This year, Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Universal’s Aventura Hotel are pitting each department of their hotels against each other in a gingerbread house contest, so naturally we stopped by to see what everyone came up with! This year, everyone got creative with creating great holiday treats (and even intricate details), so we’ll show you each attendee.
Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort
Presented on a long table in the hotel lobby, guests are invited to vote for their two favorite houses in the ballot box at the end of the table.
Housekeeping went with a huge split-level layout featuring a floor, a floor and a garage in the middle, all fully adorned with tons of frosting and candies including candies, gumballs, Twizzlers, rings of fishing and much more.
Recreation was inspired by Cabana Bay’s pool and lazy river, with Sour Patch Kids acting as beach goers, bubblegum lounge chairs, popcorn and almond rocks and beach sand. brown sugar.
The front desk team pulled out a North Pole look, complete with Santa’s sleigh, a train, and three structures adorned with frosting and candy. In this one, people were represented by Peeps.
Although the culinary department may not have reached the size of other departments, theirs is certainly one of the simplest and most visually appealing. True to the idea of a house, they lined the tops with gumdrops and hard candies to give the house a cohesive color pattern.
The security was extremely creative while still sticking to a simple idea, with a dinosaur (presumably from Jurassic Park) destroying their house!
Leave it to the engineering department to create a simple, elegant design with tons of color.
Drinks can have the most aesthetically pleasing house of them all, with a log cabin style created using pretzel sticks on all sides of the house and very neat frosting patterns on the roof. Combine that with the pretzel and ice cream trees out back, the little campfire next to the house, and the fact that the house itself is laid out on a log (!!) and you have a great candidate for the best house.
The Steward’s House may not be its neighbor’s visual masterpiece, but it certainly makes up for that with the amount of candy used. And let’s be honest, we all end up with a gingerbread house like this many times in our lives.
Bayliner made a village of five structures for their entrance, including four houses and a reindeer barn. Each featuring distinct patterns and embellishments makes them a charming participant.
Starbucks’ entree is quite the cavity-inducing one, with tons of donuts, sprinkles and powdered sugar to make it a holiday treat your dentist won’t soon forget. There’s even a giant Christmas tree in the middle!
Universal Hotel Aventura
Just like at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, attendees are lined up along a long table in the lobby.
The front desk team has pulled out all the stops for referrals, theming their three homes to Universal Orlando Resort’s past attractions, including Nickelodeon Studios, “Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue,” JAWS and Dueling Dragons, TWISTER: Ride it Out!, and Back to the Future.
The Nickelodeon Studios house features lots of orange icing and green slime both from the house and on the sidewalk.
The “Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue” house is all purple and orange on the front with a green roof.
This home pays homage to attractions of yesteryear from Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, including Twister: Ride it Out!, Back to the Future: The Ride, JAWS, and Dueling Dragons. There is also a churro section on the front.
Storeroom and HR embarked on the Grinch theme together, decorating their home with green throughout. There’s even a partially destroyed Christmas tree and a nod to his dog Max.
Of all the houses, Engineering is perhaps among the prettiest, with such a pleasing exterior, a perfectly manicured roof, and even mistletoe and poinsettia adorning the front roof.
Prepare better for another trip to the dentist with the Finance/Exec Office entry. There’s tons of frosting, Mentos, marshmallows, sprinkles and even more frosting! Santa’s sleigh and chocolate reindeer on the roof are definitely a nice touch too.
Food and drink came together in Aventura, with a simple house featuring a KitKat roof, gumballs on top, and snow made out of marshmallows.
Culinary followed the same path as Food and Beverage, featuring a Kit Kat-roofed house with tons of candy, chocolate, sprinkles, and even an icy Christmas tree out front.
Security came out strong with this perfectly maintained home featuring intricate frosting details, an accurate roof pattern, green krispies rice fields, and even small window patterns!
The housekeeping house in Aventura follows a simple red and green color scheme that keeps things organized and visually appealing while sparing no icing or candy.
True to its name, Recreation’s entrance includes the beach, complete with cocoa powder sand, bubblegum towels, mint life rafts, and candy canes.
The stewards certainly went the extra mile, putting their name on the structure itself rather than having an article written for it. They have two very large icy Christmas trees flanking a very blue house with lots of red and green accents. The clean frosting all around with the graham cracker fence and intricate ice cubes make this another top contender for sure!
You can stop by Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Universal’s Aventura Hotel to take a look at these homes for yourself and vote for your favorites. You can also tell us in the comments which ones you liked and how jealous you are of their decorating skills!
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