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

[Sawx04]

I did find this bit of info about the Bocuse d’Or competition on the official WDW news site...

Competition Press pic

That's the only 'official' thing out so far... (if the page doesn't load - just go to www.wdwnews.com and you'll see it)

If anyone is interested in reading the 2008 Bocuse d’Or Competition Application (interesting read), it can be found here:

http://www.bocusedorusa.org/application.pdf

I suspect this is the reason for no PFTS on the first weekend of F&W:
"The competition weekend will culminate in a Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony. Approximately 300 paying guests will attend the dinner and auction to raise funds for the USA Bocuse d’Or team. Special guests at the dinner will include the competing USA chef teams, Bocuse d’Or USA advisory board chefs, sponsors and media guests."

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Last year the newsletter announcing the events arrived about 4 days after the opening time to call for reservations....

Same here. I had to laugh...we already had all our events booked and then we got the schedule. A lot of help that was.

 

[TheDISneyFamily]

If anyone is interested in reading the 2008 Bocuse d’Or Competition Application (interesting read), it can be found here:

http://www.bocusedorusa.org/application.pdf

I suspect this is the reason for no PFTS on the first weekend of F&W:
"The competition weekend will culminate in a Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony. Approximately 300 paying guests will attend the dinner and auction to raise funds for the USA Bocuse d’Or team. Special guests at the dinner will include the competing USA chef teams, Bocuse d’Or USA advisory board chefs, sponsors and media guests."

I meant 'official' info from Disney headquarters. Yes, the contest website is very interesting. I wish we could go that weekend.

 

[kathyg]

This will be our first F&W Festival, although we have been to Disney many times. I just want to chime in on the reservation system for this event. IMHO, it is totally ridiculous and absolutely a flagrant disregard to its participants.

How absurd is it that Disney allows you to book a $19.95 character meal a full six months before you have any idea where you're going, what you're doing and, heaven forbid, what you want to eat. And yet for one of their signature events....the F&W Festival...they give you only two days???? That's ludicrous. I couldn't plan a $19.95 character meal in 2 days let alone a $200 per person signature dining event. At least I could cancel the character meal. No such perk with the signature dining.

For most of us, $150 or more per person is an investment, and one we need time to plan. I've already booked our trip and will take our chances on what's available during that week. But it sure would have been a lot better to have the whole schedule before we booked so I could actually be there when an event I really wanted was happening.

I, for one, would love to know Disney's rationale for the delay in providing the schedule as well as the short time span required to make the reservations. Frankly, it's just plain dumb!!!!

 

[TDC Nala]

Just spoke with Disney Dining and they confirmed that they will start booking events on 8/25 at 7AM (CM mentioned their system was updated last night).

She also confirmed that there will be NO Party for the Senses during the opening weekend. First one will be held on 10/4.

When asked about cost, she quoted $135 as the base price…$143.78 with tax and gratuity included.

Until I see this from someplace other than WDW-DINE I am not going to take it as gospel (so the only thing I might buy right now is the booking date being the 25th as that also came from Rosa, who's generally been accurate). They have been flat out wrong too often. If you are talking about speaking with the Disney Dining Experience office rather than WDW-DINE I might rescind that.

I would take that as it's entirely possible there will be no P4TS on the the first weekend, since we do know something big is planned for that weekend anyway.

I don't make ADRs for my festival trips so I'm not terribly bothered by having to book so late, but if you want ADRs for regular restaurants and were just waiting to book them until you saw the events, I'd go ahead and book the ADRs, especially if you are traveling in the first two weeks of the Festival, when the overflow from free dining will still be hanging around. You can cancel the ADRs if you decide you'd rather have an event.

 

[west&east]

After reading through 28 or more pages of posts in this thread, I can see that the seriously fun foodies and wine drinkers have subscribed. Y'all are my kind of people.

I am planning a long weekend October 2-6th with my husband and 2 children. Thanks to DIS Boards, I discovered that the Epcot Food and Wine Festival will be taking place and that the child care centers are top notch. So, an adult evening is definitely in order!

Here is my question. We probably will have this one adult evening. We have been to Disney years ago and our favorite restaurant so far was California Grill. I was planning on taking the kids to dinner there as I remember seeing other families, and my children are well behaved (ages 5 and 9). For our adult dinner, should we try to book a Signature Dining, and Exquisite Evening, or just book a great meal at a great restaurant (I have always wanted to go to V&A- is it still great?)? Is the Exquisite Evening a big mass of people? The PFTS sounds fun but I think we might want something more intimate and I don't know whether we will enjoy the concert that night.

I look forward to following the rest of the discussion!

 

[Tinker_Belle]

I am planning to take my DS14 (but a young 14) to the F&WF in October. He is a bit of an adventurous eater, and I feel that he would love to try different foods from other countries. He especially loves sushi.

From what I understand, I am welcome to bring him to the events but I would need to pay full price for him although he obviously wouldn't be having any wine. I was considering bringing him to a F&WP (maybe in Japan, if they have it there again) or something within the same price range.

Will he be out of place there? Is there anything better suited for him? Is there enough to do without booking an event? Sorry for all the questions! We'll be in Epcot for one full day. TIA

 

[TDC Nala]

I've seen teens at the events before. If you're OK with paying the full price for him even though he won't get the sake at the Japan pairing (if they have a Japan pairing) then there really isn't any reason not to bring a teen who would enjoy the food and the speeches.

If he were a preteen or younger I would say it probably wouldn't be worth it for him.

On the other hand there is plenty to taste at the food booths without booking an event. There's a booth in Japan, but I'd guess the sushi would be a bit better at the pairing (I have done this pairing twice and I like it a lot, but I like sake.)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I know when I was a teen I would have enjoyed the food and wine pairings, even without the wine, but I do love food. I think it depends on the person.

 

[oybolshoi]

Well, out of sheer exasperation with this whole idiotic F&W situation I re-vamped our reservations for our October trip today while pretending to work. Rather than doing PFTS we are going to have dinner at Vickie & Al's one night, and we've added dinners at Kona and Yachtsman to the others we already had planned. Still easy to dump should an excruciatingly expensive evening or signature dinner that isn't Pacific Northwest cuisine pop up during our vacation dates.

I just feel so much better now knowing that we've made a decision. There are a couple of pairings that we're going to try for but other than that we've decided to hang at the food booths and enjoy some signature dining on this trip. Hopefully we'll catch some free demos, too.

As an FYI for the rest of you, I was still able to get everything that I wanted today except for my original date for V&A (just didn't want to sit down to that kind of meal at 9:30PM), so the dining availability is still there within 5-10 minutes of our requested dining times as of this evening for October 8-17th.

 

[oybolshoi]

Here is my question. We probably will have this one adult evening. We have been to Disney years ago and our favorite restaurant so far was California Grill. I was planning on taking the kids to dinner there as I remember seeing other families, and my children are well behaved (ages 5 and 9). For our adult dinner, should we try to book a Signature Dining, and Exquisite Evening, or just book a great meal at a great restaurant (I have always wanted to go to V&A- is it still great?)? Is the Exquisite Evening a big mass of people? The PFTS sounds fun but I think we might want something more intimate and I don't know whether we will enjoy the concert that night.

I look forward to following the rest of the discussion!

Tough question ... We've not had the pleasure of an EE or a Signature Dinner offered during the festival but everything I've read and seen about them would suggest that either would be a great couples only option.

And V&A is wonderful - worth every penny you'd spend.

I guess the question for you is are you looking for a more private, intimate evening (V&A) or something still very nice but where you'd be sharing a table with 8-10 other people in a much larger venue?

There are many others here with much more experience doing F&W than me, so hopefully you'll get some good feedback from them.

 

[TDC Nala]

The only thing I can think of is that the signature dinners take a LONG time and I'd guess the EEs do too (maybe I can afford to do one now that I don't need to spend cash on a Pleasure Island AP anymore); but then V&A is not a short meal. Could be an issue with childcare, don't know how much you want to budget for childcare.

I have V&A on August 31 so I will do festival stuff in Oct. and Nov.

 

[oybolshoi]

The only thing I can think of is that the signature dinners take a LONG time and I'd guess the EEs do too (maybe I can afford to do one now that I don't need to spend cash on a Pleasure Island AP anymore); but then V&A is not a short meal. Could be an issue with childcare, don't know how much you want to budget for childcare.

I have V&A on August 31 so I will do festival stuff in Oct. and Nov.

May I go off topic (again) and ask if you would mind sharing V&A's menu with us when you have time after you get home from that trip?

Thanks!

 

[TDC Nala]

May I go off topic (again) and ask if you would mind sharing V&A's menu with us when you have time after you get home from that trip?

Thanks!

that'll be another thread, Ms. Off Topic

sure, I'll bring it back with me. This is main dining room, not Chef's Table. Wanted to use DDE.

 

[oybolshoi]

that'll be another thread, Ms. Off Topic

sure, I'll bring it back with me. This is main dining room, not Chef's Table. Wanted to use DDE.

That's the same reason we decided to hit the dining room in October. We didn't renew our APs so we wanted to get as much bang for our DDE as we can before it expires.

Thanks again!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I am planning to take my DS14 (but a young 14) to the F&WF in October. He is a bit of an adventurous eater, and I feel that he would love to try different foods from other countries. He especially loves sushi.

From what I understand, I am welcome to bring him to the events but I would need to pay full price for him although he obviously wouldn't be having any wine. I was considering bringing him to a F&WP (maybe in Japan, if they have it there again) or something within the same price range.

Will he be out of place there? Is there anything better suited for him? Is there enough to do without booking an event? Sorry for all the questions! We'll be in Epcot for one full day. TIA

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I've brought my teens to the special events at F&W Festival for several years now. DD14 and DS16 started going to EE and PFTS five years ago and they especially love PFTS. The full price never bothered us and both kids enjoyed the events thoroughly. My kids may be weird though-they are very into fine dining and DS is starting a culinary program at school in September. At EE my kids were always the only kids there and the first time we took them to EE the CM's didn't know how to handle it, but they got over it. PFTS-we see a lot of teenagers and even little kids there in recent years. Never took my kids to a F&W Pairing...so can't answer how they would or wouldn't fit in in that situation, but you do what your comfortable with, I wouldn't worry what anybody else thinks. There definitely is enough to do with the regular food booths and the free events, but the paid events are also a nice little bonus if you want to try something out of the norm.

 

[BriarRosie]

After reading through 28 or more pages of posts in this thread, I can see that the seriously fun foodies and wine drinkers have subscribed. Y'all are my kind of people.

I am planning a long weekend October 2-6th with my husband and 2 children. Thanks to DIS Boards, I discovered that the Epcot Food and Wine Festival will be taking place and that the child care centers are top notch. So, an adult evening is definitely in order!

Here is my question. We probably will have this one adult evening. We have been to Disney years ago and our favorite restaurant so far was California Grill. I was planning on taking the kids to dinner there as I remember seeing other families, and my children are well behaved (ages 5 and 9). For our adult dinner, should we try to book a Signature Dining, and Exquisite Evening, or just book a great meal at a great restaurant (I have always wanted to go to V&A- is it still great?)? Is the Exquisite Evening a big mass of people? The PFTS sounds fun but I think we might want something more intimate and I don't know whether we will enjoy the concert that night.

I look forward to following the rest of the discussion!

I've done both the Signature Dining and an Excruciatingly Expensive but Exquisite Evening at Epcot. While the EE was very good, I'd save a few bucks and do the Signature Dining. It's good to experience once, but I'd rather do the SD events or V&A.

Speaking of which, all that V&A talk makes me want to go back there again.
And I'd want to use my DDE, too.

 

[webray]

I am planning to take my DS14 (but a young 14) to the F&WF in October. He is a bit of an adventurous eater, and I feel that he would love to try different foods from other countries. He especially loves sushi.

We'll be in Epcot for one full day. TIA

If you are going to be in EPCOT only one day...I definately would skip a paid event....
There is so much for to do without paying for an event. Definately sushi at the booths around the world. If you and hubby want Sake, do the sake tasting inside, they have a great selection all year around. Lot's of fun.

 

[webray]

I've done both the Signature Dining and an Excruciatingly Expensive but Exquisite Evening at Epcot. While the EE was very good, I'd save a few bucks and do the Signature Dining. It's good to experience once, but I'd rather do the SD events or V&A.

Speaking of which, all that V&A talk makes me want to go back there again.
And I'd want to use my DDE, too.

We have tried them all as well, and hubby and I agree V&A's or SD.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I've done both the Signature Dining and an Excruciatingly Expensive but Exquisite Evening at Epcot. While the EE was very good, I'd save a few bucks and do the Signature Dining. It's good to experience once, but I'd rather do the SD events or V&A.

Speaking of which, all that V&A talk makes me want to go back there again.
And I'd want to use my DDE, too.

We have tried them all as well, and hubby and I agree V&A's or SD.

I agree about EE-nice to do, but totally not a necessary experience. We are definitely skipping that this year. Plus, I'd hate to see what the price is now.