It’s Christmas time at the Disneyland Resort! This brings all sorts of jolly holiday fun to the Parks and Resorts as we look forward to ringing in the new year. For me, Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure, available November 14, 2025 - January 7, 2026, is basically a seasonal sport: sip, savor, saunter, repeat! Recently, my wife and I did a full lap of the Festival Marketplace with the Sip and Savor Pass, and I’m breaking down what we redeemed, what slapped, what flopped, and—because I’m nerdy at heart—the actual math on whether the pass saved us money in the long run. Pour yourself a cold brew and let’s get cookin’ — or rather, eatin’ — through Disney California Adventure.

Enjoy Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure from November 14, 2025 - January 7, 2026

Spoiler Alert: Was It Worth It?

Here’s the TL;DR version if you’ve already had too much caffeine today and gotta run. YES, the Sip & Savor Pass and the entire Festival Marketplace experience is definitely worth the time, effort, and money. This is especially true if you can dedicate an afternoon to casually munching on some great eats with a few attractions thrown in. The discounted Sip & Savor Pass for Magic Key Annual Pass holders gives extra incentive to an already great deal and increases potential savings, in my case, by around 10%.

Is Sip & Savor Worth It: Yes! (But more on that in a minute)
My Favorite Festival Marketplace Booth: Holiday Duets
Surprise Dish from the Marketplace Booths: Chorizo Queso Fundido
What I Regret and Would 100% Skip Next Time: Beef Brisket Slider

Sip & Savor 101

If, like me, you haven’t experienced the Festival Marketplace in a while then you’d be surprised to learn the Sip and Savor Pass now uses digital coupons (no tear-off tabs). A Cast Member scans your pass, then you enter the 4-digit code on the pass at checkout, and your remaining coupons are tracked electronically (and show on the receipt).

Pro move: you can order ahead at any Festival Marketplace booth, then just show your receipt (DON’T LOSE YOUR RECEIPT) and conveniently pick up each item at it’s corresponding booth as you wander by. This is the key to max “saunter” energy.

Also, don’t hesitate to share a single Sip & Savor Pass.

Split it with a friend/family if you want to sample more without everyone buying their own. I was worried I wouldn’t feel full or get enough of something I really liked but I was a fool. My wife and I bought one Sip & Savor Pass and split each dish. We came away stuffed!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

I kicked off a new Concept to Reality series with a deep dive into the Disney Destiny’s Black Panther–inspired Grand Hall—comparing the early concept art to the real-life “living theater” we’ve started to see in previews. From the T’Challa statue to those wild lighting effects, this space is already rewriting what a Disney Cruise Line atrium can be.

SHOP NOW @ THE BIT/PORIUM

My Festival Marketplace Game Plan

First, the economics of the Sip & Savor Pass are pretty elementary. It’s not hard to discover its value, especially if you plan to share it. But because my high school math teacher always made me show my work and it’s part of who I am now, I’ve broken down below. Please check my work.

Second, the variables. A Sip & Savor Pass costs $49. You save $3 if you’re a Magic Key holder to bring the total down to just $46. This $49 or $46 gets you 6 items from either the Festival Marketplace or other participating food and beverage locations around Disney California Adventure. In the scans of the Festival Marketplace Guide I’ve included below, you’ll notice Sip & Savor eligible items are highlighted with a peppermint candy. With this in mind the break-even point on the math practically solves itself. You simply have to use your six Sip & Savor credits on items that cost, on average, more than $8.17.

Break-even math:

$49 ÷ 6 items = $8.17 per item
$46 ÷ 6 items = $7.67 per item

Easy, right?! So to “win” the pass, aim for 6 choices averaging above the break-even cost of $8.17 per item.

Third, let’s map a route. Checking the scanned Festival Marketplace Guide map below for the locations of The Marketplace booths you’ll find they are well spread out. The first booth, Grandma’s Recipes, sits just beyond Carthay Circle and the Sip & Savor cart while booth six, Favorite Things, is located much further down the parade route near the Golden Zephyr.

We arrived to Disney California Adventure well after Rope Drop and felt very well rested. As such, it was almost lunch time. We began our Festival Marketplace journey around 11am by purchasing the Sip & Savor Pass at the dedicated cart near the first booth. Additionally, you can purchase the Sip and Savor Pass at Festival Gifts, any Marketplace booth, Elias & Co., Julius Katz & Sons, and Seaside Souvenirs.

However, the Festival Marketplace booths didn’t open until 11:30am. No problem. We waited stand-by for Ariel’s Undersea Adventure to kill some time. From there we queued up at the last Festival Marketplace booth, Favorite Things. Working our way from the last booth toward the first booth, Grandma’s Recipes, at the front of the Park made sense for us for a few reasons.

We wanted to Park hop over to Disneyland for a few minutes for a selfie and some shopping because my wife NEEDED a Disneyland backpack to flaunt on our upcoming Disney Destiny sailing and Walt Disney World visit before needing to hurry home to pick the kids up from school.

Back in line, we had just enough time to browse the guide and make decisions on which Festival food items to order. However, surprise, the guide doesn’t list prices for each item. So you really have no idea how to plan, if you’re so inclined, to make sure you hit that minimum $8.17 cost-average to maximize value.

Fourth, I had luckily just discovered FestivalFoodieApp.com. This FREE web app, created by Sean Macready aka @themaddhatter_ on Instagram, does a great job of listing all the Festival Marketplace menus compete with prices, descriptions, pictures, and user reviews. You can even favorite certain items and create a checklist of what you want to try. This app and info was super helpful when planning what to order while also keeping price efficiency in mind.

With our list ready thanks to FestivalFoodieApp.com, we pre-ordered all six food items at once at the Favorite Things booth. This workflow saved us a tremendous amount of time since lines get long quick at each Festival Marketplace booth to place orders. The caveat here is to be sure you hold on to your receipt. The Cast Member who took our order was very careful to make sure we understood that if our receipt was lost they wouldn’t be able to print another one.

This seems to be a potential fatal flaw in the no-tab era of the Sip & Savor pass. If passes are tracked electronically with a barcode and a PIN is required to use the pass then surely the next logical step would be to track the items ordered and which ones have been picked up. A simple scan of the barcode on the Sip & Savor pass when picking up an order should be easy enough to prevent lost value if you lose track of your receipt.

Festival of Holidays Marketplace Scorecards

Like I said above, we leaned into the order-ahead workflow and placed our full order at the Favorite Things Festival Marketplace kiosk, then picked up each item booth-by-booth as we made the lap back toward the Park entrance.

So what did we order? Did we like it? And would we do it again? Below is our Sip & Savor redemptions with the menu price and our notes on each.

Favorite Things: Braised Pork Belly Adobo — $9.75

Taste: Returning favorite. I would eat this all day long.
Why: Great balance, enough acidity to complement the salty rice.
Pass-worthy? ✅✅✅ (certified repeat)
Value check: Strong.

Holiday Duets: Holiday Duet — $9.50

Taste: Al pastor + savory kugel mac & cheese.
Why: I’m split on which is better—both are perfectly creamy and cheesy. I want more.
Pass-worthy? ✅✅
Value check: Strong.

Brews and Bites: Chorizo Queso Fundido — $8.00

Taste: Surprise hit.
Why: Not usually an “Impossible meat” person, but they nailed it. Great chip-dip energy.
Pass-worthy? ✅
Value check: Barely under the regular $8.17 break-even, but still a repeat for me.

A Twist on Tradition: Beef Brisket Slider — $9.50

Taste: Big miss for me.
Why: Smoked onions overwhelmed everything; while horseradish ketchup felt gimmicky.
Pass-worthy? ❌ Even though it clears the break-even, my taste buds voted no.

Merry Mashups: Holiday Mash Bowl — $9.25

Taste: Holiday comfort food perfection. Mashed potatoes + cheddar + chicken + cranberry stuffing crunch.
Pass-worthy? ✅✅ This is what the pass is for.
Value check: Above break-even and feels filling.

Grandma’s Recipes: Barbacoa Tamale de Res — $9.75

Taste: Moist, tender pork, lots of flavor.
Real talk: Not as good as your grandma’s tamales (or Costco’s), but I wouldn’t avoid it.
Pass-worthy? ✅
Value check: Comfortably above the $8.17 break-even.

Now, does the math check out:

Total à la carte: $55.75
Savings vs $49 pass: $55.75 − $49 = $6.75
Savings vs $46 Magic Key price: $55.75 − $46 = $9.75

Cash Purchases Extras

Grandma’s Recipes: Cookie Dough Yule Log (paid cash)
Cappuccino Cart: Pumpkin-spiced horchata cold brew (paid cash)

Cappuccino Cart is a participating Sip & Savor location, so you can use a digital coupon there if you want. However, we decided to pay cash because we were split on whether it was gonna be good or not. In retrospect it passed the test and we’d both get it again. It tastes like Christmas. The same can’t be said for the Yule Log. We wanted to end with a sweet dessert but this was not it. Not enough cookie dough and too sugary.

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Festival Entertainment and Shopping

But wait… there’s more! Festival of Holidays isn’t just about eating your way through the marketplaces—there’s a full slate of entertainment and shopping layered on top of the food coma. Around Disney California Adventure you’ll find live music and multicultural performances, from high-energy offerings like Mickey’s Happy Holidays and the Holiday Toy Drummers to celebrations in Paradise Gardens Park with Disney ¡Viva Navidad! and Mirabel from Encanto, plus appearances from other Disney and Pixar characters in their holiday best.

Between sets, you can browse festival-specific merchandise at spots like Elias & Co. and the Festival Gifts booths, where you’ll find seasonal apparel, pins, kitchenware, and other limited-time souvenirs that only show up for the holidays.

Wrap-Up

For our jaunt down Festival Marketplace Lane, the Sip and Savor Pass wasn’t just fun and filling, it was also a pretty smoking deal and definitely cheaper than going à la carte. Plus, it helped me focus my redemptions andwork within the constraints of only 6 choices for the stuff that really felt worth it — even if I ended up with a couple duds. Prices and offerings can shift, but the strategy stays the same: order ahead, pick strong-value items, and don’t waste a redemption on something you’re not excited about. However, going out your comfort zone to try something you might not otherwise is a relatively low-risk endeavor since you still have 5 picks to round out a good meal.

If you had the Sip and Savor Pass, what are you spending them on this year—and what booth is secretly overrated?

Alright, that’s it for now. See ya next time.

RELEASE NOTES: Sip & Savor Economics and The 2025 Festival of Holidays Marketplace at Disney California Adventure