**2011** Epcot Food & Wine Festival HAS ENDED. 2012 Festival 9/28 - 11/11

[bconlan]

Yes please...if someone is there this year and can confirm a location near the International Gateway entrance where you can get a passport, please let us know. The 1st night we arrive at F&WF we'll be coming in through that entrance.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

1. Where is the Festival Center located? I don't see it in the map with all the booths.

2. Coming from the International Gateway, what sounds more appealing, starting counterclockwise (towards France and Belgium) or clockwise (towards Greece and Ireland)?

I'll be there in less than a week!

I would start with Greece and Ireland just because those are two of my favorite booths. The fisherman's pie at the Ireland booth is one of the best things ever, and I've always enjoyed everything I've had at the Greece booth. I also really like the South Africa booth.

 

[OrlandoSteve]

OK… here’s your first report from the Food & Wine Festival on opening day!

I decided to slide by EPCOT for lunch today (one of the perks of living around here). Arrived about 11:15am. Not very busy at all!

Stopped by the Cranberry Bog on the way to WS. It’s actually kind of cool to see two grown men wading through thigh-deep cranberries floating on water. The two men looked (and sounded) like they were right out of the Ocean Spray commercial. Worth about a 45 second stop to check it out.

Made it to World Showcase about 11:30am. I was expecting it to be packed for the opening hour of Day 1. Nope. Not busy at all.

There did seem to be an inordinate amount of people at the Australia kiosk just as you enter WS. I noticed about 15 – 20 people in line. Then as I walked past the kiosk I noticed it was one of those two-sided two-entrance kiosks. On the other side… 2 people in line! I wanted to go back and tell all those in the long like that there was a much shorter line just on the other side. But the moment to help was quickly surpassed by the view of the Mexican kiosk, because I knew I wanted a crispy shrimp taco.

There were only 4 people in line ahead of me. After less than 2 minutes, I bit into the crispy shrimp taco. While it was over-garnished (with slaw/cabbage?), the shrimp and the sauce were excellent! Nice start!

As I made my way around WS, I couldn’t help but notice how dead it seemed (except for one kiosk- see below). It was close to noon and the lines were no more than 2-5 people deep. Wasn’t expecting that.

I only had about an hour for lunch, so I didn’t really spend time to take everything in. I did know I wanted the cheddar cheese soup in Canada.

Only bizarre thing was when I was passing by the Japan kiosk. It was about noon and I noticed about 10 people in line. I overheard a manager say loudly “Finally, we have food!”. I paused and checked it out. Indeed, it looked like the food was just arriving (about an hour late). The people in line cheered. Then one of the workers asked the manager “Is the elevator still broken?”. Didn’t really hear the answer, but obviously Japan wasn’t firing on all cylinders on opening day.

The other interesting thing was the massive line for Ireland. I didn’t stop to peek at what the offering was or whether there was some kind of problem, but there were about 40 – 50 people in line. That’s the only significant line I saw today.

It was only about 87 degrees (the coolest day we’ve had in months), but it still seemed hot. I slowly strolled my way around to Canada, where I noticed the huge façade/covering of the main building. I think construction has been going on there for a few months. Got into the short line at the Canada kiosk and grabbed my cheddar cheese soup. Mmmmmmmm. The tastiest three or four spoonfuls I’ve had in a while!

As I made my way out of WS I still got the sense at 12:30pm that it simply wasn’t that crowded. No wall to wall sweaty people. The lines couldn’t have been more than 5 – 7 people.

I headed out of EPCOT and back to work. Not a bad way to spend a lunch break!

I'll be heading back for PFTS in a few weeks.

 

[franandaj]

Thanks for the report Steve! about the temperature! 87 is the coolest it's been??????? yikes, I hope it cools down by the end of the month!

I agree about the pie and the cake, but the cake is so darn small, the size of a quarter if i remember correctly.

Our plan is to get three between the two of us on our first time through!

 

[tortoni]

Thanks for the report Steve. Hope it is not too busy next weekend, when we will be there!

 

[daraddg]

YAY means we are getting closer to our trip Can't wait to see some pics!

 

[vossjemi]

We will be there Sunday 10/30. Never been to Epcot before. 3 adults/3kids ages 11, 9, and 5. We have Princess Storybook Breakfast scheduled for 8:05 am, hopefully to be done and get us a good start on this park for the 9:00 opening time. Also, right now we have Coral Reef tenatively booked at 5:25, hearing the kids might really enjoy this aquarium style restaurant.

BUT, we are only doing 4 nights so our TS credits are limited and it seems like we have a lot of snack credits that could potentially go to waste and where better to use them than the F&W Festival, right??? We plan to stay all the way to the end with Illuminations and see what we can of Epcot in that one day.

So, my question is would you cancel Coral Reef and just sample the world the rest of the day? We are staying at Fort Wilderness Cabins and Trails End is the buffet style table service restaurant that we would most likely swap out for a breakfast one morning. I know probably no real comparison in food, right? Better value for $ at CR? But if we eat 2 meals at Epcot, will we have time and/or be hungry for all that wonderful snacking??? LOL And I'm struggling one morning with what to do about breakfast. We could buy/eat something in the room, but why when we have all these credits? hahaha

Just curious what all you seasoned Disers would do. Thanks!

 

[dgbg100106]

Thanks for the report Steve! about the temperature! 87 is the coolest it's been??????? yikes, I hope it cools down by the end of the month!



Our plan is to get three between the two of us on our first time through!

Oh ok, understand. Last time David and I split one.

Steve, thanks for the review.

 

[gismo1554]

We will be there Sunday 10/30. Never been to Epcot before. 3 adults/3kids ages 11, 9, and 5. We have Princess Storybook Breakfast scheduled for 8:05 am, hopefully to be done and get us a good start on this park for the 9:00 opening time. Also, right now we have Coral Reef tenatively booked at 5:25, hearing the kids might really enjoy this aquarium style restaurant.

BUT, we are only doing 4 nights so our TS credits are limited and it seems like we have a lot of snack credits that could potentially go to waste and where better to use them than the F&W Festival, right??? We plan to stay all the way to the end with Illuminations and see what we can of Epcot in that one day.

So, my question is would you cancel Coral Reef and just sample the world the rest of the day? We are staying at Fort Wilderness Cabins and Trails End is the buffet style table service restaurant that we would most likely swap out for a breakfast one morning. I know probably no real comparison in food, right? Better value for $ at CR? But if we eat 2 meals at Epcot, will we have time and/or be hungry for all that wonderful snacking??? LOL And I'm struggling one morning with what to do about breakfast. We could buy/eat something in the room, but why when we have all these credits? hahaha

Just curious what all you seasoned Disers would do. Thanks!

OK I would say that because you're travelling with kids your probably better off with the Coral Reef reservation. F&W samples are nice but they aren;t really aimed at kids. That being said maybe you could change the day of your breakfast? Look at the menus and decide whether there's anything the kids would enjoy.

 

[horselover]

Thanks for the review Steve. Not sure I could have eaten that soup on an 87 degree day. Hope the temps drop a little by next week. 5 days & counting!

 

[buckeev]

We will be there Sunday 10/30. Never been to Epcot before. 3 adults/3kids ages 11, 9, and 5. We have Princess Storybook Breakfast scheduled for 8:05 am, hopefully to be done and get us a good start on this park for the 9:00 opening time. Also, right now we have Coral Reef tenatively booked at 5:25, hearing the kids might really enjoy this aquarium style restaurant.

BUT, we are only doing 4 nights so our TS credits are limited and it seems like we have a lot of snack credits that could potentially go to waste and where better to use them than the F&W Festival, right??? We plan to stay all the way to the end with Illuminations and see what we can of Epcot in that one day.

So, my question is would you cancel Coral Reef and just sample the world the rest of the day? We are staying at Fort Wilderness Cabins and Trails End is the buffet style table service restaurant that we would most likely swap out for a breakfast one morning. I know probably no real comparison in food, right? Better value for $ at CR? But if we eat 2 meals at Epcot, will we have time and/or be hungry for all that wonderful snacking??? LOL And I'm struggling one morning with what to do about breakfast. We could buy/eat something in the room, but why when we have all these credits? hahaha

Just curious what all you seasoned Disers would do. Thanks!

My 2-pennies....I'd vote Coral Reef...we love the atmosphere...and the eats are pretty good too!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

First day. Disney seems surprised this event started. First 3 booths 2 of them are out of items with no clue when or if they get more. Bad show Disney

 

[maciec]

Now that F&WF is open can we get a current stickie so that we don't have to go through 115 pages to get to the first day?

 

[Dis_Yoda]

First day. Disney seems surprised this event started. First 3 booths 2 of them are out of items with no clue when or if they get more. Bad show Disney

For some reason, I'm not shocked.

Now that F&WF is open can we get a current stickie so that we don't have to go through 115 pages to get to the first day?

If you want to skip ahead to your first unread post, all you need to do is click on 'skip to unread post' that is on the top of the first page when you open a thread.

 

[muffy0110]

We will be there Sunday 10/30. Never been to Epcot before. 3 adults/3kids ages 11, 9, and 5. We have Princess Storybook Breakfast scheduled for 8:05 am, hopefully to be done and get us a good start on this park for the 9:00 opening time. Also, right now we have Coral Reef tenatively booked at 5:25, hearing the kids might really enjoy this aquarium style restaurant.

BUT, we are only doing 4 nights so our TS credits are limited and it seems like we have a lot of snack credits that could potentially go to waste and where better to use them than the F&W Festival, right??? We plan to stay all the way to the end with Illuminations and see what we can of Epcot in that one day.

So, my question is would you cancel Coral Reef and just sample the world the rest of the day? We are staying at Fort Wilderness Cabins and Trails End is the buffet style table service restaurant that we would most likely swap out for a breakfast one morning. I know probably no real comparison in food, right? Better value for $ at CR? But if we eat 2 meals at Epcot, will we have time and/or be hungry for all that wonderful snacking??? LOL And I'm struggling one morning with what to do about breakfast. We could buy/eat something in the room, but why when we have all these credits? hahaha

Just curious what all you seasoned Disers would do. Thanks!

We spend 1 day just "eating around the world" this is my 15th F&W but I love to try everything and so does my family so we never book a meal of any kind that day-really depends on if u like to try new things

 

[muffy0110]

We leave from MA. on 10/17 and r there til 11/4- food and wine. My favorite time of the yr. Stupid WDW for canceling a PFTS for a children's event.

 

[maciec]

*

 

[vinotinto]

First day. Disney seems surprised this event started. First 3 booths 2 of them are out of items with no clue when or if they get more. Bad show Disney

Oh no! I hope they get their sh*t together in the next 5 days. I'm coming on Thursday to snack throughout all the booths, with enough DxDP snack credits to burn.

 

[vinotinto]

We will be there Sunday 10/30. Never been to Epcot before. 3 adults/3kids ages 11, 9, and 5. We have Princess Storybook Breakfast scheduled for 8:05 am, hopefully to be done and get us a good start on this park for the 9:00 opening time. Also, right now we have Coral Reef tenatively booked at 5:25, hearing the kids might really enjoy this aquarium style restaurant.

BUT, we are only doing 4 nights so our TS credits are limited and it seems like we have a lot of snack credits that could potentially go to waste and where better to use them than the F&W Festival, right??? We plan to stay all the way to the end with Illuminations and see what we can of Epcot in that one day.

So, my question is would you cancel Coral Reef and just sample the world the rest of the day? We are staying at Fort Wilderness Cabins and Trails End is the buffet style table service restaurant that we would most likely swap out for a breakfast one morning. I know probably no real comparison in food, right? Better value for $ at CR? But if we eat 2 meals at Epcot, will we have time and/or be hungry for all that wonderful snacking??? LOL And I'm struggling one morning with what to do about breakfast. We could buy/eat something in the room, but why when we have all these credits? hahaha

Just curious what all you seasoned Disers would do. Thanks!

I think you have an excellent plan in place right now for Epcot with kids - Akershus for an early breakfast and Coral Reef for dinner time. You can do lunch as a series of snacks throughout the F&W booths. But, I don't think I would want to do 2 meals with kids out of the F&W booths. Not so much because of the food (kids love 'little foods'). But, you'll be grateful to sit down at an actual table and have the kids slow down and eat dinner. There's no place to sit down at F&W. But, if you don't have enough credits, Epcot has the best counter service restaurants, the three that I have tried - Tangierine Cafe (really good!), Sunshine Seasons, and Boulangerie Patisserie - all had some really yummy choices.

P.S - We've had both lunch and dinner at Coral Reef and it's one of my favorite choices for park dining. My fish has always been cooked perfectly (i.e., not overcooked) and they have some nice meal choices for kids (Mahi Mahi).

 

[vinotinto]

Since #1 has been answered, my 2 cents is go towards Britain and Canada. My two favorite food items are the Fisherman's Pie (savory) and Molten Chocolate Cake (sweet). My first day I plan on heading that direction and working my way through Canada and Greece to Hawaii, then on to the Latin regions and coming back for Champagne and Desserts.

After that, my plan of attack is not yet determined, but probably the next day, I will go the other direction.

I really like your plan of attack. Thanks for sharing.

I would start with Greece and Ireland just because those are two of my favorite booths. The fisherman's pie at the Ireland booth is one of the best things ever, and I've always enjoyed everything I've had at the Greece booth. I also really like the South Africa booth.

I was wondering about the fisherman's pie. And I love all kinds of Mediterranean/Greek food, so I think I'm going clockwise.

OK… here’s your first report from the Food & Wine Festival on opening day!

I decided to slide by EPCOT for lunch today (one of the perks of living around here). Arrived about 11:15am. Not very busy at all!

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As I made my way out of WS I still got the sense at 12:30pm that it simply wasn’t that crowded. No wall to wall sweaty people. The lines couldn’t have been more than 5 – 7 people.

I headed out of EPCOT and back to work. Not a bad way to spend a lunch break!

You lucky dog! Thanks for posting your review.