The Disney Dining Plan: Is It Worth It?

Welcome to this month's Blogorail Orange Loop. Today we are sharing parts of a Disney vacation that people often ask, is it worth it?

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I like to eat.

In fact, as I thought about how to start this post, my mind immediately went to some of my favorite restaurant and dining experiences at Walt Disney World.

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café. Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn. Be Our Guest Restaurant. The Electric Umbrella. Yak and Yeti.

One of my favorite quick-service restaurants, located at Epcot!

My mouth is literally salivating just thinking about the chicken fingers and fries that I always get from the quick service restaurants.

But the problem is that with as expensive as a vacation to Walt Disney World is, one's dining experiences often suffers. Does our family really need to go to a character meal or eat at the Be Our Guest if we are purchasing a three day Park Hopper for each member of our family of five, as well as staying at Port Orleans Resort: Riverside? Maybe we should just stick to PopTarts each morning for a late breakfast and a quick service meal for dinner...

The nice thing is that this is a decision that you don't have to make!

Instead, you can choose the Disney Dining Plan!

The Disney Dining Plan has different levels guests can purchase to add to their vacation package (as long as they stay at a Disney resort hotel and purchase theme park tickets), tailored to their vacation budget and the type and number of meals they would like to partake in during their trip.


There are three levels to the Disney Dining Plan (all prices are based on a five night trip for a family of four, added on to the price of your resort and park ticket prices):
-The Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick Service Dining ($691.83) gives guests access to two quick service dining meals per person per night, two snacks per person per night, and one insulated drink mug that can be refilled at your resort hotel.
-The Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining ($943.06) gives guests access to one quick service meal per person per night, one table service meal per person per night, two snacks per person per night, and one insulated drink mug that can be refilled at your resort hotel.
-The Magic Your Way Package Plus Deluxe Dining ($1,454.26) gives guests access to three meals per person per night from any category per night, two snacks per person per night, and one insulated drink mug that can be refilled at your resort hotel.

To really understand what you get when you purchase the Disney Dining Plans, we probably need to define the different levels of dining experience one can experience:

• Quick Service is also known as counter service and is similar to fast food restaurants. This is a dining location, usually in the parks but also including resort food courts and a few locations at Disney Springs, where you stand in line to order your food, pick it up at the window, and find an empty table at to enjoy your meal. These dining locations usually have limited menus, featuring on average no more than five or six options to choose from. Meals at a quick service dining location usually run anywhere from $8-$14 dollars per person. Some of my favorite quick service locations are Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe and Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn in the Magic Kingdom, the Electric Umbrella at Epcot, the Backlot Express at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the Yak and Yeti Local Foods Cafe at Animal Kingdom, and Wolfgang Puck Express at Disney Springs, as well as the numerous resort food courts. 
• A Table Service meal is a (sometimes) more laid back experience. Upon checking in, a host or hostess walks you to your table, where they give you a menu to order from. This is a full-service dining experience, where patrons can order soft drinks, alcoholic beverages (not covered by the Dining Plan), appetizers, salads, entrees, and desserts. Because you are at Disney World, these table service meals are usually themed and sometimes feature entertainment. Meals at a table service dining location can run anywhere from $14.99-$59.99 per person. Please remember that most of these table service dining locations require advanced dining reservations (ADRs) that can be made on Disney's website up to 180 days in advance. Some of my favorite table service locations include the Liberty Tree Tavern and the Be Our Guest Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom, the Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot, the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and the Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe at Disney Springs. 
• A snack is exactly what it sounds like. These small items can be redeemed at many locations throughout the Disney resorts and parks at locations including food courts, quick service locations, and even food kiosks. Some examples of what qualifies as a snack is a muffin, a piece of fruit, a box of popcorn, an ice cream bar, a bottle of soda, or even a cup of coffee.

Yummy Disney cookies (almost too cute to eat)!

Yummy cupcakes from the Boardwalk Bakery count as a snack!

There are often coolers in resorts' food courts filled with snack items.

And of course, my favorite Disney treat, the Dole Whip, counts as a snack credit, too! Yessssss!

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's look at some "disadvantages" that many see with purchasing the Disney Dining Plan:

1. First is obviously the price. The Disney Dining Plan must be paid for ahead of the trip at the time the entire package is paid in full. This amount may seem like a large cost to justify, especially months ahead of actually taking the trip. My wife and I have often had the "dialogue" about whether we could justify spending $700 on food for a five day trip.

2. The second argument against the Disney Dining Plan, honestly, doesn't make sense to me. A lot of people argue that they don't purchase the Dining Plan because of the quantity of food that you get with your meals. I don't see this as a problem, because as stated above, I like to eat. However, when visiting a table service or signature dining experience while on the Dining and Deluxe Dining plans, not only does your meal include a full entree with accompanying sides, but also a dessert. Now, again, I personally don't see this as a problem ("free" dessert with every sit down meal?) but some prefer to not eat such large, heavy meals while traipsing miles through crowded theme parks in central Florida.

"Free" Dessert???

Regardless of these two "disadvantages," I find that there are more advantages to the Disney Dining Plan that motivate me to purchase the plan when we book our vacation to Walt Disney World.

1. Refillable drink mugs. Included for each member of your party is an insulated drink mug that can be refilled an infinite number of times each day of your vacation at your resort. Because these plastic mugs are insulated, they can hold both hot and cold drinks. Therefore, you can refill your mug with soda, Joffrey's Coffee, water, and other drinks available at the resort food court or dining location. Now, not that I've ever done this, but I have "heard of people" who bring their refillable mugs when they resort hop (like riding the Monorail loop or go listen to YeHaa Bob over at Riverside) so they can take advantage of the soda fountains at the other resorts too. Disney's expectation, however, is that these mugs are only to be used at your home resort, but, I mean, it's not like there's anyone policing the soda machines...

My beautiful wife holding a refillable drink mug.

2. Ease and Freedom. The nice thing about the Disney Dining Plan is that it is linked right to your MyMagic+ account and your Magic Band or room key. After ordering at a quick service location or at the end of your meal at a table service location, Cast Members simply instruct you to tap your Magic Band or swipe your room key, automatically deducting your meal points from your account. No carrying around cash or a credit card, no fumbling in a bag or back pocket for your wallet required! No lifting of the sweatshirt tied around your waist, embarrassingly revealing your fanny pack, needed (again, not something I've done any time over the past five years...)!

Does anyone actually wear fanny packs anymore??? Because I don't...👀😐😶

3. Price of meals. Let's say that you decide to go with the Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick Service Dining at a total price of $691.83 added to your five day trip. This is actually a discount on food if you "go big" at the quick service locations. "Why?" you ask? The Quick Service Dining Plan allows you to not only purchase your entree at the dining location, but also a soda. So let's say that you spend $14 per person at the quick service location for two meals a day (lunch and dinner) across your five day trip. That totals out to $700 spent on food during your trip. And that doesn't even include breakfast! So let's say you spend an additional $6 per person on breakfast each day...that brings your total up to $850! Rather than spend that money, using the Quick Service Dining Plan allows you to get your two counter service meals with drink, as well as eat a muffin or piece of fruit (or if you're like me...nectar from the gods--erm I mean coffee) for breakfast, using one of your two snack credits per day. In the end, you'll be saving $150!

4. Cheating the system. After taking multiple trips to Walt Disney World on the Disney Dining Plan, my wife and I have found ways to "cheat the system." For example, let's say that you decide to go with the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining. This package provides you a counter service meal and a table service meal each day, as well as two snacks per day. Table service meals at Walt Disney World range anywhere from $14.99 to $59.99 per person. Since Disney doesn't designate what table service restaurants you can or cannot use your dining credits at, you can choose to use your daily credit on a more expensive, exclusive, and/or "fancy" dining experience (although some table service restaurants require the use of two table service dining credits, so make sure to check into that ahead of time). This includes character dining experiences! My recommendation is that if you want the best "bang for your buck," visit Disney's website and go to their dining page. Here, you can look at the menus for each restaurant on property and can learn what restaurants take how many dining credits. For example, you can dine at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Hollywood Studios, where meals run for an average of $20 per entree. Or, you could choose to eat at Boma, located at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, which averages $45 per person. Both meals only take one table service credit! The Sci-Fi is a fun, immersive dining experience, but serves your basic theme park fare of burgers and fries, with a limited selection of other entrees. However, Boma provides patrons with an authentic African buffet dining experience, giving diners the options of salmon, turkey, ribs, striploin, and many other higher end foods flavored with an African palate. If you prefer a quieter, higher-end meal, by purchasing the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining, you are getting more for your money by going to one of these higher-end options. Character meals are also only one table service credit on the Dining Plan. So if your little one wants to meet Mickey and Minnie or Cinderella and Belle, you can enjoy a meal with "character" at one of many dining locations (many of which would cost an average of $40 per person if you pay out-of-pocket). Some examples of this include Akershus Royal Banquet Hall at Epcot, the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios, the Tusker House Restaurant at Animal Kingdom, and Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.

Liberty Tree Tavern

The Crystal Palace

Another way my wife and I have figured out a way to "cheat the system" deals specifically with one of my favorite breakfast locations on Disney property: the Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom's New Fantasyland. While this new(ish) restaurant is a deluxe and elegant table service restaurant at dinnertime, during breakfast and lunch the restaurant serves as a quick service dining location. This means that if you have purchased the Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick Service Dining, you can still enjoy this wonderful and well-themed table service dining location using one of your quick service dining credits! Just be sure to secure an Advanced Dining Reservation ahead of time, as the stand-by wait to get into this restaurant can be quite lengthy without one.

Be Our Guest Restaurant

5. Budgeting. Disney vacations are friggen expensive. I don't think any of us would deny that fact. However, more often than not, when we book vacations, we only book the resort and park tickets ahead of time, meaning that we then have to come up with some sort of vacation budget for our trip. That means that we have to estimate approximately how much we will spend on things like meals, souvenirs, and entertainment (Characters in Flight? Mini golf? Water parks?) and set aside additional monies for them prior to our vacations. And unless we end up pulling extra money from somewhere else, this could lead to meals and/or experiences being cut out of the vacation should we exceed our budget. When you purchase the Disney Dining Plan, it is included in your total vacation cost that needs to be paid off before your vacation. This means you don't have to budget for meals ahead of time, but rather could choose where you want to eat when you get "rumbly in your tumbly."

6. Free dining. Who doesn't like free stuff? I mean, someone offers me free food? Holy cow. I would be in heaven. I mean, it's amazing enough if I'd be in Disney World, but having free food at Disney World? Where can I sign up??? No, this wish doesn't require pixie dust to grant the wish, just a little bit of planning and travel flexibility. Every year, Walt Disney World offers special vacation offers for free dining if guests travel during certain dates. This means that guests who travel to Walt Disney World during certain times of the year (usually the "slower" times of year) and stay at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel are eligible to have a free upgrade of the dining plan added to their vacation package. However, there are some stipulations. In addition to being required to visit during a certain date range, guests usually have to stay at a moderate or deluxe resort and purchase a certain number of theme park days on their ticket. The free dining plan is usually an upgrade to the Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick Dining. Check on Walt Disney World's Special Offers page throughout the year for more information.


So what would a hypothetical day look like for my family on the Disney Dining Plan?

• On the Quick Service Dining plan, usually we start with using our snack credits for breakfast. We might use our credit to get a muffin or piece of fruit or carrots and hummus. We wouldn't need a beverage with our breakfast, because we could just bring our refillable mugs with us to the dining hall and fill those at the coffee percolators or soda fountains instead. For lunch and dinner, we would choose a quick service dining location located where we planned on spending our day. For example, if we are hanging out in the eastern half of the Magic Kingdom, we may decide to eat at Pinocchio's Village Haus or Cosmic Ray's depending on how busy the restaurants at that time. Or if we decide to spend an evening riding the Monorail around the resort loop, we might decide to disembark at the Contemporary to eat at the Contempo Cafe. The Quick Service dining plan gives you the flexibility and ease of deciding where to eat without having to budget or plan ahead with Advanced Dining Reservations. It allows for a truly spontaneous vacation experience.

Casey's Corner

The Riverside Mill Food Court at Disney's Port Orleans: Riverside Resort

• If my wife and I decided to purchase the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining plan, we would likely start the day off the same way, redeeming our snack credit for breakfast. One big difference between the Quick Service and table service dining plans, however, is the necessity of making advanced dining reservations, which requires guests to make daily plans up to two months in advance. For example, during our last trip, we decided to have breakfast at the Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. Because of the popularity of this restaurant, even though it is considered Quick Service at breakfast, we had to make advanced reservations, and were lucky enough to score an ADR at 8:15 in the morning. This meant that when we finished our meal around 9:00, we were able to hop on some of the more popular Fantasyland attractions just as the Magic Kingdom was opening. Because we ate at the Be Our Guest, that determined ahead of time that we would be spending the day at the Magic Kingdom. In the scenario where we got our snack for breakfast, we might spend our day at Epcot and get a quick service meal at La Cantina de San Angel, located across from the Mexico Pavilion (can you say "churros"???). This would maximize our park time during the peak of the day's activity. However, after the sun goes down and things start to become calmer and more peaceful at Epcot, we might decide to have a romantic table service meal at the Coral Reef (read my review of the Coral Reef as an idea romantic meal). Again, the necessity of having an ADR for the Coral Reef required us to plan our day around Epcot two months in advance, meaning that this was the day we had to book our Epcot FastPass+ reservations, as well. Purchasing the Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining requires more planning ahead of time and less spontaneity, so make sure you account for that.

My dad and I at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater

Tony's Town Square Restaurant on Main Street, USA

The Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot

While the Disney Dining Plan can potentially be a large amount of money to have to shell out prior to your Disney vacation, I do believe that it is well worth your money in the end. It provides a less stressful experience while on your vacation and allows you instead to enjoy the magic of Walt Disney World on a moment-to-moment basis.

For more opinions on what is & isn't worth the splurge at Disney, check out the other great posts from the Blogorail!

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Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Orange | Is It Worth It? Loop:

• 1st Stop - Heidi's Head | 5 Reasons Why a Tour at Walt Disney World is Worth Your Money
• 2nd Stop - Saving Up for Disney | Is it Worth it to Stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel vs Off-Site?
• 3rd Stop - Frontierland Station | Character Dining: Is It Worth It?
• 4th Stop - Cool Nouns | Park Hopper Tickets
• 5th Stop - Distalgic | The Disney Dining Plan: Is It Worth It?

The Coral Reef Restaurant

Welcome to this month's Blogorail Orange Loop. Today we are sharing some of the most romantic Disney restaurants.

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I don't like seafood.

There. I've thrown it out there. Please don't expect me to go down the list to explain (spoken in the stereotypical snooty Maitre d' voice) how delectable the caviar is or how well prepared the shellfish scampi is. The closest I get to eating seafood is Gorton's brand fried fish sticks (slathered in ketchup) or seasoned grilled tilapia out of a box.

Thankfully, the topic of this post is not a restaurant review on the quality of food.

Rather, it is something I'm much more familiar with: romance.

You see, I'm the kind of person that loves romance. I buy my wife flowers. When we were dating, I made her mixtape CDs and wrote her poems. Even though we've been together going-on ten years (in January), I still put on slacks and a tie when we go on a date. I celebrate Valentines Day, Sweetest Day, our wedding anniversary, our starting-to-date anniversary, our engagement anniversary. I put the "hopeless" in hopeless romantic.

Therefore, when we visited Walt Disney World for our first trip as a couple back in 2012 to celebrate our second wedding anniversary, I knew that I needed to treat her to something special on the evening of our anniversary.

There was just one problem: we were poor.

Lucky for me, we were able to utilize a vacation deal offered by Disney to acquire the free Disney Dining Plan. I splurged a little and booked us a room at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge (where, coincidentally, on the same day we visited the Coral Reef, my wife almost killed a giraffe), and was able to add the Disney Dining Plan to our vacation package, ultimately giving us one snack, counter service, and casual meal each day of our trip. In planning our trip, my wife and I decided that we would only eat at restaurants new to both of us. Because, at that point, I'd visited Walt Disney World more than ten times in my 23 years, I'd eaten at many of the sit-down restaurants that required an ADR. Our final list of the causal dining experiences we'd partake in on our trip eventually consisted of the Crystal Palace, Tony's Town Square, Wolfgang Puck's Grand Cafe (at the then-Downtown Disney), and the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios. But none of these were really "anniversary worthy." Ultimately we came to the decision of making a reservation at the Coral Reef Restaurant for the evening of our anniversary, but that problem of my taste palette crept back up:

I don't like seafood.

However, being the romantic that I was, I decided to suck it up and make the most out of our evening for my wife's sake, who enjoys an occasional dish of Dory and Nemo...erm, I mean, seafood.

"One day when the boss gets hungry guess who gon' be on the plate?" Oops, wrong movie...

Upon arriving at Epcot for our romantic anniversary meal, we headed over to the Seas with Nemo pavilion. However, I was somewhat discouraged that, while an "expert" on Walt Disney World, I was unsure where the Coral Reef Restaurant was located. I knew that it featured Mafia-esque floor-to-ceiling windows into an aquarium, because I had seen it once in an episode of Full House or Boy Meets World sometime back in the 90s. Lucky for me, I didn't have to look stupid in front of my bride. Upon arriving at the entrance courtyard outside the Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion, I noticed a discreet peach-colored sign off to the right of the show building in a planter. We wandered down a path located to the northeast of the pavilion, below the monorail beam, until we came to a set of glass double doors that served as the entrance to the establishment. Large seahorses serve as the handles to the glass doors, setting the stage for the elaborate under-the-sea theming of the restaurant inside.

Upon entering the restaurant's main lobby, I noticed how dark it was. It took awhile for my eyes to adjust. In fact, it was almost too dark. I checked us in and they requested that we have a seat on a bench along a wall behind the hostess' stand to wait for our table to be ready. As my eyes finally adjusted to the dim lighting, I began to notice delightful details. The light fixtures on the ceiling resembled sea anemones, while seashell shaped lights emerged from the walls.

Anemo-none. A nemenem-menome-nememen-nenemone...You get the idea.

A large, opaque glass wall blocked our view of the restaurant, colored in various shades of teal, blue, and green to create the illusion of being underwater. Wave patterns on the floor add to the undersea theming of the restaurant. 

Within a few minutes, a cast member arrived to take us to our table. As we passed the end of the large glass wall, the big reveal happened. I paused for a moment in surprise with the scene before me. All pictures I'd seen of the restaurant did not do it justice in person. Before me was a dining room that was tiered along three levels featuring booths and tables. The tiered seating allowed for all in the restaurant, regardless of table location, to be able to see the large windows on the left side of the restaurant looking into the Seas pavilion's aquarium.I was excited to see the cast member leading us to the left, down some steps to the lowest tier, to a table seated parallel to the windows of the aquarium. 

The dining room was also very dim, lit by the anemone- and shell-shaped fixtures hanging from the ceiling and poking out from the walls. The dimness of the room allowed those partaking in their meal to see out the windows into the undersea environment at the tropical fish and sharks that occasionally passed by the glass. 

We took a few moments to glance at the menu, and, because we were dining at a seafood restaurant, I decided to order...

...a steak of course!

I ended up having the $33 Grilled New York Strip Steak that came with mashed potatoes and vegetables, while my wife ended up ordering the $24 Oven Roasted Chicken Breast with creamy polenta cake (whatever that is) and onions. Lucky for me, we didn't have to pay for this meal because we were using our free upgrade of the Disney Dining Plan (whew!). As part of the dining plan, we got a dessert with every meal. I don't remember what we ordered, but because our reservation stated it was our anniversary, the kitchen prepared a fancy plate for us with the words "Happy Anniversary" scrolled across it in raspberry chocolate sauce. I do remember that our waiter wasn't the most professional (I think he was upset we had the dining plan because his tip wasn't as big as he would like...after we paid he was very cold toward us, but maybe he was just having a bad day). 

 I don't remember much about the food itself, but rather the experience as a whole. The "show" and experience we had while dining, however, was by far the best. The performers in this "dinner show" are the fish. Numerous tropical fish swam past the glass constantly, with the occasional shark slowly creeping past. Near the end of our meal, SCUBA divers participating in the DiveQuest experience descended in a flood of bubbles in front of the windows, swimming past and, at times, waving at those eating their romantic dinner.

Fish are friends, not...oh, well! When at the Coral Reef...

Eating dinner "underwater" while watching SCUBA divers swim by makes me feel like I'm living in the Sea Castle from Horizons!

Overall, the dim lighting, higher-end meal, sharks and romantic fish, and the quiet ambient music of the restaurant creates a lovely, romantic setting. Most guests are so distracted and enamored by the scene in the aquarium that they speak in almost quiet conversations, making the dining setting even more intimate, as though you share the empty restaurant with those sharing your table.

After our meal, we left the restaurant hand-in-hand and wandered out to Epcot's Fountain of Nations, sharing a spectacular Corey-and-Topanga kiss in front of the spray of the timed-to-music water feature with the pinkish-purple sphere of Spaceship Earth in the background. 

Well, not really.

We did enjoy a nice evening stroll around World Showcase, though. But the highlight of our anniversary evening was the romantic meal we shared at the Coral Reef Restaurant.

For more romantic Disney restaurants, check out the other great posts from the Blogorail!

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Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Orange | Romantic Disney Restaurants Loop:

• 1st Stop - The Delightful Life | Palo
• 2nd Stop - Rolling with the Magic | Morimoto Asia
• 3rd Stop - Distalgic | Coral Reef Restaurant
• 4th Stop - DISTherapy | Tiffins
• 5th Stop - My Dreams of Disney | Cinderella's Royal Table

Thanksgiving 2013: A Face Full of Water

It was Thanksgiving, 2013. My wife and I had traveled to Walt Disney World for a whirlwind weekend with my parents and my brother. We'd decided to skip the traditional Thanksgiving; my parents and brothers flew on a plane down to Orlando, while my wife and I hopped in the car after school on Tuesday night and made the ten-hour trek in the dark to Walt Disney World, arriving at the off-property timeshare resort around 2:00 in the morning.


My mom met us in the downstairs lobby of the condo building to let us in and we rolled our suitcases into the elevator and rode up to the eleventh floor. We followed her, squinty and in her pajamas, to the front door of the condo, where my dad met us, his curly hair a hot mess. My brother was passed out on the couch of the condo, his mouth wide open and drool hanging down his check.


We spent the next three days in three of the four parks, visiting the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, Epcot on Thanksgiving, and Hollywood Studios on Friday, before leaving Orlando on Saturday to stop-and-go traffic along I-4 and I-95, making our ten hour drive back to Greensboro closer to fourteen hours.


On Thanksgiving, we had made dinner reservations for Tutto Italia, enjoying a meal of Fettuccini Alfredo for our meal rather than the traditional turkey-and-potatoes fare. While a fairly untraditional holiday, it was quite enjoyable wandering through the park, as it was not overly busy. We were able to ride and experience everything we'd wanted, including Soarin', the new Test Track, and Maelstrom (which I was later to learn would be my last experience on the attraction, later closing to make way for Frozen).


Midway through the day, we had made our way up to the Imagination pavilion, riding on Journey into Imagination with Figment and donning our 3D glasses for a musical trip with Captain EO. Upon exiting the show, we made our way to the jumping fountains, watching in wonder as the jets and bubbles of water jumped from pod to pod. I'd always been fascinated with these during every trip to Epcot (and EPCOT Center), ever since I'd first experienced the wonders of the Imagination pavilion back in its heyday with Figment, the Dreamfinder, and ImageWorks.


While generally pretty introverted, as a teacher, I'm often on display and performing. There were a few other families around marveling at the jumping fountains as well, leapfrogging from pool to pool. I came up with a brilliant idea.


I watched the water as it leapt from pond to pond, and walked forward, away from my family.


"Where are you going?" my wife asked me. I didn't answer. I stopped in front of one of the ponds, situating myself about three feet away from it. "Andrew!" my wife said, trying to get my attention again, thinking I hadn't heard her. I continued to ignore her. I watched the water leapfrog around the courtyard and towards me. My moment had arrived.


The water spilled from a nearby pool and leapt toward the spongy pool in front of me. As it finished dropping into the pool, the stream shot out towards me. I quickly adjusted my position...


and got drilled in the face by the entire stream of water.




Watching the leapfrogging water from a safe distance, you don't realize how much water is used for each jumping stream. It's more than you think.


My wife and mother gasped behind me. The other families around starting laughing hysterically. I turned around, water dripping off my bangs and down my cheeks. My tee-shirt was soaked. I slowly turned around to look at my family. My wife had a horrified look on her face, while my dad and brother had cracked a grin. I flickered my eyes around the small group congregated around me and smiled widely. I threw my fists in the air and yelled "woohoo!!!" This made everyone laugh...except my wife. She jumped towards me and smacked my arm. "I can't believe you!" she said, only sort of frustrated, a small smile twinkling in her eyes.


I giggled and started walking toward the restrooms on the back side of Innoventions. The weather was cool that day and I needed to dry myself off. I went in and used paper towel to soak up the moisture from my shirt. I used some to mop the water out of my hair and off my face and arms, and exited the restroom, pleased with myself. I gave everyone a good chuckle that would last the rest of the day.

Nostalgia Snacks at Walt Disney World

I am a nostalgic. And being nostalgic makes me stubborn. And stuck in my ways.


This happens all the time at restaurants. I go out to eat to a restaurant for the first time with my family and find a meal that looks appetizing to me. If we enjoy the restaurant, and we go back...I order the exact same thing. There could be forty other things on the menu that look slightly appetizing to me, but I will only order the one dish every time we go back. Take, for example, Texas Roadhouse. They've got many delightful dishes on their menu. However, I will only ever order their chicken crispers, which are a crispy, lightly-breaded chicken tender with fries. Or take, as another example, one of my favorite (and my mom's favorite--shout out, mom!) restaurants: Cracker Barrel. This is a restaurant you could get breakfast during their operating hours, as well as country fried steak, hamburgers, chicken pot pies, or roast beef. However, every time I go, I get the Chicken Tender platter, which allows guests to choose three sides and their choice of biscuits or corn bread. I always get the fried chicken tenders with fries, mashed potatoes (and butter), macaroni and cheese, and buttermilk biscuits with a Diet Coke. I could choose anything off the menu, but I always choose the same


because it is comfortable.


It's much the same way at Walt Disney World. However, once in awhile, I decide to be "adventurous" and try something new in the way of snacking. And very rarely the snacks I've tried at Walt Disney World have been disappointing to me.


Here are my top suggestions for snacks at Walt Disney World that everyone should try at least once.


Disclaimer: Remember, I'm a good Dutch boy who is a nostalgic who likes to be comfortable, so this is by no means an exhaustive list. I know that there is a ton I need to reach out and try yet, so don't judge! These just happen to be my favorites. :)


1.) The granddaddy (arguably) of all snacks at Walt Disney World: The Dole Whip. I saw online once that someone stated the Dole Whip to be overrated. This is an objective opinion of that poster. I would argue that the Dole Whip is an amazing snack that I personally go out of my way every trip to enjoy. There are two places on Walt Disney World property one can go (to my knowledge) to get a Dole Whip (or a Dole Whip float if you prefer): Aloha Aisle at the Magic Kingdom (although during my last trip in August 2015 they were being sold at Sunshine Seasons Terrace) and the Pineapple Lanai outside Captain Cook's at the Polynesian Resort. For those of you who are unaware, a Dole Whip is a traditional twist-style ice cream dessert. However, rather than the snack being a twist of chocolate and vanilla, a Dole Whip is a twist of pineapple ice cream and vanilla. It creates the perfect taste combination of tangy and sweet ice cream. A Dole Whip Float, on the other hand, is similar to a root beer float, but instead of root beer, the ice cream is suspended in pineapple juice. Guests who are crazy enough to not enjoy pineapple (such as my father), can opt to choosing a Citrus Swirl, which is identical to the Dole Whip, but substitutes orange-flavored ice cream for the pineapple. When visiting during our last trip in Summer 2015, we snacked on our Dole Whips twice: we quickly slurped our dessert at the tables between Sunshine Seasons Terrace and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, as well as at tables overlooking the Volcano Pool of the Polynesian. I am unashamed to say that I got my daughter hooked on the delicious treat. I was also lucky enough to find that a small ice cream shack in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan also sells Dole Whip desserts, which will now give me a chance to enjoy the nostalgia of fond memories when I go home for the summer.


2.)  The second treat that I enjoy when visiting Walt Disney World is the churros. My first exposure to Disney's churros took place during my second anniversary trip with my wife in June 2012. We had been staying at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge (when my wife accidentally almost killed a giraffe...read about it here) and had taken advantage of the deal of free dining by staying at a deluxe resort. As a result, during this trip, we had eaten an enormous amount of food, being lucky enough to have both an entrée and dessert with each meal. We were visiting Epcot and decided to eat at La Cantina de San Angel (the outdoor counter service adjacent to La Hacienda de San Angel across from the Mexico Pavilion). After eating our tacos and quesadillas (or whatever we ordered), we decided to choose the hot churros with the caramel dipping sauce as our dessert. We were both lucky enough to order these warm, delectable treats, each getting four or five churro sticks as part of our dessert order. I had never enjoyed a churro before. And after this experience, I was hooked. A churro is a stick of fried batter covered in cinnamon and granulated sugar, that is usually served warm and often dipped in a sauce such as caramel or cream cheese. It was delicious and now, every time I go back to Epcot, I will be getting this delicious treat. I know they have churro carts elsewhere, but the positive memory of eating them with my bride at Epcot's Mexico pavilion may hinder me from enjoying them anywhere but there.


3.) Some peoples' go-to snack at Walt Disney World or any Disney park is popcorn. People line up, especially in the international parks, to try different flavors of popcorn. However, I'm such a nostalgic that I don't even know whether Walt Disney World sells any flavors of popcorn other than butter-flavored. I'm not a huge popcorn fan at home. Even when I go to movies in the theater, I don't really care for popcorn: it gets stuck in my teeth, I usually swallow a kernel or two, and I inevitably inhale a piece of popcorn into my lungs, leading to a coughing fit and the beefy muscle man in front of me turning around and giving me dirty looks for interrupting a mushy scene of the chick flick we are watching. However, while not a fan of popcorn, eating it at Walt Disney World at least once during a trip is a requirement due to the nostalgia factor for me. When I was growing up and I would visit the parks with my brother and parents, we would always eat a big breakfast at our resort's food court or a character meal before starting our day in the parks. We would also plan on a big meal in the evening. To save money, we would usually have a snack mid-afternoon. Because a "small" popcorn was usually served in a big box (we so felt like we were playing the system), we would get two boxes of popcorn to share between the four of us and some 20 oz. of soda as a snack. We would find a spot in a rocking chair or on a step or porch of Frontierland or Liberty Square and eat our popcorn and drink our soda while we people watched. Again, I'm not a huge fan of popcorn and I'll rarely eat it (I'd opt instead for ice cream or chips for a snack at home), but there is something comfortable and happy about eating popcorn at the Disney parks, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios especially, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.


And there you have it. There's round one of my favorite Disney snacks. I know there are a lot more that I haven't even touched on, like a turkey leg or a Mickey pretzel or even a Mickey ice cream bar. However, these are my top three, all because they are attached to a special place in my Disney consciousness.

(Almost) Killing a Giraffe at Animal Kingdom Lodge

It was the first time my wife and I had been to Walt Disney World together.




We were celebrating our second wedding anniversary and were lucky enough to get reservations at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge (my wife likes animals and had never seen the resort before, so I did the romantic thing and got a room at the hotel). When we'd booked the resort, we had only been able to afford a room facing a parking lot on the front of the building. But management learned it was our anniversary and, in true Disney fashion, upgraded us to a savannah view room.




It was the day of our anniversary, and we had gone back to our hotel room to prepare for our anniversary dinner: the Coral Reef at Epcot's Seas pavilion. Neither of us were huge seafood fans, but we figured it would be a romantic atmosphere for our anniversary dinner.




While my wife got dolled up for our date night, I sat on the balcony and watched the animals from our third floor room, sipping Diet Coke out of my refillable drink mug. Because her hair is so straight, my wife likes to use hair rollers rather than a curling iron. She came out onto the balcony to look at the animals with me, rollers in her hair. We began planning out our evening at Epcot, and she turned around to face me, leaning up against the balcony, her back to the savannah. We discussed what attractions we would like to get Fastpasses for that evening (this was still in the day of paper Fastpasses before Fastpass+), when all of a sudden, a hair roller fell out of her hair and onto the savannah below us.


We both froze. We looked at each other, our eyes as large as Mickey's ears in fear, mouths agape as though we were getting ready to stuff in a Toluca Turkey Leg.


I sprung out of my chair and over to the railing (a grand total of eighteen inches), and together we leaned over the balcony to find the hair curler, white plastic end caps and brown felt spindle, lying on the savannah below.


"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!!" I dramatically yelled at her, terrified. When we'd checked in to DAK Lodge, we had signed an agreement saying that we agreed to help protect the wildlife of the resort, including not feeding or throwing anything onto the savannah. In my mind's eye, I pictured a giraffe, ostrich, or Ankara cattle bending over to eat this hair accessory that looked like a Swiss Cake Roll and choking to death on the hot piece of metal inside. I pictured our faces plastered all over area newspapers and national news shows, known as the Disney Giraffe Murderers. And worst of all, I pictured myself being hauled out of the hotel, our bags thrown at us from behind, and banned from ever returning to Walt Disney World.


I sprinted into the hotel room, dove across the bed, and picked up the phone. I punched the number zero, and in a moment, a sweet voice answered.


"This is the front desk!" she chirped.


"WE ARE GOING TO KILL AN ANIMAL!!!!" I wanted to scream into the phone.


However, I took a breath and cleared my throat.


"Um, I just wanted to call and let you know that my wife accidentally dropped a hair curler over the edge of the balcony into the savannah," I explained, embarrassedly. I gave the cast member our room number and apologized over the phone. She told me to stop by the desk at our convenience that evening to retrieve it and to speak with a cast member.


"Oh boy," I thought to myself, nervously.


We finished getting ready, ensuring that my wife removed her hair curlers of death from her head in the room's bathroom. We hopped on resort transportation and headed to Epcot, enjoying our anniversary dinner at the Coral Reef, riding Spaceship Earth, and wandering around World Showcase before enjoying the first part of Illuminations and the Fountain of Nations in front of Spaceship Earth.


We headed back to our resort around ten o'clock. Walking into the lobby hand-in-hand, we headed timidly over to the front desk.


"May I help you?" a young male cast member asked.


"Yeah, um, my wife dropped a hair roller over the edge of our balcony and we were told to stop by?"


"You're that guy?" the cast member laughed. He excused himself into the back room for a minute and reemerged carrying a white paper envelope with a bulge in it. I opened it to find the hair roller, slightly cracked, but in one piece and not covered in the blood, saliva, or partially digested grass dinner of a giraffe.


"Nice job," he laughed lightheartedly.


"So you heard about us?" I asked, a small smile on my face.


"Buddy, everyone knows about you two!" he laughed, excusing himself down the desk to another family.


This has become a story of legend among our family and friends, and is still being told by us, especially when we want to tease my wife. I'm sure to this day, cast members still laugh about the young couple who almost (but not really) killed an animal at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.