Amanda Finn
Amanda Finn tracks how food and drink shape the experience of Disney and other theme parks, combining exhaustive menu reporting with on-the-ground tasting and practical judgments about what is worth ordering. She writes for WDW News Today, where her work centers on dining, seasonal menus, food-themed merchandise, and the places where park operations intersect with what guests eat. Beyond parks coverage, she is a journalist and critic with hundreds of bylines across outlets in theatre, lifestyle, and travel.
Festival and Seasonal Food Coverage
Finn gives structure to sprawling Disney food festivals by cataloging menus in detail and then ranking what stands out, good and bad. At the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, she reviews all the new items and distills them into a “7 best and 7 worst” list, pairing each pick with descriptions, prices, and clear views on flavor and value.
Her coverage of the Tokyo DisneySea Food & Wine Festival walks through the full slate of offerings - special sets, desserts, and cocktails - translating a long menu into a readable guide for guests planning visits over the festival’s run.
She treats major holiday periods with the same thoroughness, assembling dozens of new food and beverage offerings across Disney World’s theme parks and highlighting limited-time treats such as peppermint ganache brownies, holiday milkshakes, and seasonal entrées. For Thanksgiving at Walt Disney World Resort, she lays out the meal options, complete menus, and prices so readers can see exactly what each venue serves before they book. Across these pieces, her distinguishing trait is the combination of completeness - every item, every date window - and clear, plain-spoken judgments that help readers choose between overlapping seasonal options.
On-the-ground Dining Reviews and Guides
Finn’s restaurant and snack reviews are built around direct visits, with attention to texture, portion size, and how a dish fits into a park day.
When Harambe Market reopens at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with a refreshed menu, she works through staples like the Angus bacon cheeseburger and chicken strips alongside more distinctive items such as the Savanna Salad and Kubwa Cookie, noting cooking quality, flavor, and where the offerings feel generic versus special. Her description of the Savanna Salad, including a “cilantro alert” and comments on its earthy profile and added texture from almonds and couscous, shows a critic’s eye for both ingredients and how a dish will land with different guests. In the Light Lounge at the Odyssey at EPCOT, she documents the space and hours, then turns to the food and beverage lineup - chicken strips, multiple churro variations, bottled drinks, frozen fruit slushes, and draft selections - so visitors know exactly what kind of quick-service experience to expect.
She also writes guide-style pieces on treats across Walt Disney World, including ice cream dishes and other sweet options, using simple descriptions and resort-wide coverage to help guests locate specific desserts. Reviews of individual items, such as the Tanzanian Meat Pie at Harambe Market, are framed as “honest thoughts” and focus on taste and satisfaction rather than hype, reinforcing her role as a straightforward taster rather than a promotional voice.
Disney Parks Operations, Refurbishments, and Merchandise
Alongside food, Finn tracks the operational changes that shape where and how guests eat in and around Disney parks.
She reports on the closure and redevelopment of locations such as the Burger King Whopper Bar at Universal Orlando’s CityWalk, noting the transition to a Five Guys and explaining the history of the Whopper Bar concept and its made-to-order approach. At Walt Disney World Resort, her bylines cover restaurant refurbishments and shop closures, including Coral Reef Restaurant’s upcoming refurbishment, the temporary closure of La Signature in EPCOT’s France Pavilion, and ongoing construction near The Haunted Mansion, all of which affect guest movement and dining options. She follows broader operations news like seasonal water park closures, attraction downtime, and construction progress at areas such as Waterview Park in Disney Springs, tying these updates into the rhythm of a year at the resort. Her coverage extends inside resort hotels, where she notes projects like the monorail station makeover at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and new painted details at its Perch Lobby Bar, showing how infrastructure and atmosphere evolve over time.
On the merchandise side, she highlights food-adjacent items, from Disney x BaubleBar accessories - such as food-themed statement pieces and a Mickey pizza bag charm - to Haunted Mansion apparel and other park-branded products, treating them as part of the broader themed experience rather than isolated retail catalogues. She also spotlights releases like The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook, explaining how its nostalgic recipes and park stories tap into fans’ emotional connection to historic and contemporary Disney dining.
Broader Writing and Theatre Criticism
Finn’s professional work extends well beyond theme parks, which gives her park coverage a practiced critic’s voice. She identifies herself as a journalist, creator, and critic with more than 550 bylines across digital and print publications. Her portfolio includes work in American Theatre, Huffington Post, Yahoo, Best Life, Airfare Watchdog, Chicago Reader, Newcity, Ms. Magazine, and other outlets, spanning theatre criticism, lifestyle writing, and travel content.
She is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, underscoring her grounding in structured review and analysis. Through her own content business, she collaborates with small companies on copy and content, which aligns with the clear, accessible tone and reader-oriented organization visible in her park and food coverage.
This wider experience means her Disney and theme park reporting reads less like isolated fan dispatches and more like part of a broader practice of cultural and consumer journalism.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.