Headed up on Friday for the state championship and the wife is on my ass about wanting to take our kids to the Gaylord to stay and do all there Christmas activities. Hotel room is $700/nt and it seems with the activities we can expect to pay close to $500 for two kids and two adults. I told her she is ****ing nuts for wanting to do that. I am assuming it will be crowded AF also.


Just curious if anyone has been and if it is actually worth these prices?

like coats said, how old are your kids?
I would get a hotel closer to the stadium and then hit up Fort Worth or Dallas. Lightscape is in Fort worth right now and its pretty cool. (They sell hot chocolate for kids and adult drinks also). We went last year and the kids enjoyed it.
https://fwbg.org/lightscape/

6 years old...we are staying in las colinas FWIW

I went last weekend with my extended family (Kids 2.5 to 5). It seemed like earlier in the day was less crowded. Good to plan what you want to do ahead of time as I think there are separate tickets for each thing that you buy on the web.

We did the Grinch Ice and the tubing down the snow hill.

Most things are around 20-30 bucks per person. Ice skating and tubing I think you can do as much as you want.
Parking in the garage is about 40.

With a 6 year old, I'd rather stay at Great Wolf if you're set on that area and seeing Gaylord stuff. It's pricey, but probably half that price and the kid will stay busy at the waterpark. But if you've already book in Las Colinas, that is probably the smarter play. Great proximity to a lot of stuff.

Stay somewhere else and visit there. Seriously.

I've stayed there and it is just a hotel outside of all the things anyone can do by visiting. Other than the water park and that is closed in the winter anyway.

Stay in Grapevine or at the Great Wolf Lodge which has an indoor water park.

appreciate the responses. We decided to switch to a hotel in the stockyards. Figured we'd could walk around there and hang out Saturday instead.

Good idea! (I'm a little biased). I know its not the greatest mexican food but if you haven't been there you should go to Joe T's

If you don't mind spending some coin, stay at the Drover and have dinner at Lonesome Dove!

F Tim Love!!!

Why? Curious...

AustinCountyAg said:

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appreciate the responses. We decided to switch to a hotel in the stockyards. Figured we'd could walk around there and hang out Saturday instead.

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Good choice. Gaylord is overrated.

go to Second Rodeo Brewing.

fc2112 said:

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AustinCountyAg said:

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appreciate the responses. We decided to switch to a hotel in the stockyards. Figured we'd could walk around there and hang out Saturday instead.

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Good choice. Gaylord is overrated.

go to Second Rodeo Brewing.

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for sure. Hopefully we will be celebrating a Bellville State Championship tomorrow night.

For anyone planning to go to ICE! and park, plan to get there early. We bought our tickets and pre-paid for parking ahead of time. Despite arriving 45 minutes ahead of our entry time (on a weekday early afternoon) we had to wait in a line of traffic well past our entry time just to park a car that we had already paid to park. We ultimately gave up and just left. If you go, plan to get there at least an hour in advance and plan to sit in traffic to park, regardless of whether you prepay parking or not.

ended up really enjoying hanging around the stockyards during the day Saturday. Wasn't too crowded and the kids loved the ice skating. Very glad we chose this route over the gaylord. Had some friends stay there and they said it wasn't worth the money at all. Wife has already mentioned wanting to go back just us and shop around for a weekend. I was impressed with how clean everything was down there.

We also went to Joe T's Friday night (I ate there once prolly ten years ago but didnt remember it) and man I gotta say that it was pretty disappointing. My son and I shared the chicken fajitas and they were okay, but I've gotta say that might be the worst queso I have ever had in my life. It tasted like chicken and dumplings without the chicken or dumplings. Very weird. The talent that was there though was impressive.

Texas Gator said:

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For anyone planning to go to ICE! and park, plan to get there early. We bought our tickets and pre-paid for parking ahead of time. Despite arriving 45 minutes ahead of our entry time (on a weekday early afternoon) we had to wait in a line of traffic well past our entry time just to park a car that we had already paid to park. We ultimately gave up and just left. If you go, plan to get there at least an hour in advance and plan to sit in traffic to park, regardless of whether you prepay parking or not.

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Did you do on site or off? We went yesterday (had a 2PM entry) and did the prepaid offsite parking. There was no traffic and minimal wait. Bus dropped you off at the back of the hotel and even with the rain you didn't need an umbrella.

The hardest part was the lack of signage. We went to the employee remote lot first and had to turn around but they are close to each other so it wasn't too much of a delay. Thanks to your post we also gave ourselves plenty of time so we weren't too stressed.

We were there Thursday and Friday and had prepaid $25 parking in the garage. No problems with traffic or getting parking. It was our first time there and we enjoyed it. Also, downtown grapevine is beautiful at night.