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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Food At Walt Disney World

Dining is a big deal at Walt Disney World. While I love the magic of the theme parks and beauty of the resorts, my favorite part of vacationing at Disney World is experiencing all of the different restaurants and different styles of cooking and trying new foods. While I can’t say that I have tried all of the different restaurants at Walt Disney World, I am working hard to go to each one as a Disney bucket list item! Disney’s food statistics are really pretty incredible, with some numbers just making my jaw drop. Some of these will leave you in awe, some just plain hungry!

10. Variety

There are more than 475 dining choices that range from the food carts, quick service, table service and signature dining locations on property. Now you understand that even though I am trying to get to all of them, it feels like an almost impossible task! Within those choices, more than 6,000 different types of food are available. The good news is that if you have a picky eater in your family, you’ll find somewhere to feed them!

9. Size

It’s not, but if it were a restaurant chain, Disney World would be the 45th largest food chain in the world. 45 might seem like a high number, but that includes fast food chains.   It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the operating costs and revenue, but one statistic that is fascinating is that Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café at Magic Kingdom is the busiest restaurant revenue wise on Disney World property also making it the busiest restaurant in the US and 3rd in the world. Wow.

8. Growth

Disney cultivates over 30 tons of fruits and vegetables in The Land Pavilion each year. You can be a part of the experience by taking the Living with the Land tour where you will see 4 greenhouses and witness some of the really interesting items grown in The Land, including giant lemons and Mickey shaped pumpkins! I also suggest you head over to The Garden Grill upstairs to sample some of the salad items and view the Land from above!

7. Say Cheese

Cheese is a most important food at Walt Disney World. Disney Restaurants offer over 90 different varieties in their restaurants. As a quick test, how many varieties of cheese can you even name? Another yummy fact is that over 600,000 pounds of mac and cheese is consumed annually.

6. Snacks

A staggering 324,000 pounds of popcorn kernels are popped each year with guests purchasing over 5.3 million bags of the popular snack. 1.5 million soft pretzels are consumed annually, which wraps up the salty. For the sweet, over 3.3 million Mickey shaped ice creams bars are sold each year and 50 million soft drinks are consumed in the Florida sun!

5. Quick Food

Ever popular at Disney World are the quick options for food. Unbelievably, 7 million burgers and 5 millions hot dogs are consumed annually. Casey’s Corner at Magic Kingdom sells enough hotdogs to circle the park 36 times yearly and Biergarten at Epcot serves enough bratwurst every 60 days the length of a full marathon, 26.2 miles! 1200 pizzas are made every hour in Disney World kitchens. For a side, 9 million pounds of French fries are sold annually.

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4. A Fine Location

The fine dining location Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian is the only AAA 5 star diamond award winning restaurant on property. They serve either a 7 or 10 course meal and have over 700 wine selections in their wine cellar. What is fascinating is that yearly, Victoria and Albert’s serves over 10,000 soufflés to their eager guests. Another bucket list item?

3. Turkey Legs

More than 1.2 million pounds of turkey legs are served annually at Disney World. And, yes they are turkey legs, not emu or ostrich which are just myths. These legs come from Toms, male turkeys, which are much larger than the typical female or young turkeys consumed on Thanksgiving. They are a whopping 720 calories and have 36 grams of fat each leg. More fun than eating them, is posing for pictures with them! They are so popular that you can buy turkey leg t-shirts, magnets and air fresheners in the stores!

2. A Sweet Ending

This might be my favorite part! Over 320,000 pounds of chocolate, 740,000 pounds of sugar, 1.8 million pounds of flour, 245,000 pounds of fruit filling and 38,000 pounds of white icing are used in desserts annually which puts me in the mood for cake and cookies! For wedding cakes alone, Disney has 5 full time cake bakers and other part time helpers. That is not counting the cast members responsible for other sweet treats, that is just to make the wedding cakes!

1. Waste Not

Over 700,000 pounds of unused, prepared foods are donated annually to feed the hungry of Central Florida from Disney World Restaurants. Disney takes food prep very seriously and does not like to throw food out. Aside from the donations, Disney composts food and also recycles food for renewable energy. With the waste that I have personally witnessed in restaurants I have worked in, this commitment to reducing waste is really impressive!

About Lauren Wallis

Lauren Wallis was destined to love Disney. Her Mother found out that she was pregnant with Lauren after her honeymoon at WDW. After moving to Florida in 1990, every school trip, family vacation and weekend getaway was at Disney World! Lauren attended the University of Central Florida and spent her weekends looking for the most delicious restaurants on a college budget. She and her husband have relocated and now live in Central Florida, just minutes from Walt Disney World. She has stayed at every single resort and is currently working on eating at every single restaurant! She has been on WDW property over 400 times…lucky Floridian!