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View Full Version : Fantasia Ice Cream--History of it?



notabrady
01-12-2007, 10:58 AM
I've read various accounts on why the banana/cherry/pistachio flavored ice cream was discontinued, but is there a history, or backstory, on how it was originally created, and why the particular flavors?

Just curious....:)

Opus1guy
01-12-2007, 11:33 AM
The following is rumor only, and I've never been able to confirm it...only the same thing from several different sources (which of course doesn't confirm anything other than more than one person has heard the story):

When Club 33 first opened, many of the original Members that were Park Participants in the Foods area..."donated" their products to the Club. Bo Foster (Manager of Sunkist) used to send jugs of fresh squeezed orange juice up to the Club daily, Coke supplied syrups, Carnation supplied dairy products. It was a very loose and fun thing for this close-knit group of Participants to do for "their" new Club. Much of that I can confirm went on.

The story goes that the Club (some versions say it was Walt) asked Carnation to produce an ice cream flavor to be served exclusively to Club 33 patrons. The rumor doesn't mention who picked the flavor itself...but Fantasia Ice Cream did become part of Club 33's initial menu and was served there for many years.

Next part of the story goes that the Club was not really selling much of the stuff, and Carnation complained it was costing them a small fortune to hand-make such a small amount on rare occasion...and that they wanted to expand the sales of it outside of Club 33 and have its exclusivity extended out into Disneyland proper to make it more economically possible to keep producing. So the rumor goes that's when it appeared throughout the rest of the Park.

The rumor says that since it was no longer exclusive to Club 33...that the Club eventually dropped it from the menu (which they did in fact drop it).

Now...I've heard this story from one former Carnation employee and 4 different Cast Members of Club 33. But I wouldn't call any of them in a position to really know from first hand experience if they were dishing out facts or not. And the few that I though would know the story...don't seem to recall just where the heck it did come from!

So other than spreading that non-confirmed rumor (which I even sorta hate to repeat here, as these types of rumors can sometime become Wikipedia "Facts" merely in the retelling)...I too would like to know if that's the real story or what the real story is.

Of course the easiest way to dispel this rumor would be to confirm that Fantasia Ice Cream was served in the Park prior to 1967. But I've never even been able to confirm that!

charpaul
01-12-2007, 12:41 PM
I know nothing about this flavor being available in the past - but I do know that it was introduced (re-introduced??) in 2000 when Fantasia 2000 came out. It was available only at the Gibson Girl IceCream Shop on MainStreet at the time. There were several collectable trading pins that went with the promotion. A different one for each month for the first few months. I think you could only get the pins if you ordered the ice cream.
In Aug. 2005 I was informed by CM's working there that it would soon be discontinued because it was not a popular flavor. There was just not that much demand for it.:crying:
I REALLY liked the special blend - it was almost like Spumoni IceCream...but it had a much richer flavor....

Janie
01-12-2007, 03:21 PM
I think right now there should be a Jennifer Hudson ice cream, actually..... ;)

"And I'm tell-ling you...you're gonna get two scoops...it's the best ice cream I've ever known...."