Another month has come and gone in Disney World, which means it’s time for another roundup of the best and worst things we tried in the parks, resorts, and Disney Springs! With the kickoff of EPCOT’s Festival of the Holidays and the arrival of seasonal holiday treats in Disney World, there was no shortage of new menu items to try!

Let’s dive right in to find out what our top and bottom picks were for this month!

The BEST

Cheese Fondue in a Bread Bowl – Festival of the Holidays, Bavaria Holiday Kitchen

This month’s roundup of the best and worst things we had will feature several items from EPCOT’s Festival of the Holidays, which officially began on November 26th and runs through December 30th. Bavaria Holiday Kitchen is one of the booths we look forward to trying every season, and they truly delivered in 2021 with their Cheese Fondue in a Bread Bowl.

Seriously, you can win us over with a stellar bowl of melted cheese pretty easily, but we don’t want to diminish just how amazing this item is!! You can try it out for yourself for $8.25.

Click here to read our full review of Bavaria Holiday Kitchen!

Coquito Soft-Serve Waffle Cone – Festival of the Holidays, Refreshment Port

Refreshment Port showed UP this holiday season with some stellar new and returning menu items at the Festival of the Holidays. Their Coquito Soft-Serve Waffle Cone handily earned a spot on our Best of the Fest list, and it’s only $5.25! The ingredients here are simple enough — Coquito-flavored soft-serve with a strong cinnamon flavor topped with a tasty waffle cone!

If you’re looking for a simple yet oh-so-sweet frozen snack that tastes just like the holidays, head on over to Refreshment Port (and pick up an order of Turkey Poutine while you’re at it and wash it all down with their Pumpkin Spice Ginger Cocktail — seriously, they delivered at the Festival this year!).

Click here to read our full review of Refreshment Port from this year’s Festival of the Holidays!

Mini Pumpkin Pie Funnel Cake – Festival of the Holidays, Funnel Cake kiosk

Our third item from this year’s Festival of the Holidays that we wanted to make sure we included in our lineup of the best things we had this month is the Mini Pumpkin Pie Funnel Cake, which you can find at the Funnel Cake kiosk in the American Adventure Pavilion for $9.50.

This season’s edition of funnel cake is made with a pumpkin funnel cake topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and graham cracker crumbles. EPCOT’s funnel cakes are consistently among the items we look forward to trying the most each and every festival, and this one did not disappoint!

Click here to read our full review of the Mini Pumpkin Pie Funnel Cake

Reindeer Mousse – Rosie’s All-American Cafe

November brought a lot of festive holiday treats to Disney World, and across the parks and resorts, there is no shortage of seasonal goodies to try. One of our favorites (and one of the cutest) so far is the Reindeer Mousse from Rosie’s All-American Cafe in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

This adorable dessert costs $5.49 and is a spiced caramel cheesecake over peanut butter mousse on top of a salty pretzel shortbread cookie. The flavor and texture combinations were a winner in our book, plus it just instantly puts you in the holiday spirit!

Click here to read our full review of the Reindeer Mousse

Holiday Mystery Donut – Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew

Every once in a while, we’ll try a donut over at Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew in Disney Springs that reminds us that this sweets spot is not to be skipped on a Disney World vacation! We were curious to see what their Holiday Mystery Donut would be this year, and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that it was an apple strudel-inspired with an apple-flavored donut covered with caramel sauce, coffee cake cinnamon pieces, and a vanilla frosting drizzle.

For $6.50 this is a great way to split a holiday offering with a friend — there’s even a surprise apple pie filling inside the donut! This flavor won’t be around for long, so be sure to check it out before it disappears!

Click here to read our full review of the Holiday Mystery Donut from Everglazed

Cherry Jubilee Bubble Waffle – AristoCrêpes

We’re staying in Disney Springs for our next item on our “best” list for the month of November! AristoCrêpes serves delicious bubble waffle treats that come in a variety of awesome flavors, but for the holidays this year, we were truly wowed by their Cherry Jubilee Bubble Waffle!

You know how you can look at some snacks and you just KNOW that it’s going to be tasty before you even take a bite? That was sort of our experience with this Bubble Waffle — for $8.99, it’s a solid snack to try this holiday season if you love cherry!

Click here to read our full review of the Cherry Jubilee Bubble Waffle

Honorable Mention: Gingerbread Caramel Cookie Sandwich – Karamell-Küche

We wanted to include another item on our “best” list! This is a returning item that we’ve loved over the years, but we were so thrilled to see its return over at Karamell-Küche in EPCOT, we just HAD to include it. We’re talking about the Gingerbread Caramel Cookie Sandwich, of course!

In an endless sea of Disney World cookies, you’re bound to hit a few road bumps along the way with some disappointing treats (we’ll actually get to one example shortly!). That is NOT the case here — the Gingerbread Caramel Cookie Sandwich is a lovely blend of two soft gingerbread cookies held together with buttercream icing and Werther’s caramel inside for $5.99. Run (safely), don’t walk to Karamell-Küche on your next trip to see what we’re talking about.

Click here to read more about the return of the Gingerbread Caramel Cookie Sandwich!

The WORST

Dinde Forestière, Patates Douces Rôties – Festival of the Holidays, Le Marché de Noël

Now it’s time to mention the items we tried this month that were less than what we had hoped. That sentiment is especially true when it comes to our first item which can be found at Le Marché de Noël in the France Pavilion at EPCOT.

The France booth almost always tops our list as our favorite festival booth, so we had some pretty high expectations going into the Festival of the Holidays this season. Unfortunately, their Dinde Forestière, Patates Douces Rôties fell flat. The dish is made with turkey with bacon, mushrooms, and onions in a mustard cream sauce served with roasted sweet potatoes. Overall, we wanted to love this dish, but we found it to be cold and it just didn’t blow us away. If you’re curious to see how you would enjoy this dish, it costs $7.25. Who knows, maybe you’ll get a better batch.

Click here to read our full review of Le Marché de Noël

Snickers-Doodle Cookie – Festival of the Holidays, Yukon Holiday Kitchen

Remember a few seconds ago when we mentioned that some Disney World cookies miss the mark? We were thinking about the Snickers-Doodle Cookie from Yukon Holiday Kitchen at EPCOT’s Festival of the Holidays. On paper, it sounds like this would knock our socks off — a Snickers cookie? Yes, please! And for only $2.50? Even better!

Unfortunately, this cookie was a big let down. We expected off-the-charts flavor, but we were left with a plain (and not very flavorful) sugar cookie with a Snickers crumbles on top. It’s one of the five cookies you’ll need to grab on EPCOT’s Cookie Stroll in order to earn your special prize, so consider splitting this one with a friend so you aren’t left to work through it on your own.

Click here to read our full review of Yukon Holiday Kitchen

Holiday Parfait – Amorette’s Patisserie

One of the spots in Disney Springs that is known for delivering on both presentation and flavor is Amorette’s Patisserie. Their uniquely designed desserts and pastries are often Instagram-worthy as much as they are tasty. While there were some holiday treats that we loved, we couldn’t say the same about their Holiday Parfait.

There’s a lot going on with this one! It’s made with bourbon white chocolate mousse, cranberry cherry panna cotta, maple chocolate ganache, and chocolate chiffon cake, and is garnished with candied pralines and meringue trees. Some of the flavors in this dish work, but when mixed together, there was just too much going on for us to truly enjoy it. If you’re curious, it won’t be around for very long! Give it a try for $9.

Click here to read our full review of the Holiday Parfait

Red Velvet Whoopie Pie – Backlot Express and Trolley Cafe

There are some snacks where it truly breaks our foodie hearts to have included on the “worst” list of the month, but that’s basically how we feel with the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie that you can find this holiday season at both Backlot Express and Trolley Cafe in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

We’ve loved this treat in the past, in part due to the moist and flavorful red velvet cake that sandwiches the the sweet cream cheese frosting in the middle. This year, however, we found the red velvet to be dry, crumbly, and flavorless — leaving us with just the flavor of sweet cream cheese frosting (which, if you love sweet cream cheese frosting, might be a good thing!). It’s available this holiday season for $5.49.

Click here to read our full review of the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie

Cirque du Shake – Vivoli il Gelato

The last item on our list is the Cirque du Shake, a new limited-time offering at Vivoli il Gelato in Disney Springs. With the opening of Cirque du Soleil’s new show Drawn to Life, we loved seeing a specialty menu item appear that guests can enjoy before or after the show!

But for a whopping $18, this item will burn a hole in your wallet pretty quick, leaving you with a huge pile of ingredients that doesn’t really add up to the value of the price tag. It’s made with strawberry gelato, cookies and cream gelato, a waffle cone that is half dipped in white chocolate and has gold shimmer dust, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream. Oh, and it comes with sprinkles, a strawberry, two lollipops, a pinwheel, and an umbrella on top!

Click here to read our full review of the Cirque du Shake

Be sure to follow along for more monthly picks of the best and worst things we’ve tried around Disney World! There’s no shortage of new treats to eat and drink around the parks and resorts, and with the holiday season in full force, we’ll be having even more seasonal offerings in the weeks to come!