Actress Lacey Chabert has shared glimpses of the experience she had while filming the upcoming Hallmark Christmas movie at Walt Disney World.
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“I had a dream come true. I got to go to Disney World and make a movie,” Chabert said during Tuesday’s broadcast of “Live With Kelly & Mark.”
“We filmed at the park for weeks on end, which was just magical, really a pinch-me moment. And then on the days off, we go and have fun too,” she said.
The TV movie, titled “Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True,” was filmed entirely at Disney World in late 2025 and early 2026. A debut date on Hallmark has not yet been announced. Trailers for the production show Chabert and co-star Travis Van Winkle at Echo Lake at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Christmas decor in place and Gertie the dinosaur in the background. Other scenes involve the wishing well near Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth at Epcot and the lobby of the Polynesian Village Resort.
“At the beginning, they were like, ‘Do you want to rent an apartment or something so you can cook?’ I was like, hold on, is staying at a Disney property an option? Because I would like to stay at a Disney hotel,’” Chabert said. She ended up in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for a month, she said.
“Live” host Mark Consuelos asked for her favorite Disney rides, and she listed Pirates of the Caribbean and Mad Tea Party (aka the teacups), which she called “classics,” but she also lauded Tron Lightcycle / Run and Epcot’s Cosmic Rewind: Guardians of the Galaxy.
“It’s so unexpected. I love it,” she said of Cosmic Rewind.
Chabert appeared on the talk show, also featuring Kevin Jonas subbing for Kelly Ripa, to promote another Hallmark Channel original called “Paris Is Always a Good Idea,” which debuts Thursday. She has appeared in about 40 Hallmark productions.
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Chabert recalled her first trip to Disney World at around age 12 while she was appearing in “Party of Five.”
“I said to my mom, ‘You know, I love it so much here.’ … I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna work here one day,” she said. “So when I found myself on Main Street filming this movie, it just brought tears to my eyes.”
In the Hallmark film, Chabert and Van Winkle’s characters had one bad blind date and, as fate would have it, they later end up staying in the same Disney World hotel. The sneak peaks include references to Belle and Beast, including another character saying “there’s something there that wasn’t there before” a la “Something There” from “Beauty and the Beast.”
“Holiday Ever After” also features Richard Kind as Chabert’s father and Christy Carlson Romano. It is written and directed by Ryan Landels, who also wrote “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration,” a TV special that aired in 2022.
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