Happy Holidays!

The holiday season has officially arrived at Disneyland Resort and we are making our way through ALL of it, seeing and doing all the things at the Disneyland Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure and enjoying all the additional holiday food and entertainment. Now, it’s no secret that Disneyland goes HARD on seasonal snacks, so we also just made our way through a TON of holiday treats and now we’re sharing our thoughts on ALL of them.

We’re going to get started in Disneyland Park and head straight to Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree for the new Holiday Funnel Fries, which are funnel fries that are cinnamon sugar-dusted with caramel drizzle, vanilla ice cream, whipped topping, holiday sprinkles, and crushed TWIX cookie bar pieces for $9.99. One word: YUM.

 

These are hot fries with the cold ice cream — such a great combo. The caramel sauce is also super thick and tasty, along with the Twix crumbles (and there are a lot of them). There are also some chocolate sprinkles, which add a nice bit of texture. But again, that caramel sauce is SO good with these. We would order it again!

Let’s head back to Main Street, U.S.A. to visit Refreshment Corner where you can get Santa’s Vacation Sausage Potato with pickled pineapple and teriyaki sauce topped with mac salad on a baked potato for $13.99. Who knew there was a thing as a vacation potato? Well, it exists and it’s HUGE. The sausage on it is delicious with a nice salty flavor that goes well with the potato.

Then when you get a taste of it with the cold pineapple and mac salad on top, it’s hot and cold at the same time that’s just perfection. The tarty sweetness of the pineapple with the creamy mac salad and the teriyaki sauce is so good together. This is one of those things we might not have tried if it wasn’t our job, but now we’re glad we did.

Let’s head on over to New Orleans Square and visit the Mint Julep Bar to try the new Peppermint Mickey-shaped Beignets dusted with peppermint powdered sugar and Peppermint Bark Dipping Sauce with chocolate peppermint bark. You can get these in either a 3-pack or 6-pack. We got the 3-pack for $6.49. We have some great news — the peppermint flavor is NOT like toothpaste. It’s actually good. We also saw what looked like chopped up candy canes in the powdered sugar for even MORE of a peppermint flavor.

HOWEVER, that said, we had several different kinds of beignets in Disneyland on this particular day and THEY WERE NOT great. This is not usually the case, especially at the Mint Julep Bar, but Disney seems to be having beignet issues — the beignets we had were not doughy or fluffy. We hope this is just a temporary thing.

We paired the beignets with the Cranberry Pomegranate Mint Julep, which is a holiday twist on the classic mint julep with cranberry and pomegranate juices for $6.99. We’re happy to report that this drink did NOT disappoint us like the beignets did. This twist on the classic Disneyland mint julep has a lovely cranberry and pomegranate flavor that makes for a delicious holiday-flavored combination.

Over to Tomorrowland, where we visited Alien Pizza Planet to try the new Alien Reindeer Macaron filled with salted caramel buttercream, chocolate ganache, and brownie pieces for $7.99. First, it’s SO CUTE. But it’s also good. You can taste the salted caramel in the butter cream, as well as the chocolateyness of the ganache and browniei pieces.

It’s served cold, so when you bite into it, it’s refreshing. It IS very rich, but you HAVE to get it, if only for the cute photos.

In Fantasyland, you’ll want to stop by Edelweiss Snacks to get the Black Forest Bundt Cake made with Chocolate sponge filled with cherries topped with chocolate ganache and chantilly crème finished with chocolate curls, cherries, and powdered sugar for $6.79 — it’s also new this year. If that sounds like a super rich dessert, IT IS. It’s very dense. 

However, it’s served cold and it’s kind of hard to get your fork into it (especially if it’s a plastic fork). We also didn’t get a lot of cherry flavor from it, save from the cherry on top. It just mostly tastes like a rich chocolate cake. So this one is for you chocolate lovers.

Next up? We visited Galactic Grill, where we picked up the Darth by Peppermint (okay, like who doesn’t love the name of that?). It’s layers of chocolate sponge, chocolate pudding, and peppermint mousse finished with crunchy pearls, cookies and cream pieces, candy cane sprinkles, and Darth Vader and red lightsaber decorations for $7.29. See? The Dark Side CAN be festive! So, it’s really just death by peppermint because that’s the most forward flavor you’re getting here. Do NOT order if you don’t like peppermint.

The top is sort of like Oreo cookies because it breaks up the texture. The cake layers are nice and moist, but at the same time, it makes the dessert a little gritty, which isn’t a texture we love.

Well, we were FINALLY done in Disneyland, so we hopped on over to California Adventure to try a few treats there. You’ll find the VERY cute Santa Baymax Macaron at Lucky Fortune Cookery for $7.79. It’s filled with peppermint buttercream, chocolate ganache, and dark chocolate crunchies. This could easily be our favorite holiday treat of the year. It’s so tasty with a nice light peppermint taste (see, Darth, you did NOT have to go that hard on the peppermint).

The chocolate ganache also adds a nice fudgy texture. It’s not super sweet and the macaron pieces were baked to perfection — see the ruffled raised edges at the base of the cookie? Those are called feet and they’re a sign of a well-baked macaron.

One more snack to go! We picked up the Gingerbread Mickey-shaped Waffles at Schmoozies for $10.99. They’re topped with Powdered Sugar, served with a side of Holiday Confetti Icing. The waffles are soft on the inside with a nice crunch on the outside, so their texture is great. You can also definitely taste the gingerbread.

The icing, though, was a bit much. It’s very very very sweet, like a thick version of Royal icing. We would have rather had something more consistent with a lighter syrup. But the waffles themselves are great. You can enjoy them without the icing since it is served on the side.

Well, that’s it for us. We are FULL. But if you’re heading to Disneyland for the holidays, we hope this gives you a good idea of which holiday snacks to try and which snacks to skip. Stay tuned to DFB for more.

The 8 Things You Should Eat and Drink at the Disney California Adventure Festival of the Holidays

What Disney snack are you looking forward to trying the most? Share with us in the comments!