Another month has come and gone in Disney World! Can you believe we’re only two months away from 2022? Seriously…where has 2021 gone?! Before we can dive headfirst into the holiday season (we’ve already made our holiday season treats list and checked it twice!), we have to revisit our top and bottom picks for the food and drink items we tried in the month of October!

This month, to no one’s surprise, is chock-full of treats from the 50th Anniversary Celebration. Let’s revisit the menu items we would gladly try again and again, as well as those items we would rather not remember.

The Best

Steakhouse 71 Stack Burger from Steakhouse 71

This month brought with it the grand opening of one of the newest dining spots in Disney World, Steakhouse 71! The restaurant took the place of The Wave at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, and it serves an exceptional breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

While we enjoyed a variety of menu items across all three meals, the HUGE standout to our team was the Steakhouse 71 Stack Burger, which you can order off of the lunch menu! It’s made with a signature blend of Beef, American Cheese, Lemon Aïoli, Red Onion, and House-made Pickles on a Brioche Bun. Also, while it is not listed on the menu, the burger patty is topped with a piece of Pork Belly.

Sound tasty? That’s because it IS. This is a VERY delicious menu item with plenty of cheese to keep anyone happy. The signature blend used for the patty was on the fattier side, giving us a gloriously greasy feast we’ll definitely go back and try again. It’s $20 and worth every penny!

Click here to read our full review of LUNCH from Steakhouse 71!

Monte Cristo Sandwich from The Plaza Restaurant

The classic Monte Cristo Sandwich has long been a Disneyland staple, and we’ve struggled over the years to find a Disney World equivalent worthy of Cafe Orleans’ company! So when we heard that The Plaza Restaurant was debuting its own Monte Cristo for the 50th Anniversary Celebration, we knew we had to check it out.

This sandwich is made with Deep-fried Funnel Cake Batter, Bacon, Roasted Turkey, and Provolone sprinkled with EARidescent and Powdered Sugar served with a side of Strawberry Jam. As one would expect with a Monte Cristo, this plate was cheesy, greasy, and delicious.

It’s $18 and by far one of our favorite menu items brought to the parks for the 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Click here to read our review of the new 50th Anniversary menu items at Plaza Restaurant!

Tropical Serenade from Aloha Isle

Disney World’s 50th Anniversary Celebration brought a whopping 150 NEW menu items across the parks and resorts. That’s a lot of sweet and savory food and drink items to rank, but one of the top choices from Magic Kingdom for our team was the Tropical Serenade from Aloha Isle!

This frozen treat is made with POG Juice (passion fruit, orange, and guava juice) with Coconut Soft Serve, topped with a Pineapple Upside-down Cake Pop! The flavors blended together beautifully and was very refreshing on a hot Florida afternoon! It’s available for $6.99.

Click here to read our full review of the 50th Anniversary menu items at Aloha Isle!

Peanut Butter Cookie Pie from Main Street Confectionery

Main Street Confectionery in Magic Kingdom just went through a big transformation along with the addition of many new menu items! There’s a wide variety of sweets to choose from, with some hits and some misses! One of the big hits that we tried this month is the Peanut Butter Cookie Pie.

This cookie is a Peanut Butter Cookie, Chocolate Frosting, and Peanut Butter M&M’s for $5.49. We thought it wasn’t overly sweet and had the perfect balance of peanut butter and chocolate!

Click here to read our full review of the Peanut Butter Cookie Pie!

50th Celebration Ice Cream Sandwich from Dino-Bite Snacks

Our final submission for the BEST things we tried this month in Disney World was found at Dino-Bite Snacks in Disney’s Animal Kingdom! Their 50th Anniversary Ice Cream Sandwich includes Vanilla Ice Cream sandwiched between two House-Made Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, dunked in glittery Celebration Sprinkles and topped with a 50th Anniversary Medallion. While the sandwich comes with vanilla ice cream, you can order it with chocolate or strawberry instead if you’d like!

Dino-Bite Snacks is where you’ll find seasonal ice cream sammies, including previous versions celebrating fall, St. Patrick’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. Like its predecessors, this 50th Anniversary treat was stellar! The double chocolate chip cookies won us over, making this our TOP pick for Animal Kingdom’s 50th Anniversary treat options. Give it a try on your next visit for $6.99.

Click here to read our full review of the 50th Anniversary Ice Cream Sandwich

The Worst

Squid’s Revenge Drink from Be Our Guest Restaurant

Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom debuted a series of menu items inspired by the now-extinct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction in celebration of Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. While we would have been more than happy to enjoy some crowd-pleasing seafood dishes, Disney understood the assignment a little too literally, providing us with the pleasure of ordering…octopus.

Now, maybe there are octopus fans out there who would enjoy Squid’s Revenge, which is a Michelada with a Salted Rim, garnished with Charred Octopus and Cucumber. This drink would definitely rank high if we were to list the most unique menu offerings in Disney World for the 50th Anniversary Celebration, but we couldn’t get over the cold and chewy texture of the octopus garnish. Even if you enjoy seafood (and we mean, like, REALLY enjoy seafood), we can’t recommend this drink. If you’re curious, it’ll cost you $13.

Click here to read our review of the 50th Anniversary menu items at Be Our Guest Restaurant!

Bear Tracks Slush from Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe

Another beverage that we wish we could wipe from our memory was the Bear Tracks Slush from Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. This is a Barq’s Root Beer and Vanilla Slush topped with Whipped Cream, Chocolate, and Peanut Butter Pieces. On paper, it sounds like those flavors should work well together and be pretty tasty, right?

Wrong. We didn’t taste the root beer at all; in fact, all we were left with was a strong fruity aftertaste. Yeah…no one wants to taste fruit when you’re expecting root beer and vanilla. If you’re feeling brave and want to try it for yourself, you’ll find it at Pecos Bill for $5.99.

Click here to read our review of the 50th Anniversary treats at Pecos Bill!

Firefly Appletini from Restaurantosaurus Lounge

Disney really struggled with beverages this month! The Firefly Appletini from Restaurantosaurus Lounge ranked dead LAST on our list of the 50th Anniversary Celebration menu items that debuted in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This cocktail is a mixture of Stolichnaya Vodka, DeKuyper Pucker Sour Apple Liqueur, Sweet-and-Sour, Lime Juice, a Sugar Rim, and it’s served with a Glow Cube. 

It somehow managed the impossible in being both too sweet AND too sour at the same time. If they made a nonalcoholic version of this, then it might actually be a hit with the kids, because it tasted exactly like we were drinking a green apple Jolly Rancher. Unfortunately, because it has alcohol, no one can enjoy it. It costs $16 and given its small serving size, we felt more than a little ripped off.

Click here to read our ranking of ALL of the 50th Anniversary treats from Animal Kingdom

Fifi, Gigi, Mimi from Aloha Isle

We’re wrapping up our “Worst” list from October back at Aloha Isle, which is home to one of our TOP picks from this month, the Tropical Serenade! Unfortunately, the Fifi, Gigi, Mimi treat was almost a polar opposite experience for us.

This treat is a trio of Pineapple, Vanilla, and Orange bundt cakes stacked on top of each other and filled with DOLE Whip Pineapple. Sounds tasty, right? Well, unfortunately, we found this snack to be pretty flavorless with a sad, sad portion of DOLE Whip on the inside. At $11.99, we find that it didn’t justify the cost at all.

Click here to read our ranking of ALL of the 50th Anniversary treats from Magic Kingdom

October was filled to the brim with new menu items — it was hard to narrow the list down this month! Don’t worry; the next couple of months are sure to be filled with even MORE food and drink items to try, with the holiday season starting in November as well as the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays. Be sure to follow along if you have a trip coming up so you know which items to prioritize (and which ones to skip!).