Anyone hit the first day of the F&W festival?

[lorasmom]

I'm dying to hear some updates!!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Me, too!

I am going tomorrow, though.

 

[lorasmom]

Me, too!

I am going tomorrow, though.

I'm heading there Sunday.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

I was there most of the day today and will spend some time there tomorrow too.

We did the beer "walk"...thought that was a good value.
We did the beer education seminar...had some issues with that.
We tried most of the tapas-size tastings...biggest hit was the fried halibut, biggest disappointment was the berry dessert.

The DIS Unplugged Disneyland Correspondent team was in full force today covering the event and we'll have lots of coverage coming out this week.

Tom

 

[lulubelle]

Thanks Tom!
Can't wait to hear and see from others. I think the festival is going to be better this year than ever. Just a feeling.

 

[franandaj]

We didn't get here until 4PM and had dinner at Steakhouse 55, but tomorrow after the Cooking School we plan to check out the Festival Marketplace. Late tomorrow evening, hopefully I'll have some pictures up.

Not to be off topic, but just watched a testing of WoC from my balcony, AMAZING!

 

[lulubelle]

I was hoping you would pipe in Alison.
I'll check for your posts tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed SH55.

 

[lorasmom]

I'm intrigued by the tapas plates. They don't have the food stations like Epcot's right? Are the tapas plates available at the regular counter service digs?

Thanks!

 

[franandaj]

The tapas are in stage 12, I think I know which building that is. Evidently our food laws won't allow kiosks, go figure, CA land of litigation!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Can't wait to hear more about everyone's experiences. It is a shame they can't set it up like at WDW because there you can eat a little, walk a little, drink a little, eat a little more and so on until you have gone around the world.

Hope someone can posts pictures so I can have an idea of what to expect.

Are there menus posted anywhere?

 

[nunzia]

I was there most of the day today and will spend some time there tomorrow too.

We did the beer "walk"...thought that was a good value.
We did the beer education seminar...had some issues with that.
We tried most of the tapas-size tastings...biggest hit was the fried halibut, biggest disappointment was the berry dessert.

The DIS Unplugged Disneyland Correspondent team was in full force today covering the event and we'll have lots of coverage coming out this week.

Tom

How does that tapas tasting thing work? It's at the old Studio place back by Monsters, is that right? how much does it cost? what do you get?

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

The tapas are at Stage 12 and run from $3.75 up to $5.00.
Let me test my memory; there was: white cheddar soup, pear salad, beef slider, fried halibut, ahi tuna, chicken quesadilla, a couple of cheese plates and 2 desserts.

Also, each of the counter service restaurants has a special item. Most of those are entree size (and price). We only tried one of those yesterday, so hopefully we can tackle some more of those today...sacrificing my body for the sake of the DIS.

 

[Kewz1]

Reading all this just makes me even more excited for our trip. And I didn't think that was possible!



Kristen

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I was there most of the day today and will spend some time there tomorrow too.

We did the beer "walk"...thought that was a good value.
We did the beer education seminar...had some issues with that.
We tried most of the tapas-size tastings...biggest hit was the fried halibut, biggest disappointment was the berry dessert.

The DIS Unplugged Disneyland Correspondent team was in full force today covering the event and we'll have lots of coverage coming out this week.

Tom

The tapas are at Stage 12 and run from $3.75 up to $5.00.
Let me test my memory; there was: white cheddar soup, pear salad, beef slider, fried halibut, ahi tuna, chicken quesadilla, a couple of cheese plates and 2 desserts.

Also, each of the counter service restaurants has a special item. Most of those are entree size (and price). We only tried one of those yesterday, so hopefully we can tackle some more of those today...sacrificing my body for the sake of the DIS.

We were there, too, and had tapas with Tom, Tony, Don, & Greg. Kelly had the tuna, and I got two cheese plates that we shared. The cheese plates were the typical cheese plates, and so in retrospect I would say that I should have got something different and tried it.

Kelly & I also went to the 12:30 food culinary demo with Jonathan Rollo, and he made turkey sliders. They were really delicious & I want to try that recipe. We both liked it.

I took some pics & will upload later. We're planning on going back today.

I will admit that I was a little disappointed in the artisan section at the Pacific Wharf. I was looking for more California stuff, and didn't really see it.

Nancy (YellowMickeyPonchos) and Christy went to the Guy Fieri demo, and I saw Wendypooh22 in line, too, so they'll be able to tell us how that went.

John Lassiter will be there today, and I think I read that he will be signing bottles from his vineyard, which I think would be really cool to get. That's happening at Stage 12.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

If John Lasseter is here, the bottle signing would most likely be at 2pm after the tasting seminar at 1:15.

It's tempting...

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

We just got back. The fest is WAAAAAAY better than previous years, IMO.

We hit up the Festival Showplace and tried almost all of the tapas (between 4 adults). We tried the Cheddar soup (YUM!), the Pear Salad (Meh.), the Fried Halibut (YUM! My DS5 loved this!), the Beef slider w/ chipotle mayo (YUM!), the Artisan cheese plate (YUM!) and the Chocolate profiterole (SUPER YUM!).

I took pictures of all our tapas and will post later.

We saw Jonathan Rollo and he made a Quinoa Greek Salad with Flat Iron Steak. The salad was wonderful!

 

[franandaj]

I did the Napa Rose Cooking School this morning and as usual it was amazing. After that I had to make a quick trip home which ate up two hours of the afternoon. I was up WAAAAY too late last night watching WoC testing, so I had to fit in a quick nap. We're on our way down to the festival soon to try the tapas. I'll post all my pictures in my Food & Wine Review that I started back in March.

 

[tanyaewa]

Ran into Guy Fieri and his posse enjoying some downtime. Then saw him later giving interviews.
JMHO but I didn't really like the number of people walking around/ standing in ride lines with cups of beer. Completely changes the squeaky clean family feel - plus there were the usual yahoos who had too much. Hmmm....

 

[franandaj]

I saw the same thing at Epcot the one Saturday that we went into the Festival. Some people have no class, you just can't avoid it. I won't even go into the situation we encountered tonight that had nothing to do with F&W, just a degradation of courtesy in society. What can you do? Keep your chin up and go on. Perhaps it's a sign that the CA Festival is actually becoming a full-fledged Festival now. Personally I more enjoy the signature events, but I do plan on hitting some culinary demos tomorrow!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I saw the same thing at Epcot the one Saturday that we went into the Festival. Some people have no class, you just can't avoid it. I won't even go into the situation we encountered tonight that had nothing to do with F&W, just a degradation of courtesy in society. What can you do? Keep your chin up and go on. Perhaps it's a sign that the CA Festival is actually becoming a full-fledged Festival now. Personally I more enjoy the signature events, but I do plan on hitting some culinary demos tomorrow!

I saw that you attended the Napa cooking school, and I am curious to know if it is offered more than once? If not, how does someone make sure they get registered into that session when it opens up?