Are the New Bluey Pretzels at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Worth Your Hard-Earned Dollarbucks?
Is this snack a game of Keepy Uppy or a total flop? Check out our hands-on Bluey Pretzel review from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
f you are headed down to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and find yourself near Flame Tree Barbecue, you might want to open your eyes and look for a new snack inspired by the hit animated show Bluey. Located at the Isle of Java kiosk, Walt Disney World is serving up Pretzel’s Pretzels, a new menu item named after the long-haired Chihuahua character “Pretzel,” the sweet and quiet pup who attends Glasshouse Primary School in the show Bluey.
The official description promises soft mini pretzels with homemade cheese sauce and blueberry-mustard sauce. It sounds like the perfect fuel for a high-energy game of Keepy Uppy, but at a steep $15.99 price point, we had to find out whether this snack is “for real life” or will leave you saying, “Oh, biscuits.” These are the things we do despite advice from semi-wise sources.
Was this worth our DollarBucks? Well, that depends on a few things. Are we spending the currency in the Bluey universe known as Dollarbucks? If so, we love playing “Restaurants.” However, are we using real world currency? If so, then maybe not?
Recently, we published a theme park dining review about the Bluey-themed menu items at Pizzafari. Overall, we thought those made a good addition to the theme park. However, for this Bluey Pretzel review, we started with concerns that all Walt Disney World could come up with was “pretzels.” We enjoy pretzels and appreciate the play into a character from the Bluey show. Still, I thought Mickey owned primary rights to pretzels at Walt Disney World.
Bluey Pretzel Review: What Do You Get for the Price?
Let’s look at the positive side: the portion size is quite generous. You get about 18 pretzel bites in an order, which goes far beyond what you get with a basic Mickey pretzel. If you are sharing with a pack of kids, or a couple of hungry Heelers, it might just meet the price point as a quick, shareable snack.
However, the quality of the pretzel bites themselves has been highly inconsistent according to reports from our colleagues, meaning your mileage may vary. We enjoyed ours. Still, the track record offers mixed results in a similar fashion to the pretzel nuggets at Block & Hans at Epcot.
The Dipping Sauces: A Tale of Two Dips
The real chatter around this snack centers on the two custom dips: a savory, creamy queso-like cheese sauce and a unique, tangy, and sweet blueberry-barbecue mustard sauce.
- The Cheese Sauce: This is not your standard Disney “plastic” cheese. It is a very kid-friendly cheese sauce, meaning it is mild and smooth. Unfortunately, many adults may not enjoy this formula as much as the classic park cheese.
- The Blueberry-Mustard Sauce: This is where things get truly divisive. For starters, the aroma combination of blueberry and mustard will be a challenge for some guests. We found the smell to be less than appealing, and we highly suspect smaller kids, the target demographic for a Bluey snack, will struggle with the scent.
In fairness, one of our food reporters is notorious for disliking mustard. Still, oddly enough, the sauce actually lacked a true mustard flavor altogether, which allowed our entire group to try the sauce. It tasted more like a standard blueberry sauce that had been scaled back to be sweet and kid-friendly. Surprisingly, despite the weird aroma, it stood out as the best overall dipping option during our visit. The sweet and salty combination is interesting, though it will certainly split opinions.
Dance Mode or Grannies Mode? The Mixing Experiment
While we were ordering, a helpful cast member suggested we try mixing the blueberry mustard sauce and the cheese sauce together. It sounded like a risky Dance Mode move, right? We gave it a shot, but unfortunately, the mixing did not work very well for our group. The flavors clashed rather than complemented each other.
Bluey Pretzel Review: Is it Wackadoo?
Overall, this is just an okay Bluey snack. The custom sauces do not quite make up for the $15.99 price point. Unless you have a group looking for a quick, shareable bite, you might find yourself wondering why you didn’t just buy a classic Mickey Pretzel instead.
With all due respect to the lovely little Chihuahua character from the show, we would have liked to see something just a bit more creative for such a premium price. It is an acceptable treat, but it won’t have you shouting “Hooray!” down the paths of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. If you decide to do your own Bluey Pretzel review, “We’ll See!” We hope all Bluey fans apprecaite that reference!
For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon Eastern Time. Additionally, we sometimes post bonus theme park dining reviews. As always, eat like you mean it!
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