How long are waits for Food and Wine booths, generally?

[disprincess2213]

I am doing so much research on the festival and I was just wondering how long the waits usually are for the more popular kiosks (Canada especially). We are going during the week (Tuesday-Thursday) and plan to start around 12:30. What are the TYPICAL waits at the booths in the afternoon?

 

[tobikaye]

For weekdays starting earlier in the day, it can vary. The times I have been there, all during weekdays, the waits were between walk up and 15 minutes at any booth I went. Most of my F&W visits were early afternoon through early evening.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We also usually go in the afternoon on weekdays and I can't remember ever having more than 4 or 5 people in front of me in the line.

 

[rlovew]

Usually during the week early in the day the waits are 15 min or less. It grows to about 30 minutes by the evening and I have seen it look like 45 min- an hour wait in lines on the weekends but we generally don't go on weekends.

 

[5kidsmommy]

Usually during the week early in the day the waits are 15 min or less. It grows to about 30 minutes by the evening and I have seen it look like 45 min- an hour wait in lines on the weekends but we generally don't go on weekends.

We only have two days at the festival, the last two days. Would we be better off going on Sunday our first day there or Monday the last day of the festival?

 

[rlovew]

We only have two days at the festival, the last two days. Would we be better off going on Sunday our first day there or Monday the last day of the festival?

Well you can always do the less popular booths on Sunday and the ones with long waits on Monday (when the waits should be shorter).

 

[Mikka]

On a weekday afternoon, the most you'll have to wait is fifteen minutes unless there's a hold up in the kitchen (which does happen), in my experience. More often, you'll wait five minutes at most.

As the day progresses, lines for popular booths can get longer, up to thirty or so minutes, and with so many people going through kitchen hold ups seem to become more problematic as they run out and need to get something delivered from elsewhere.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday- especially the latter two- will have much longer lines, although if you start at eleven, you can beat them: eleven on a Sunday versus a Monday isn't too much of a difference, maybe five minutes more on average. On a weekend night, though, there can be ridiculous waits for some booths. Try to avoid that.

 

[kiramay]

Last year we went during the week and ate from around noon to dinner. Most waits were 5-10 minutes. If there were places with long lines I just skipped it to go back another day. We were able to try everything we wanted without much waiting. The kids and dh getting pastries in the French patisserie was the longest line by far. Lol

 

[vettegirl]

We avoid the weekends for sure, the weekdays during the day I would say 5 min or less wait time.

 

[OKW Lover]

Good info from the PP's. I'd just add that if you are hitting the booths right at opening you should skip the first several booths in order to get ahead of the crowd. I've seen the line at Mexico be really long at 11:00 but if you just walked by, once you got over to whatever was near Norway or China, there was nobody.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

During the week days we got there when they opened and sometimes they were just begging us to come and try the food. It was dead at some booths.

On the weekend some of the longest lines we had were Germany, Canada and the lobster roll line by the American Adventure.

 

[River Country]

Avoid the weekends and especially marathon weekend

 

[Pkltm]

Last year longest we waited was 25, even during the marathon weekend

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Hint one. NO, the food in Mexico is not the ONLY place to eat. I swear EVERYONE stops there it has the longest lines LOL! Just keep walking!

 

[branv]

I know Sunday is busy due to locals, but is that also true of Sunday night?

 

[Disnsyncey]

I went Fri, Sat, Sun, and prob Mon of the second weekend in the fest and the most we had to wait was MAYBE 10 minutes, for some reason my companions wanted to try Italy....

totally agree on the Mexico thing! EVERYBODY stops there! If you are dying for some food from Mexico, go at 11 before anybody else makes the line long....

most of our waits were less than 5 minutes.....I think the only holdups were the "getting" the food, when there was a kitchen holdup...

 

[JACKNAG]

avoid the weekends

 

[MartDM]

I know Sunday is busy due to locals, but is that also true of Sunday night?

Wondering the same thing myself. We we only catch the last two days and won't be there until afternoon on Sunday. I'm hoping the locals tend to clear out by early evening & we can make some headway that night, with more the next day.