The Hot Diggity Dog at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

*THIS ITEM NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS OF JANUARY, 2019

Being the big foodie I am, we walked in the gate to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari on our recent trip and grabbed out map right away. However, I didn't start mapping out our visit or planning our schedule or picking out which rides to hit first. I turned right to the list of food to see exactly what they were offering this season and to see if there were any "must try" items on the list.

I loved that they highlighted the new selections in red, so you could easily tell what was new at the park. There's a new restaurant, the Wildebeestro, featuring wraps, salads, fresh fruit, grilled cheese, hot dogs, fish, shrimp, chicken salad sandwiches, Philly steak and chess, turkey legs and roasted corn on the cob. It's located in the Splashin' Safari water park. Also new on the menu in the water park are sweet potato fries, loaded fried and fried pickles at Bahari Snacks, Onion Petals at Jungle Jake's and buffalo chicken and ranch pizza at Safari Pizza as well as turkey burgers and smoked sausage at the ZOOMbabwe Grill.

New snacks in Holiday World include Brownie Sundaes and Sweet Stuff, Fried PB & J at Santa's Snacks and Red Velvet and Red, White and Blueberry funnel cakes at the Funnel Cake Factory.

In the meal category inside Holiday World, there now pulled pork at the Plymouth Rock Cafe. My middle son liked it so much that he went back there on the second day for another pulled pork sandwich.

There was one new items I spotted that I knew I would have to try out: The Hot Diggity Dog. Why was I so intrigued? One word: Bacon. This isn't just a hot dog, but a bacon wrapped hot dog, than is then placed on a soft pretzel bun and covered with cheese and barbecue sauce. How could I not try it? It was pretty dog-gone good. It was pretty big and hubby and I split it. And I love that they used a pretzel bun, rather than a traditional hot dog bun. That pretzel bun sopped with cheese sauce was terrific.

I did have a little bit of a rough time getting my 12 and 15-year-olds to come along with me to get one since it's only sold inside Holidog's Fun Town, the area designed for young kids with a splash pad, tea cup ride and kiddie coaster, but hey, they survived. As hot as it was (90+ on both days we were at the park), the splash pad was a pretty welcome sight and we all cooled off a little in it.