2018 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival: August 30 to November 12, 2018

[Daffy41]

Totally. There is no ooh la la on what they’ve released so far. Even if I wanted to do a seminar, there’s no way I’m booking something non refundable before seeing what else is going to be offered.

First time going to Food and Wine - is there a refund or cancellation policy for the paid events ?

 

[2xcited2sleep]

First time going to Food and Wine - is there a refund or cancellation policy for the paid events ?

Non-refundable except for cases of extreme hardship (e.g. serious illness, death in the family) where they MAY choose to issue refund. But all events are listed as non-refundable. I’ve also run into cases where the celeb chef has canceled or changed their date and Disney has been accommodating.

 

[randumb0]

First time going to Food and Wine - is there a refund or cancellation policy for the paid events ?

They are typically non refundable

 

[smokeyblue]

Sorry, pure rant here. I am again disappointed with how reservations are being handled. Annoyed with the short notice and the unexpected change of the start of booking is pretty obnoxious too. Yes, the earlier booking could be a good thing for assisting with firming up dining reservations and making FPs, but the inconsistency in how things are rolled out and the technical difficulties that have routinely bogged things down in the past make this part of planning infuriating.

Dont get me wrong, I will have a good time no matter how things turn out. It's just mindboggling to me how they can pull together this giant event with millions of moving pieces, but this part of it is always a giant cluster.

 

[Disney & ME]

Sorry, pure rant here. I am again disappointed with how reservations are being handled. Annoyed with the short notice and the unexpected change of the start of booking is pretty obnoxious too. Yes, the earlier booking could be a good thing for assisting with firming up dining reservations and making FPs, but the inconsistency in how things are rolled out and the technical difficulties that have routinely bogged things down in the past make this part of planning infuriating.

Dont get me wrong, I will have a good time no matter how things turn out. It's just mindboggling to me how they can pull together this giant event with millions of moving pieces, but this part of it is always a giant cluster.

I totally agree. We just decided to book a short trip for F&W so I really need to have my plans finalized. Very frustrating to not have the info yet. I had thought surely by this morning.

 

[pepperandchips]

Question for a first timer...

How quickly do demos/non-dining events book up? Specifically, the MIMICI Workshops, culinary demos, beverage seminars and the food & bev pairing events? We are on the fence about attending anything like this, and I'm honestly not sure I'll know by the end of the week if we want to go. Since this is our first time at Food & Wine - and his first time at Disney EVER, I don't know if our schedule should be so set - especially in addition to our ADRs.

Thoughts?

If it is your first time at Food & Wine I would probably hold off unless you see something that really calls to you (for example, if you've always loved Robert Irvine or something). We have filled plenty of time each year just visiting the booths and the Festival Center. There are so many options just at the booths that we never get to try everything that we want to. If you follow this thread closely it can help get you excited about Food & Wine but for me it also creates a fear of missing out on events that otherwise there is NO WAY I'd be signing up for this far in advance or paying the premium prices on. We did a culinary demonstration once, back when you got wine included and it was $15. It was only a "meh" value proposition to me then, the portions were small of both the food taste and the wine taste, and they have since removed the wine pour and raised the price. I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade - if you enjoy the beverage or culinary demonstrations I am not saying you shouldn't! But you can also find availability on the day-of for many of those events, as others have pointed out.

In past years, you could also "lurk" outside the demonstrations for free and hear some of the content of the presentation (no tastes though). If the setup is the same this year, you might consider doing a little lurking early in your trip to decide if you want to schedule a demonstration later in the trip.

Also if you have ADRs I wouldn't overschedule F&W special events. You'll end up so stuffed you won't be able to experience anything at the booths, which would be awful for the way we like to experience F&W. Just my two cents but hopefully there's a helpful nugget in there somewhere

 

[Cordy2424]

If it is your first time at Food & Wine I would probably hold off unless you see something that really calls to you (for example, if you've always loved Robert Irvine or something). We have filled plenty of time each year just visiting the booths and the Festival Center. There are so many options just at the booths that we never get to try everything that we want to. If you follow this thread closely it can help get you excited about Food & Wine but for me it also creates a fear of missing out on events that otherwise there is NO WAY I'd be signing up for this far in advance or paying the premium prices on. We did a culinary demonstration once, back when you got wine included and it was $15. It was only a "meh" value proposition to me then, the portions were small of both the food taste and the wine taste, and they have since removed the wine pour and raised the price. I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade - if you enjoy the beverage or culinary demonstrations I am not saying you shouldn't! But you can also find availability on the day-of for many of those events, as others have pointed out.

In past years, you could also "lurk" outside the demonstrations for free and hear some of the content of the presentation (no tastes though). If the setup is the same this year, you might consider doing a little lurking early in your trip to decide if you want to schedule a demonstration later in the trip.

Also if you have ADRs I wouldn't overschedule F&W special events. You'll end up so stuffed you won't be able to experience anything at the booths, which would be awful for the way we like to experience F&W. Just my two cents but hopefully there's a helpful nugget in there somewhere

This is great! We don't have ADRs scheduled one entire day while at Food and Wine because we want to just snack around at all the booths and I'm honestly looking forward to the freedom that day will bring! I think we will hold off on scheduling anything for now. Heck, it would be a great excuse to come back in future years to really devote time more to F&W demos/etc!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Has anyone heard anything about early booking for club level guests? I was able to call disney signature services during early booking last year and they booked F&W events for me but when I emailed them to ask if they'd be doing that again this year all they said was they will be able to assist with booking F&W events starting Jun 14.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I agree with the rant! This is absolutely asinine. The festival is running the EXACT same number of days as it did last year. They chose, for whatever reason, to open the event booking a month ahead of the past 2 years (when it was mid-July). They have failed to post complete info on the eve of booking. DVC posted on Facebook that the events will be posted AFTER BOOKING OPENS. Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?!?! How is THAT supposed to work, you idiots? We call in and make small talk, hoping the schedule pops up while we are on the line? Or maybe we call back to get in the hold queue over and over so we'll already be holding when the events do pop up? WHO DECIDED THIS??? Oh, but of course, PFTS will sell out while I sit around waiting, so I guess I better book that and be locked in, even though MAYBE another event we would prefer might be offered. Or perhaps NONE of those events that aren't posted yet qualify for early booking, in which case we still risk being shut out of PFTS if we don't book it tomorrow. I am not really seeing how it is beneficial to call tomorrow if I am just trying to book some silly little demo or seminar or whatever. Those are not the least bit important to us. We want to book chef signature dinners and the lunches in Italy and that sort of thing LIKE WE DID LAST YEAR. This is what happens when Epcot runs a "festival" every minute of every day year round. NONE of them are carefully planned, they are thrown together all slapdash and then WDW just shrugs. And we all keep shelling out thousands of dollars for it. So I guess in the grand scheme maybe the guests are the idiots.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

DVC posted on Facebook that the events will be posted AFTER BOOKING OPENS. Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?!?! How is THAT supposed to work, you idiots?

Seriously??

Wow. So they finally found a way to make the special event booking MORE ludicrous than in the past... I didn’t think it could be done... amazing...

And we’re in the same boat wrt the things we’re interested in.

Honestly, Disney may finally have found my limit wrt what I’m willing to put up with regarding trip planning: opening booking without releasing event details.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Seriously??

Wow. So they finally found a way to make the special event booking MORE ludicrous than in the past... I didn’t think it could be done... amazing...

I am hoping the person who runs the DVC Facebook page was wrong. But, given the tremendous debacle this has proven to be in the past...

 

[ChanduTail]

I agree with the rant! This is absolutely asinine. The festival is running the EXACT same number of days as it did last year. They chose, for whatever reason, to open the event booking a month ahead of the past 2 years (when it was mid-July). They have failed to post complete info on the eve of booking. DVC posted on Facebook that the events will be posted AFTER BOOKING OPENS. Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?!?! How is THAT supposed to work, you idiots? We call in and make small talk, hoping the schedule pops up while we are on the line? Or maybe we call back to get in the hold queue over and over so we'll already be holding when the events do pop up? WHO DECIDED THIS??? Oh, but of course, PFTS will sell out while I sit around waiting, so I guess I better book that and be locked in, even though MAYBE another event we would prefer might be offered. Or perhaps NONE of those events that aren't posted yet qualify for early booking, in which case we still risk being shut out of PFTS if we don't book it tomorrow. I am not really seeing how it is beneficial to call tomorrow if I am just trying to book some silly little demo or seminar or whatever. Those are not the least bit important to us. We want to book chef signature dinners and the lunches in Italy and that sort of thing LIKE WE DID LAST YEAR. This is what happens when Epcot runs a "festival" every minute of every day year round. NONE of them are carefully planned, they are thrown together all slapdash and then WDW just shrugs. And we all keep shelling out thousands of dollars for it. So I guess in the grand scheme maybe the guests are the idiots.

If true, this is appalling. The birthday party I went to for someone's horse was better-planned.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

If true, this is appalling. The birthday party I went to for someone's horse was better-planned.

Thank you!! I needed this today!!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

If true, this is appalling. The birthday party I went to for someone's horse was better-planned.

Thank you for the giggle.

This is very frustrating yet they will get our money either way

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

This is very frustrating yet they will get our money either way

For the first time I will say I’m not so sure I’m going to bother. I may just stick with booths, and we usually book 2 of the higher-ticket-price special events for 5 people.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

"More details for this year's festival will be announced when booking becomes available on June 12th."

This was their precise response.

 

[NoMoneyThanks2Disney]

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/specials/

This page says passholders can book events early, including Eat to the Beat packages. I don’t remember those being included in early booking last year. Am i misremembering?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

"More details for this year's festival will be announced when booking becomes available on June 12th."

This was their precise response.

Asinine.

 

[crazy4wdw]

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passholder-program/specials/

This page says passholders can book events early, including Eat to the Beat packages. I don’t remember those being included in early booking last year. Am i misremembering?

Yes, annual passholders were eligible for the early booking dates last year.

 

[TeresaWen]

I am way too busy tomorrow morning to play this game. If actual information is released I’ll review later in the day. If I get what I hope for. Great if not I’ll spend that money at some fantastic restaurant off property.

We are pretty much committed to Orlando for two weeks in October. Nothing says all 14 days need to be Disney

Rethinking this being an annual event.