A few months back Downtown Disney became the home to four Disney themed food trucks. The trucks have not created much excitement among Disney geekdom, but it seems that the folks at Disney are getting a little smarter. Now the Disney food trucks are actually going mobile. Today and next Tuesday – March 25, 2014, you can find some of the Disney food trucks at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort.
I visited last week, during the very first Food Truck Tuesday at Disney’s Saratoga Springs. The trucks sat, waiting for guests and Disney Vacation Club members, in the Grand Stands parking lot. Each cluster of buildings at Disney’s Saratoga Springs resort is named; the Grand Stands is a section that can sometimes feel isolated from the rest of the resort. Placing the trucks here adds some excitement to this area and also helps with traffic flow.
We were pleasantly surprised to see the Recreation team out and about playing music, singing songs, and playing games with guests and DVC Members. Plus, you can have fun with a balloon animal artist, get a caricature, or get your face painted too! The kids in the crowd were loving all this free fun stuff!
The Disney food trucks serve fare that can be found in the Disney theme parks. In fact, there are four trucks and each truck is themed after one of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. The most popular two trucks are Fantasy Fare, serving foods from the Magic Kingdom themed parks around the world, including the beloved hand-dipped corn dog from Disneyland. My husband was very excited to try this, he is a die hard Disneyland fan. While the corn dog resembled the massive hand-dipped dog that can be found on the original Main Street USA, he said there was still just something missing from it.
The other most popular truck is the World Showcase truck presenting flavors from Epcot. The neat thing about this truck is it offers food that is featured during Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival as well as the International Flower and Garden Festival. In fact, two of the food offerings are featured in this year’s Flower and Garden festival going on right now through May 31st. This includes the much talked about bacon cupcake as well as one of my favorites, shrimp and grits from the Florida Fresh booth.
Speaking of cupcakes, DVC Members receive a free chocolate cupcake with their food purchase from one of the food trucks during Food Truck Fridays and while supplies last. You can also choose to have a rice krispie treat instead. This was a nice little touch for loyal and proud Disney Vacation Club members.
Being a massive Animal Kingdom fan, I visited the Namaste Cafe truck and indulged in the ultra tender beef short ribs. I also decided to make it a special evening and ordered a glass (plastic glass) of red wine. These two items together cost me $20!!!! While the short ribs are so incredibly tender, the pickled veggies are a weird accompaniment in my opinion and I had buyers remorse thinking about $20 for the food and the plastic glass of wine.
All in all, it is nice to see the Disney food trucks out and about. Downtown Disney already has so many food options I don’t think these food trucks are necessary. But if they continue to journey to places where the food offerings are limited, like certain resorts or ESPN Wide World of Sports, then I feel they are using their trucks wisely. The last two remaining Food Truck Tuesdays are today and March 25, 2014. It is a fun event and a nice touch for Disney Vacation Club Members. The Disney food trucks are heading down the right road if they keep in this direction.
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