food and wine

ok so planning to go to food and wine for the first time this year. any recommendations on how to plan this trip? what are some must dos and some don'ts? this trip is a kid free for the first time and so we can check the food and wine. thanks

If you can go at the end of September beginning of October. The early you go during the F&W season the better off you are.

This year they had a lanyard that you could get. It was worth it if you used it on food and drinks, not including flights, that were over $9. I would look into that and maybe even their packages that they offer.

Go more then once to F&W as well. Make it your lunch/dinner for a few days. There is always plenty to try. I am sure you can look at a list from what they offered this year and see if there is anything that you are really wanting to try. There are not a lot of changes year to year.

Lastly if you have the Disney Visa card take advantage of the lounge that they offer. It is just a nice place to get out of the heat.

Love F&W and have done it multiple times. One suggestion is to share tastes. We enjoy making it all around the world, so a couple of bites at each country is sufficient. We generally do this 2 or 3 days so we get to taste plenty. Look ahead at the menu and plan. We planned out what we wanted and found that helpful as well.

The only suggestion I can make is avoid the weekends. The crowds are insane and after the sun goes now those that have had way to much to drink are heavy in number.

I went for the first time this past November and loved it but didn't go with a plan. I know some people study the menus ahead of time & go with a list but I just looked thru my F&W passport book every day and picked whatever sounded good at the time. They were sold out of the special F&W pin by the time we got there so if you go in November that's a drawback. DH had a conference at Coronado Springs so we stayed there along with another guy from his work. It was our first time kidless as well (which was a little weird). We spent an entire marathon Sunday at Epcot because the other guy with us did not buy park hoppers (we had our AP's). Got there at opening, hit some rides then went completely around the world showcase 3 times. 9:00 to 9:00 (co-worker guy had never seen Illuminations so we HAD to stay). It was boiling hot so we had to drink. And eat. And drink. We made several pit stops in Rose & Crown for some AC (and so DH & co-worker could stock pile Black & Tans). DH & co-worker turned into groupies for the British Revolution band that plays in that little gazebo in the garden / maze in England. I went back to Epcot every day for lunch while DH was at his conference. I got my F&W passport book stamped every day and got the special passholder commenorative wine glass for attending at least 3 days. I think I hit about 3 kiosk stops per day for lunches and averaged about $16 / day for those "meals". There was soooo much good stuff to choose from. As much as I wanted to keep trying new things there were a couple of must-do's that I had to repeat before I was done (the cheese soup in Canada, the Loaded Mac & Cheese from the farm harvest cart thing and the escargot & pesto stuffed croissant in France). The extra countries were fun to try (Patagonia, Poland, Greece, New Zealand, S. Korea etc.) Not sure when we'll make it back again to F&W but hopefully the next time we have active AP's. Definitely worth a repeat visit!!

(OH and we felt like most of the individual wine / beer tastings were WAAAY over priced. I got a glass of wine in Australia and they didn't even fill it half way - and it was a tiny little glass. It was seriously only about 4 sips worth although it "said" 4 ounces - it couldn't have been. DH and his co-worker got a flight of beer somewhere and they felt that was worthwhile - but the wines not so much. From then on out we basically went for the regular stand / CS places for regular full sized drinks - like the margarita stand in Mexico & the Slushy cart in France - and of course Rose & Crown).

I would read the Disney Food Blog which does a thorough review at the get go. I would also look at any plans Josh has on Easy WDW. I also use his site for park hours and crowd calendars. He usually does good reviews of drinks and the value of each per ounce if you need that info. DH and I never go on weekends. If you want to enjoy evening EMH and Epcot is sometimes on Fridays, by all means use an ADR for a dinner if you plan on eating there. Remember that time of year AK will close arounf 5 or 6, DHS will close a bit early and MK may or may not have a MNSSHP goinf on....so that has everyone filing into Epcot.

Take advantage of the special meals and events that are offered. You have to be on top of them as soon as any news of them comes out (try the Disney Food Blog). Then you need to be on the phone exactly when they start selling them. And be aware of any early days that DVC or AP can reserve them earlier than the general public. We did the French Family Meal last year and it was superb. We had a five course meal with wine and it was about $90 per person. We also did a beer and wine pairing at Via Napoli (six beers and wines) and it was also wonderful. I think that one was about $85 per person. A few years ago we did a beer pairing at Le Cellier and that introduced us to Unibroue which is a great Belgium ale brewed near Montreal.

I so agree with Deb. We use to eat/drink around the world and do some of the inexpensive seminars and still ended up spending a bundle. We now do several of the special events and enjoy them so much more. We tried to go around the world to eat and drink one day this past year, but it was just so hot we were not enjoying ourselves.

Laura

I've gone the last two years, I don't make ADRs and almost all my lunch and dinners are noshing at booths. Each year I did one high ticket item, the first year I did a food and wine pairing seminar but it wasn't offered during the time I was there last year. I did the meal at Morocco the first year, the one at Spice Road last year, agree that you should do one of the meals. I also did at least two of the little seminars that are offered at the festival center every day. One food one, where one of the chefs from Disney prepares a dish and you get to taste it and the pair a wine with it. Last year it was the festival wine, the year before they actually picked different wines to go with the food. Those are only $15 each, some will book up early but I've been able to pick up a few just by going to the festival center. The other one I did every day was one of the little wine seminars, you usually taste 3 or 4 wines same price. The problem I had with the wine seminars was they just told you the region they were from so it was hit and miss, I ended doing the same one twice last year because it just said California wines. The food ones will just tell you the protein, ie lobster or steak. I didn't use a strategy for doing the booths, I just go right or left from wherever I was entering the park (I stay at the Epcot resorts so sometimes it was from the IG sometimes from the main gate) get something from the first booth I came to that I hadn't tried yet, nosh on it while I walked around and grabbed something from the next booth after I finished. I took me 5 days to get something from every booth. I bought one of the gift cards that bungies to your wrist and that made it easy to pay, just hold up your arm and they scan it. The receipt tells you how much you have left on it and it can be refilled. Easy to budget that way.

thanks for all the tips! So what is this lanyard discount? The AP discount? Can you use regular disney gift cards and or just charge to your room via magic band?

I have the disney visa, AP, and am a DVC member so any tips on what those can get me? we are planning to go oct 6-10 if that matters. This trip is really to just enjoy the f/w festival and go to mk for a few rides since we are kidless for the first time. How's the weather around that time? We have only gone in Jan, Feb, and Dec and its been nice weather not to hot.

What is opening weekend like? We will be taking a 3day weekend for opening weekend this year.

It's been our experience that in Florida the weather is much warmer during the first weeks of the festival. This usually means much lighter crowds, especially during the early parts of the weeks. We have found that we do not particularly like to drink much when it is blazing hot out, so if we go during the early weeks, we spend more time in seminars (as mentioned above) or hanging in the Rose & Crown (also as mentioned above)!

Now our anniversary falls on Oct 22, so we are almost always at the World during that time. By then it is toward the end of the festival and the weather in Florida becomes much cooler and less humid some years. Those are the times that the crowds on Fridays and weekends are insane... Especially after dark and especially if there is a Halloween party at Magic Kingdom. So we do World Showcase circling over a period of about three days and usually from showcase opening till about 6 p.m. By evening we are usually stuffed and ready to rest so we head back to the resort for some lounging and listening to the orchestra/ pianist (if we are at the Grand Floridian). Doing it this way has been the absolute BEST way to do Food & Wine for us!

If you elect to go toward the end of OCT. I highly recommend checking out the Swan and Dolphin food and wine classic. It is fantastic in my and my wifes opinion.

As a first timer there you can definitely try for many of the special events, but you'll likely be content with just the festival itself. As for meals, it's up to you how much you want to only eat at the festival vs. have lunches and dinners and then snack in between. Personally we tend to do the festival for lunch then have a proper dinner later.

Beforehand make sure you research the booths. If you're not there on the first weekend there will be a number of reviews of the items as well. Don't stress too much if you miss 1-2 things that you want to as there are a lot of options, but you still may want to pick out your must do's. If you're really anxious to start figuring out everything you want to taste you can look back at last years menu (http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2015-epcot-food-and-wine-festival-booths-menus-and-food-photos/) and for wine (http://thedisneywineblog.com/2015/07/21/disney-food-and-wine-festival-wine-rundown/). Keep in mind that it will change some but you can expect to see ~ 50% of items back.