Food and Wine Festival - what is the attraction?

[deide71]

Don't forget, if your'e on the dining plan you can use snack credits for F+W samples. We have 5 peopleX5 days= 25 credits. Food and Wine festival here we come!!!!

 

[ttfn3]

We LOVE the Food & Wine Festival. We like to go to Epcot World Showcase during the day - and during the week. It's so much more relaxing. I also think the crowd tends to be tamer.

We like the seminars. We even attended one with my young DS. He sat with us in the back of the room with us. One of the Cast members gave him a basket of graham crackers to keep him occupied. He LOVED the extra attention - and special treat. The adults enjoyed the FREE wine. It was great to sample something new - and to learn about the wine.

We like to take a leisurely stroll through the World Showcase - and we enjoy the extra performers. So much fun. The food and wine samples are also great to try. Sometimes, two of us will share one so we can have a taste of something.

I can't wait to go back this year!!

 

[EEYOREMAMA]

We really enjoy the F&W festival. We plan on going a little early before the crowds pour in. We skip breakfast and lunch so we can take a leisurely stroll through the countries and pick and choose our samples. It gives the kids a chance to taste something that they might not want to order in a restaurant and DH and I can sip a little wine while we sample.

It's probably not for everyone and can get to be a little too much even for the die-hards once it gets crowded. I will wait on line (within reason) for an attraction I love, but draw the line (pun intended), waiting to eat.

 

[Judique]

Party for the Senses does not sell out near as fast as the other special dining, but you do need to buy it ahead of time since it does sometimes sell out.

As for the food being the same as the resturants... at last check there was no Polish, Indian, Austrialian, Greek resturant at WDW so the only place you got those special items was the food and wine fest..... If however, you are a real picky eater... this may not be a good event.

Last time I went I used about $100 in Disney reward dollars over the course of a week stay... I was stuffed A LOT, I can't imagine even two people spending $100 and not being full in one day!

I found that 2 of us averaged about $30-$35 and we were full for lunch or dinner. We don't drink a lot of wine, so maybe just one or two of the glasses. Usually three or four of the samples are enough for us, plus a piece of maple fudge for dessert. That would go something like this: sample of wine$3-$4, plus free wine if you do a seminar; sample of cheese soup - usually about $2.50, Chicken sha cha, about $3.50, hummus with pita from Morocco (delicious!) $1.50, Aussie beef on a skewer (very good!) $3.75, and maple fudge $1.50(yummy!). Others may eat a lot more, but I'm very full after this much and a sit down lunch or dinner is at least this price. Plus there is the entertainment and the whole atmosphere of being in such a beautiful place as World Showcase! Disclaimer - I do hate when it is so crowded you can't walk and there are huge lines, but we've managed to avoid lines on most of our visits. Trying to eat and balance stuff can be a challenge, but we've learned not to carry a lot of stuff with us.

 

[GAN]

We went for the first time, this past October -we absolutely loved it and will definately go again. As another poster warned beware of weekends -the lines are extremely long compared to weekdays which we found almost no waits. The people who complain about the cost at the kiosks must never eat counter service -I say this because we had lunch in the Land one day. Two small sandwiches, a fruit cup, and one soda -total $26. On average, that same money bought us 6 different appetizers: cheddar cheese soup(Canada), venison stew(New Zealand), cabbage roll(poland -awesome!!), curry chicken(India), bostana(Turkey), ziti carbonara(Italy), AND two glasses wine. Granted, these are appetizer sized portions(some bigger than others) but more than enough to satisfy a normal appetite for the money. I'm fairly picky and tried some things I wouldn't normally try -glad I did! If you enjoy eating big lunches at TS then F & W may not be your cup of tea. Party for the Senses is unbelieveable, food from some of the best chefs from around the world -Alan Wong's Braised Beef was the best thing I've ever tasted and other dishes were on the same par(Ming Tsai). It's definately an advantage if you have an interest in wine, nothing like being able to sample $200 bottles of wine all night! Did I forget Sam Adams Utopia? I believe it's $100 a bottle -look for it at home! We also chose many of the free wine seminars that we were interested in -and learned a great deal in the process. As if being in the front row for the Gap Band wasn't enough .

 

[WDWLVR]

My DH loves trying new foods, but I really don't. We did F&W last November and he really enjoyed it. We did go on a Saturday and if possible I would try and do a weekend next time. We'll be back down at WDW next October after getting off the DVC Member Cruise. I'm sure we'll spend at least part of one day at F&W. Would we make a special trip down because of it? No, but if it is going on when we have plans for other things we'll enjoy it.

 

[rinkwide]

I can see after all of the sampling, a person finding themselves $100 lighter and still hungry.

Are you kidding? If I spent a hundred bucks at the booths of the Food & Wine I'd have to go to urgent care for a stomach pump and blood transfusion.

 

[DrTomorrow]

We don't "get" the F&W fest, but (as I've related in the past) we don't the enduring appeal of WS and its restaurants. I'm guessing that there is a greater proportion of "Foodies" in the DIS DVC population than in the population at large (pun unintended).

 

[bobbiwoz]

DH and I will try the Party of the Senses.

The walking around and tasting does nothing for our appetites or patience. Unfortunately, until we retire we must go on weekends in October.

Bobbi

 

[MiaSRN62]

We enjoy the Food & Wine festival. Last time we were there was 11/04 and it did seem a bit more crowded than past F&W's we'd been to.
We enjoy the food & beer sampling. Too much wine can give me a headache. My husband likes to call it the Food & Beer Festival. The African beer is actually very good.
As for the crowds, def avoid the weekends, as well as going earlier in the evening vs later in the evening. We've found that can make a difference.

 

[MikeyNS]

We liked the F&W festival so much we plan on heading down to the 'world every October we can to experience the festival. We love the fact that for a few bucks you can try snippets of food from around the world. Even though we've only been there once in 2004, we enjoyed it so much we're taking our parents down in 06. But I can definitely see how it could turn some people off.

Other than that please spread the word that the F&W festival is a terrible idea. More room and food for the rest of us.