Disney Menu Snapshots & Submissions Guide

One way restaurants keep customers coming back for more is to transform their menus from time to time. Chefs enjoy experimenting and coming up with new dishes along with altering old favorites. We here at AllEars.Net love to keep up with the ever-changing offers. When prices increase (or rarely decrease), we want to know so we may pass the news onto you because planning meals for Disney vacations ia part of the fun!

Perhaps you’ve considered photographing menus for yourself and/or to share with us but aren’t quite sure how to do it. Relax, it’s easy as pie… or the key lime tart at Olivia’s Cafe. I have get back to Old Key West. Grabbing snapshots of menus is pretty easy. C’mon, I’ll show you.

Billboard menus found at places like at Aunty Gravity’s Galactic Goodies (Tomorrowland, Magic Kingdom) sit perched above order and pick-up windows. They can also be found inside hanging over the serving area in places like Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port at Disneyland. Use the camera’s zoom lens so that one menu board fills the frame. Often times it’s best to break a long menu into multiple photos.

Check the focus before firing off the shot. Outdoor signage photographed during daylight shouldn’t need a flash. Indoor signage does require a flash so be sure it’s set to fire. Yes, the flash will probably reflect off the menu board but if you’re using Auto on a point and shoot or SLR (digital or film) without a flash, the shutter will slow down to compensate for the lack of light and the words will be blurry.

After taking the photo, go into Review and look at it on the LCD screen. Use the zoom-in feature on your camera to increase the size of the image and check for clarity. Scroll up, down, back, and forth to make sure it all looks good. If you’re not familiar with how your camera does this, consult the manual. On my Canon PowerShot SX100 IS, I push the same knob I use to zoom in and out when taking photos.

I took a sample from the full size image to show you it’s legible.

Is part of the menu blown out? Change your angle. It happens to us as well, so it’s cool to send in 2 photos of the same menu if needed to see the entire thing.

Paper and heavy stock-printed menus are the ones that servers hand to us at our table or are sometimes available at the podium with the host or hostess. In a few locations like the pathway between Marketplace and Pleasure Island/Hyperion Wharf, they are also locked up in a glass case. Those pesky menus have a habit of running away, I suppose, or maybe”¦ooh, perhaps they’re in a special correctional institute.

Set the paper menu so it’s standing up or being held by your lovely assistant. AllEars.Net teamster Laura Gilbreath, uses her husband Lee’s awesome skills while she takes the photos all over Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure, Downtown Disney, Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel, and Disneyland Hotel. Did I miss anywhere? No? OK. Wow, Laura could certainly use some help. Hint! Hint! Hint!

Disneyland’s Carnation Cafe menu is laminated. Taken in daylight, the plastic coating reflects light. The bottom is hard to decipher…

..so I shot the lower half again and changed the angle slightly. Voila!

Use your best judgment to determine if a flash is required. You can always try again if the first one doesn’t look good. Again, make sure to check the legibility by reviewing the image and enlarging it on the LCD screen otherwise you might develop a reputation.

Children’s paper menus are designed to be taken so feel free to ask for one and mail it in or photograph it at your convenience. Completing the puzzles is optional but if do them, prepare yourself. Deb Koma is a tough judge so stay inside the lines and watch your spelling.

Before submitting your photos, be sure to include the name of the eatery and that you haven’t cut off info important info, like pricing. Hmm, hmm, hmm. :looking around innocently:

On behalf of everyone at AllEars.Net, and especially Erin Blackwell, Queen of Menus, thank you to everyone who has ever sent in photos of menus and/or the menus themselves.

Please send menu images to [email protected]

You could also mail them to:
AllEars®
3520 Sugarloaf Parkway
Suite F03-105
Frederick, MD 21704

Walt Disney World dining options and menus

Disneyland Resort dining options and menus

By submitting just one restaurant’s full menu a month, you can help sponsor our own Laura Gilbreath. She’s up to her eyeballs in Disneyland menus, literally.