7/20 Gaylord Palms – Shrek, Po, Puss In Boots, Alex The Lion Help Announce ICE! Shrek the Halls

Hi everyone!

We enjoyed a great morning yesterday at the Gaylord Palms Resort, which was a combination media event as well as social media event to announce that Shrek The Halls would be the theme of ICE! this year. We also were able to meet a variety of Dreamworks Animation characters, including Puss In Boots!

We have full video of the announcement here!

 

 

 

I loved the idea of the combination of a social and standard media event, allowing regular guests who are the target of the announcement the access to see it in person (and to enjoy some snacks and meet with the characters).

Two toy soldiers on stilts entertained the crowd, which included children from the Boys & Girls Clubs and Give Kids the World. This was the second event we went to this week where the Boys & Girls Clubs benefited (the first was at Dave & Busters), I'm always happy to see local businesses partner with charity organizations – especially when the beneficiaries are children.

While the main announcement was for ICE!, this event was also about introducing the "Dreamworks Experience", which is already part of the Royal Caribbean ships. Characters such as Shrek, Po, and Alex the Lion will be at character meals and more at the Gaylord Palms hotels. I personally love the character Puss In Boots from Shrek, and it was exciting to get to meet him (and I'm looking forward to the full "Dreamworks Experience" when it debuts later this year).

 

 

Johann Krieger, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Gaylord Palms spoke to the audience (I was able to speak with him briefly later, and Krieger said about the Shrek The Halls ICE! exhibit, "We expect it to be a huge hit for us").

 

 

 

The box is opened:

 

 

 

Shrek takes to the stage with the ICE! logo (and it really was made of ice):

 

I have to admit that I haven't yet seen Madagascar or Kung Fu Panda, but that will change soon – the characters were so much fun!  When you go outside of Disney, characters can be hit or miss. But all of the characters had a great personality, and Puss In Boots even purred in my ear (and King Julian gave me a kiss on the cheek).  After Shrek appeared on stage, the rest of the characters did too (this is not the extent of the characters that will be available starting in November).