Halloween at Magic Kingdom can be magical … and expensive. We tried the 6 best seasonal treats that don't require costly extra tickets.
Boo to you! Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World comes alive during Halloween with wickedly delicious snacks. Both sweet and savory, these creations have become a cornerstone of this frighteningly good time of year. While some are exclusive to the pricey Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, some of the best seasonal treats are served during normal park hours.
On a recent visit to Magic Kingdom, I taste-tested the food and beverage selections available during the day to regular park guests. From an unexpectedly scrumptious ice cream flavor to a New Orleans-inspired burger, here are the six best seasonal treats that don't require a costly extra ticket.
1. Sweet Corn and Vanilla Soft-serve Swirl, Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies
At Disney, there's nothing spooky about the combination of corn and ice cream. While the two might not go hand in hand in everyday life, Disney makes magic happen with what very well may be their best Halloween offering. Available at Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies, the Sweet Corn Soft-serve Swirl has returned and is out-of-this-world delicious. The corn-flavored ice cream is much less flavored to too-sweet candy corn and more akin to the vegetable, adding a wonderful bit of sweetness to a vanilla base. Topped with a candy corn-white chocolate bow, trick-or-treat yourself to this delicious offering.
2. Binx Pastry Tail, Cheshire Café
Cheshire Café is a whimsical hidden gem tucked away to the right of Cinderella Castle, and its Halloween contribution is a twist on its longstanding menu item, the Cheshire Cat Tail pastry. Normally, I'd say it's all just a bunch of Hocus Pocus when it comes to Disney pastries, but this Binx pastry is well-executed. The croissant-like pastry, shaped like a paw, is wonderfully crisp on the exterior with a soft pillowy middle. Inside, it's filled with a thick layer of luscious Nutella that pairs wonderfully with the warm outer layers. A drizzle of dark chocolate and an adorable chocolate Binx round out the layers of flavors.
Note: While it's advertised as a "tail," it is very much a paw.
3. Cold Witches' Brew Coffee, Cheshire Café
When you witch upon a star, Disney delivers with creative coffees. Fall is all about the pumpkin spice and everything nice, and Cheshire Café offers a much-needed theme park caffeine break. The Cold Witches' Brew Coffee is a playfully-named coffee drink with a base of French vanilla cold brew topped with pumpkin-spiced foam and multi-colored Halloween sprinkles. This one is definitely for the coffee lovers out there, as the taste of slightly bitter cold brew shines. That said, mixing in the spiced foam adds a subtle sweetness. As a black coffee drinker, I loved the chance to partake in a festive drink that wasn't cloyingly sweet.
4. Bayou Burger, Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
Found at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café, the Bayou Burger was an unexpected addition to the sweet-laden Halloween offerings across the park. A nod to the spooky swampland from the Princess and the Frog, the savory combo takes the joint's usual flame-broiled hamburger patty and adds jalape?o pimento cheese, crispy andouille sausage and garlic pickles. The combination of ingredients wowed me, with a spicy pimento cheese that was nothing like the classic Southern presentation (and served as the star of the dish).
The garlic pickles offered a slight bit of tang that rounded out the overall spicy elements of the burger. With layers of flavor that combined savory, spicy and smoky, it was a welcomed departure from the usual uninspired fare found at the counter service location.
5. Monster Cookie, Liberty Square Market
Liberty Square Market's Monster Cookie may be — for lack of a better phrase — "cookie cutter" compared to other snacks on the list, but it still deserves its rightful place. Perfect for the less adventurous eaters in your group, it's essentially a standout version a Disney sugar cookie. Prepared fresh and soft, it's topped with fun candy eyes and Halloween sprinkles to further tie into the theming.
6. Chilling Chamber Pop, Sleepy Hollow Refreshments
Bone appétit! One of the most visually stunning offerings in this year's Halloween lineup is the Chilling Chamber Pop, available during the day at Sleepy Hollow Refreshments. The purveyor — known for its waffle creations — offers this unique treat as a nod to the "999 happy haunts" found inside the park's Haunted Mansion attraction. The Push-Pop has been seen in various forms, but now materializes topped with a chocolate piece showcasing the tightrope walker from the attraction's stretching room.
The pop is wrapped with now-iconic purple Haunted Mansion wallpaper and filled with chocolate crumbs, cherry buttercream and dark chocolate pearls. Now a fixture of Halloween celebrations at Magic Kingdom, it remains a delicious, cherry-forward dessert and an elevated twist on the beloved children's treat.
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