We Had TONS of Holiday Fun at Epcot's Festival of the Holidays

The Holidays are in full swing at Walt Disney World! All four parks are decorated, and have a sense of holiday spirit in the air. We experienced this at the beginning of November when we visited the parks, but there was one park that wasn’t quite ready for the holidays then. That park was Epcot. That’s not the case anymore, though. November 26 the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays began, and now Epcot is a park wide celebration of the holidays.

Like the name says, Festival of the Holidays is a celebration of holidays from around the world. Each of Epcot’s pavilions are decorated in a way that represents how that nation celebrates their winter holidays. Each pavilion also has storytellers that share about the history and traditions of their holiday.

Just like at all of the Epcot’s festivals, there are festival kitchens. This time they have dishes and drinks from holiday celebrations! To stick with the holiday theme, the festival has the Festival of the Holidays Cookie Stroll. Guests that purchase five of the available cookies, and receive stamps for them in their festival passport, will receive a prize for completing their quest.

This past weekend, we experienced the magic of the Festival of the Holidays! We enjoyed seeing all of the decorations, learning about holidays around the world, and enjoying holiday food.

Cookie Stroll

Linzer Cookie – Yum! Cinnamony cookie filled with sweet raspberry jam.

Crinkle Cookie – If you like chocolate, you’ll love this super chocolatey cookie!

Black and White Cookie – This plant-based cookie is moist and has a delicious hint of chocolate from the coating.

Snickers-Doodle Cookie – This cookie doesn’t have too much flavor from the actual cookie, but the Snickers pieces give it a nice chocolatey taste.

Gingerbread Cookie – We read a lot of bad reviews of this one before we went to the festival. We actually enjoyed it. It had a nice hint of ginger, and that is what I think most people don’t like about it. It tastes more like a molasses cookie with a bit of ginger. We liked it.

Completer Cookie – After getting stamps for all five cookies, we took our passport to Holiday Sweets and Treats for our prize. This year’s prize is a cookie in the shape of an ornament with the 50 and characters to celebrate the 50th Anniversary. The cookie itself was actually really good, it tasted a bit like a graham cracker! The fondant topped wasn’t overly sweet, but you could taste the food coloring that made it blue.

Peppermint Sundae – This year there isn’t just one prize for completing the Cookie Stroll, there are THREE! You get the cookie, but you also get a small version of the Peppermint Sundae. The sundae was simple, chocolate soft-serve topped with whipped cream and candy cane bits, but it was really satisfying. You also get an ornament for completing the Cookie Stroll.

We ate a lot more than that, too!

Pumpkin Gingerbread Cheesecake – There wasn’t much gingerbread to the cheesecake, but the pumpkin flavor was nicely present and we really enjoyed this one.

Turkey Poutine – Fries topped with turkey, gravy, cranberry relish, and crispy onions. This was SO GOOD! It all paired really well together, it was like Thanksgiving, but with fries instead of mashed potatoes. It was a nice break from all of the sweet treats.

Gingerbread Milkshake – This milkshake packs a lot of ginger punch, but it was refreshing, and we all enjoyed it.

Peppermint Donut – The Donut Box is around for another festival this year! We tried the Peppermint Donut this time, a yeast donut topped with LOTS of chocolate frosting and candy cane pieces. Quite good.  

Maple Buche de Noel – We also tried the Maple Buche de Noel from the Yukon Holiday Kitchen. It was full of maple and chocolate flavor, with hints of cranberry throughout. We all really enjoyed it.

There was SO much holiday food to enjoy at the festival, and we’re glad that we got to try a pretty good sampling of it.

In addition to eating, and learning, we also took the opportunity to meet Santa in the American Adventure Pavilion.

We really enjoyed our first time at the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays, and we look forward to attending it again next year!


Have you been to the festival? What’s your favorite dish?!

 

Are you ready to start planning your next trip?! I’m a travel advisor with Vacation Guru and I’m here to help! Contact me at miriya@govacationguru.com for your FREE quote and to start planning. For more Disney and travel information, follow me on Facebook. 

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