April 11, 2017

Favorite Walt Disney World Eats {Part 1}

Walt Disney World is truly a magical place. As a child growing up on the east coast, I was lucky enough to get to go maybe 4 times with family. I went to Walt Disney World (WDW) in Orlando, Florida again on my high school senior trip. I've had lots of fun vacations and many good memories there. My sister has been working at Disney World so now I've been back 3 more times to visit her and take advantage of some of her perks such as when she has unused guest passes (major SCORE), including once for the Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon last April (recap on the blog on Thursday, finally!). 

Obviously one of my favorite things to do when I travel is try new foods so I thought I'd share some of my favorite eats from my most recent trips to Walt Disney World. No matter where I go I always pack some snacks, but when I'm in Disney World I usually eats in the parks or at least splurge on having one meal there. 

Especially with my sister there in recent years, I've become pretty knowledgeable about the parks and of course scoping out the eats so I decided to share some of my favorites-particularly for any of you RunDisney runners!  I figured I should label this round-up Part 1 since there could be multiple parts because picking a few favorites was hard! 

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Favorite Eats in Walt Disney World (Part 1)

 1. Disney World snacks-Mickey soft pretzel and Dole Whip

I know it's just a soft pretzel in the shape of Mickey's face, but something about I just love this magical carb. Nothing like a Mickey pretzel as an afternoon snack in any of the parks after walking around all day. 

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Of COURSE I had to include the famous Dole Whip. These are so delicious, cold,  and pineapple-y. The one pictured below is from the WDW Flower & Garden Show in 2014 at Epcot where a booth had alcoholic Dole Whips with coconut rum a.k.a. the best vacation snack. 

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The best way to spend an afternoon 

2. Mickey Waffles at 1900 Park Fare character breakfast at Grand Floridian (or Mickey waffles anywhere)



1900 Park Fare was introduced to me by my sister when I was looking for a place to eat some Mickey waffles (literally my favorite Disney breakfast food) and wanted to splurge on one character breakfast buffet. Now you definitely need to make reservations ahead of time for the Supercalifragilistic (character) Breakfast, and may even have to wait when you get there like we did because it's crowded. It was $32 when I went there for the buffet and character experience so it was definitely my biggest meal of the day.

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Plate #1 at the breakfast buffet

I really like this character breakfast buffet in the Grand Floridian Hotel. It's a good excuse to check out this fancy and fabulous hotel, and I like that it's a buffet. I had  waffles, fruit, eggs, lox, bacon, and more until I was stuffed. We saw some characters from Alice & Wonderland, Pooh and Tigger, and Mary Poppins who made their rounds to all the tables during breakfast. The service was great, and everything was delicious. 

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Hanging with Winnie the Pooh


4. Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom 

When I had come to Disney World with my family in 2015 for the first time in 9 years, this part of Magic Kingdom and the Be Our Guest Restaurant were all brand new. Getting a reservation was difficult, but we managed to snag a sit-down dinner reservation there and even happened to squeeze into a quick service lunch by walking up the day before. I've since eaten there for breakfast and again lunch as well. 

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Outside of the Beast's castle 
Now first of all it's just really cool because the restaurant is in the Beast's (from Beauty & the Beast) castle. There's different rooms in the castle you can sit in. For dinner my family was seated in the West Wing which is darker, but I loved the ambiance. After dinner we got to meet the Beast and take a photo with him which was fun too. 

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I thought the napkin in the shape of a rose was a nice touch. 
The food was pretty good at dinner, and I enjoyed the braised beef entree I had. Just a note, entrees will run you $21-35 dollars depending on what you are getting so this is definitely a fancier meal. However I particularly liked grabbing lunch here for around $15 and still getting to experience all of the castle and restaurant ambiance. I had the croque monsieur sandwich which hit the spot the last time I was here!  

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Braised beef entree from Be Our Guest
Dessert was a chocolate cupcake because it's a vacation. Who am I kidding? I always save room for dessert!

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Chocolate cupcake for me. Don't worry, I tried my sister's order of Grey Stuff. 

4. Meatloaf and Fried Chicken at 50's Prime Time Cafe in Disney's Hollywood Studios

There aren't a ton of places I like to eat in Disney's Hollywood Studios but last time I was visiting we ate at 50's Prime Time Cafe pretty hungry after a long day at the parks, and the Sampling of Mom's Favorite Recipes hit the spot. 

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I'm the type of person who loves samplers because I love a little bit of everything-variety is the spice of life! The fried chicken, pot roast, and meatloaf with fixings for $23 is comfort food at it's finest. Something about this big meal hit the spot after a long day walking around the parks on my past visit. I love the 50's theme of the restaurant, complete with the waitresses yelling at you to get your elbows off the table. 

5. Indian-Style Bread Service at Sanaa restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge

When travelling with my family, my parents share a love of food so we have tried many different restaurants and eaten some great meals. However my dad isn't a fan of anything too culturally different like African, Indian, or some Asian foods. When I was visiting this past December for a few days I knew I wanted to hang out at Animal Kingdom where she was mainly working at the time because it was a place I had always spent the least amount of time at, and I love animals. 

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My sister knows I'm a foodie and love good eats so she suggested eating at Sanaa which sounded awesome. It's inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is a hotel outside of Animal Kingdom where there are freaking giraffes and zebras and animals just chilling outside. 

The outside of the Animal Kingdom Lodge
Since I was treating us to dinner and spending time with my sister whom I hadn't seen in 6 months, we started off with glasses of delicious red (her) and white (me) sangria. She told me we needed to order the Indian-style Bread Service, a choice the waiter also recommended. 
sangria at Sanaa
It is a huge platter that comes for 3 breads-naan, garlic-ginger naan, spiced naan, onion kucha, or pappadum.  The menu now says you can choose three accompaniments, but I think we choose an option to pay to get some more when we were there. The choices are little portions of curries, chutneys, pickles, a yogurt sauce, and hummus all ranging from spicy to sweet to cool. It was less than $15 and they give you extra bread so you can eat the little accompaniments to your hearts desire. It was delicious, especially because the Naan bread comes out super warm.  


After that I ordered a sandwich that was mediocre, but next time I would just go back for the bread service and a drink. 

BONUS:  Epcot is probably my favorite park because of the World Showcase. I'm always sure to grab a beer in Germany! 


What's your favorite Disney park food or meal? What is one of your favorite meals you've had on a vacation?

1 comment:

  1. I haven't been to Disney World since spring break in 2001 (just about exactly 16 years ago, then!), so needless to say, I'm sure it's changed a bit since the last time I was there! I don't remember many of the specifics of the trip, especially related to food, but I *do* remember that we celebrated my brother's fifth birthday with what must've been a character breakfast at the Contemporary Resort, because Mickey stopped by and the picture we took with him is still on my parents' fridge at their house haha. I'd love to go back, though, especially to see Epcot - I really liked it then, but I think I'd appreciate it even more now that I'm older!

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