Experience a New Holiday Tradition: ice!™ Featuring Elf™
JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa
Experience the whimsical world of Buddy the Elf™ at ice! featuring Elf™. Explore favorite scenes and characters from the beloved holiday film in larger-than-life sculptures carved from more than 2 million pounds of ice. Journey through immersive tunnels, snap memorable photos, and race down thrilling two-story ice slides for a festive adventure filled with Christmas spirit.
Come for the day or make it a Christmas vacation with one of our overnight ice! packages and enjoy the splendor of the holiday season in Phoenix.
Get to Know the Experience
Making its Phoenix debut this year, the Christmas attraction, ice!, has been a cherished holiday tradition for families since its debut more than two decades ago at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN.
Come to life through ice from the beloved tale, Elf™
Race down towering slides made of pure ice, standing as tall as a basketball hoop!
Total time the artisans spend carving to create the ice! experience
Total sculptures of Buddy the Elf carved in ice. Find them all!
Take a Sneak Peek Inside
Your adventure begins at the North Pole. Learn what it takes to be an elf and meet Buddy's arctic creature pals. Onward to the Candy Cane Forest and New York City!
Join the fun of Buddy and Michael's legendary Central Park snowball fight as you zoom down one of five two-story ice slides, including a slide sized just for kids. It's a larger-than-life adventure carved entirely from ice.
Buddy's hilarious adventures will fill you with Christmas cheer. We won't blame you if you want to sing out for all to hear!
FROSTY FACTS
Know more about what it's like to step inside ice! featuring Elf™ before you experience it yourself.
Carved into ice from the beloved Christmas story
Enjoy this self-guided experience at your leisure
Cool, controlled temperatures keep the icy designs intact
Entertaining for both kids and adults
How It Comes to Life
Learn more about the magic and finesse behind the scenes that create these colorful, icy masterpieces.
The vibrant colors in the ice sculptures are specially created by a chemist with a proprietary formula to ensure it closely matches each character's specific colors and to maintain its bright color for the entire season.
Traveling over 6,000 miles from Harbin, China (known as "Ice City"), 40 artisans use their master sculpting skills passed down through generations to carve ice! over six weeks.
ice! features elaborate scenes sculpted from 6,700 massive blocks of ice, weighing in at a total of 2 million pounds.
The carvers use chisels, chippers, tongs, handsaws, grinders, and even chainsaws to bring the experience to life. Some artisans have collected custom-made tools to perfect the irregular shapes and achieve the highest level of detail.
The artisans follow a 300-page design book filled with hand-drawn, to-scale sketches and blueprints to create every sculpture featured throughout the 19,000-square-foot frozen attraction.
Once the completed masterpiece is open for guests, a few artisans stay onsite at the exhibit to preserve the icy designs and perform daily, live sculpting demonstrations to showcase their craft.
SO MUCH CHRISTMAS. SO MANY WAYS TO EXPERIENCE IT.
From ticket passes filled with Christmas joy to special ways to save on your visit—explore ways you can make this holiday season one to remember.
SAVE UP TO 30% ON HOLIDAY FUN
Bundle a ticket to our Christmas experience, ice!, with other festive activities and save big! Choose from two pass options featuring tickets to snow tubing, scavenger hunt, gingerbread decorating, ice skating, and more.
EXCLUSIVE ROOM & TICKET OFFERS
Members of AAA, Military, Teachers and more can enjoy special savings on room nights and tickets to our ice! experience for the 2026-2027 holiday season!
EARLY BIRD: SAVE UP TO 20% ON ROOMS & PACKAGES
It's never too early to save big! Unwrap up to 20% savings on room rates & ice! overnight packages this holiday season. Package includes room + tickets to ice!. Book by Aug. 10 to save.