***2009*** Epcot Food & Wine Festival ENDED NOV. 8

[*KeepMovingForward*]

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/pa...s/epcot-international-food-and-wine-festival/

You'll see the words 'Download the Festival Guide'

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[FIVEFANS]

We will be there the week before F&W. Then our last two days are the first two days it starts....... do we go on Friday or Sat. ???? or does it matter?? We have three kids and wont do any demos...... Just eating (ok drinking) around the lake......

 

[TDC Nala]

We will be there the week before F&W. Then our last two days are the first two days it starts....... do we go on Friday or Sat. ???? or does it matter?? We have three kids and wont do any demos...... Just eating (ok drinking) around the lake......

Fridays and Saturdays are generally the days where you have the possibility of the biggest crowds and the longest lines in the World Showcase because that's when the locals come. If you're stuck with those days I'd pick Friday afternoon while the locals are still at work.

 

[TDC Nala]

Yes, I was sitting back to back with Todd English's girlfriend. I asked him about the "reisling air" (kind of a sparkly foam garnish made from wine) on the fish. I think maybe the girlfriend ate riesling air and not much else. I suppose that is what one needs to do to get into a dress in the negative sizes, but then is dating a chef kind of a waste? Unless he doesn't cook off duty.

Of course it did mean Todd spent a great deal of time around that area so if part of the cost was for celebrity proximity and schmooze, it was bonus time.

 

[huey578]

Any word if you will be able to pre-purchase wine seminar tickets that morning instead of lining up an hour before seminar? That would be a time saver.

 

[cckovach]

Actually, I thought there would be a challenge not because of Keegan Gerhard being there, but by cake decorators who have appeared on Food Network Challenge being there. I mentioned before that Keegan's been a F&WF regular for years.

Oh, I didn't see that Richard Ruskell was on the list. Who else on the list has been on Food Network Challenge?

 

[TDC Nala]

Any word if you will be able to pre-purchase wine seminar tickets that morning instead of lining up an hour before seminar? That would be a time saver.

No idea. Unless some info is forthcoming from someone who knows (which would have to be someone who is actually going to work in the festival center for me to consider it uncontrovertible) those of us who will be there on September 25 will be the ones to learn how the new payment setup works.

At a guess, I believe the tickets will go on sale something like an hour prior to the seminar times, and not be available for the entire day first thing in the morning - which would limit a shot at a ticket for popular presenters only to those who could show up first thing in the morning.

 

[betterlatethannever]

No idea. ...At a guess, I believe the tickets will go on sale something like an hour prior to the seminar times, and not be available for the entire day first thing in the morning - which would limit a shot at a ticket for popular presenters only to those who could show up first thing in the morning.

You may be on to something.

I first thought that would just put the line by where they were selling the tickets.

But if tickets for the next seminar go on sale after the current seminar starts, that would prevent people from getting into consecutive seminars (or at least couldn't buy tickets until the seminar they were in was done). Thus allowing more people a chance to get into seminars.

Ed

 

[kirkson]

We will be there the week before F&W. Then our last two days are the first two days it starts....... do we go on Friday or Sat. ???? or does it matter?? We have three kids and wont do any demos...... Just eating (ok drinking) around the lake......

this was me last year. our last day was the first day of F&W. it was just fine, go early, and you can hit a lot of the booths before it gets really busy. the crowds were steady all day, but I didn't find that we were stuck in line or inconvenienced by the influx of guests. we had a great time. the one wrinkle was that some of the booths had some first day issues (registers not working, unfamiliarity with the menu items) but all in all it was no big deal. the one real drawback was that one day of F&W was not nearly enough! so this year we're going for 10

 

[shovan]

Are any of you fans of Trimbach Wines? Last year we LOVED the French Regional Lunch! It was our favorite event. It was the Alsace Region with Pierre Sparr wines. Unfortunately it is Alsace during our visit this year with Trimbach. We love Sparr wines especially the Cremant Rose and Gewurtztraminer (sp). A while back I picked up a Trimbach Gewurtz, we didn't enjoy it all. Did we get a bad bottle? Should I rush out & buy several bottles to try before the Aug 11 booking date??

 

[Sandy321]

thought I'd post the tweet I got per F&W fest:

wdwnewsRT @DisneyParks Note: Reservations open Aug. 11 for *special events* at Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival http://bit.ly/t2IGc

no big news at all for Dis'ers!!

 

[PatriciaH]

I see three $8 demos I will def. do if I can get into them:

The Montage
French Laundry and
Andrew Zimmern

There are a few other ones I like like Tchoup-Choup, Blue Zoo, Commanders Palace, and Robert Irvine but I do not want to spend a ton on the demos.

Wolfgang Puck is still on the daily list on 10/8 but not on the Signature Dinner list.

 

[betterlatethannever]

OK, while I am excited that the signature dinners are back, my excitement is tempered by (what may be) a smaller PFTS.

Usually, the wineries that hold the seminars during the week and weekend are at the PFTS. I looked at a typical weekend from last year and there were 17 wineries doing seminars and the PFTS had I believe 15 wineries.

This year for a typical weekend, there are 8 wineries doing seminars. So, keeping with the trend, the PFTS will have half the wineries then last year.

Ed

 

[disneyfav4ever]

OK, while I am excited that the signature dinners are back, my excitement is tempered by (what may be) a smaller PFTS.

Usually, the wineries that hold the seminars during the week and weekend are at the PFTS. I looked at a typical weekend from last year and there were 17 wineries doing seminars and the PFTS had I believe 15 wineries.

This year for a typical weekend, there are 8 wineries doing seminars. So, keeping with the trend, the PFTS will have half the wineries then last year.

Ed

I really hope this isn't the case.

ETA - Of course now I have to go look up all the wineries that will be there the same week as me, so I have some idea of what to expect. I realized the chefs that did demos that week are sometimes at Party for the Senses, I never thought about the wineries.

 

[AladdinsPrincess]

How did I miss that they were going to start charging for the wine seminars? When did this happen? I am totally shocked!

 

[oybolshoi]

How did I miss that they were going to start charging for the wine seminars? When did this happen? I am totally shocked!

You haven't been hanging around this thread much, have you?

The Orlando Examiner announced over a month ago that there was going to be a "nominal" charge this year for the food & wine seminars / demos - we were all speculating that it would be about $5 per person. Instead it's $8 and no one knows yet how the admission for these events is going to be handled.

All I know is that $16 for me and the hubby to attend one demo = many food booth yummies to share around the World Showcase. So no demos for us ... which is OK because we really don't like events being held in the Welcome Center anyway.

 

[AladdinsPrincess]

Lesson learned: Check the message board every day!!

I am still sort of in shock, but I guess that I should have seen this coming. We're local so I'm guessing we'll go a lot less this year now. Usually, we do a few wine seminars every weekend and it gives us some variety to enjoy week after week. Most of the wineries I see listed are ones we've done in previous years (or ones where I could buy a whole bottle for less than $16!) so I can't see paying. Some of the culinary & wine demos sound cool though and might be worth paying for.

SIGH. This is crazy! I just pulled out my Festival Guide from 2004 and cried. PFTS was $95!! Ah the good ole days...

 

[oybolshoi]

Lesson learned: Check the message board every day!!

I am still sort of in shock, but I guess that I should have seen this coming. We're local so I'm guessing we'll go a lot less this year now. Usually, we do a few wine seminars every weekend and it gives us some variety to enjoy week after week. Most of the wineries I see listed are ones we've done in previous years (or ones where I could buy a whole bottle for less than $16!) so I can't see paying. Some of the culinary & wine demos sound cool though and might be worth paying for.

SIGH. This is crazy! I just pulled out my Festival Guide from 2004 and cried. PFTS was $95!! Ah the good ole days...

I hear ya, even though we always have to cram our experience into ten days or so. I miss all the different F&W pairings at the various Epcot restaurants ... some of our best festival experiences were at those events.

And I agree that there are some demos that I'd actually consider paying for if I were by myself. But $16 per couple, per demo adds up fast.

 

[SamSam]

And I agree that there are some demos that I'd actually consider paying for if I were by myself. But $16 per couple, per demo adds up fast.

That's the position we're in. There are several we're interested in, but at $16.00 per time, it adds up pretty fast. If we did 2 a day for 5 days, that's $160.00.....hmmm, that could be a mighty fine dinner with a bottle of wine somewhere.

 

[oybolshoi]

That's the position we're in. There are several we're interested in, but at $16.00 per time, it adds up pretty fast. If we did 2 a day for 5 days, that's $160.00.....hmmm, that could be a mighty fine dinner with a bottle of wine somewhere.

That's pretty much the conclusion we reached, too.