What is all this now about large crowds at Epcot On Saturday Food and Wine Festival??

[schmenge12]

As I was planning on going to Epcot on 10/13, I was surprised to read threads about the large crowds.

I am coming off of the Wonder on Thursday, staying at the Swan, and am now speculating to go to Epcot that same day, MK on Friday, and cooling our jets at the pool or Downtown Disney on Saturday.

Am I overreacting to the concern over crowds on Saturday at Epcot at the expense of pushing ourselves too hard coming right off the cruise ship? Any other recommendations for these two parks on Th-Sat.?

Thanks for all of your assistance.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

Epcot will definitely be packed on Saturday, but I don't think it will interfere with your enjoyment of the festival. It's NOT like going to MK on a busy Saturday.

Epcot will get more and more crowded as the night goes on, so go earlier if you think the crowds will really bother you.

DH and I always go for 2 long weekends per festival, and Saturday nights are crazy, but in a fun way (not in a scary way like MK! ).

 

[karrit2000]

Saturdays are always the busiest days of the F & W Festival. A lot of locals come for the day. The last couple of years I have spent a two week period for the Festival. The lines for the food booths are very busy on the weekends. The free seminars offered during the festival are usually broken down in blocks of similar seminars on Monday-Tuesday, similar ones on Wednesday-Thursday, and The Big Wineries show up for the weekends and host the Seminars on Friday, Saturday & Sunday with many of the offeings repeated two or three times over the course of those three days. If you get a chance to grab a festival program on Thursday you can check out & plan what you want to do on the other days of the festival. If you get a park hopper ticket you can spend a few hours and then head to another park if you find it too crowded. keep in mind that the lines for the free seminars start an hour or more before each seminar on the weekends. If you just want to sample the offerings at the food booths & skip the seminars you should be able to enjoy everything you want no matter which day you choose to go to EPCOT.

 

[podroma7]

So the food booths/seminars will be busy but will the rides in Future World/World Showcase be busy on Saturdays during F&W?

We are doing the same thing (Epoct on Saturday 11/10/07 and last Saturday of F&W) but aren't as concerned with the food as we are about the rides/countries.

Anyone have any advice for the last weekend of F&W?

 

[Kteacher]

I was there last Oct. with my DD15. We were only there for a long weekend, and had dinner ADR at Rose and Crown on a Sat. night. Epcot was I think we arrived at Epcot around 4 in the afternoon. By dusk it was so crowded that I told my DD she needed to hold my hand when we were walking through the crowds. We weren't planning on going on any attractions, just dinner and Illuminations ( good thing , as everything had long wait times ).

 

[Cinderellafifi]

We went on a Saturday last October for Food & Wine. During the day, it really was not bad. Short lines at the food stands, able to walk freely, etc. HOWEVER, when we returned in the evening, it was wall-to-wall people. You could not move at all. We stayed about an hour and left.

Hope this helps.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We went on a Sat last year and it was jam packed with people and the lines to the food stands were huge. This year we are going mid week so I hope it is not that bad

 

[rstamm]

We went on a Saturday in November and at that time I didn't know much about the food and wine festival, well I now know never ever go on Saturday.
I was shocked at how full it was.

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

I figure the evening probably gets more crowded?? We plan to go on Friday Oct 19th at opening and spend all day!! By evening we will have done all we want and can just relax and enjoy the sights and sounds...

Just me and my best friend and cousin! We are leaving the kids and hubby's behind...Staying at the Swan so we can take a break easy enough if needed..

Hey do any of you change clothes and put on something nicer at Epcot before dinner???

I will be spending my Birthday at Epcot on Sept 8th and I was thinking of heading back to the resort around 3ish and to refresh and change for dinner at Chefs de France.... This trip is POR....

Can't wait!

Michelle

 

[tkldisney]

For anyone attending PFTS how is the crowd & wait times there? We arrive at MCO 11 am on Sat. and was thinking about trying to do this event that eve.

 

[Momof6]

But we actually were in the PFTS most of Saturday evening. I don't remember it being unbearable earlier in the day. I think it would be much more challenging if we had our kids with us - but for just dh and me it was fine.
I agree with a previous post - think about what you would like to do, and then double check when you get in the park for any changes...we noticed a lot of things were a little different from the program to the signs around the park.
Enjoy! We will be there end of Sept/beg. Oct. for F&W.


denise

 

[momtoccc]

I keep wondering about this also - we are going Nov 1-7. My original plan was to do AK on Sat a.m. and Epcot on Sun a.m. then I read on one of the touring web sites that Epcot would be better on Sat and AK better on Sun (Epcot has evening EMH on Friday night). So I was going to switch the days... My plan was to only do FutureWorld and leave Epcot by 3pm or so.. do you think we will miss the crowds? or will Sunday morning be better???

 

[momimouse27]

Last year we were there the last week of September and our last day there was the first day of Food and Wine. It was PACKED. The whole week we had the park to ourselves and then the last day we went to Epcot(Sat) because its our favorite park, and it was like someone opened the floodgates.....

 

[puffkins]

Guess we'll find out just how busy Epcot gets on a Saturday since we will be there this weekend.

yeah!

 

[Kteacher]

I'll be there this weekend as well . If you are planning on just eating and drinking aropund World Showcase avoid Saturday, especially Saturday night- the past two years it's been crazy crowded for Columbus Day weekend.

 

[MrWixter]

I was in Epcot each day from Sept 30 (Tues) - Oct 4 (Sat); with Oct 2 (Thur) being the only day I was there all day. The crowds were very light Tues - Thur being able to walk-on to every attraction (except Soaring, about a 10 - 15 minute wait when we went) and no wait at all the F&W booths. Thankfully, I did most of my F&W tasting on those days. We had dinner reservations in WS on both Friday and Saturday nights and it was packed. Each booth had lines and the few attractions I walked by had much longer lines. For instance, Test Track was showing a 50 minute wait instead of a 10 minute wait on Thursday. If you don't want you kids to be around drunk people using non-Disney language, you may want to avoid Weekend nights.

 

[disneymyway]

"Bad" is a relative term. Let's just say it's "worse" than normal EPCOT.

 

[sheri236]

we just got back and did epcot and the f & w fest on tues sept 30 and sat oct 4. HUGE difference in crowds!!! I was amazed--booths that I had walked right up to on tues had 20+ people in line on sat!! never again!!