So, if you’ve been to a Disney theme park or restaurant for a lunch or dinner meal, chances are you’ve seen a glowing drink or two. Or maybe you’ve even partaken in one yourself?
Glow Drink at Sci-Fi Dine-In Restaurant
For those of you who perhaps haven’t had a glowing ice cube experience yet, here’s a little background. For several years now, Disney has used evolving versions of these re-usable glow cubes — plastic, ice-cube-shaped drink decorations — to jazz up many of their feature cocktails.
The glow cubes in Disney restaurants can be set at different colors using a button on the bottom (you used to have to whack them on the table to get them to turn on and off, but now it’s all a bit more civilized), and there are even settings where they cycle through different colors automatically.
The most famous might be the Blue Glow-tini, which even highlights the cube as part of its name. This sought-after concoction can be found at locations all over Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Mixed with Citrus Vodka, Peach Schnapps, Blue Curacao, Pineapple Juice, and occasionally some Sweet and Sour, this fun drink can knock your socks off.
Disney's Blue Glow-Tini
So, mostly since we’ve never done it before, I thought it would be fun to do a little round-up of some of my other favorite glow-drinks that Disney features on their menus. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it IS a list of most of the glow drinks I have photos of, so there you go. 😉
If you have time, drop a comment below letting me know what YOUR favorite Glow Drink is so I can give it a try on my next visit!
Let’s begin with a margarita from La Cava del Tequila in Epcot. Surprising, right?! The Magic Blue Margarita is the perfect blend of sweet and tart. Probably not Cava’s most “authentic” margarita, but to our knowledge, it’s the only one that comes with a glow-cube.
Don't forget the light-up ice cube...
Next, a glowing drink adds to the charm of dining in the twilight atmosphere of the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater’s simulated drive-in setting. We recommend the galactic-sized Lunar Landing mixed with Amaretto, Peach Schnapps, and Orange Juice, but there are plenty more where that came from!!
Lunar Landing
There’s also a Marsha’s Martian on the menu: Chocolate and Vanilla Shakes mixed with Bailey’s Irish Cream and Kahlúa. And you can opt for the Space Monkey: Chocolate Shake, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, and Banana Liqueur, or the Comet: Rum, Vodka, Gin, Tequila and Sweet-and-Sour plus Cranberry Juice.
During the holidays in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the Merry Margarita (Sauza Gold Tequila, Blue Curaçao, Sweet-and-Sour, and Lime Juice) and Sleigh Ride (Myers’s Platinum Rum, Beefeater Gin, SKYY Vodka, Triple Sec, Sweet-and-Sour, and Cranberry Juice) add extra fun. Both beverages were served this past year with glowing cubes.
Merry Margarita at Disney's Hollywood Studios
An honorable Mention also goes out to the Magical Star Cocktail which delights the senses with a mixture of X-Fusion Organic Mango and Passion Fruit Liqueur, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, and Pineapple Juice. This drink is served at restaurants and lounges around Disney Parks and Resorts. You can see a pic of it here.
Glow Drinks…The AT-HOME VERSION!
And now… I have great news for you, ladies and gents. You don’t have to wait for vacation anymore to have a glowing drink. Thanks to DisneyStore.com, you can now get your very own at-home-version of the Glowing Mickey Mouse Ice Cubes!
Mickey Glow Cubes
I know, right? The party ideas are already starting to come to you.
And if you’ve gone and ordered a bunch of those glowing Mickey Mouse cubes, you may want even more creative ideas.
Check out these glow-cube cupcakes offered during the holidays at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Imagine how much you can charge your friends for them at your holiday parties!
Holiday Ice Cube Cupcakes at Disney's Hollywood Studios
Speaking of charging, here’s a Disney Food Blog Tip: If you want a glow-cube in your drink, but you don’t want to order one of the alcoholic drinks or one of the drinks that already includes a glow-cube, no problem. Just ask your server to put a glow-cube in the drink you ordered and charge it to your bill. They run about $2+ in the restaurants, last I checked.
So, what’s your favorite glowing drink in Disney restaurants?
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It’s a gimmick, but it’s a fun gimmick, appropriate for a vacation at Disney World or Land and one of the many, many reasons we all love the Disney magic.
Great pictures, perfectly exposed.
My favorite from the Sci-Fi that comes with the glow cube:
Orbiting Oreos – Oreo shake mixed with Godiva chocolate liqueur
Also, in March we ordered a few extra glow cubes for the kids at the sci-fi and they were $4 per cube.
I’ll try to put this delicately. I think Glow Cubes are one of the biggest sucker purchases at any Disney resort, and I could never understand why people would willingly pay several dollars just to have a drink glow. I always figured that type of person is either insanely wealthy or makes a habit of making minimum payments on their credit card bills. No in between.
BUT, then I had a Krakatoa Punch at Trader Sam’s. It comes in a tiki mug with a red glow cube, which is part of the drink, not an add-on. The thing looks like bubbling lava in a volcano crater – totally cool! The bartenders even play rumbling earthquake sound effects, sound a siren, and yell, “Run for your lives – she’s gonna blow!” while the “scenery” outside the windows darken and the volcano starts to erupt. I was in stitches.
Here’s a link to a photo; the suckers are difficult to photograph effectively.
http://s3-media1.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/fjZr3SOyr6YDzs9gTW5g0Q/l.jpg
Since I’ve spoken poorly of the Sci-Fi lately, I hafta admit: I LOVE the Lunar Landing!
Come on George…give it a break. We all Love Disney…and that includes everything from the commercialism to the characters. Yes, I will pay to have my drink glow..why..because it’s all part of the experience. Sucker purchase or not….there are many out there at Disney..so just call me a sucker !!
Thanks, your timing is perfect. I will be in the world next week for my birthday. I have been thinking about having a drink with the glow cube all week ( I’ve never tried one). I can’t wait. The only problem is I only have five days and there are so many drinks to try 🙂
Alan — Thanks for the compliment on the photos! I agree; while it is a gimmick, it’s a fun one! 🙂
Mark D. — Thank you for the update on the glow cube price! That jives with the cost on the DisneyStore.com website, too — they’re $8.95 for two there, I think.
George — Ba ha ha!! 🙂 Krakatoa Punch is awesome isn’t it?!? Kra-ka-to-a, Kra-ka-to-a! Just goes to show, sometimes anyone can love a glow cube…it just has to be added in the right way.
Bill — Well there ya go! I do, too. And though you know I wish that movie clip reel were just a little bit longer, I think that restaurant is too much fun.
Sally — Ya gotta read the REST of George’s comment — I think he agrees with you that the glow cubes really can make a difference in the presentation of a drink. 🙂 And I’m agreed that there certainly are a lot of sucker purchases at Disney… and I may have made them all! 😉
Cynthia — Great! Happy Birthday early! My suggestion? Order some of the more uncommon glow drinks — the ones that you can only find at particular restaurants and not all over property. (Or, you know, do whatever you want, ’cause it’s your birthday!)
I always get a Magical Glow Cocktail, pretty much just to get the cube, but I also like the drink. I have bought cubes separately as well, but they’re not quite the same. I have a bunch of the cubes on my desk and when I’m really stuck for a word or idea, I turn them all on and wait for inspiration. And it usually works. The magic of Disney. 🙂
And don’t forget the now-gone Digitini and Glowjito from DCA’s Glowfest and ElecTRONica. With the closing of the Portal on Sunday these drinks are now gone. It sounds like the Mad T Party will be bringing a new list of cocktails so these may not return. Glow cubes in Alice-themed drinks will help make the T Party simply mad! Speaking of which, a cast member on closing night mentioned that one possible drink would be a Long Island Iced Tea. Hmm, that might require two cubes!
I had the Magical Star Cocktail last year. yum
I’ve always thought they are a little gimmicky but looking at these pictures, I’m already sure that I’m ordering at least one drink during my visit! I’m in The World for 14 nights during October, and I think I NEED one of the volcano things from Trader Sams! It looks GREAT! But the Comet from SciFi sounds good too, cos us Brits sure can drink!!
Magical Star is the best.
I have a Disney glow cube at home (procured on the Dream last year) and I use it on special occasions. The version that Disney serves in drinks is the Litecube and you can purchase those directly here: http://bit.ly/HTRdtn As AJ pointed out, they have a little button that can be pressed to change the color and can also be set to cycle through all the colors. They can be turned off.
The kind of glow cubes that AJ has linked to (with the Mickey silhouette) are also available for sale in some of the resort gift shops. I bought some at the Polynesian back in 2008. They are NOT the kind that are served in your drinks. They only cycle through colors and cannot be set to display one color. They also are activated by immersion in liquid and automatically turn off when dry.
Sherri — I love it! Using glow cubes to banish writer’s block! 😉
Colin — Indeed, thanks for bringing those up! I can’t WAIT to see what they introduce at the Mad T Party. I’m hoping to get back to DL to check it out! Love the idea of the Iced Tea! You MUST tell me what’s worth getting after your first trip.
JoAnn — Thanks for the review! 🙂
Chris — Ha ha! It’s hard to do Disney and stick to your guns about no light-up drinks, eh? Unfortunately, the Krakatoa is in Disneyland, not Disney World, so maybe that makes your choice a bit easier. (Or maybe you’ll be planning a Disneyland trip to piggy-back on that Disney World trip!!)
Christopher — We like it, too. 🙂
James — Thank you SO much for those details, James!! Very good to know! Personally, I’d prefer the button ones…
Rookie mistake! And I can’t see why I made it because I actually know Trader Sams is in Disneyland! I’ve been there in person before. I think the thought of Krakatoa just got me too excited! I’ll have to find something equally as visually tempting!
I got the Blue Glo-tini at WCC because it had been a rough day and momma needed some happy ; ) It was the only alcohol I drank the entire 2 weeks we were there and gosh darnit,I wanted a glow cube! I don’t think I would pay extra to ADD a cube in but considering the price of the drink includes it, eh why not?! When we were at Sci Fi we actually had a couple give us their cubes when they were done with their drinks,which was very sweet and considering we have 3 kids,it saved a war from happening over my lone cube ; ) I like to think that since everything is overpriced anyways,it’s a nice little bonus ; ) The real racket is the KIDS glowing drinks..every restaurant has the glowing character punches(Tink&Buzz for ours)and OF COURSE that’s the drink the kids want at EVERY meal! We relented once and brought them with us to other restaurants but we saw many people with a stash of them in diaper bags&strollers since its so hard to say no at “the happiest place on Earth”!
I had the Comet at the Sci-Fi — it was beautiful, tasty, and quite powerful. The glow cube fascinated the four-year-old hitchhiker behind me, so I gave it to her when I finished the drink (I was feeling pretty generous at that point). It’s nice to know you can order the glow cubes; I think they will make good stocking stuffers this Christmas!
I order my glow items online prior to my Disney trips. The glow cubes come in all sorts of different colors and settings but I also prefer the ones that change color and you can place on one color or rotating colors. They have lasted me 2 to 3 years and while they are cheaper online, they are still not cheap! We put them in our drinks at night at Disney to keep an eye on each other 🙂 And we like to give them out (un-used) to other kids so that’s why we buy them in bulk before we go.
I definitely think the Blue Glow-tini the best. Not a big fan of the Magic Star Cocktail. We’ve had a few lately that were a wierd milky whitish color and weren’t remarkable tasting. We use our glow cube collection when we throw parties at home. We make Blue Glow-tinis and drinks for the kids with the glow cubes in them. Everyone loves them!
I had a ‘Mowie Wowie’ at 50’s Prime Time Cafe a few years ago with one of the glow cubes which was very nice!
On the Disney Dream ship last year we had a rum punch cocktail on Pirate night, and the base of the plastic glass lit up like a glow cube.. it’s a fun souvenir of our cruise 🙂
I absolutely loved the Magical Star drink, but I didn’t try much else. I wound up with 3 cubes, which I keep on my desk for fun. The drink was the same cost as others that didn’t come with the cube, so I didn’t pay extra for it. I doubt I would ask for one to be included if it cost extra.
Are they a gimmick? Sure. But what else is all of Disney, if not them selling you items you wouldn’t be caught dead paying for if you were walking down the street on an average day?
Disney is a fantastic place- probably my favorite place in the whole world. But, when I walk through a park that has more shopping venues than it does rides, then I start remembering what it is- a business.
That said, it’s a huge experience that I’ll gladly pay good money for. 😉
With the kids drink with the clip-on light up characters, I didn’t think they were a bad price. It wasn’t something we did at every meal- we did it once. But, later the next night, I found a similarly sized Tink for sale at one of the light up booths for $10. Sure, it wasn’t clear- it had features, a dress, etc, painted on. But it was $3 more than buying the drink that came with one. My niece loved the one she got with her drink.
Last year when I was at 50’s prime time cafe, I had a non-alcoholic drink with a glow cube- I forgot what it was called, but it was basically a Shirley temple with a glow cube.
MAD HATTER TEA PARTY!!!
We have a whole box of the glow cubes at our house that we bust out for parties and have even taken to concerts! Yes we are that cool!!
Mallory — That sounds AWESOME!!
Megan — Ooh, thanks for the tip!
I had the Magic Star at Le Cellier last week. Looked up the cubes online and I was surprised they are only like 2 bucks so might have to buy a couple for the next dinner party.
I’m hooked on Krakatoa Punch at Trader Sam’s! GREAT stuff, can be made virgin, and has a glow cube.
My favorite is Dad’s Electric Lemonade from 50’s Prime Time. It is tart and refreshing and really hits the spot on a hot Fl day:-)
Is there a list of places at Walt Disney World,FL that has Glow Drinks??
You can have one of these added to any drink at the Rose and Crown (they sell them there). I keep these handy when we are drinking (and eating) around the world, when the sun goes down, everyone wants to know where to get one! It’s just great fun and we have tons of conversations start with these 🙂
Pretty pricey at two for $8.95 and they don’t even come with a drink! Plus they’re sold out.