Does Food & Wine Festival require special ticket...

[lkohawaii]

like MNSSHP. Will they close World Showcase unless you have an admission. If we're not interested in the Food & Wine will we still be able to visit the countries?

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

No, your general admission ticket gives you access to the Food and Wine festival. There's little stations set up around the lagoon at each country that you can choose (or not choose) to try.

There are some events that need private tickets (special dinners, etc). I will leave that for someone else to tell you about as I'm not familiar with it.

 

[Mandabella]

Special events during the Food & Wine Festival cost an additional fee, like Party for the Senses, Signature Dinners, Sweet Sundays, etc.

Your Epcot admission will allow you into all of Epcot, including the WS.

You'll need money to get anything at the booths around the WS, but you don't need a ticket for that.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We enjoy going around and looking at the different offerings. We generally don't have enough money to try everything, but will attempt to try a few of the more interesting items. They do have some dinners and parties that you need to have a ticket or reservation to get into though. These are generally held outside of the publics eye so you generally wouldn't notice them.

 

[lkohawaii]

So, If I'm going with young children and none of us are alcohol drinkers than I wouldn't really be missing anything would I? I'm thinking that I should plan to hit EPCOT before the Food and Wine Festival starts...since crowds will probably be more during that time. I'll just go to see the festival to see if it interests us. Hope I'm right about planning that way. Thanks everybody.

 

[rflorek]

I believe that the Food & Wine Festival starts at the same time World Showcase opens. As previous poster said, the festival is made up of small booths where you can stop & purchase samples of foods & wines from around the world. When we were there in October, we noticed lighter crowds during the week, getting heavier on the weekends.

 

[Hopefully]

You can choose to not experience any of the food or beverage samples that are part of the Food and Wine Festival if you wish. The major impact will be additional crowds, especially on the weekends when many locals come to the festival.
The booths are open the same hours as World Showcase each day. If your trip includes days before the festival begins, then you could experience Epcot before the festival. If your trip is entirely during the festival, then there really is no way to go "before the festival begins".
World Showcase is fun to experience with or without the festival. Have a great trip.