Friday’s article on the top five counter service restaurants was a big hit so I thought I would continue the food theme with today’s article on snacks.  To me, there are five “snack categories” at Walt Disney World.  Those categories are: salty, sweet, frozen (ice cream division), frozen (non-ice cream division). and “meat on a stick.”.  I’ll go over my favorites for each of those categories and what just missed the cut.  After reading the article, please respond with your favorites.  Your favorite could become my new favorite which means I’ll need to do taste tasting of these favorites.  🙂  ON TO THE SNACKS!

Salty Division

There will be great debate, even in my house, about the top salty snack at Walt Disney World.  My daughter will argue until she is blue in the face that a scoop of popcorn is the best salty snack that one can find at Walt Disney World.   Now, I like the popcorn at Disney World.  I also like the popcorn at movie theaters.  I like popcorn and the popcorn at Disney World is good.  But, I was raised outside Philadelphia and there is one snack that trumps even popcorn for me.  A soft pretzel.

Disney adds its own twist on the soft pretzel by, of course, making it Mickey shaped.   Like popcorn, the Mickey Pretzel is easily sharable making it a great use of a snack credit (if you are on the dining plan).  They are easy to find in the parks with multiple stands through all of the parks.  Two people can easily split one pretzel or three people, in the case of my family, can split one or even two pretzels if we are feeling especially hungry.  Now, we are fans of just the standard ordinary Mickey Pretzel.  We don’t go for the flavored or seasoned pretzels that you can find at other locations.

Honorable Mentions: A scoop of popcorn, Pecos Bill’s onion rings

Sweet Division

The sweet division of snacks is a broad category which can cover a lot of snacks at Disney World.  This division is home to your chocolate snacks, your caramel snacks, fruits, candied apples, etc.  However, it was a pretty easy division for me to decide on a clear-cut winner.  The Double Chocolate Funnel Cake from the Funnel Cake Kiosk in EPCOT.

This is a great Disney snack.  It’s easily share-able for a large group.  It’s made with chocolate funnel cake batter with more chocolate poured over top of it and then sprinkled with powdered sugar.  It’s got enough sugar and chocolate to put an eater into a diabetic coma.  It comes out piping hot and you need to quickly find a place to put it down so you don’t burn your hand.  Once you sit down, you can enjoy the chocolate goodness.  It pulls apart very easily and you can taste both the chocolate from the funnel cake batter and the chocolate sauce.  The only drawback to the funnel cake is it is not available for a snack credit on the dining plan.  It’s a pricey snack at $8.00 but it’s well worth it.

Honorable Mention: School bread from the Norway pavilion, Chocolate Croissant, Churro

“Meat on a Stick” Division

I created this division as an excuse to talk about the Disney Turkey Leg.  It didn’t qualify for any of the other divisions so I just made one.

The turkey leg is one of the iconic Disney food cart/snack items.  Like the double chocolate funnel cake, it is not available for a snack credit and costs $10.25.  It is worth the price.  Like the funnel cake and the Mickey pretzel, it’s very share-able and can be considered a meal all to itself.  For the longest time, the turkey leg had no competition in this division.  When New Fantasyland opened, it got some competition with the pork shank at Gaston’s Tavern.

Honorable Mention: Pork Shank at Gaston’s Tavern

Frozen (ice cream division)

Like the sweet division, there is a lot of competition in this division which makes it a tough division to find a winner.  Ice cream cones, Mickey Bars, and a wide variety of ice cream sandwiches battle for the right to be the winner.  An item introduced, last year, is the winner of this division.

L’Artisan des Glaces added a new menu item, last year, the Pressed Brioche Ice Cream Sandwich.  This snack is a scoop of ice cream with your choice of topping pressed into a brioche roll.  This snack combines both the salty (the brioche roll) and the sweet (the scoop of ice cream) into a one snack.  Guests can choose between any of the ice creams and then top the ice cream with chocolate or raspberry sauce if you so choose.  It is not a messy snack as the roll is sealed up when pressed and the melting ice cream gets absorbed into the roll.  It’s another snack that isn’t available on the dining plan.  The cost of the sandwich is $6.10

Honorable Mention: Mickey Bar, Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor

Frozen (non-ice cream division)

For the lactose intolerant, there are plenty of non-ice cream frozen snacks at Disney World.  Another category was there are a lot of possibilities for the “top snack.”  It’s another area of debate for my family as my wife is a devotee to one frozen treat while I am a devotee to another.  Since this is my list and not hers (sorry), I get to choose what is the top snack.

My top snack is the Citrus Swirl.  My wife’s top snack, in this division, is the Dole Whip.  I’m not a fan of pineapple but I am a huge fan of anything orange flavored so the Citrus Swirl is the clear-cut winner.  The Citrus Swirl has a cult following like the Dole Whip, however, it is not as large.  I’m able to get in line for a Citrus Swirl and have my swirl mostly eaten before my wife gets back with her Dole Whip.  These are great mid-afternoon snacks since they do an excellent job of cooling your internal temperature down even if just for a short time.  The Citrus Swirl is available for a snack credit if you are on the dining plan.

Honorable Mention: Dole Whip

And that’s my list of top snacks at Walt Disney World.  Like I said in the introduction, your favorites probably will be different from me.  Please share your favorites.

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