MrsScooby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 27, 2002
Hi, this will be my first time to F&W, and I'm going with a friend for a girl day, no kids.I wasn't quite sure, do *all* the F&W booths open at 11, even the ones in Future world and Showcase Plaza? I was just making sure.
And then, do you have any suggestions on strategy for this?I went through all the menus using lists I found online, correlated what booths we thought we were interested in to reviews. Now I'm narrowing it to a priority list. But really, how much do you eat? Honestly, we don't drink at all, neither of us. Is the food in the stalls enough that as you eat at booth after booth you're like oh, that was good, now I'm full? Or do I still need lunch and dinner reservations? I have lunch at Les Chefs, where I thought we could just split an onion soup and croque monsieur, and then I have dinner at Le Hacienda. I had seen it last time (January) and wanted to try it. I also thought maybe there was some merit to having meal reservations just to get out of the heat, rest, plug in the ECV...
Is there anything else I need to know/realize? Mainly, do I want a solid meal on top of the scraps and pieces from the booths, or are the booths enough? Oh, and the other thing is, I don't eat beef or shellfish of any kind. Almost everything I'm finding for *me* is desserts. I think I could survive it for lunch with the booths in Future World West. Like I think that might be pretty filling. I don't know, I wanted to go but now I don't know what this is like and how it's going to work out, lol. Do you literally just eat a little at EVERY BOOTH and keep going? Or do people pick just a few and then hit a restaurant?
Is Chocolate Experience in the Festival Center worth going to? It seems sort of out of the way. Does it open at 11? I was interested in the Ghiradelli Drinking Chocolate there. Is anything interesting in that building BESIDES the chocolate? Does that stuff open up earlier and then the Chocolate Experience booth opens at 11??
I've only been twice to the F&W Festival. Once with friends and once with my husband. Both times I was expecting to only eat at the Festival booths and both times I found myself eating dinner elsewhere. Getting to the Festival early when it opens at 11 am is a really good idea because that is when it will be at its coolest (temp wise) and least crowded. I wouldn't bother with a lunch reservation as you want to hit as many booths as you can at that point. I was surprised how hot it got in October and how precious the shade was -especially when waiting in lines for the booths. After about 3-4 hours of the heat we usually headed back to our rooms or at least some place with AC so we could put up our feet and rest. I found by dinner time (around 7 pm) I was ready to sit in an AC'd restaurant and have someone else bring me food and water. You might not order a heavy dish (just appetizers or salad) but it is nice to get away from the crowds and heat. The question is reservations because they penalize you for canceling last minute. However we were able to find dinner even without reservations-you can't be too picky about where you eat though a some popular places won't have open tables.
Not sure if by beef and shellfish you mean you can't eat any meat or seafood? I don't normally eat pork, but I was with friends and they wanted the pork sliders at the Hawaii booth so I went along. They turned out to be my favorite food of the Festival. The advantage of going with someone else is that if they don't mind you can sample a bit of their food before committing to getting it yourself. I was also surprised by how good the lamb chop was at the Australian booth (hoping the cheaper cut of lamb this year doesn't ruin it for me).
As for the Chocolate Experience...I love chocolate, but was a little underwhelmed by this. The drinking chocolate is good, but not great IMHO. I liked the Festival Center for other reasons. One, it got you out of the heat and two, they had the best selection of Festival souvenirs. As others have said it does open earlier so if you are available definitely give it a look.
Good Luck !!
