Epcot crowds during weekends of F&W Festival?

[Betzee]

Okay, so I have scheduled and re-scheduled and scheduled again, our grand gathering trip for 9/28 - 10/5.

I thought I finally had it finalized, but nooooo...! Now, DBIL has to leave a few days early and I'm having to try to rearrange again, to make sure he gets to all the parks while he's there.

So, the question is, how crowded is Epcot during the weekends of the Food and Wine Festival? No matter how I schedule, I seem to end up with Epcot on the weekend. Will it be really bad with locals, etc?

Would any day be better or worse? I'm assuming that Friday night and Saturday would not be great, but how are Sundays?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[shellybaxter]

The weekends are more crowded in Epcot. We made the weekends "non-ride" days when we were there for Food and Wine. We went to the special events, the free tastings and the food booths. We also went only in the morning and early afternoon. We did Epcot at night during the week

 

[bleeps]

Friday and Saturday nights at Epcot during F&W are insane -- just walking through WS is very challenging. Day times aren't as bad, and Sundays are slightly better, in our experience.

 

[OB1]

On Friday night, we had lines at the better food booths of 25-40 people. All the booths were busy. We now plan Sunday for the F & W evening, and it is much easier to navigate the event. Even a Saturday afternoon was pretty busy, so Sunday is definately your go day for F & W.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Weekends are very busy for FWF. From Friday evening right through to Sunday evening (with some easing off as you approach Sunday evening sometimes, but not always).

It is a very popular event, however with the continuous reductions in quality, selection and increase in prices for often ridiculously small portions, the event is losing its appeal to some of us who live locally. Perhaps, this year there will be less attendance on the weekends.

 

[PSUGuy]

We'll be avoiding WS on the Sat. we're there this Oct. based on our 2007 experience, but otherwise we don't find crowds at any of the parks near the levels we're used to seeing in March, our usual time to go to WDW.

 

[deej696]

I am fairly local, and even I dont do WS at night on the weekends. We moved our F&W trip to mid-week a few years ago, and it is much more enjoyable. The ride wait times may not be much different than normal weekends, but WS will be a madhouse...

 

[kevgraub]

The ride wait times may not be much different than normal weekends, but WS will be a madhouse...

That was the piece of info I was looking for. We are planning two full days at Epcot, a Sunday and a Wednesday. If we plan on hitting FW harder on Sunday and saving WS more for Wednesday, will we be fighting bigger than normal crowds?

We could move Animal Kingdom from Monday to Sunday, and do Epcot on Monday and Wednesday. However, we are doing MNSSHP on Tuesday, and I was kind of wanting to do AK on Monday so that we had an early evening that day and could get the kids to bed early the night before MNSSHP.

Thoughts?

 

[shellybaxter]

That was the piece of info I was looking for. We are planning two full days at Epcot, a Sunday and a Wednesday. If we plan on hitting FW harder on Sunday and saving WS more for Wednesday, will we be fighting bigger than normal crowds?

We could move Animal Kingdom from Monday to Sunday, and do Epcot on Monday and Wednesday. However, we are doing MNSSHP on Tuesday, and I was kind of wanting to do AK on Monday so that we had an early evening that day and could get the kids to bed early the night before MNSSHP.

Thoughts?

I would disagree a bit with deej696 - In my experience at least the "biggies" - Test Track and Soarin - had noticably longer lines on Sunday than during the week. We went to a Sweet Sunday (dessert demo) and arrived at openning thinking we could do several rides prior to the 11:00 start time of the demo. We were wrong. The lines built fast. We only rode Test Track and ended up just shopping and such instead of rides

 

[MickeyNicki]

We have been to the F&W every year since it started but only in October...I can tell you the last few years we have seen the weekends jam packed with people, up to 30 people in line at the F&W booths, at night it is horrible, people just throw the cups, glasses, dishes etc all over the place instead of throwing them in the garbage, they have black iron high tables all over the countries for people to eat on and they just leave their trash behind...they are loud, they are drunk and they can ruin the experience...mostly these are local Floridians that come to WDW for the weekend.

Now we make sure and avoid Epcot on Friday all day, Saturday all day and Sunday afternoon - by Sunday night they are all on their way back home so it quiets down alot.

 

[TiggerCL]

This is great to read as I was initially planning on doing F&W Friday 10/2 during the afternoon. Sounds like we are better off moving this to Thursday and doing the MK on Friday. Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[make.it.blue]

This is great to read as I was initially planning on doing F&W Friday 10/2 during the afternoon. Sounds like we are better off moving this to Thursday and doing the MK on Friday. Thanks for the info everyone!

You may already know this (especially if you're going to the party!), but MNSSHP is on that Friday, Oct. 2, as well as Thursday, Oct. 1. MK will close at 7pm on those nights for non-party guests. We're planning to go to MNSSHP on Oct. 2!

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/pa...-events/mickeys-not-so-scary-halloween-party/

We will be there that week also, and I think we're going to try for Epcot on Wednesday

 

[DisneyToddlers]

Touring plans crowd calender shows Epcot as the "best" park for Sat., Sept. 26th (1st weekend of F&W) and also for Sat. Oct 3rd. I'll be there then, and I'm trying to plan out my days. This seems to be the opposite of what you are all saying. What do you think?

 

[berlymama2]

I thought historically/in general MK and EP are at peek on weekends, factoring in locals so they should be avoided if possible?

 

[lacy1101]

Touring plans crowd calender shows Epcot as the "best" park for Sat., Sept. 26th (1st weekend of F&W) and also for Sat. Oct 3rd. I'll be there then, and I'm trying to plan out my days. This seems to be the opposite of what you are all saying. What do you think?

I've noticed this as well. As a matter of fact, the only dates that are "good" or "neutral" for Epcot during our trip are Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. If we omit the Saturdays, we're left with Monday (neutral) and Wednesday (good). I'm very apprehensive about going on a Saturday because we are not getting park hoppers this trip and won't be able to leave and go to another park if its extremely crowded (as its sounding like it will be because of F&W).

 

[deej696]

The ride wait times may not be much different than normal weekends, but WS will be a madhouse...

I would disagree a bit with deej696 - In my experience at least the "biggies" - Test Track and Soarin - had noticably longer lines on Sunday than during the week. We went to a Sweet Sunday (dessert demo) and arrived at openning thinking we could do several rides prior to the 11:00 start time of the demo. We were wrong. The lines built fast. We only rode Test Track and ended up just shopping and such instead of rides

Absolutely, I was comparing the lines on the first F&W weekends, to any other weekend, not during the week. Even I dont go to the parks on the weekends

I thought historically/in general MK and EP are at peek on weekends, factoring in locals so they should be avoided if possible?

We are going to be there the day before F&W starts so I planned for us to go to EP on the Monday (which also happens to be EMH 9-midnight there).

Yes typically there is a bump in the crowds on the weekends. Then again, there also tends to be a bump due to EMH, so it may be six in one, half dozen in the other...

 

[jillyjill]

Tour Guide Mike's recommendation is a strong "STAY AWAY" from WS on at least the first SAT and SUNDAY of the festival. Other weekends will also be nasty crowded. But by Sunday evening through weekdays, Epcot will be far more pleasant and less crowded.

We're arriving the first day of the festival 9/25 and only staying 4 1/2 days, so my Epcot days will be my last two. Hate to wait that long but it will be worth it, We will be starting our Epcot touring with an early morning Segway ride!!

Good luck to you too!

Jillyjill

 

[mickeytattoo95]

I was there 2 years ago during the F&W festival. It didn't seem to be any more crowded during the day, but around 4pm, more people were floating around. By dusk you could smell alcohol on people and though they weren't acting loopy, some people were stepping on my kids. I just didn't care for the atmosphere when it started getting dark. We found a place to watch fire works and chilled...sent DH to find some unique snacks. Chaos on the way out as usual though.

My recommendation is to get out of the park by dinner time if you have small children.

 

[Padric]

We're going 9/17-9/28 and I wanted to do F&W for the first time but don't want to deal with the crowds. We comprimised on it and are going the Thursday before it officially starts so we can hopefully try a few things on it's soft opening. That's also our last day we have planned to go to Epcot and will have already been there twice so if things get hectic it won't be that big a deal to head out early and go to another park or spend a quite night back at POP.

Does anyone have any experience with the F&W crowds on it's soft opening?