classes. See the names of the families written in icing on the "bricks".

"Arrgghhh ... I be the classic Scottish Pirate bear of Christmas legend"

 and the World Centre Marriott had a little house tucked in a corner:

So why do I show you these? After all you will be visiting in June - not December.

I hope to demonstrate that the Orlando hotels can take those extra steps to create little magic moments for their guests. The competition leads the hotels to work hard for their money and they go WAY beyond what is typical for Australian hotels. No matter where you stay it will have a special something for a jolly holiday.

So what's your story about a fantastic hotel that sought to delight its guests?

Merry Christmas and Happy New 2013! (eek! only 18mths until convention!)