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Treats From The Mini-Guide: Banana Bread Pudding

The brand new Disney Food Blog Mini-Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks has so many tempting goodies to share, including over 70 snacks available in the Magic Kingdom.

I recommend putting this dose of southern sweetness at the top of your list. It’s Banana Bread Pudding from the Main Street Bakery, and it’s definitely worth a try. 😉

The muffin-like top has the consistency of coffee-cake or strudel, and is encrusted with sugar crystals. Inside, the fresh taste of banana sweetens each bite. When it’s fresh out of the oven, the [Read more…]

Disney World Free Dining Rumored for Fall 2011 and Possibly 2012

By AJ 28 Comments

UPDATE: Rumors confirmed! Free Dining is now available for select dates October 2, 2011-March 31, 2012. See Details Here!

Rumors are swirling that the Disney World Free Dining promotion will be back this Fall and extend possibly into 2012. Booking is rumored to begin August 3rd.

As regular readers know, we usually don’t publish rumors without credible sources, so please understand that this is not corroborated by the Walt Disney Company in any way at the moment, and it is truly just a rumor currently.

The Free Dining promotion offers guests booking a vacation package the opportunity to add a Disney Dining Plan on to their package for free as long as they’re booking their room and tickets at standard rack rates.

Disney World Free Dining is already available through September, but should this rumor come to fruition, new dates would start up on October 2nd and include:

October 2, 2011 – October 8, 2011
October 23, 2011 – November 5, 2011
November 13, 2011 – November 19, 2011
November 27, 2011 – December 3, 2011
December 11, 2011 – December 17, 2011

As per usual, [Read more…]

Disney Food Post Round-Up: July 31, 2011

By AJ Leave a Comment

The Belgium Booth is back for the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival

The Disney Food Blog enjoyed an exciting week chock full of all the things we love — menus from the Epcot Food and Wine Festival’s World Showcase booths were announced, we released of our very first Mini-Guide, and the sale of Epcot’s Candlelight processional dinner/lunch packages began!

We’ve got so many fun articles in the round-up and great foodie news to share, so “Come on, everybody! Here we go!”!!

Latest Disney Food News

Great news from this week! We’ll start with the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, then move on to the rest!

The 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Booth Menus and map are now available!
Visiting Chefs and Presenters were announced for the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival.
The dates for the 2012 Epcot Food and Wine Festival were announced!
Epcot’s Candlelight dinner (and lunch) packages are now on sale!
Mark your calendars for the debut of BBQ weekends at Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek!

Explore in-depth coverage of the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival here!

The Disney Food Blog Mini-Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks e-Book Launch

The DFB Mini-Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks e-Book

is our first Mini-Guide in what we hope will be a very useful series of informational e-Books.

We couldn’t fit this detailed information into our overview book, The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining, so we’ve created an entire guide detailing over 70 Magic Kingdom snacks!

You’ll see photos, reviews, costs, and Disney Dining Plan snack credit information about each featured snack! Be sure to check out http://DFBMiniGuides.com for details about the e-Book, sample pages, and even a list of the bonus items in the book!

And the best news is that for our Grand Launch week, you can get the book for 20% off its original purchase price using code MAGIC at the check-out!! We hope you enjoy!

Come Listen!

Yours truly is the guest this evening on WDW Today‘s Live Show, starting at 8pm ET! Come listen — or call in and talk food with us! You can join the chat room and listen in here. See ya there!

On to the Round-Up!

Walt Disney World For Grown Ups

congratulates Jiko in Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Lodge on being named one of the nation’s best wine restaurants!

Bournemouth Echo shares the Walt Disney World Company’s chocolate-themed team-building events.

An AllEars.net guest blogger reviews Paradiso 37 in Disney World’s Downtown Disney!

PR Newswire featured a press release announcing that WDW and Chiquita have moved forward with their alliance! Watch for Chiquita to sponsor runDisney events, Living with the Land, and Crush ‘n’ Gusher.

Main Street Gazette sticks with barbecue this week and features Flame Tree Barbecue’s gorgeous St. Louis ribs.

Around Disney reports that Disneyland’s bakeries churn out the best macaroons in Orange County.

Finally, check out this video featuring All Star Sports Resort’s new fountain drink machines, equipped with an RFID card reader, during Disney’s new refillable mug system tests. Read the full story here.

Have a great week!

Disney Food Post Round-Up: July 17, 2011

By AJ Leave a Comment

2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Event Banner

We’re so excited about the response to our 2011 WDW Foodie Fest Snack Attack event. Tickets sold out within just a couple of hours on Friday!

For those who won’t be able to join us, we’d love to see you at the other WDW Foodie Fest events. You can check out the Schedule of Events here!

Disney Food News

Check out some of the latest news in the Disney food world!

Updates from the 2011 Food and Wine Festival Preview Dinner are in! Lots of great new events and details, as well as the overall theme of the festival, are included.
There were a few Le Cellier lunch menu changes recently.
A new refillable mug monitoring system using RFID chips will be tested at All-Star Sports Resort this week.
Epcot’s San Angel Inn unveils new menu items and decor.

New Disney Food Blog Mini-Guide Just Around the Corner…

Yep, we’re finishing up the final edits on our brand new Mini-Guide e-Book!

As you know, our DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-Book covers a wealth of information about Disney World food. But after hitting 250 pages, we reserved some of the more detailed info for our upcoming series of Mini-Guides.

The first in the series will be the Disney Food Blog Mini-Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks, and it will be debuting very soon.

Detailed reviews, photos, prices, and snack-credit-worthiness of over 70 snacks in the Magic Kingdom are packed into this Mini-Guide, but, as always, we’ve included a few extras and bonus items as well!

We’ll have more information for you very soon; we can’t wait to hear what you think!

Let’s go…On to the Round-Up!

WDW for Grownups

checks out some Disney dining discounts!

Disney Tourist Blog reviews Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue in Disneyland Resort.

DisneyContemporary.com looks back at the Contemporary Resort’s Fiesta Fun Center.

Eating (and Drinking) Around the World looks at tuna-inspired dishes.

Main Street Gazette tours the Magic Kingdom restaurant signs that beckon us to dine.

Hoperatives reviews the brew pub, Big River Grille and Brewing Works at the Boardwalk resort. Find your “better beer”!

DLP.info shows updates us on construction at Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost in Disneyland Paris.

4Parks1Blog.com reviews Kouzzina at the Boardwalk resort.

Disney Food For Families: 11 Tips for Better Disney Character Dining

By Erin 23 Comments

Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster has some great character meal tips for your fam!

Goofy Poses at Chef Mickey's

I spent a recent weekend reminiscing over old photos, many of which featured family trips to the Disney Parks. While flipping through the albums, one of my girls commented that the photos were, to put it mildly, character meal intensive. So we started counting, going back to my oldest daughter’s first trip to Walt Disney World in May of 1998.

I have photographic evidence of having been to character meals with my family at least 93 times since then. These meals took place at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and most predominantly at Walt Disney World, including each of the character meals currently available there, plus the now defunct meals at the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Tree Tavern, Animal Kingdom’s Restaurantosaurus and what is now Fulton’s Crab House at Downtown Disney.

Our single highest visit count is at the Magic Kingdom’s Crystal Palace, with 17 separate visits.

Liberty Tree Tavern character meal. Gone but not forgotten.

After all that eating, and eating, and eating, aaaand eating, we’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way that may make your character meal experience even better than it otherwise might be:

1. Decide Why You’re There and Plan Accordingly
While the obvious answer to, “Why are you going to a character meal?” may be, “to eat.” In reality there are a number of reasons why you might find yourself communing with Mickey and a heaping plate of breakfast lasagna. These may include: [Read more…]

5 Ways to Save While Dining in Disney World

By AJ 13 Comments

Thanks to Sami Cone for this useful list of ways to maximize your money when it comes to dining in Disney World.

You’ve saved your spare change and sold everything you could scrape up enough money to get to Disney World….but then you get there and forget you’ve got to eat! What’s a frugal family to do? In all our years of going to Disney, we’ve perfected a few tips and tricks when it comes to maximizing your money on dining. Here are just a few of our favorite tips:

Oscar's Special

1. Eat your main meal at breakfast
If you can’t go when the Disney Dining Plan is free, then be sure to schedule your main/biggest meal for a late breakfast…especially when it comes to character dining. Dining prices get increasingly expensive as the day goes on, so the earlier the better.

Typically, we bring some breakfast/snack foods with us, so our typical day of dining will look like this: [Read more…]

Counter-Service Money-Saving Tip from the DFB Guide

By AJ 2 Comments

As many of you know, we launched the latest Edition of our awesome Disney Dining e-Book — The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining! And we’ve got some great Disney dining info from the e-Book for you today!

Cosmic Ray’s Bacon Double Cheeseburger with Fries

First up, one of our favorite counter-service money-saving tips! Some folks would rather not have the side items with their counter-service meal, but they feel strange asking to get the entree alone. Well guess what! Not only is that not strange, it can also save you some dough!

If you’re thinking that you’d rather skip the fries, ask the cast member for the “entree-only,” without the side dishes. This should knock off the cost of the fries or other side dish and leave you paying only for the main event!

So I guess this means that not only will you save money, but also calories… we could be onto something here!

Find this and over MANY other top money-saving tips for eating in Walt Disney World in The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-Book! We also have a full chapter dedicated to how to find and make use of Disney World dining discounts, coupon programs, membership programs, and more!

Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe!

WE KNOW DISNEY.
YOU CAN, TOO.

Oh boy, planning a Disney trip can be quite the adventure, and we totally get it! But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE Disney vacation.

Whether you're a rookie or a seasoned pro, our insider tips and tricks will have you exploring the parks like never before. So come along with us, and get planning your most magical vacation ever!

What are some of your favorite money-saving tips in WDW? Let us know in the comments below!

2011 Disney Dining Plan Changes

By AJ 21 Comments

It’s a new year, and we wanted to walk you through the ins and outs of what’s changed and what’s stayed the same when it comes to the Disney’s Dining Plan (DDP) in 2011! Fans and critics of the DDP will notice only a few changes this year:

Disney Dining Plan Snack Credit Logo

Standard Disney Dining Plan

The standard DDP was $41.99 per adult per night and has been bumped to $45.99 for the value and regular seasons. The rates for kids ages 3-9 remained the same at $11.99 per night.
Peak season 2011 rates will apply February 17-26, March 11-April 30, June 3-August 13 and December 21-31. Adult rates rose from $46.99 per night to $47.99. The nightly rate for children age 3-9 remained the same at $12.99 per night.
For Quick-Service, Table-Service and Private In-room meals, the option to order juice at breakfast in addition to a non-alcoholic beverage was deleted. Perhaps guests were [Read more…]

Guest Review: Spirit of Aloha Luau Dinner Show

By AJ 18 Comments

Thanks to Jo at Magical Kingdoms for putting together this review of the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Disney World’s Polynesian Resort!

Having experienced the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Disney’s Polynesian Resort on our honeymoon trip a few years back, when we got the free Disney dining plan for our October/November trip, we knew that we had to revisit. The dinner show takes 2 table service credits, so we skipped a TS dinner one day, which really wasn’t a [Read more…]

No Park Tickets? No Reservation? No Problem!

By AJ 19 Comments

The main complaint I hear regarding the re-instated 180-day window for Disney World Advanced Dining Reservations is that it’s impossible to get a seat in a restaurant “on a whim.” I wanted to address that concern and add another challenge: what if you don’t have park tickets, either?

I thought it’d be fun to tackle this situation and suggest a few spots in both Disney World and Disneyland for those who find themselves in this “pickle!”

Beaches and Cream Beef Sandwich Au Jus

Walt Disney World

Nope! I’m not kidding. It doesn’t have to be a hassle to find a good, table-service meal in Disney World — even when you don’t have a reservation or a park ticket! Here are four of my favorite go-to locations at all different price points:

Beaches and Cream $
Welcome back to the 1950’s soda shoppe! Beaches and Cream is located at Disney’s Beach Club Resort and doesn’t even take reservations, so you won’t ever run into the no ADR problem! This spot serves simple, but delicious, [Read more…]

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Treats From The Mini-Guide: Banana Bread Pudding

Disney World Free Dining Rumored for Fall 2011 and Possibly 2012