EPCOT Food and Wine Event

[Seeker615]

Hi - Can somebody fill me in on the Food and Wine event at EPCOT? what do you get for your ticket or is it not a ticketed event?

 

[BebopBaloo]

The Food and Wine Festival takes place and is partly included with admission to Epcot. I say partly because you will need to pay separately for whatever food and beverages you want. There will be kiosks set up around World Showcase and probably some outside of it, as well, that will have small dishes, snacks, drinks (alcoholic and non) that represent each of the countries in World Showcase on top of the normal offerings that are always there. There is usually some sort of scavenger hunt if you choose to partake (a separate fee if you want a map and prize for completion). There are often cooking demonstrations and the like. Keep an eye out for a schedule closer to Festival time. In short - F&W is an ongoing event inside of Epcot that takes place non-stop for a couple months and the amount you choose to spend on it will be up to you. You can 'see' it without paying more than your admission into Epcot.

 

[cincystamper]

It's not a ticketed event. Well, there are some special seminars and whatnots that happen as part of Food & Wine and those are ticketed. But the general event is covered by your admission to Epcot. It's a whole bunch of food & wine kiosks set up around world showcase (and a few that sneak into the edge of Future World, too). So you have to actually pay for your food & wine. But you can still SEE the event with just your park admission, if that makes sense. A great way to spend your day snacking around the world!

 

[Princess_Lisa]

The food is snack sized and last year ran $4.75 - $8.00 per item with many around the $5 mark. You can pay OOP or buy a card with 8 "tickets" which you can trade for snacks/drinks, but like the DDP, you would have to eat/drink only the most expensive (flights and some expensive wines are excluded) stuff to come out ahead.

I love Food & Wine. I'll go to Epcot and snack around the world - 5 or so kiosk snacks - rather than doing a TS or QS.

 

[PSUGuy]

We go for the food kiosks and for the Eat to the Beat concert series, 3 shows every night, acts play for 2 to 3 nights each. I recommend getting a Disney Gift card, a small credit card type thing you carry on a provided wrist lanyard. You pre -load it with either cash or via credit card then when purchasing food they just scan the card, the cost is deducted and you get a receipt telling you have much you have left. Saves time, prevents you from ending up with several pounds of pocket change and it's a great way to discipline your budget. Don't want to spend more than $200? Load that much and you can't go over.

Bill From PA

 

[disneyvoice]

So much fun! It's our absolute favorite time at WDW. We spend an entire week at Food and Wine and never get bored!!

 

[Princess_Lisa]

I recommend getting a Disney Gift card, a small credit card type thing you carry on a provided wrist lanyard. You pre -load it with either cash or via credit card then when purchasing food they just scan the card, the cost is deducted and you get a receipt telling you have much you have left. Saves time, prevents you from ending up with several pounds of pocket change and it's a great way to discipline your budget. Don't want to spend more than $200? Load that much and you can't go over.

Bill From PA

This is a very good idea. Plus, you can get 5% off Disney Gift Cards at Target (if you use their Red Card) and slightly smaller discounts at various warehouse/discount stores.

 

[gharter]

Read through the sticky at the top of the page.
We love this event! It is a blast.
To really learn about this event, I suggest buying the Disney Food blog EPCOT Wine and Food Festival ebook. It is several hundred pages and lists everything that is going on with the festival. Lists all the kiosks, foods, wines, food and wine pairings, special events, music events and more.
There is so much that its nearly impossible to do everything.

 

[smcabee]

We also just go for the food booths and eat to the beat shows. Personally we find the sit down events during the festival that Disney does to not be with it. Many people do love them though and they routinely sell out. We really do enjoy the event the swan and dolphin puts on each year during the food and wine time period but if it gets much more expensive I’m cutting it out in the near future too.

 

[gharter]

We also just go for the food booths and eat to the beat shows. Personally we find the sit down events during the festival that Disney does to not be with it. Many people do love them though and they routinely sell out. We really do enjoy the event the swan and dolphin puts on each year during the food and wine time period but if it gets much more expensive I’m cutting it out in the near future too.

We have done several of the winery wine tastings and several of the food and wine pairings and found them interesting and well worth the money.
We've never done the large, expensive events like Party for the Senses or the dinners at the different restaurants, so can't comment on them.

 

[Seeker615]

Thank you everyone. Some good insight!