In my experience, F&W festival is an ever more engaging event. Here is a view into the slippery slope, as experienced by me.
[*]You start by happening upon a delightful food and/or wine kiosk when you didn't even know there was an EPCOT F&W festival. Spouse, who is not much of a WDW fan, is intrigued.
[*]You find out that it is an annual event so plan a trip for next year, and spend your time grazing from kiosk to kiosk around World Showcase. You get talking to people and you find out there are "special" dining events. Hubbie really liked the experience. Hmmmm.
[*]Now you know there are special events, so the next year you try to sign up for one. All you can get is the Wine Pairing in Morocco, because everything else is sold out. But you go, and you have a really great time!
[*]You plan a trip during F&W. When events are announced, you pick an event (or two) that will be happening during your visit and you are on the phone at 7am the first day they are taking reservations. You swear that if you ever decide to leave your current job as a results producing software executive who can build and scale high volume transaction events--you will offer your services to Disney and fix their online "challenges."
[*]The trip is fantastic, and the events compelling! You enjoyed the special events so much, that you are going to plan your next trip around the events, rather than planning your events around your trip.
[*]You FINALLY get the signature event schedule, book your events and then go to book your trip and NOTHING on Crescent Lake is available when you want to go, so you stay off property and valet park at the Boardwalk every day.
[*]You book a room for every week of F&W at some hotel on Crescent Lake so that you can comfortably stagger back to your room after and evening of over-indulgence--no matter when Disney decides to schedule it. You pick your events and cancel most of your reservations. How crazy could it be to fly to Florida twice during one Food and Wine Festival? At this point, Hubbie needs an annual pass, too.
[*]You've experienced an amazing event and you want to make it an annual event. You're determined to watch for the scheduling of that event and then book your trip. This is your plan, and you're sticking to it. You grow weary of waiting and wondering how it will all work out. You have a plan B if you can't get a good rate or rent points for DVC at the Boardwalk or Beach Club on "short notice."
[*]Hubbie is now teasing you in public about this Disney F&W obsession thing. So, you suggest that we vacation in Italy this year instead of going to Food and Wine Festival. He asks, "Can we do both?" [Smiling inside.]
[*]As a compromise you take a couple of trips to Cape Cod (also a foodie destination) instead of attending Star Wars Weekend or Flower and Garden Festival and are now waiting to book your F&W vacation. You're completely set on attending an event that will only happen once during the entire festival. You post questions about this event on every official Disney blog or social media outlet. Finally, the event is announced. Within an hour you have your plane tickets and a reservation at the Swan. PHEW!
[*]I have no idea what is going to happen next, but I'll come back and update this post in November. I do know that Hubbie caught wind of the F&W-like booths at Flower and Garden. I think we will be adding that back in to the WDW vacation mix. After all, we've got those annual passes and that TiW card . . .
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