Disney Locale: found at, well, the funnel cake booth near the American Pavilion around World Showcase at Epcot

Funnel Cake Fan?: Well, normally I am not, mainly because these things are an absolute mess to eat and there aren’t many places outdoors to really sit down. Still, it was pumpkin!

Right Dessert, Right Time: Although it didn’t have that overwhelming pumpkin flavor that I like to see from my pumpkin prizes, it smelled great and was still yummy enough that my wife and I had little trouble finishing the whole thing. We had actually just finished watching the Candlelight Processional and it had rained like crazy for most of it, so granted our enjoyment also contained a healthy mixture of being happy and being out of the rain … and my wife did like it (who doesn’t like “pumpkiny pumpkin stuff”), so weigh that as you must … but it was still a decent effort and I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to grab another one should I find myself hungry and/or waterlogged at Epcot on a cool winter’s night…

As seen in The Art of Disney at Downtown Disney – if only my wallet was big enough to afford pretty much anything found in this store!

Initial Reaction: “Holy cow – sinful doesn’t even begin to describe it!”

Explanation: Although I’ve munched on pretzels from Wetzel’s many a times while wandering around Downtown Disney, it’s always been the traditional variety that I’ve enjoyed – usually with a side of cheese of some sort for dipping at my leisure.  I’ve never had one of their cinnamon pretzels before, but in hindsight now I think it’s safe to say that when I’m considering dessert options after a long day of shopping for pins and LEGOs, this ridiculously sweetened gem of cake-like proportions definitely needs to be in the running and should have no problem whatsoever holding its own even against the likes of Ghirardelli and Goofy’s Candy Co…

The Glaze: With a faint hint of cream cheese, but much sweeter – before I realized that it was a dipping sauce, I was kind of curious to see how a drizzled concoction was going to work, but this definitely worked and I even ended up having a little leftover after the pretzel had been devoured!  Very delicious.

The Mess: So, yeah … the big difference between a cinnamon pretzel and your conventional, salted pretzel is that apparently one topping has more of a tendency to fall off and make a gigantic mess all over the table than the other.  By the time I was finished, I probably had enough sugar accumulated on the table in front of me to cover another whole pretzel!  For what it’s worth, I tried to clean it up as best I could, and ultimately I suppose that too much sugar is always better than not enough, but nonetheless, I hope that the janitor who had to clean up my mess can forgive me…

Disney Locale: found at the Hops & Barley booth (USA) at Epcot during the 16th Annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

Thoughts?: Meh – not as good as I was hoping … honestly, it looked better than it tasted, in my opinion.  I was kind of expecting a sweet mousse like the one I encountered out in Disneyland last year, but instead this version seemed a little more tart.  Plus, I’m not at all a fan of Craisins, so I was trying my best to eat around the topping … which is too bad because the streusel itself seems like it would be a good mix with the pumpkin.

Do It Yourself!: Nonetheless, despite what *I* might’ve thought about this one, even if you weren’t able to make it down to Epcot this fall to try for yourself, Ocean Spray and Disney also have a short video that shows you how to make it yourself…

Manly Caveat: Guys, you ever find yourself walking around one of those scented soap and body lotion stores without a single electronics store nearby in sight to take refuge in?  Once we’ve made our rounds and giggled at all of the peculiar-flavored scents there’s really not much left to occupy our wandering minds … that is, until we find something that interests us for a change…

The Choice: So as you can see in the picture, Basin actually had two different pumpkin shower soaps here for me to choose from – on the left, shampoo bars, and on the right were conditioner bars. I ended up choosing the former merely out of curiosity as to how one would actually wash their hair with a bar of soap!

The Shower: Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad and lathered up pretty nice, filling my shower with an avalanche of pumpkin spice that made waking up slightly easier than normal!  Giving it the old college try, I used it for about a week straight, ultimately stopping because it honestly got hard to tell if it was actually cleaning my hair or not.  That, and it was kind of a pain to rinse out, in that on my last day I somehow managed to lather up all over again outside the shower upon putting my hair gel in, despite thinking that I had gotten it all out.  Oops…

FWIW: I’m pretty sure there are supposed to be some all natural benefits to using this shampoo as well, but hey – I was a guy in a soap store, so some of that stuff may have gone a bit over my head!  I did later notice some other pumpkin hand soaps at another Basin location (the shampoo was from the Downtown Disney location, however later on in the weekend we also visited the one in the Grand Floridian), so we’ll see if I happen to wander by there again while these things are still in season.  It’s fairly likely – my wife does adore their bath bombs…

…and body lotions, and bath salts…

Granted, they also had some random Christmas pins, so it was tough to tell if these are preemptive for this year or just random strays from Halloweens past, but still … any pumpkin sightings at all in July are a rare thing!

Origin: Goofy’s Candy Co. @ Downtown Disney – Walt Disney World Resort
Analysis: cookie is merely a sugar cookie dressed up as a pumpkin, but the fudge is the real deal
Conclusion: pumpkin fudge was pretty darned delicious, and despite not being pumpkin-flavored, the cookie was actually pretty good, too