A question that gets asked regularly to me is “What snack should I make sure I do not miss on my Disney Vacation?” So I figured I would make a list of my can’t miss snacks at each park, Disney Springs, and the ones that you should go out of your way for at the Disney Resorts. Make sure you have a full belly before you continue reading, if not you may be starving by the time you finish reading.
Let’s start where Disney World began: The Magic Kingdom. There are some great snacks in every corner of this magical place, but there are two snacks that my family has to get every time we are there. The first is the iconic dole whip soft serve, whether you get just the soft serve or the float, or any of the endless flavors across the park. Personally, I feel like the original pineapple float is the best way to get the true “dole whip experience”. The other option is across the park, and my 10 year old son feels this cannot be missed. The Cheshire Cat Tail is a braided pastry with chocolate filling and purple and pink icing drizzled to look like the stripes of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. You can get this at the Cheshire Cafe across from the teacups in Fantasyland.
Let's take a quick Monorail ride over to Epcot for the next snacks. Epcot has an abundance of snacks with the festival booths year round; from the Festival of the Arts (starting the season) all the way through to the Festival of the Holidays, there are always tons of snacks to try at each one. My most recent visit was during the Flower and Garden Festival 2023 and the two best options we had were the bananas fosters bread pudding for me and then my wife loved the pineapple skewer with tajin seasoning. Now if you are not going to the festival booths I recommend going to Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie in the France Pavilion. The can’t miss item is the Lime Raspberry macaron, this is a sweet and tart dessert that is lime cream and fresh raspberries in between light and fluffy macaron cookies.
How about a ride on “the most magical flight on earth” the Disney Skyliner over to Hollywood Studios. At this point in time you are probably thinking all this list has is sweet snacks, and you’d be right I do have a pretty big sweet tooth! This park will take us down a savory road, so let’s jump into Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and grab a Ronto Wrap! This snack is a slice of roasted pork, a grilled pork sausage, coleslaw and peppercorn sauce wrapped in a pita. Whether you are saving the galaxy on Rise of the Resistance, or attempting to smuggle some coaxium on Millenium Falcon Smugglers Run, this snack will battle your galactic hunger no matter where your adventure takes you.
Three parks down so let’s head on over to the last one, Animal Kingdom which has a very large array of food options. If you are looking for something savory you can get the Pulled Pork Mac-n-Cheese from Eight Spoon Cafe which is right by the entrance to It’s Tough to Be a Bug on Discovery Island. This mac and cheese is topped with, you guessed it, pulled pork along with coleslaw, onions rings and barbeque sauce. Next I’ll take you a different route and some may not even call this a snack, but it is too good to pass up if you like sweet treats. The Night Blossom is a beverage similar to a frozen slush. It is a blend of limeade, apple and desert pear flavors topped with passion fruit popping pearls. Now if you are over 21 years of age this “snack” also can be served Bacardi Superior Rum. You can find this drink at Pongu Pongu in Pandora- The World of Avatar.
Now I know what you are thinking and yes that is all four parks at Walt Disney World, but there are other places that you can get snacks. My family treats Disney Springs like it is a fifth theme park and it is a must visit on every trip. For me there is one snack at Disney Springs that makes the visit worth it, and that is any cookie from Gideons BakeHouse. This location sells fresh cookies, along with different flavors of cake slices and coffee. The cookie flavors that they carry every day are Chocolate Chip, Cookies and Cream, Pistachio Toffee Chocolate Chip, Triple Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Crunch, Coffee Cake Cookie and a Monthly Limited Edition Flavor. My family’s favorite is the Cookies and Cream, and my wife says the peanut butter cold brew is can’t miss!
When you are on vacation at Disney World are you staying at one of Disney owned and operated resorts? If you are not, you are missing out on great food as well. The good news is that you can always visit a resort even if you are not staying there. As for snacks there are two that I feel are worth the bus ride or boat ride to obtain. First, we are going to travel down the Sassagoula River from Disney Springs (or just take a bus from any of the theme parks) to Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter for the Mickey Beignets. There are multiple options with different flavor dipping sauces or you can get the Baton Rouge Beignets which are “jazzed up with your choice of liqueur”. The second snack worth the bus ride to a Disney Resort is over at Animal Kingdom Lodge and they are the Zebra Domes. These snacks are “Chocolate Mousse baked with Amarula Cream Liqueur-coated white chocolate drizzled with Chocolate Stripes and Chocolate Shavings”. These items are located at multiple locations including on the buffet at Boma: Flavors from Africa, but the easy way to grab them as a snack is at The Mara which is the quick service dining location at Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House.
Now like I explained when we started, hopefully you read this on a full stomach and are not starving thinking about these amazing snacks. I hope the next you are at Disney World you give a couple of these snacks a try. If you and your family are planning on traveling to Disney World or DisneyLand, I would love to help you make unforgettable memories by planning your vacations to the most magical places on earth. I need to go get a snack now!
