This holiday season at Orlando’s theme parks is like a cozy cardigan you’ve put away for months. It looks completely familiar, full of memories, and oh, there are some things in my pocket that I completely forgot about.
For example, take a look at what happened at SeaWorld Orlando and what happened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park, an after-hours event called “Disney Jollywood Nights.”
SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration will feature a variety of activities throughout the day, including O Wonderous Night, a stage show with carols and puppetry that tells the story of Jesus’ birth, and the Sesame Street Christmas Parade.
Returning to the holiday entertainment lineup for the first time in seven years is “Clyde & Seymour’s Countdown to Christmas.” The stage show starring a pair of sea lions was remade, but the humorous approach and some local jokes remained. There are some unexpected nods to The Villages this year, but I feel like there were perhaps more snarky lines in previous editions.
The plot revolves around the two heroes’ attempts to get Santa to visit them as they are forced to go shopping at the mall. It’s all facilitated by an elf who rhymes with Elfred.
Also returning is the crowd-pleasing pantomime, a longtime SeaWorld staple. They also work with the audience before the show and work with animal actors and on-stage trainers.
Production is a little rusty, one of the trainers explained. Seymour and Clyde mostly followed their instructions, but Opie the otter did not fully accept his role and demanded more pay. But if we’ve learned anything from social media, it’s that animals can still be funny just by being animals, even when they go off-script.
Other options at SeaWorld include a sparkling sea of trees presentation in the central lagoon, the “Elmo’s Christmas Wish” show, the “Winter Wonderland on Ice” skating presentation, street performers (stilts, characters and toy soldiers on jump ropes), the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” walk-through exhibit, and the fireworks finale “Holiday Reflections.”
Most of SeaWorld’s holiday offerings are included in regular park admission, plus special food items are available for purchase. SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration takes place most days through January 5th (double check the dates on the calendar at seaworldorlando.com).
Jollywood at Hollywood Studios is now in its third year, and Disney continues to fine-tune the event, which will be held on select nights through December 22nd.
In the early evening of the event, people seemed to be delighted with new characters such as Bing Bong from Inside Head, Miguel from Coco, Chewbacca from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Partisaurus Rex from Toy Story Land.
Chewbacca appears in a red Life Day robe, and official Disney PhotoPass images feature guests with Chewie and the Millennium Falcon in the background. His line was long, but Chewie frequently waved to us on the sidelines. It didn’t seem like Star Wars canon, but no one called the Lucasfilm police. P. Rex’s photo lines were also long, in part because the character frequently danced, ramping up the cuteness factor.
Music remains the driving force of Jollywood, both on the streets and in shows like The Nightmare Before Christmas singalongs and Disney’s Holiday in Hollywood stage show starring Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, and more so than Mickey?
Jollywood visitors seem to support the dress-up aspect of the event. Lots of costumes and sequins walking the streets of DHS, paired well with music and booze options, is what sets this event apart from Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party events at Magic Kingdom.
The new Backlot Express facility features event-specific food options, including charred-edged macaroni and cheese and Jolly Jam sliders. (We declined the fig pudding martinis.) The place “definitely has a gastropub feel,” said John Prieto, executive chef at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Visitors “wanted something they could relate to, something comforting, something relatable,” Prieto said. “So we took that concept and tried to make it seem more elevated.”
Disney said other new products include whisky-infused eggnog, cheerful gingerbread mini churros, arepas de choclo, and the Monsters, Inc.-inspired Mike Aroon (a toasted coconut cookie with white chocolate topped with green sugar eyes).
But Prieto said they now know that the best seller is the Gertie cookie. It is sold in the shadow of the echo lake dinosaur. This treat looks like a structure wearing a Santa hat.
“We know that you eat with your eyes first, so we want to make it as approachable as possible and as beautiful as possible,” Prieto said.
“Gertie’s cookies are hand-dipped and cut by ourselves. Each one is decorated by hand,” he said. “There’s a lot of love and effort put into it, and I think the guests can feel that.”
Email us at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Blue Sky: @Theme Park Database. Thread account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to Theme Park Ranger Newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.
