It's All About the Snacks

[TheTwins]

Everyone loves a snack, right? In fact, snacks are as important a part of the Disney Park experience as rides and character visits. Ask anyone planning a Disney vacation, and food is almost always near the top of the “must do” list. Sis and I have been wanting to post this for awhile, but it took just a little longer than expected to narrow things down. We have a lot of dietary restrictions, so we’ve never been able to eat all the colored snacks to be found at every turn. But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been fascinated by snacks since before we could talk. If a book or show mentioned food, it was sure to be our favorite part!

 

Naturally, the iconic Disney snacks (and some not-so-iconic) have been favorite themes with collectors for many years, but it took a little while for them to pop up on pins. I thought it’d be pretty easy to zip through the first pages of the PinPics database to find the first listing featuring a park snack. Nope. There were Watch Collectors’ Society pins, Teddy Bear and Doll Convention pins, Grad Nights, Electrical Parades, and even one featuring the Toon Town Gas Station pumps, but the only character enjoying a snack was Winnie the Pooh with his traditional honey pot. Not exactly a park snack, right?! After almost an hour of going pin by pin through the database (starting at PP#1), I found the first listing featuring an official Disney Parks snack! It’s none other than the classic Disneyland Popcorn Cart (PP#3747 )

 

 

 

Considering the popularity of snacks as a pin-collecting theme, it’s interesting that this was not added to the database until  January 2001. Back in 1999 and 2000, there weren’t as many pin-theme options to help narrow down collections. People didn’t always identify themselves as a “Tinker Bell collector” or a “Jiminy Cricket collector”. They just collected pins! Of course, after a couple of years and a lot of pin releases, everything changed. Once Disney realized that Park Snacks would be a lucrative theme, pins and merchandise started showing up with everything from Pretzels to Dole Whip! Now we see regular pin releases in the form of monthly LEs, mystery sets, and rack pins spotlighting all of our favorite food – which makes it easy to take home a souvenir that doesn’t melt or go stale but still reminds us of our treats. I thought it’d be fun to spotlight two classic treats and matching pins, then move on to personal favorites (this is what has taken Sis and me a little while to narrow down).

 

Churros

They’re one of the classic Disney offerings, having joined the Disney snack line-up in the 1980s in Disneyland’s Fantasyland. They were looking for something unique to offer to the teenagers at the coming Videopolis attraction. As a test, the Food and Beverage manager, Jim Lowman, arranged for a small cart to test the new snack near the exit of the Mark Twain Riverboat. As that first Churro cart was rolled out, thirty people were following behind waiting to buy one. The rest is snacking history. (Snacking tip: We hear from many friends that Disneyland is the place for churros. Apparently, Disney World tends to overbake them, making them too crispy and dry.)

 

Churros were featured on a pin as early as 2003 (PP#25884) and as recently as the Best Day Ever mystery set released in December 2025 (PP#181650).

 

  

 

 

Dole Whip

While we’ve never eaten it, this is the Disney snack which gives me the warm fuzzies (and features heavily in my favorite collection). Originating around the same time as Churros, the iconic creamy-yellow. soft-serve sensation first appeared at the new Aloha Isle in Magic Kingdom in 1984. It was a big hit with park visitors and made its way to Disneyland in 1986. You can now also enjoy this treat at the Polynesian Resort, Aulani Resort, on the Disney Cruise lines, and even at a kiosk in Florida's Disney Springs.

 

I’m actually a bit surprised that the first pin in the database to feature Dole Whip appears to be the Cast Lanyard Series pin with Chip & Dale from 2005 (PP#43370)! There have been a LOT of pins featuring this treat (often lumped in with ice cream and Citrus Swirl), but my favorite one is still the Minnie Mouse pin from the 2016 Delicious Desserts starter set (PP#120671).

 

  

 

 

Pizza

Now that we’ve covered two classics, let’s talk pizza. It’s also a classic, and it happens to be one of our all-time favorite snacks! When you’re talking Disney Pizza, depending on where you’re eating and who you're asking, the star rating can range from zero to ten. We’ve heard that the pizza window in the Italy Pavilion at World Showcase is the best.  However, our personal favorite thing to eat when visiting WDW is the large cheese pizza at Riverside Mill in the Riverside Resort (with french fries on the side, of course). You can boat out to this quiet place from Disney Springs, and there’s no experience quite so calming as sitting there watching the giant waterwheel and eating pizza from a box decorated with Mickey and Friends.

 

 

Thanks to Pizza Port and Pizza Planet, there are a hundred pins in the PinPics database which come up with a simple “pizza” search. However, the first pin to actually feature the snack was a Disney Auctions Stitch pin (which wasn’t added until February 2005) (PP#36858). I think our newest favorite is the Chef’s Special with Rizzo the Rat (PP#175241). This is definitely the pin going on our memory board to commemorate our favorite eating spot in the world.

 

  

 

 

Coffee

Technically, this isn’t a snack. It’s a beverage. But Sis and I consider this one of the best Disney treats, so I’m including it here on the list. We love getting the refillable mugs and having coffee at any resort we visit. Resort hopping is our favorite WDW pastime, and checking out the Joffrey’s coffee machines in the different quick-service locations is just some of the fun involved.

 

The first pin added to the database that shows a cup of coffee was added in April 2001 (PP#4872), and there’ve been some great designs ever since. To spotlight just a couple, here are two of our favorite coffee pins, because we love travel cups that remind us of the Disney to-go cups. First, there’s the green travel cup from 2011 (PP#83250), followed by a very recent release: Donald with coffee from the Best Day Ever mystery set (PP#181652).

 

  

 

 

Grizzly Bear Claw
Sadly, the rest of our favorite snacks don’t appear on a pin, but we have to mention them anyway! Have you ever tried the Grizzly Bear Claw at Wilderness Lodge? You’ll find this decadent treat at the Roaring Fork quick-service restaurant. It’s sort of a cross between the traditional Bear Claw and a Cinnamon Roll – but it’s absolutely yummy and gigantic! You can easily serve six off this treat, which is why they come in a to-go container. If you ever get the chance to bus or boat to the Lodge, make sure to sample this snack.

 

 

 

While it’s never appeared on a pin, it’s only fair to mention that this snack honors the irresistible Humphrey the Bear. He’s a mascot for Wilderness Lodge and appears on a number of the resort pins. Here’s one (PP#164775) that shows Humphrey and Donald ready to enjoy a cake – which looks quite a lot like Sis and me when we get to enjoy one of the Grizzly Bear Claws!

 

 

 

 

Norwegian Lefse
This refrigerated treat is fabulous for munching as you walk through World Showcase on a warm day. It lasts up very well, too, so you don’t have to eat it all at once. Lefse is a potato flatbread which resembles a tortilla at first glance. It’s coated in butter, cinnamon, and sugar, and then rolled into a tube. At EPCOT it’s handed to you wrapped in paper, making it super easy to carry without getting messy. It’s also quite large and makes a great snack for sharing.

 

 

While this snack has not appeared on a pin yet (there’s always hope), it is sold at Kringla Bakery in the Norway Pavilion, and that  is mentioned on one pin: PP#144687. The most famous snack from the pavilion is the School Bread, but Sis and I would like to encourage everyone to give the Lefse a chance!

 

 

 

Moroccan Saragli
Have you ever checked out the pastry case at Oasis in the Morocco Pavilion? Another great spot in World Showcase, this one is actually on the lake side of the walkway, so you don’t even enter the pavilion to visit. Inside that unassuming little pastry case are some great snacks, particularly the Saragli. It’s like a form of Baklava, but not the classic variety soaked in sugar syrup. It’s very sweet and tastes like a flaky type of cinnamon roll. And it comes in the cutest little cardboard take-away box. Be careful, though, that box isn't super durable, so sticking it in a plastic park bag is the best option. This is totally speaking from experience . . .

 

 

Sadly, I can’t find a pin anywhere which relates to Oasis or Saragli. Until they come out with one, we just have a bunch of Morocco pavilion pins in our collection and a receipt for our treats. Since I’d like to spotlight a pin that can “remind” us of this tasty snack, let’s look at one of my favorites (PP#155219 )

 

 

 

Apple Strudel – The Snack That Got Away
Just the thought of this snack has made it legendary in our house, so it’s getting an honourable mention, because we’ve never tried it at EPCOT. For years . . . and years . . . we have dreamed of going to World Showcase when the Germany Pavilion is offering their apple strudel. The first time we went as kids was back in April 2001, so this has been a dream long in the making. Finally, we went back to the park in February 2024. No apple strudel on the menu. No worries, it gives us something to look forward to, we said. Then, in a very unplanned visit, we ended up back at EPCOT with a friend later that year in October. Smack dab in the middle of the Food & Wine Festival, too. Guess what? Yep. We got Lefse, and Saragli, and ate at Garden Grill. But we forgot the apple strudel! As far as I can find, this snack has never been featured on a Disney pin, so we’ll keep it as a wish for the future and a legend in the meantime.

 

 

 

Now that Sis and I’ve shared our favorite snacks, we’d love to hear about yours!  What’s your favorite treat at the Parks, and is it featured on a pin? Is there a special story behind it for you?

 

All this talk has made my hungry, so I’m off to find . . . a snack!

Sarah

 

---

 

Bonus Factoid: Did you know that Doritos were actually developed in the 1960s at Disneyland? Yep. It was at the Frontierland restaurant, Casa de Fritos, a restaurant sponsored by the Fritos company (owned by Frito-Lay). When a salesman from the wholesale food company noticed the chef throwing unused tortillas out at the end of the day, he suggested that they cut the tortillas into triangles before deep-frying them and adding Mexican seasoning on top. Right away, a favorite snack was born! To read more about this, you can check out a great webpage here: https://waltsdisneyland.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/disneyland-the-birthplace-of-doritos/

[ViciousLady]

WOW I had to read this right before LUNCH! 

These are some greats pin to highlight, and now I am missing Epcot and all the incredible food and drink experiences we've had there. I have never had a Lefse, and while I can't pop over to Epcot for one anytime soon I am going to hunt around and see if I can't find any more local locations offering something similar or maybe make it myself. 

 

Dole Whip is such a sacred disney tradition to me that I won't order it anywhere else though they've since allowed it to be sold outside of the parks. In fact this was the last pin I purchased before the parks shut down in 2020.

 

Thank you guys so much for the wonderful highlight!

 

Edit: ALSO wanted to say thank for the Dorito fact!!!!

Edited 4 hours ago by ViciousLady

[12ontheway]

I was so thrilled to find this and its thanks to you. Now I have to have it!  Thanks for putting me on it.  What is a trip to Disney without getting at least one turkey leg?