Vegan at Disneyworld

Why is it that you always need a vacation after a vacation? Well, I can assure you that after spending 5 days in Disneyworld, I was ready to come to “home sweet home”. Not only is Disneyworld insanely expensive, but tiring. But regardless of that, we had a blast! It was my very first time ever going there. I did not go there as a child, so it was exciting for me just as it was for my daughter, who is 5. It truly was magical watching the joy she experienced meeting her favorite characters like Mickey, Minnie, Elsa, Anna and Rapunzel.

If you’re going to eat at Disneyworld, accept ahead of time that vegan options are challenging to find and limited, but there is options. Also, accept that nearly everything is cooked in oil. Since a large amount of you all are oil-free, it’s important that I mention that. Unless you want to just eat fruit and Mickey pretzels, most of the food will have oil. I accepted that we wouldn’t eat as perfectly as at home and “let it gooooo”, as Elsa sings, LOL. We just enjoyed our vacation!

I believe in keeping it real, so I’m sharing my honest opinions about everything we tried. Again, these are just our opinions. Some were great, some not so much. Many of you all may have a totally different opinion, as we all have different tastebuds!

So, we only went to 2 of the parks…Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We were not interested in going to Animal Kingdom or the water park. Especially being our first time, there was plenty to see in the other parks. So, today I’m just sharing our vegan finds at those 2 parks. There is this wonderful website, VeganDisneyWorld, though for other vegan references that may help you out on your trip! Also, be sure to check out and join the Facebook group, Veg Disney, as they have amazing suggestions. I’m sure the next time we go, there will be even more to check out that we missed.

Forgive my imperfect photos…these were all taken quickly throughout the trip with my phone because I wanted to eat the food quickly and enjoy myself.

NOTE: Make sure to always ask and confirm that the options are vegan, as their recipes can always change.

Our first evening for dinner we ate at Captain’s Grille at the Yacht Club Resort. Since we stayed at the Boardwalk Villas and it was close by, we just walked there to eat. There was basically NO other option of vegan choices. We asked several places and was recommended this place.

The chef came out to talk to us to tell us our options. We ordered the falafel fritters, with apple chutney, asparagus, cauliflower with a sundried tomato vinaigrette.There wasn’t a whole lot of options to choose from. I forgot to take a pic, but we also ordered a side of some fat fries and they were yummy. The meal was ok. I wouldn’t get it again, but it was edible. The falafel was ok and pretty good, but the rest of the plate was just weird. The asparagus tasted good and the tomato vinaigrette was pretty tasty, but there was this weird cinnamon flavor to the carrots that just did not work for me. The sweetness just didn’t taste good to me. As much as I love apples and I’m a HUGE cinnamon-freak, I felt neither belonged on that plate. To be honest, I would have rather just eaten the falafel, a baked potato or fries. My husband ordered a baked potato as well, since he’s not really a falafel fan. I find that since I create my own vegan recipes, that I’m terribly picky with others. So, others may love it more than we did. Neither my hubby or daughter liked any of it, lol. Plus, my husband couldn’t eat the asparagus or the cauliflower because of gout (they cause flareups) so he just barely ate some falafel and filled up on a baked potato and fries.

The next day for lunch we ate at Columbia Harbor House, Liberty Square in Magic Kingdom.

I completely forgot to take any pics because we were so hungry, but here is the link to some pics from the Disney website. We had the Vegetarian Chili, minus the crackers, ordered fries and also the Lighthouse Sandwich, which was hummus and tomatoes. Make sure to not order the broccoli slaw that the sandwich comes with because it has dairy. The chili was pretty good and hearty, but was way too spicy for my daughter. She wouldn’t eat it.  So, she just ate fries and a few bites of the chili with lots of water, hahaha. The chili was hearty with lots of beans in it and also had mushrooms. We had to pick those out though, since my hubby can’t have them. He didn’t say much, but ate the whole sandwich. I hate tomatoes on sandwiches, so I didn’t eat any of it.

Also, we got the famous Pineapple Dole Whip a couple of times during our trip.

Correction, my hubby and daughter got it. I was very saddened to hear that it was only that one flavor, pineapple. I absolutely hate pineapple, so I couldn’t even stand the one bite I had. I know, I’m weird, but God did not give me tastebuds that care for most fruit. I really, really was looking forward to some good ice cream on this trip and it was not meant to be. My daughter and hubby sure loved it though. Which brings me to my next find. I was so determined to get ME some vegan ice cream that I researched and found that Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, Mainstreet USA, in Magic Kingdom, sold vegan ice cream by Rice Dream and Tofutti brands. I ordered the Rice Dream vanilla and it was the absolute, most disgusting thing I think I’ve ever tasted. I took one bite of that overpriced mess and threw it out. My husband couldn’t even eat one bite. It was grainy, wasn’t creamy and tasted like a really nasty protein powder that was turned icy. It was SO GROSS. Such a shame. Out of all the amazing vegan ice creams on the market, and the nastiest stuff ever is sold at Disney. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I don’t believe in sugar coating anything and I don’t want YOU to waste your money either! Come on Disney, give us vegans some real ice cream! I didn’t even bother forking out another ridiculous amount of money to try the tofutti kind next. I was so irritated because it was so expensive. Save your money and don’t buy it.

So, my ice cream wasn’t meant to be, but one thing that was absolutely delicious and refreshing and easy to find is the frozen lemonades. We had a Minute Maid Frozen Lemonade in Magic Kingdom, located next to the Ariel ride, that was so yummy. Forgot a pic again, was too eager to slurp it down. Plus, it was really sunny and hot at that moment, so a pic wasn’t on my mind. But, get it, it’s DELICIOUS.

One day for lunch we ate pizza at Pinocchio Village Haus, in Fantasyland, at Magic Kingdom.

Finally, something  yummy! Ask for the allergy menu, as it’s not listed on the main menu board when you walk in. They specially made us 3 vegan pizzas. They were very simple but really delicious and fresh tasting. Tomato sauce, tomato slices, fresh basil, vegan cheese and balsamic vinegar. They were so good. They were on the small side, so I easily could have eaten 2 myself. We also ordered fries.

There are Mickey pretzels everywhere in Disneyworld and they are vegan. I confirmed they have no animal products by asking. They were of course yummy and we ate several on our trip.

Another great snack option is the Roasted Almonds. So simple and so delicious. Sweet, smoky and crunchy.

Another delicious find in Epcot international flower and garden festival at Pineapple Promenade, was Frozen Dessert Violet Lemonade. Again, forgot a pic, but it was so delicious! I got this pic directly from the Disney site!

Another delicious find, which happened to be our favorite the entire trip, was at the Epcot international flower and garden festival, at Urban Farm Eats. We got the Crabless Cake with Vegetable Slaw, Lemon Vinaigrette and Old Bay Remoulade.

The entire meal is vegan and it was incredible. It was fried, so definitely not oil-free, but finally something with real flavor and tasted NOT vegan. So yummy. I’d suggest getting at least 2 per person. 1 was not enough. As I mentioned on social media, I’m definitely remaking this for the blog! The sauce was to die for. So creamy, tangy, great lemon flavor and a nice spicy kick without being too spicy. ALL 3 of us loved it, even my 5 year old! So so yummy.

Another day for lunch, in Epcot, In Morocco, we ate at the “Tangierine Cafe” and had the Vegetarian platter, minus the falafel and tzatziki.

Back to another gross meal, hahaha. Sorry, I’m totally laughing because it was such a hit or miss with us. This came with hummus, couscous, lentil salad and olives. If it doesn’t bother you, the falafel is vegan except for the part it is fried in same oil as chicken. Totally honest, this plate was a waste of money. The ONLY thing we liked was the hummus, which tastes exactly like the garlic hummus from Trader Joes, lol. Everything else on that plate was so gross and had too many weird flavors for our tastebuds. Salt and pepper would have been just fine, but there was SO much going on in the couscous, green salad and lentils….just not my style at all. Y’all know I love well-flavored food but it was just not my type of flavors. I’m not the norm though maybe, because there are apparently a lot of people I’ve read that really like it.

We ended up going back and getting a ton of yellow rice and eating that with wraps. I wish we had known ahead of time and saved our money because so much of it didn’t get eaten. The rice was good and my daughter really liked it. We went here based on a review I found on another website and clearly we have different ideas of what tastes good, because it was just so gross to me. FYI: They won’t sell just parts of the platter, you have to order the whole plate, so I wouldn’t get it next time. They were very nice though. I would double check what is vegan when you go, because menus can always change, he told me.

Now, for the long awaited place I had been dreaming about, Erin McKenna’s 100% vegan and gluten-free bakery. It is not at one of the parks, but is at Disney Springs, which is a place for shopping and eating about a mile from Disneyworld. The whole area is just beautiful. Big mistake to go when we were hungry. Since I’m a baker and have never stepped foot into a vegan bakery I was a wee bit too excited and bought WAY too many treats. Sadly, I was disappointed again. I think I’m not the norm though when it comes to desserts. I’m admittedly picky when it comes to others baked goods. I like baked goods moist, not DRY, with good texture and there has to be great deep flavor. Some were hits and some we didn’t like. Here are pics of everything we bought.

The top 2 cookies were large Thin Mint cookies and they were pretty yummy. I would order them again. The top 2 cupcakes were chocolate with mint frosting. Pretty good, but the frosting was way too oily. I couldn’t eat much of the frosting. The bottom 2 cupcakes were my favorite thing of everything we bought. They were Mocha Brownie Cupcakes. Chocolate and coffee/espresso is my all-time favorite combo, so I loved this coffee flavor of the cupcakes. The brownie part was dense and chocolatey and rich like a brownie. Yummy.

These top 2 were vanilla cupcakes with frosting, the bottom left is a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting and the bottom right was a French Toastie Cupcake. The frostings were pretty much pure oil so I just couldn’t handle it. I scraped most of it off. The French Toastie tasted artificial and weird.

Top left is a chocolate donut, top right is a vanilla cupcake topper and the bottom two were sugar donuts. I know they look so delicious in the photos, but they were sadly very dry. My daughter didn’t like the donuts because they were so dry.

She took just one bite and said it was yucky and too dry. I tasted it to be sure. She was right. It tasted too lemony or acidic. The chocolate iced donut was better, only because it had chocolate, but the donut part was exactly the same….dry. My guess was they had been sitting there a couple of days?? Who knows, but I wouldn’t order the donuts again.

So, I totally admit, my opinions on baking, and desserts in general, are picky. It’s a curse because I don’t like a lot of what I try. To make matters worse, my hubby is even more of a critic. It probably makes sense now why I test my dessert recipes so much, because even to myself, I’m hard to please, lol! But, at least I now know what I would get. I will go back there, but next time I will stick with the Thin Mint cookies and not order so dang much!

Another place we ate for lunch that day in Disney Springs, was at Blaze pizza! You can totally get vegan pizza there. It was good and similar to Mod pizza, if you’ve ever had theirs. I would say Mod is better, but it was still a tasty option! I’m so sorry I forgot to take so many pics…what can I say…when vegans are hungry, they don’t think clearly, LOL!

Another night for dinner in Epcot, we ate in Mexico and had a bunch of just rice, refried black beans and corn tortillas. Very simple, but really delicious! That was an easy, but simple meal to get, too, that was vegan! We confirmed no dairy in any of it. Forgot pics again there!

Our last night in Disneyworld we ate dinner in Epcot, in Italy at Tutto Italia Restaurant. The restaurant was beautiful and the waiters were truly Italian. I loved how at each place we went, the employees truly had the accents of the country it was representing. Made the experience so much more special.

Our waiter was Alessio and he was so sweet and accommodating. I joked with my husband that I loved his accent so much that I just wanted him to keep talking to us so I could listen to him all night, lol! The chef also came out and spoke to us about our options and what they could do for us. They were very nice. Based on what they told us, we ordered the Arugula and Basil Pesto with penne pasta.

I liked the flavor this dish had but it was WAY too oily. I was honestly afraid I would get sick from all of the oil. I’ve never been a big fan of very oily food because it used to make me very sick, so I could not eat all of this. When every bite you take is full of oil, that’s not a good thing. It was like slipping and sliding with every bite, hahaha! Seriously, I can handle some oil, but why oh why do restaurants use SO MUCH, I just don’t get it. A little goes a very long way but I don’t like feeling like all I taste is oil.

For my daughter, we ordered the Spaghetti and tomato sauce. Honestly, this was so simple but so delicious. Yet again, we had to learn a lesson that the most simple of food was the best. My husband and I both loved it so much more than the basil pasta, so we ordered another huge bowl of the spaghetti. Not to mention, not nearly as oily. See, our first trip and we learned so much. We wasted so much money on this trip on food alone that we didn’t like. FYI: Not all of the pastas are vegan, so they let us choose which type of pasta to go with each sauce, as they have some different options that don’t have egg in them. They also offer a vegan pizza for kid size with all veggies. No cheese. No adult size available. Also, they offer many veggies as well. We ordered a side of the Roasted Rosemary Potatoes. So delicious, but of course had oil.

So, there you have it! Some food we liked and some we didn’t. I know there is a TON more options I’m sure, so be sure to click the links I provided at the beginning of the post and I hope this post is somewhat helpful to those visiting Disneyworld soon!

Aside from the food, we had a blast and created some wonderful memories. My daughter loved it all and we did too. Oh, and we stayed at the Boardwalk Villas, which had a kitchen, so I made breakfast each day, so that saved us THAT headache of finding breakfast everyday. I loved the Boardwalk and would totally stay there again! The bed was soooo comfortable, I wanted to bring it home.

Here are some of our special magic moments.

The #1 favorite thing my daughter got to do was dress up as a Princess. That was a whole ordeal, but the one thing she wanted to do. It was so cute seeing all the little girls in the big Princess room getting all dressed up. She hasn’t stopped wearing the dress ever since we came back home either, haha.