***Epcot Food And Wine Festival Info 2008***

[DeeCee735]

I have some questions about this years F&W if you don't mind......

I did read that this year the information will come out on Aug 11th. Does that mean that reservations will be taken on that day? When MS does open for taking reservations, will they open the same time as usual, or can we call earlier - if so what time? Is MS the place to call to make ressies for F&W events?

Also, will there be a beer demonstration or beer tasting this year? Anyone know if there is a cost or if it is free? THANKS for any and all info you can offer!

 

[TDC Nala]

They will start taking reservations at 7 AM Eastern. You can call the regular WDW-DINE. They usually give out the number WDW-FEST but that seems to end up in the same queue as WDW-DINE.

Sam Adams generally has a free beer tasting with small samples. The International Beer Tasting at Britain, the one with the full bottles, went away last year.

 

[NejTheLion]

Reservations will be taken starting August 11, but the schedule should be out 1-2 weeks in advance. Just keep checking here for the info when it comes out.

Bad news - Alan Wong won't be attending the festival this year. His team has a scheduling conflict, but they expect to be back in 2009

So, we're happy that we'll get Caymus again, but we'll miss Alan Wong yet again.

 

[TexasCourt]

So the official schedule of events will come out 1-2 weeks before August 11?

 

[TDC Nala]

So the official schedule of events will come out 1-2 weeks before August 11?

We can't do anything but speculate based on past years...last year we had a whole week to check out the schedule before booking. It was released around July 31 and booking began August 6.

 

[DznyDreamz]

Does anyone know whether the F&W booths stay open during EMH?

 

[kabuki]

Does anyone know whether the F&W booths stay open during EMH?

They have in the past!

 

[DznyDreamz]

Yippeee!! Thank you

 

[stlouisdisneyguy]

that is great to know. I am going november 4-11th and was wondering the same thing if the food stands were opened during emh. I totally love the food and wine festival and try to get down there atleast once, if not twice to attend it . been going the last 10 years , and it is always my fav thing to do at disney!

 

[Flitter]

If I remember correctly from last year some did and some didn't. I know the permanant stands that sell the beer and such were open.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thanks for posting a link to the you tube video. I wouldn't have thought to look there but that video plus a couple of others gave me a better idea of what to expect for my 1st F&W!

Question for the veterans- I'll be there Thurs Oct 23 through Tues 28. Would your recommendation be to steer clear of Epcot on the weekends due to influx of locals to the festival or is it not that bad?

 

[TDC Nala]

Maybe not all of Epcot, but the World Showcase will probably be extremely crowded on Saturdays and Sundays, particularly Saturday evening.

 

[shovan]

Reservations will be taken starting August 11, but the schedule should be out 1-2 weeks in advance. Just keep checking here for the info when it comes out.

Bad news - Alan Wong won't be attending the festival this year. His team has a scheduling conflict, but they expect to be back in 2009

So, we're happy that we'll get Caymus again, but we'll miss Alan Wong yet again.

We can't do anything but speculate based on past years...last year we had a whole week to check out the schedule before booking. It was released around July 31 and booking began August 6.

In '06 wasn't the information released much earlier? I thought we had almost a month to check out the schedule that year. Am I wrong about that?

 

[disneyfav4ever]

In '06 wasn't the information released much earlier? I thought we had almost a month to check out the schedule that year. Am I wrong about that?

You're right, it just seems that Disney keeps on giving us less and less time to make our plans.

 

[TDC Nala]

The window between release of information and booking shrinks every year. Not only that, the booking date gets pushed back later and later.

I do recall it being much more than a week in previous years...but last year it was just that, a week.

 

[shovan]

You're right, it just seems that Disney keeps on giving us less and less time to make our plans.

The window between release of information and booking shrinks every year. Not only that, the booking date gets pushed back later and later.

I do recall it being much more than a week in previous years...but last year it was just that, a week.

Yes I was really hoping that with the slightly earlier release of the concert info., they would have the schedule out a little sooner also. But here we are inside of a month until booking day, and no schedule in sight!

 

[oybolshoi]

I hate the waiting, too. And now that my employer has reinforced the internet firewalls at work I can't access the DIS during the day any longer!

I'm hoping that within the next 10 days we see some information trickle out. We have so many alternate plans hinging on the schedule and the prices that I'm starting to get a little antsy ...

 

[TDC Nala]

Well, here is the Disney World internet page about the food and wine festival events. Just descriptions and no schedule yet....

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...dWineEpcotCulinaryExperiencesSpecialEventPage

Also a link is there to the basic descriptions of Festival Dining Experiences.

It also seems to indicate that bookings will once again be nontransferable and nonrefundable.

 

[NejTheLion]

Thanks for posting a link to the you tube video. I wouldn't have thought to look there but that video plus a couple of others gave me a better idea of what to expect for my 1st F&W!

Question for the veterans- I'll be there Thurs Oct 23 through Tues 28. Would your recommendation be to steer clear of Epcot on the weekends due to influx of locals to the festival or is it not that bad?

Epcot will definitely be more crowded over the weekend, World Showcase in particular, but parts of Future World may be crowded as well depending on where they decide to house the festival center and seminars this year. I don't know that you have to steer clear of Epcot - just know what to expect. And if you were planning to go anywhere else during your trip, I would recommend that you do the other parks on the weekend and save Epcot for weekdays. However, if you're going down primarily for the festival, don't feel you need to avoid Epcot if that's why you're going there. Just plan accordingly and understand that you'll need to get in line for seminars earlier and face longer lines at the food booths.

 

[Kidoctr]

I just booked our October trip last week! DH and I attended F&W last year when we did the Race for the Taste 10K. This year, our "excuse" to attend F&W is the Tower of Terror 13K on the 25th of October so our choices of venues are limited. We'll be at WDW 22 - 27 October staying at the Boardwalk Villas.

Last year was our first time at F&W and we squeezed in every thing we could possibly swing (and just nearly fainted at the $$! ):

The Cook, the Book, and the Bottle with Nirmala Narine ($150)
Exquisite Evenings, California with Caymus Vineyards ($210)
Cheese Tasting with Max McCalman ($60)
PFTS ($135)
Sweet Sundays with Colette Peters ($65)
Food/wine pairing, Tutto Italia ($45)

We loved each and every thing that we did and will probably try to do the same this time around - schedule everything we possibly can! The ONLY problem is that the ToT 13K is on Saturday night so it looks like there's no PFTS for us this year. Wah!!!!

If you're REALLY bored, here are the pics we took on our trip: http://kidoctr.smugmug.com/gallery/3600188_iM9fC#204725788_3xe8C

I only had time to do a trip report for our first 2 days. Here's the 2nd day where we attended the Cook, Book, Bottle and EE: http://kidoctr.blogspot.com/2007/10/wdw-race-for-taste-trip-day-2.html

Can't wait for round 2 this October!!!