Carousel’s Joins The Disney Dessert Family In “The Happiest Place On Earth”
July 25, 2022
“For Disney, a company that creates world-class customer experience, to be impressed with our product, attention to detail and the experience that we’ve created is humbling and exciting to our team. This opportunity opens a lot of doors for our business both inside the Disney Resorts and Parks and through their network and reach across the globe.”
-Carousel’s Soft Serve Icery
As lifelong Disney park and movie fanatics, we at Carousel’s are beyond honored to announce our partnership with Disney World’s food truck program, a magical opportunity for us to share our secret recipe, smooth-swirled ice with families and friends from all over the world.
Since it first opened its gleaming gates in October of 1971, Walt Disney World has grown to become the most visited vacation resort on the planet, attracting more than 58 million visitors annually. With a total size of 30,500 acres, the Disney Resort complex—Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon—is as big as the entire city of San Francisco! With that many stomachs, both young and old, walking countless miles a day, Disney World’s best-of-the-best meals and desserts have become as huge a part of the Disney vacation experience as many of the rides.
At Carousel’s, we are all Mouseketeers at heart, so being selected not only as a Disney food, but as one of the very few new Disney dessert offerings, is a fairy-tale come true—after all, desserts have always played special roles in some of the most memorable moments of Disney cinema. During Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs‘ classic “Someday My Prince Will Come” scene, Snow, with the help of her songbird friends, chefs a gooseberry pie while dreaming of her future Prince Charming. In Beauty and the Beast, Lumeire the Candelabra and his jolly chorus of dishes and plates serenade Belle with “Be Our Guest”, while serving her their house specialty dessert, a crème and cake-crumble topped pudding. And of course, let us not forget the colorful mystery cookies in Alice in Wonderland that brought on Alice’s instant growth spurt (our smooth ices however, are guaranteed to have no effects other than extreme refreshment and a strong desire for seconds!)
Like so many other Americans, the entire Carousel’s crew holds generations of treasured Disney vacation memories, most that began with piling into the family station wagon for the great American pilgrimage to “The Happiest Place on Earth”. Founder Corey Curyto recalls, “while growing up, at least three or four times we did the real road trip, drove down as a family, Philadelphia all the way down to Florida. I then had my own family and I was able to take my kids as well. My first trip was at age 5, so seeing their whole experience, the wide eyes and big smiles, the wonder and excitement, it really took me back to my youth.” And as anyone who has enjoyed a Disney park can agree, the nostalgia that arises when you enter the gates only grows upon returning home. “Now we own nearly every classic on DVD— Robin Hood, Lion King, The Little Mermaid—and watching them all as a family, it really reinvigorates your love of everything Disney.”
Storybooks and sparkle aside, our Disney partnership feels even more special given that our root purpose as a company is directly in line with Walt’s mission. He described Disney World as “all about creating experiences where families and those they love can step out of the everyday world and into a world of their own, and truly enjoy one another’s company.” Sounds like fun, fellowship and smiles to us—just like the original Mouseketeer, Carousel’s ultimate goal is to help foster lifelong bonds between family and friends.
When asked why he continued to expand the park over the years, Walt answered simply—”Because we’re curious! Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Appropriately enough, at Carousel’s it was pure curiosity that sparked our desire to expand the development of our creamy soft-serve ice, a dessert style that once seemed impossible. It was also curiosity that led us to explore new pathways of sharing our beloved ices, a journey that has led us to become part of the Disney extended family, and their mission of connecting hearts and lives, across generations, worldwide.