Wow…15 years goes by SO fast. You have no idea what we went through to get this photo. In that time, we’ve done a lot of running around Disney Parks, usually with some kind of food in our hands, trying to get that perfect photo. Meanwhile, we’re also taking photos of amazing Cast Members doing amazing things, Disney ducks (sorry, not sorry), baby animals, and more. But the food photos are what you really know us for, and you would not BELIEVE what we’ve done to get those great shots. So we’re going to tell you.
Putting our phone in our bra
Okay, sometimes you just don’t have enough hands to hold the food and snap the photo. But where else can you put the phone? Yep, we did it — we put our phone in our bra and took photos that way to get the shot. And we’ll probably do it again. Sometimes getting these shots is HARD. This might seem extreme, and we’re sure some folks were eyeing us like we were nuts, but we do it for you. Remember that: WE DO IT FOR YOU.
Walk food clear across the park
If you see us walking across the park with a snack that we’re not eating yet, it’s likely we’re trying to get a better shot of that snack in front of Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, Tower of Terror, or the Tree of Life. That could mean trekking it for A WHILE if we’re on the other side of the park. But we have to get that park icon shot. This does mean that by the time we actually get to TASTING the food, it’s cooled down or melted. But the photos always come first.
Bring a full size cafeteria tray to EPCOT
So we eat almost ALL the new foods at EPCOT festivals, and that is a challenge in and of itself. So when we go to a food booth and order the full menu plus drinks, we need some way of carrying all of that. We have no shame in bringing a full-sized cafeteria tray to a festival and putting it to good use. This is especially handy for things like beer and wine flights. However, we also recommend that EVERYONE bring some kind of tray to handle all that festival food. That’s our pro tip!
Ask for fresh whipped cream
Sometimes, if you mobile order a snack with whipped cream on it, the whipped cream looks pretty flat by the time you get it, or at least about halfway through your photo session. We have no shame in asking for a re-up on the whipped cream at the Mobile Order window at quick service restaurants. Granted, we try not to do this when restaurants are super busy, but that whipped cream can make or break a good snack photo. What can we say? We have standards!
Carry napkins, paper plates, and utensils FOR DAYS
So Disney is dropping new food all the time, and although we often see these new food items on menu changes, sometimes we don’t notice new food until we’re in the parks and we see the changes on the physical menus. That means we’re ready to try a new snack or new food IMMEDIATELY because we’ve got our day bag stuffed with extra napkins, paper plates, and, yes, even utensils. You have to be ready for ANYTHING at any time, and we usually are. Now, you can usually get things like napkins and plastic utensils at most locations, but we always bring our own, just in case. A good sturdy plastic knife to cut food is also extremely necessary because those cheap plastic knives don’t always cut it — pun intended — and we need to show you that cross-section so you know what’s inside.
Ate things we don’t like
Okay, everyone has food they don’t like, and we’re no different. So, yes, we’ve had to eat some things we don’t necessarily want to eat. However, we do try to consider that when we’re reviewing food so that we can still get you a fair review. For example, Disney World’s 50th anniversary treats included a 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea cocktail with actual octopus tentacles in it, but you know what? We still tried it. There are times, though, when we eat something we don’t like, and we end up liking it, so that’s always a nice surprise, too.
Made makeshift hats to create shading for shots
We’ve bent our hands in weird positions to make shading for certain shots that were too bright. We’ve set up scenes using trays, hats, and anything else we could get our hands on to keep shots from being too bright. We’ve even used park maps to shade a shot just so. See? Here’s the thing. Sometimes the lightning just isn’t great on a given day or it’s too bright. We have to use what we have on hand (sometimes including our hands) to make that shot look good.
Waited to order food until the sun was JUST RIGHT
Okay, all those Cinderella Castle shots with food we take? We probably starved ourselves for those shots. It doesn’t matter if we were hungry, we waited until the sun had lined up JUST SO because that’s the only way to get a good shot. Otherwise, you end up with a food photo that’s too dark or too light or with weird shadows. No one wants to see that. So, yep, getting those photos often takes a lot of patience. And don’t even get us started on those cloudy and rainy days that cause us so many issues. Note that we do this with a lot of merchandise shots, too, including Minnie Ears.
Arrived hours early for special events and entertainment
When special merchandise collections drop in Disney World, they tend to sell out FAST, so we’ll arrive at a location EXTRA early and wait for hours to get our hands on it. Remember the Figment Popcorn Bucket chaos when it was first released in 2022? We waited FOREVER to get our hands on one to get photos of it. This goes for entertainment, too. If we’re getting photos of the parades, shows, and nighttime fireworks, we’ll stake out our spot hours early to make sure we can get good photos.
Having snacks literally drip down our arms
We once held a corn cob for 30 minutes straight until we got a good shot of it. Meanwhile, butter was dripping down our arms. This also often happens with ice cream snacks because Florida is hot — meaning ice cream melts FAST. If you’ve got a cone in your hand, you can guarantee that you’ll end up with ice cream all over your hands quickly. This is also why we always carry some kind of wipes in our day bag because we need them when foods get messy (and they often do). This is also why we’re mentally doing math when we’re taking shots of ice cream treats so we can make sure we get good photos BEFORE they completely melt. (P.S. We often also use those wet wipes to clean up the table or bench where we’re trying these melty treats — we leave no mess behind!)
Asked servers to bring all courses out at once
Usually, when you’re eating at a table service restaurant, you just get one course at a time. However, we often ask to get all courses at the same time so we can get a good spread shot. These would be the shots that look like this: Of course, this means we do risk entrees cooling off by the time we get to them, but we love showing off EVERYTHING we ate in one sitting.
Waited in line at the same snack stand over and over
The flip side of asking for all of our food to come out at once at a table-service restaurant is ordering things one by one — and therefore waiting in line at the same spot over and over! We do this when we have to get melty treats, especially. It would be impossible for us to get three new Dole Whip treats at Swirls on the Water, for example, and take the photos and video we need before they are all a melty mess. So we line up for one, and then another, and then another…and yes, we do get weird looks from Cast Members when they recognize this is the third time they’ve seen us in 35 minutes. That’s showbiz, baby!
So we do a lot of wacky things to get good food photos for you, and we’ll continue to do those things (and probably more) to keep getting more photos of all the food in Disney Parks. So stay tuned to DFB for more.
Source: DFB, Disney Food Blog
