​What is a Mickey Check Meal?Mickey Check was introduced to kids menus at Disneyland and Walt Disney World in 2013 to all menus - quick service and table service.

In case you aren't familiar with Disney Dining terminology, quick service restaurants are grab and go type places whereas table service is more of a traditional, sit down type of restaurant.

According to Disney Parks Blog, Mickey Check "must meet Disney Nutrition Guidelines that limit calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar... Kid's Complete Meals must be ordered without substitutions and include at least three of the following food groups: fruits and vegetables; low-fat dairy; whole grains or lean protein, beans, eggs and nuts."

For the full guidelines, you can check out this PDF from The Walt Disney Company here. Unfortunately, exact nutritional information of menu items is not available (more on that here), but if you order off of the Mickey Check menu, this can offer you a good foundation. At a quick glance, full meals must be 600 calories or less, but you can break it down even further if you check out the charts in the PDF.That's all well and good... But it's a kids menu item. I can't order that, right?Not necessarily true! While Mickey Check is a kids menu exclusive, if you're dining at a quick service location, you can order off of the kids menu... Even if no children are present. So if you're not at a table service restaurant, feel free to save yourself some calories and some money by ordering off of the kids menu, especially if you get something with a Mickey Check next to it. 

​To know if a menu item is a Mickey Check meal, it will have a little Mickey Mouse head silhouette with a check mark in the center of it next to the name of the menu item.

​Addicted to your Fitbit, Garmin, or another fitness tracker that helps you aim for 10K+ steps per day? It's super easy to get anywhere between 20K-30K steps per day at Disney but here are some ways that you can really get the most use out of your fitness tracker at the parks.

Did you know that you can run a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or full marathon at Walt Disney World? You're sure to get more steps in if you plan your trip around a race weekend and participate in the race! When I did the Star Wars Dark Side 10K, I had 8,000 steps in before 10:00 a.m. Plus it's super healthy and a great way to burn some calories, especially if you're going to not be as strict with following the plan while you're at Disney.

You can read more on runDisney on my blog by clicking right here.

Here are ​some of the healthier snack items I've found throughout the parks, or at least things you can track and not go overboard with. This doesn't include the fruit that I've mentioned on a separate page. This page will continually be updated as I find more things, so stay tuned and keep checking back for more! For restaurant recommendations that are on the healthier side, check out my Restaurant Guide! 

California's race weekends are on hold, but in Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris, you can run a race through the parks before they open! ​The full schedule is on runDisney.com. The races are fun but they are timed if you run anything longer than a 5K because they have to re-open the roads. You get chip timing for the 5Ks, too, but I find that they aren't as strict about it since you're never on an open highway.

If you can walk or run a 16 minute mile or less, it's a great inclusion to a Disney vacation - but do note that registration opens up many months in advance and they sometimes sell out quickly depending on the race weekend.

Q: What’s the deal with the expos?
A: runDisney expos are held the whole weekend, starting the day before the first race! The schedules for these are always posted in advance on runDisney’s website. The expo is your one-stop place for everything: your packet pickup (your packet includes your bib, shirt, gear check bag, etc), official race weekend and runDisney merch, and a vendor hall that’s basically comic con for runners!
It is not unusual for the expo to be mobbed with a crazy line for a few hours upon opening on the first day - people tend to get into a frenzy and worry about official event merchandise selling out - but it calms down by nightfall or the day after. While eBay scalpers have been an issue in the past, I’ve noticed there’s been enough merchandise for everyone there regardless of this - so much so that I often see race weekend merch at the local Disney Character Warehouse outlet a few months later! So don’t worry, your likelihood of snagging an “I Did It!” shirt is pretty high despite the early bird chaos.
They also usually have character meets at the expos (for example, rotating princesses and Princess Minnie at Princess Half 2018) so keep an eye out for those!
Pro tip: bring cash instead of your cards! Not only will this help you set a spending limit, but prevent potential card fraud/skimming. I know quite a few people who had their cards compromised at the Princess 2018 expo so it’s better to be safe than sorry moving forward!

Q: With a 5:30 a.m. start time, when should I be at my corral?
A: Check the bus schedule if you’re leaving from Disney property and relying on that - it’s in your event guide when those are released - but plan for an early wake up call! I like to try to be there for 4 a.m. at the latest - but preferably closer to 3:30 for my own comfort - but others feel more comfortable pushing it a bit closer!

Q: What are challenges?
A: Challenges let you register for multiple events at once - usually the 10k and half, but more options are available like the Goofy and Dopey Challenges during WDW Weekend - and you get an extra medal for completing the challenge! This is a fun way for more experienced runners to challenge themselves and, if you’re a mid-packer like me, get some photo ops on a shorter course so you don’t stress it as much.

Q: What about virtual races?
A: Disney does offer virtual races! As someone who became largely comfortable with running with Hogwarts Running Club’s virtual events and now hosts virtual events through Bombshell Fitness, I’d highly recommend giving the virtual runs a whirl if you’re new to running and just want an untimed fun way to work towards a goal and get a medal for doing it!

​Q: When do I register?
A: Many months in advance! Registration sometimes sells out in minutes (like the 2018 Wine and Dine 5k), or sometimes you can register right before the race happens (like the 2018 Star Wars Dark Side half and First Order Challenge). Keep an eye out for race registration calendars and plan (and budget!) accordingly!

​Picture this: you're at a restaurant fit for royalty, the food is expensive, a princess is due at your table any minute... but you have no idea what to order.

​If all of your options are looking like bad options at a table service restaurant where you can't order a Mickey Check kids meal, don't freak out. Disney is extremely accommodating and if you have any questions about what the chef can or can't do; just ask your server and they'll get someone to ask the chef for you.

For example, my family and I had a reservation at Be Our Guest and when we went to order, we were set up with a server who could contact the chef and see what they could arrange. On the kids menu there is a grilled shrimp and broccoli option, so we were able to order that but in a larger, adult size (plus some mashed potatoes without butter to go with it) after asking if it was possible. Our meal turned out to be delicious, easy to track, and we weren't worried the whole day about how much we ate!

This page is not dedicated to me telling you to not eat the cupcakes at Walt Disney World. I know you know that already.

Because Disney Parks doesn't currently have exact nutritional information available, it can be easy to fall into a trap of, "Oh, well this looks like something that might be healthy," when in reality, it is far from it.

Sure, something may look like it is something healthy that you make at home... but it's not what you're making at home. Everything is likely to be full fat, high calorie, tons of oils used in the process (and things like oil alone can really add up in Smart Points), and let's not even get started on how high the carb and sugar counts probably are.

I searched for hours on this subject alone - what is the exact nutritional information for entrees at Walt Disney World? It simply does not exist.

In a letter written to a guest from Walt Disney World that was shared on Disney Food Blog, they will provide a menu that is allergen/special dietary needs friendly but they still won't tell you exactly what is what. An excerpt from that letter:
​
"Unfortunately we do not have, and therefore we cannot provide you with accurate or reliable nutritional information, and we would not want you or any other Guest to rely on what could only be our 'best guess.' We can however, attempt to work within your dietary requests and suggest some menu alternatives and solutions that may satisfy your needs. We strive to provide all our Guests a magical experience by offering a wide array of dining locations, experiences and menu options, and we trust that among all those selections you will find menu items that meet your needs."

Example: Be Our Guest Restaurant at Magic Kingdom
The only restaurant that has provided nutritional information for their menu items as of right now is Be Our Guest... and the numbers are as high as I guessed they would be in the first segment of this post. Last I saw, it was at the menu boards when you go to order, but if you want to look online ahead of time, a quick Google Image search of "Be Our Guest nutritional information" includes not only photos guests have taken of these boards, but screenshots of these items when Disney was testing Fast Pass options for lunch a while back.

For an ever quicker look, here's the full list that someone shared on Reddit of the lunch menu. Note all of the sugar values for the desserts are "0g" - I have a very hard time believing that!

Before Weight Watchers, I used to order the carved turkey sandwich, which is served on a baguette with dijon mayo, and I would order it with the green beans instead of French fries. That sandwich has 787 calories, 41 grams of fat, 1505 mg of sodium, and 56 grams of carbs. I get about 1,300 calories per day on My Fitness Pal, so that's more than half of my day! For my Weight Watchers friends, that's a 22 Smart Point sandwich... and I only get 30 Smart Points per day excluding weeklies on Beyond the Scale and 23 on Freestyle.

Oh, and "The Master's Cupcake," aka the cupcake with "The Grey Stuff"? They don't even provide the nutritional information for that. But instead, let's look at Be Our Guest's triple chocolate cupcake. It claims to have 440 calories, 48 grams of carbs, and so much sugar they don't even bother to list it. I think we can safely assume that there's a ton of sugar in these cupcakes, especially given that they're massive. I'm wondering if this information even includes the frosting because their cupcakes are larger than my fist (and no, that's not an exaggeration).

My Fitness Pal lists some food items at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but I'm not sure how accurate these values are since we don't know who put them in the database for it to be a true test. You could probably use it to roughly ball park it, but again, since Disney won't provide this information for you, I would take anything you find on My Fitness Pal that you can't scan for yourself at the parks (like the pre-packaged snacks at gift shops) with a grain of salt.

On My Fitness Pal, it lists Disneyland churros as being 8 SP per churro (but we don't know how much of a churro is a serving; I only question this because some of the cookies at Disney World are actually two servings for one cookie!), 8 SP for an order of fries (but doesn't define approximately how many fries you get for an order and the amount you get could vary based on who is working that day), and 7 SP for four chicken nuggets. There are so many variables that aren't specified that it's hard to know how accurate this even is regardless of if we knew how reliable the information given was.So, what can you do?Don't assume something is innocent enough, and if you find yourself in a situation where the meal in front of you is pretty daunting in terms of how many Smart Points it may be, just stay calm and do your best. Try to use generic values of things on the app and maybe double or triple how many servings the generic value is for depending on how much you eat. Try to avoid things with cheese, and since they are accommodating regarding dietary needs, they won't know the difference between lactose intolerant and someone just trying to eat kind of healthy at the very least. If ordering a salad, get dressing on the side. If ordering a sandwich, take off half or the entire roll. If you're not at a table service restaurant, see what Mickey Check meals they have to offer on the kids menu.

If you don't mind skipping out on the park food, pack your own meals and track them before your trip or the morning before you head into the parks. If you will be eating at the parks, Walt Disney World's website does provide all of their menus so you can plan ahead; do not be afraid to ask for modifications.

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is my favorite event at the Magic Kingdom and in the past, I've gotten so busy that I forgot they even have trick-or-treating! There are so many great character photo opportunities, amazing shows, and the fireworks are my favorite. 

There's also a dance party every year - usually with Monsters, Inc. characters - so you can even burn some calories enjoying that!

In my experience, WDW doesn't give out full-sized candy bars for trick or treating, but the mini or fun sized ones, which means it's something you can look up in the tracker ahead of time and pre-plan for if you want to! If you really don't want to miss out, just get a single piece and give the rest of your candy to some kid and make their night! ​

I personally would recommend finding spots for parades and shows fairly early, and getting in line for the more in-demand characters (like the Seven Dwarves, Jack Skellington, Santa, or some of the princes with the princesses) even earlier. As far as characters go, if you're interested in meeting Jack and/or the Dwarves, they always have the longest lines so it's recommended you get there before the 7 p.m. party start time so you don't waste party time on them. I'd also recommend trying to catch the later parade/show showings since it's usually got a lighter crowd.