food and wine festival with small kids - first time - advice?

[ellecg]

My husband and I are adventurous eaters, our kids are more picky. I've been glancing at the menus and i'm not sure at all how to tackle the lines/crowds, try a few unique foods that my husband and i would like, get some for the kids to try, without ending up wasting a ton of time and energy. We're going on a wednesday from about 12-9ish, have a table reservation for dinner and a few fp+ for the rides. It's not our first time in Epcot, just our first time going during the festival. Please share any tips you have! Thanks!

 

[craigkerstiens]

I'd say on a Wednesday you may be quite fine on lines. There's usually only a few booths that have particularly bad items based on their items. I'm a little hazy in my recollection but last year it felt like Canada, Belgium, France, New Zealand, and the ones back in America all often had reasonably long lines, where as many others were very short. All in all we've found it pretty easy to make our way around stand in maybe a long line or two but for the most part could pick and choose which ones and had some that were both very kid friendly as well as more adventurous ones.

 

[ktlm]

The lines are fairly short when WS opens, and get longer as the day goes on. With small kids, trading off can work well when the kids get tired of trying things. One of you can take the kids to the Kidcot station in the area, while the other goes through a line and gets something. Then you can trade places. We do that quite a bit. I don't know if your kids are old enough to enjoy the Agent P missions, but DH and I traded off during those a lot last year. It made it easy for us to take turns and walk around sampling everything we liked as the kid was happy and occupied so there was no complaining. DD was willing to try quite a bit since with the small portions she knew she was not committed to it as her meal and that she could just pass it off to DH if she didn't like it, so we did go through several lines together, but often the 3 of us wanted different things at different booths anyway.

 

[set1208]

I wish I remembered what day of the week it was last year when I took my ds8 to FW but I felt like we were at a frat party at times. High crowds of drunk 20 something's with lines so long that we didn't try many items. I was disappointed.

 

[kwdw]

I'd say if you can edit your plans a bit and get there at 11 - you'll be a bit better off. I've been once mid-week from about 11-4 and thought lines were short and drunkenness not bad at all. Went back on a Saturday and thought the whole thing was ridiculous by 1-2 pm. Huge lines, obnoxious behavior already present.

 

[Princess candy]

I agree with previous comment. Went last oct on a Saturday with hubby and 2 year old son. By afternoon it was a lot of drunk 20 year olds, lots of bachelorette parties. Very crowded with adults. On a Wednesday you should have better luck. Go early and make a plan B if it gets too crazy.

 

[myrtleturtle]

We will be taking our almost 3 year old twins in October. Our plan is to get there at 11am, knowing what we want to try from where. As we do our loop, we will divide and conquer, one of us getting food, the other staying with the kids, doing kidcot, looking in a shop etc. We will do future world rides on a different day.