The holiday season may have arrived right after Halloween in Disney World, but it’s in FULL swing right now ahead of the EPCOT Festival of the Holidays.

That means ALL the holiday decorations have gone up, the Christmas trees are shining bright in the lobbies of Disney World hotels, and holiday snacks are literally turning up everywhere. But you know us — we love a good challenge, so once again, this year, we’re going to try to eat ALL the holiday snacks we can get our hands on. For this round, we’re hitting up Disney’s Hollywood Studios to get you reviews of EVERYTHING you should — or should not — eat in Disney World this holiday season.  

First up, let’s grab some Starbucks because we’re going to need it. We’re headed to Trolley Car Cafe for some coffee, but also for the Winter Spice Mini Whoopie Pie, which is spice cake filled with orange buttercream and cranberry-raspberry jam topped with a candied orange peel, cranberry, holiday sprinkles, sweet snow, and a plant-based chocolate tree for $6.29. Okay, HELLO, because this thing SURPRISED US.

A fruity whoopie pie didn’t sound super appealing, but the orange buttercream and cranberry raspberry jam just…well…JAM with the spice cake. The cake itself is moist and we love that this isn’t an super sugary treat. It’s almost refreshing. The toppings are also a lot of fun and we like the crunch from the sprinkles. This is a great dessert for pickier eaters who want to step just a LITTLE outside their comfort zone.

Let’s head on over to Dockside Diner to try the Red Velvet Holiday Milk Shake for $9.79. It’s a Red Velvet Milk Shake swirled with Chocolate Sauce topped with Whipped Cream, Rainbow Sprinkles, and a Holiday Tree Sugar Cookie. This shake is a monstrosity, and the whipped cream just kept splattering everywhere because there’s so much of it. But it gets better: when we went to take the first sip, well, the shake was SO thick we couldn’t get a sip!

We waited a bit hoping it would melt a bit, but nope. We ended up bringing a spoon to this milk shake party. In the end, this turned out to be a glorified Wendy’s Frosty, so it didn’t blow our minds. The chocolate taste from the syrup was artificial and we couldn’t get a red velvet flavor out of it at all. Even the sugar cookie tasted like the kind you get from your grocery store. Anyway, for all that, we just ended up a sticky mess.

Oh, well, you can’t win them all. So we washed ourselves up and headed to Rosie’s All-American Cafe for the Coquito Wreath Cupcake for $5.99. This is a coquito custard-filled vanilla cupcake topped with coquito buttercream, chocolate bow, gold crispy pearls, and rainbow sprinkles. We have to say that this is a solid cupcake. We were skeptical, though, because when we got it, it was very cold. We thought it would be hard to bite into or fall apart, but nope, it held up well and was easy to eat.

The icing isn’t a super heavy buttercream, but a lighter buttercream — we appreciated that. It’s light, although there is a LOT of it on top of this baby. The inside filling is that coquito mix, which is nice. The whole thing tastes light and cinnamony, just like the drink it’s based on. The decorations on top are a lot of fun, plus they add crunch. It’s cute, but in the end, it IS just a cupcake. But at least it’s a tasty one!

 

We proceeded to Backlot Express to grab the Gingerbread Cheesecake for $5.99. It’s a gingerbread cheesecake on a vanilla cookie topped with milk chocolate ganache, dulce de leche whipped cream, gingerbread chocolate décor, gold crispy pearls, and holiday sprinkles. Excuse me, but look at how CUTE this snack is! LOVE it!

The good news is that it tastes as good as it looks. It tastes like a high-quality cheesecake, and the choice of dulce de leche whipped cream on the gingerbread cheesecake-iness (yes, it’s a word, or at least it is now) is PERFECTION. It just goes well with the tanginess of the cheesecake as well as the sweetness of the chocolate ganache. The crispy pearls add a nice crunch. The cookie at the bottom was nice and buttery, although that flavor was mostly overpowered by the cheesecake. Although we felt a little bad eating the gingerbread man, he was yummy, too — he was made with good-quality milk chocolate.

Okay, we’re happy again. So, on to the next snack. Over at ABC Commissary, you can get the Linzer Cookie Mousse Torte, made with layers of hazelnut cake, raspberry-blackcurrant mousse, raspberry jam, and sweet snow-dusted Linzer cookie for $6.29. Okay, YUM. Next, we LOVE the presentation. We like the freshness of the raspberry jam, which was nicely complemented by the blackcurrant for its beautiful fruity flavor.

The cookie was nice — it’s not a crunchy cookie, but a soft one, and we liked that. The cake was dry and crumbly, especially compared to all that jam and mousse. But somehow, it worked out. There’s also a hint of hazelnut flavor, but the fruity flavors are the star of this snack.

Let’s head on over to Toy Story Land and visit Woody’s Lunch Box. There, we got the Hot Cocoa Lunch Box Tart, which has Chocolate fudge filling, hot chocolate marshmallow fondant, and mini marshmallows. So our reporter isn’t always a fan of the lunch box tarts here, but this one was a winner! The chocolate is nice and fudgy inside, and it tastes exactly like a hot cocoa-flavored pop tart!

This is one of the better lunch box tarts at Woody’s. It’s also super cute. However, we have to say that at the end of the day, it’s still just an elevated pop tart. But, hey, sometimes, that’s just what you want.

So, yeah, that’s a LOT of snacks, and we’re really just getting started. As we said, the EPCOT Festival of the Holidays is coming up soon, and we’ll be trying ALL the food booths there, too. So stay tuned to DFB for more.

WE KNOW – there are SO many great snacks at Disney World! How do you choose (we don’t want to choose but will blow our budget on Day 1 otherwise)? We’ve got you covered! We have reviewed nearly EVERY snack available at Disney World, and we’ve written a series of DFB Guides about them! Check out our DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining + Snacks Bundle for all the details you need to plan your snackin’ and spending. You can even download them to your smartphone – it’ll be like we’re right there with you in the parks!

REVIEW: We Tried the SMOKY Chocolate Ice Cream and 26 More NEW Snacks in Magic Kingdom!

What’s your favorite holiday snack in Disney World? Share with us in the comments!