Here Are The Worst Snacks You Can Find At Disney World

Planning a vacation to Walt Disney World is as fun as it is overwhelming. There's so much to think about. You need to choose the best restaurants (though our Magic Kingdom dining guide can help you with that), plan out your days, and create a budget to help manage the expenses. Ideally, every dollar you spend will feel well spent, but it doesn't always turn out that way. In fact, I've had my share of disappointing snacks, even at the most magical place on earth. To help you avoid such a fate, I've collected some of the worst snacks you can buy during your time at Disney World.

To end up on this list, the snack needed to have a less-than-stellar flavor, texture, and possibly presentation, or simply be a horrible snack to enjoy in the theme park. If any of these options happen to be one of your favorite snacks at Disney World, please don't be offended. These conclusions are based on my own experiences.

One of the very best snacks you'll find around Disney World is the popcorn. Even better? It's basically everywhere. Over at Epcot, as part of the Canadian pavilion, you'll find a maple popcorn cart serving both regular buttered popcorn and the sweeter stuff. While the salty and buttery popcorn is excellent, though, the maple popcorn is far less enjoyable.

The concept of maple popcorn for Canada is sweet enough, but the actual taste leaves a lot to be desired. The first few bites might be tasty enough, but that initial taste only lasts a few bites. It's as if it wants to be a sweet popcorn, but with the maple in there, it's closer to tasting like a stack of pancakes. Disney sells buckets for refills, and in Canada, you can choose between the original popcorn or the maple. The only trouble is that in addition to having too sweet a flavor, it also smells overly sweet, leaving behind a scent in your bucket that will last long after you manage to finish the final kernel. And that sugary smell has staying power, too, lingering until you're able to fully wash it.

The first time I ordered a stuffed pretzel at Disney World, I dug in with eager anticipation. Every stuffed pretzel I've ever had (other than this one) has been an enjoyable, cheesy, carby bite. However, this cream cheese warm pretzel was stuffed with more disappointment than cream cheese. The Magic Kingdom is positively packed with places to grab a snack, and the vast majority of them are very, very good. Unfortunately, for The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland, the cream cheese warm stuffed pretzel makes the list of one of the worst snacks I've had at Disney World.

There's always a chance that the pretzel I had was just an old one, or possibly one that hadn't been cooked well. In any case, the pretzel was hard rather than squishy and just didn't have enough filling. With stuffed pretzels, the stuffing should be a feature, not an afterthought. Though there's obviously cheese in this pretzel, there wasn't nearly enough. I'm under no delusion that Disney World makes its own stuffed pretzels in-house at these small snack shops, so consider this my humble request to change distributors or maybe make Wetzel's Pretzels a bigger part of the parks.

I'm absolutely obsessed with coffee. As a former barista who worked at Starbucks, few days go by when I don't enjoy some sweetened cold coffee. While I do love coffee, though, I'm also a little on the picky side. I'll admit that my preferences are pretty steady, and anything that tastes too artificially sweetened or fake just isn't going to do it for me. For a period of time, I went through a cold brew obsession, going so far as to make my own cold brew concentrate at home. It was delicious, but not all cold brew is created equally, and while it's hard to imagine cold brew failing the sip test, Jeffrey's Shakin' Jamaican Cold Brew just doesn't hold up.

You'll find Joffrey's locations throughout Walt Disney World as the official coffee brand. With so many carts, there are plenty of spots to order one of these coffees, and the line is typically shorter than Starbucks, so I've tried these cold brew coffees a few times with the hopes that they'll get better. Unfortunately, each time I order one of these coffees, it tastes as though it's made with straight cold brew concentrate. The flavors amount to something like coffee syrup, and it's just not enjoyable. I never finish the drink and end up ditching it in the nearest trash can. It's unfortunate, but I just don't think Joffrey Shakin' Jamaican Cold Brew is an enjoyable cup of joe.

Recently, my husband and I did a full "Star Wars" movie and television show rewatch, and it's given me a whole new appreciation for the franchise. It's safe to say I'm a reborn Star Wars fan, so I've been enjoying all of the Star Wars delights around the parks. So far, the absolute worst I've come across, though, is the Wookiee Cookie from Backlot Express.

How could a cookie mimicking the adorable wookiee be anything but delightful? Honestly, I don't know. I'm still baffled. This cookie is two oatmeal raisin cookies with a vanilla filling and a chocolate strap created to look like Chewbacca's immediately recognizable bandolier. The issue is that every single time I've tried one of these cookies, it was hard and tasted stale. Maybe I've been supremely unlucky, but they just don't represent the beloved wookiee very well. What really has me perplexed is that oatmeal cookies are normally some of the softest out there. How does this one get so very hard?

As a Disney World local, there are some serious perks to living close to these world-class theme parks. Easy access to the parks also means easy access to my house, so my family can bring leftovers or treats home from the park, to enjoy later. Perhaps no treat benefits more from our location than a Disney caramel apple. They're adorable and cute, and the ones I've tried have been fabulous. So, what's it doing on this list? One simple reason: These are impossible to eat without a proper knife and cutting board. If you're enjoying a day in the park, neither of these are going to be items you can easily access.

Seriously, this problem could be solved so easily if you could ask cast members to cut your apple for you. That would move caramel apples from one of the worst treats to one of the best. Think you can try to eat these like a normal apple? Think again. You're going to struggle and end up a sticky mess that's sure to attract all of the bees. Take my advice and leave the caramel apple on the shelf unless you have guaranteed access to the necessary cutting tools.

It might be hard to imagine how fruit could be one of the worst snacks at Disney World, but based on my experience, the snack three-pack of Cuties is more often a letdown than it is enjoyable. At many Disney World quick service restaurants, you'll have the option to order Cuties. These mandarin oranges will come in a trio of fruits, and they'll (more than likely) be pulled from a bowl of room-temperature fruit. While the temperature isn't the biggest issue, it doesn't help when you're likely already warm in the Florida sun. 

The biggest issue is the ripeness of the fruit. After peeling and separating the mandarins, you might find a dried-out piece of fruit. If you, like me, have peeled and cut your share of mandarin oranges, you'll probably be able to tell before you even separate out the wedges if it's a bad piece. At Disney World, about half the time, it will be.

Even if you've never been to Disney World, there's a good chance there's one thing you know: It's hot. No matter the time of the year, the sun is blazing, and the humidity really comes out to play. In those temperatures, it's easy to imagine loving ice cream and Dole whip, but it's very tough to imagine craving meat. Even still, you'll see guests walking around Disney World with large smoked turkey legs any time of year.

As a kid, I remember my family frequently getting one of these legs, but quickly regretting it. There's a whole lot of food here, and though the innermost parts of the turkey leg are tender and an enjoyable bite, most of the turkey leg is tough and does nothing to chase away the heat of Florida. Do yourself a favor and skip the smoked turkey leg. You'll save yourself the meat sweats and spend your coin on something much more enjoyable.

Disney World goes big for the holidays, offering new snacks and desserts to celebrate the various times of the year. One of those desserts you can basically always count on is a cupcake completely decked out in decorations and colors befitting the season. These cupcakes are most certainly adorably decorated, but that's all they're really good for.

With all of that frosting and extra decoration, they make a great photo, but they aren't all that enjoyable to eat. I've found that the frosting makes the cupcakes overly sweet, and unless you're going with the sandwich cupcake eating method, they're a sloppy mess to make it through. During the winter holidays, for instance, I've often seen a cupcake with a Christmas tree on top. It's cute, but all that's in that tree is frosting. For all the mess and lack of great flavor, you're better off with any of the other treats you'll find in the Disney World pastry cases.

Disney World has fresh-baked confections throughout the resort. You'll find pastry cases in the Main Street Confectionery as well as a slew of gift shops in the resort's various hotels. These shops often have packaged treats that look very similar to these freshly baked goodies. However, these prepackaged treats are worlds apart from the fresh stuff.

When looking for a sweet baked treat, look for the pastry cases and goods that are not prepackaged. Be on the lookout for plastic and cellophane treats with minimal labeling; those will be fresher. Or, if you see one, walk up to a pastry case and select your treat from the supplied options. At the Main Street Confectionery, you can even watch cast members preparing sweet treats right on the other side of the glass. These fresh treats have a better flavor and an infinitely better texture. You're doing yourself a supreme disservice by not looking out for the fresh goods. One of the best places this is on display is in Germany's Karamell-Küche. There, you can get bagged Werther's caramel corn in various flavors, or fresh popcorn. Get the fresh stuff; the bagged and labelled stuff doesn't come close.

Believe it or not, choosing the worst snacks at Disney World is more challenging than choosing the best. After all, the most magical place on Earth has some pretty great food, and it's honestly a little tough to figure out the worst of the bunch. To select these, I relied on my own experience as a Disney fan who's visited the parks literally hundreds of times since I live only a few minutes away. To be considered the worst snacks, these choices rank low for flavor, texture, and execution, while others just make a terrible Florida theme park snack.