food IS a theme park
We are LIVE from the 2020 Taste of EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays! Already, we’ve tried what’s on the menu at Holiday Hearth, Festival Favorites, and Prost!
2020 Taste of EPCOT Festival of the Holidays
Up next is a trip over to Sapphire Holiday Kitchen. Located in the Morocco Pavilion, this booth is serving up some returning items from last year’s festival!
This year’s Taste of EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays has officially begun! Today, we’re tasting all of the delicious eats and sips from around the world, of course with a fun, festive twist.
Festival Favorites
Festival Favorites is located in World ShowPlace in between the United Kingdom and Canada Pavilions, and features menu items from previous Festival of the Holidays! It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen some of these dishes appear in an EPCOT festival, so we were anxious to see how they would measure up!
2020 has been A YEAR, hasn’t it? There’s no question that Disney World’s temporary closures have had a big impact on tons of upcoming projects across the parks and resorts.
Spaceship Earth
With just a few weeks left to this calendar year, let’s take a look at the projects that should have opened this year, but were DELAYED due to the closures!
If you follow us over on Instagram, you may remember we recently asked the trivia question: Which Disney park has the MOST attractions?
Cinderella Castle
We received over 30,000 replies, and as it turns out, over 20,000 (20,098 to be exact) got the trivia question WRONG!
There’s really no way around it: a vacation to Disney World is pricey when you include flights, theme park tickets, accommodations, and of course all the spending that happens in the parks and resorts.
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Luckily, there are still a select amount of things that are still absolutely FREE in Disney World. And if you know about these things and use them strategically, you CAN end up saving a few valuable bucks.
Disney dining can be a curious thing, and at times it can almost seem like a tale of two dining experiences. On the one hand, you can easily find your fair share of cheeseburgers, pizza, plastic cheese, chicken fingers, and corndogs. On the other hand, Disney is no stranger to cranking out solid signature dining restaurants with top-notch service and dishes that would rival many fine-dining restaurants around the world.
Carthay Circle
Our recent visit to Buena Vista Street in Disney’s California Adventure, the newest extension of Downtown Disney to reopen on November 19th, was a perfect example of this juxtaposition. After chowing down on our beloved corndogs over at Award Wieners and eating a rather…sad…cheeseburger at Smokejumpers Grill, we sat down at Carthay Circle Lounge Alfresco Dining for a “total 180.”
Downtown Disney has been continuing its slow and steady phased reopening with the addition of Buena Vista Street reopening for shopping and dining last week. With Orange County currently in the most restrictive reopening tier, only outdoor dining is permitted at this time.
UVA Bar
That said, outdoor dining is still available, and another restaurant in the Downtown Disney District will be reopening its doors TODAY for guests!
It’s time to get our holiday shopping on! Gift buying can be particularly tricky when you’re on a budget, but there are actually TONS of Disney gifts you can find online for under $20 (like our DFB face masks!).
DFB face masks
Not only that, but there are plenty of places you can find Disney items at lower price points! We’re sharing ten of our favorite gift ideas for under $20 at five different retailers, bringing the grand total to FIFTY Disney gifts you can score this holiday season at a bargain price!
When you’re visiting Magic Kingdom, every minute matters! If you’re looking to do it all in a single day, eating on-the-go is a great way to maximize your time in between attractions, cavalcades, and more!
Cinderella Castle
As Disney World continues its phased reopening, more dining locations have been reopening and expanding their menu. Now, a popular Counter Service spot has brought back their breakfast menu!
For the first time since March, guests are once again able to explore Disney California Adventure! Well…kind of. If you ask Disney, Buena Vista Street (and its immediate surrounding area) has reopened as an extension of Downtown Disney. California Adventure as a theme park remains “closed” at this time.
Storytellers Statue
However, you can’t deny that getting to eat an Original Corndog, as well as dining at Carthay Circle Lounge, doesn’t remind you of what it’s like to eat at a Disneyland park! There’s another dining option available to guests we haven’t shown you yet — Smokejumpers Grill!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
