Walt Disney World Ice Cream Crawl

I don’t know about you, but one of my absolute must-have indulgences at Walt Disney World is ice cream. Add into that my love of coming up with themes or challenges for our Disney trips, and you get a recipe for success. (Specifically, you get a Walt Disney World Ice Cream Crawl!) My husband and I are apt to try a variety of challenges on our trips. We might focus on only getting snacks from places we’ve never been to before. Or we might make all of our table service reservations for restaurants we’ve never visited. Or we’ll do a trip dedicated to resort dining. (I’m just now noticing the theme of food in a lot of our planning…) For our upcoming trek, we decided to crank it up a bit and focus on ice cream.

I knew from the very beginning that not only did I want to do an ice cream crawl, but I wanted it to have its very own passport. I was inspired by the Epcot festival passports that detail out what food items you can find where. Seriously, what better way to keep track of all the amazing ice cream options than to have a dedicated ice cream passport?! (You can download your very own passport later in the article.) Let’s back things up a bit and discuss how the ice cream crawl was formed.

Simply put, the ice cream crawl was born out of an intense desire for ice cream. (Okay, it was actually as a result of the Whole30 we were in the middle of, but don’t tell anyone else that. It’s not like we were dying for sugar or anything…) First, I needed to decide what locations would be fair game for inclusion in the passport. All four theme parks were obvious, but what about resorts? Water parks? Disney Springs? At the end of the day, I went with locations that we would be reasonably likely to frequent. This included all four theme parks, Disney Springs, and the area around Crescent Lake. It’s so easy to pop out of Epcot and over to the Crescent Lake resorts that including those seemed appropriate. (And we really needed Ample Hills Creamery in there!)

Next, I had to determine exactly what I was using as my definition of ice cream. Would the traditional popsicles in the Mexico pavilion count? Kakigori in Japan? Slushies? Long story short, the answer to all of those questions is no. Once we crossed the line into fruit/water-based frozen treats, I decided it was not eligible for inclusion in the passport. (Although I REALLY considered that kakigori!)

I then had to look up menus for all the restaurants, kiosks, etc. in all of the locations I was including in the passport. As tedious as it sounds, that’s exactly what I did! I pulled up every menu in each of the targeted areas and scrolled through them looking for ice cream. (It’s quite possible I missed something somewhere, but I did my best!) I should point out that I did not include any of the ice cream carts that have prepackaged ice cream treats. (I know, I know – some of those treats are iconic! In the end, I made an executive decision.)

Finally, it was time to build the actual passport. Luckily, the amazing artist Donna Yan allowed me to use her fantastic Disney food artwork in the passport. (You should check out her adorable Disney food prints on her website, and I highly recommend you follow her on Instagram here.)

I wanted to keep things simple on my end, so I created the passport using Microsoft Word and converted the file to a PDF. I have two different versions for you to download based on your needs. The first version of the passport keeps the pages in order. This is the one I recommend if you are going to use the passport electronically. The second version of the passport has changed the page order so you can print it 2-up, double-sided and assemble it into a simple booklet. With this one you’ll need to cut each of the pages out and bind it along the spine. You can staple it, or even hole punch it and use ribbon. Use your imagination when it comes to putting it together! Here are the steps to print version two of passport:

• In the Print menu, click the “Multiple” button under “Page Sizing and Handling.”
• Set the “Pages per sheet” to 2 by 1.
• Set the “Page order” to “horizontal.”
• Check the “Print on both sides of paper” box and make sure the “Flip on the long edge” radial is selected.
• Print your passport!

  

Next I would suggest that you spend some time planning. Really peruse the options and make a game plan for your absolute must-haves. I’m not saying that you need to plan out every creamy treat you’re going to indulge in, but make sure you pick out some key targets. (Believe me, I’ve already got quite a few on my list!)

There is one last thing I’d like to draw your attention to in regards to the passport. All of the items marked with an asterisk are adult ice cream treats. They contain alcohol, so if you and your kids sit down to pick items from the crawl passport, make sure they stay away from the marked ones. (This is noted in the passport, but I wanted to make sure an extra warning was thrown out here!)

My husband and I will be test driving our passport the week of Labor Day, so follow me on Twitter at @Angela_Wilhelm if you want to see updates on our progress! (And we will definitely be hitting some of those adult ice cream treats!) While the more extreme might consider tackling this crawl over the course of one day, we are opting to use our vacation as a sort of continual crawl. (Mostly so we don’t spend the trip getting sick from ice cream overindulgence!)

Would you try to tackle an ice cream crawl in a single day? What would be your must-have treats? Share your thoughts in the comments!