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

[RachelTori]

Hey there Catherine! Glad you checked in!

The news about the 2008 Food&Wine Festival just gets more and more depressing.

Thanks for the update (even though the news isn't good!) Enjoy your trip!

 

[TDC Nala]

thanks, I don't much like the stories I am hearing. I like that one of my friends went ahead back in May and booked the Jiko wine dinner for me in November.

I'm actually doing a progressive dinner around the monorail tonight which Laura may recognize - except we're stopping in the Ca. Grill lounge for sushi and flatbread. Tambu, Mizners and California Grill.

If I find out any more rumors I will post them!

And I should have mentioned that there is another rumor that there may be some signature lunches, which is fine. I did the Jiko luncheon last year and it was great. I do have some photos from it but not here.

 

[PNO4TE]

thanks, I don't much like the stories I am hearing. I like that one of my friends went ahead back in May and booked the Jiko wine dinner for me in November.

I'm actually doing a progressive dinner around the monorail tonight which Laura may recognize - except we're stopping in the Ca. Grill lounge for sushi and flatbread. Tambu, Mizners and California Grill.

If I find out any more rumors I will post them!

And I should have mentioned that there is another rumor that there may be some signature lunches, which is fine. I did the Jiko luncheon last year and it was great. I do have some photos from it but not here.

Yum! That is something we have never done. We have done a progressive Eat Around the World at Epcot, but not the monorail one. Something new to plan for a future trip!

 

[RachelTori]

Yum! That is something we have never done. We have done a progressive Eat Around the World at Epcot, but not the monorail one. Something new to plan for a future trip!

Our's was more about our way around the monorail!!

 

[PNO4TE]

Our's was more about our way around the monorail!!

Oh! I see you all plan your meals much the same way we do!

 

[oybolshoi]

Thanks for the updates / rumors from OKW, TDC Nala! I have to agree with Laura that the news just seems to get more and more depressing but in the long run I guess it will make choosing a little easier. I do like the idea of a signature lunch as long as it's not too ridiculously priced.

 

[RachelTori]

Oh! I see you all plan your meals much the same way we do!

I'm actually doing a progressive dinner around the monorail tonight which Laura may recognize - except we're stopping in the Ca. Grill lounge for sushi and flatbread. Tambu, Mizners and California Grill.

Sounds awesome - enjoy!

OT for a moment: If you get a chance, would you let us know how the work is progressing by the CR monorail station? They had a large area by Chef Mickeys barricaded off and were just getting started a couple weeks ago. I hope it has quieted down some! Thanks!

 

[oybolshoi]

Yes, Brenda, the Reserve Dinners were truly amazing. The Exquisite Evenings have also been wonderful. The California dinner last year featured very memorable wines.

I'm with you, though, -- dinner at V&A is far preferable to many of the events being offered this year.

Oh well. Nothing lasts forever, I guess.

I think TDC Nala may be right, however, that as mortages are foreclosed on and airfares skyrocket, families may choose to vacation closer to home. At that point, WDW may wish it had not lost the customers they once cultivated -- childless couples with disposable income and a willingness to spend it -- if offered high quality reasons to do so.

Love your reviews, by the way!!

At this point I feel like V&A will be an Exquisite Evening!

As for the economy, my hubby and I were just talking about that relative to the seemingly continuous price increases that Disney has been implementing. On the one hand it appears that they are making a family vacation (mom, dad, 2.5 kids) at WDW more and more out of reach and on the other hand they're spitting in the faces of a demographic that has been pretty loyal and has demonstrated a willingness to spend money at WDW. Jay basically said that he thinks we spend more in a 10-day visit on dining even with DDE discounts than a family of four does on everything on a comparable trip ... and he's probably right. But if the restaurant menus continue to be dumbed down while the prices keep rising and if the F&W Festival continues to be re-made into something less than it's advertised as, we will begin to find other places to vacation and other uses for our vacation points.

Free will and all that jazz, right?

Michael Eisner may have been a jerk (who isn't when they reach that level of success in the corporate world) but at least the company strove to deliver a high quality experience at the resort on all levels, including the restaurants. Those were the days ...

And thanks for comment on my reviews - glad you've enjoyed them.

"Take the booth that sells all the Sam Adams beers ... are you telling me that a crab cake and a lobster roll are the only items that anyone from Boston ever eats?"

Absolutely not! For one thing, crab cakes are from Maryland, not Boston. How about Regina Pizza and Chowdah? Now that's real Boston food!!!

Cathy

Thank you! Chowdah for sure would be great - they'd just have to have a big ol' vat of it stewing during the day ... that wouldn't be too difficult, would it?

Oh.... well... I might be interested in the Champagne Brunch. I love me some bubbly! I've always wanted to try Chateau d'Yquem, too. I'll have to wait and see what the details/prices are...

Hi Michelle! I think the brunch idea is an interesting one but I just cannot get my head around the whole Christian Dior perfume thing. Are they introducing a new line of non-toxic alcohol based perfumes that I can spray on in the morning before leaving for work and then lick off later after a stressful meeting ends? Because if not, then I don't think I want to endure a perfumey sales pitch while trying to ingest Frenchified food and beverage goodness. But I must admit that I would love to try that wine!! I think I read somewhere that it has its own classification because of its superiority over all other labels (and because of its cost ... ).

The price tag on that event will be intereting to see.

 

[PNO4TE]

Michael Eisner may have been a jerk (who isn't when they reach that level of success in the corporate world) but at least the company strove to deliver a high quality experience at the resort on all levels, including the restaurants. Those were the days ...

I was just saying that to Bob last night. We talked about why we started going back regularly to WDW and I credited Eisner's advertising vision and his effort to make WDW a destination for every level of visitor. The room discounts and packages offered 10-15 years ago made it a place we could afford to go to again and again. And we did!

I am not happy with a lot of things that are happening to my vacation experience at WDW but I am not certain where else I want to go! And I am NOT ready to start looking yet.

 

[shovan]

This may have been discussed already with all the chat from the trickling of info we're getting. A new event City Tastes is described as a walk about event. How does that work? The South African wine adventure last year was described as a walk about. Has anyone attended that? Can you give me a better explanation?

 

[castmemberb4]

That's too bad ... I'm so sorry. It's getting more and more difficult for us to plan for some of these events, too, given the price increases. I wonder when Epcot is going to reach a price threshold on some of these events? Sooner or later it's going to get to a point where it just doesn't make sense to spend the money on certain of these events, although I'm sure there are plenty of people who have waaaaay more disposable income than the hubby and I do.

I personally find it frustrating because the variety just isn't there in the food booths any longer, and by that I mean that the menus aren't changing much at all. I can look at my programs from 2006 and 2007 and compare it to the partial list of marketplace booths for this year and I'm less than impressed with the effort to change things up. Granted, there are some new offerings but not many. Take the booth that sells all the Sam Adams beers ... are you telling me that a crab cake and a lobster roll are the only items that anyone from Boston ever eats? Puh-lease. If you ask me it's laziness and complacency on the part of the Festival organizers ... it smacks of a total lack of effort to offer new and interesting tasting portions.

Just my opinion. I know we'll still have fun but they're making it easier and easier to wean ourselves from the Festival and consider other options for our annual October trip. I'm not even sure right now if I want to go back next October before our cruise ... I'm kinda leaning towards USO right now.

You know I never understood why they bother with food at that booth any way, why not just make that a Sam Adams booth, we only go there for beer anyway. They should just move the crab cakes over to the "USA" booth that's in that same area.

I'm with you on not making F&W an "event" trip in the future, think we're going to scale back to a long wekend next year.

 

[PatriciaH]

A walk about event is like PFTS where you walk from station to station. More like a buffet than a sit down served dinner. The SA event last year was like a smaller PFTS. We liked it. The food and wines were good but we did not love the event. A bit more food would have been nicer. On the other hand it was a lot cheaper than PFTS.

I have loved the Signature dinners we have done (Jiko and Blue Zoo/Todd English.) They were worth the $145 price! I hope there are more than 2 this year! I am not doing a $300pp one and we already did the Todd English one (it was great though!)

Our Mexico Regional Feast was nice although it was a bit of a push to visit the area in Mexico. More of a travel push than a wine push. I did not like the
Odyssey setting-ugly and dated-so I am glad to see not many events are in there this year.

I like that there is more than wine at some of these events. The Mexico one opened with Margaritas and some other drink. The Todd English one had Zooberries (Blue Zoos signature drink) and Jack Daniels Coke Floats.

I hope this event gets fixed next year. Disney is stupid if they forget about their repeat visitors. Everything in training pushes how special these visitors are to Disney so I don't know who is making some of these decisions.

 

[BriarRosie]

Hi Lori!!!
That Australian Signature dinner was my very first F&W event and is still a fave It was so much fun to share the experience with you! I also enjoyed the PFTS , but my other fave was the Peruvian Regional dinner in 2006. I went to the Greek dinner last year, as well as the PFTS , and while they were enjoyable, I did not enjoy them as much as the others. I still think the food and wine pairings are the best value, I am hoping they will still have the Coral Reef and Le Cellier pairings this year

Kathe

It's so touch-and-go at the moment, not knowing if they'll have Coral Reef or Le Cellier pairings, especially when they have 3 locations posted only. Looks like that Australian dinner got you hooked.

This may have been discussed already with all the chat from the trickling of info we're getting. A new event City Tastes is described as a walk about event. How does that work? The South African wine adventure last year was described as a walk about. Has anyone attended that? Can you give me a better explanation?

A walk about event is like PFTS where you walk from station to station. More like a buffet than a sit down served dinner. The SA event last year was like a smaller PFTS. We liked it. The food and wines were good but we did not love the event. A bit more food would have been nicer. On the other hand it was a lot cheaper than PFTS.

I have loved the Signature dinners we have done (Jiko and Blue Zoo/Todd English.) They were worth the $145 price! I hope there are more than 2 this year! I am not doing a $300pp one and we already did the Todd English one (it was great though!)

Patricia described it well. There are multiple stations for food and wine all over World Showplace. The South African wine event was a smaller scale version of PFTS. I thought it was pretty good, but I agree they needed more food, and they needed a better setup for the stations. And desserts. They needed desserts. I think the City Tastes will be a lot like the South African event, but hopefully they will improve upon the setup.

I'm hoping there will be Signature Dinners or Lunches or something! I'm still tempted to book V&A as a solo if I don't have any of those events during my trip.

 

[shovan]

A walk about event is like PFTS where you walk from station to station. More like a buffet than a sit down served dinner. The SA event last year was like a smaller PFTS. We liked it. The food and wines were good but we did not love the event. A bit more food would have been nicer. On the other hand it was a lot cheaper than PFTS.

Patricia described it well. There are multiple stations for food and wine all over World Showplace. The South African wine event was a smaller scale version of PFTS. I thought it was pretty good, but I agree they needed more food, and they needed a better setup for the stations. And desserts. They needed desserts. I think the City Tastes will be a lot like the South African event, but hopefully they will improve upon the setup.

I'm hoping there will be Signature Dinners or Lunches or something! I'm still tempted to book V&A as a solo if I don't have any of those events during my trip.

Thanks Patricia & Lori! But I'm still confused! For the South African event you walked around World Showplace? To specially set-up stations? I am understanding that correctly?

So far, we are pretty disappointed in the offerings. We had planned on doing more pairings, a regional feast & maybe a signature dinner, skipping PFTS since we've done that twice. But it doesn't look like it's going to work out for us. And we only booked a few adr's, so this may end up being a regular Disney trip & not much of a F&W trip.

 

[oybolshoi]

Thanks Patricia & Lori! But I'm still confused! For the South African event you walked around World Showplace? To specially set-up stations? I am understanding that correctly?

So far, we are pretty disappointed in the offerings. We had planned on doing more pairings, a regional feast & maybe a signature dinner, skipping PFTS since we've done that twice. But it doesn't look like it's going to work out for us. And we only booked a few adr's, so this may end up being a regular Disney trip & not much of a F&W trip.

Sheryl, they hold these events in the same place that they hold PFTS. So it's a walkabout similar to the set-up for PFTS but focuses on offerings more specific to the region or city that's being featured that evening. Does that help?

We wanted to do some more pairings this time too, but at $110 per couple plus tax I think they're starting to be less of a value than they have been in years past. And the three that are being offered right now are either not appealing to us or have dates that conflict with other things we want to do.

Figures.

 

[shovan]

Sheryl, they hold these events in the same place that they hold PFTS. So it's a walkabout similar to the set-up for PFTS but focuses on offerings more specific to the region or city that's being featured that evening. Does that help?

We wanted to do some more pairings this time too, but at $110 per couple plus tax I think they're starting to be less of a value than they have been in years past. And the three that are being offered right now are either not appealing to us or have dates that conflict with other things we want to do.

Figures.

OOHHH! Thanks Brenda! Well that makes sense, but we might as well to the party. At least then you get lots of food & booze! Nothing is really exciting us or is also conflicting with other things. I'm pretty bummed right now!

 

[oybolshoi]

We are interested in the French lunches that are being offered on Sundays, as long as the price isn't too ridiculous. And we're holding out hope that there will be a signature dinner or lunch that we can pick up or maybe even a regional feast. Otherwise it looks like we will be trying a lot of new restaurants on this trip.

I guess we won't spend as much money as I expected we would when I booked this trip.

 

[Inkmahm]

This is the first year we are attending the FWF and I'm really not sure what to book with the schedule not being out. We will be there 10/17 to 10/21 and already have 10/19 evening for the Mickey not so scary Halloween Party (never been to that before, either.) We planned on the PFTS on Saturday 10/18. Maybe the Sunday Sweet thing for the morning of 10/19. Eating around the world at the booths for lunch on 10/17 when we get there. Not sure about 10/21 (Monday) though. Anyone have any suggestions for a festival newbie? What do we do on Monday? Are there even any special events then?

Since I'll be in Alaska when reservations are taken (leaving 8/18) I have to have my mom or sister make the reservations for us on the 25th. That's another question... what phone number do you use to call for reservations? I assume I'll have to leave my credit card info with them to book these, too.

By the way, I've read just the last few pages and I agree that Disney should be doing more to keep the business of childless couples who are willing to spend money at WDW. That would descriibe me and my DH. We are also DVC members and just this year decided we'd allocate our BWV points each year to going to FWF in October for a Fri-Tues trip. I"m hoping that will still make sense for us after we try it for the first time this year.

 

[webray]

Sounds awesome - enjoy!

OT for a moment: If you get a chance, would you let us know how the work is progressing by the CR monorail station? They had a large area by Chef Mickeys barricaded off and were just getting started a couple weeks ago. I hope it has quieted down some! Thanks!

It is still all blocked off...nothing done yet. We were there this past Friday.
Did check out the Wave, had apps and wine. Apps were so delicious, can't wait to try the restaurant next trip.

 

[RachelTori]

It is still all blocked off...nothing done yet. We were there this past Friday.
Did check out the Wave, had apps and wine. Apps were so delicious, can't wait to try the restaurant next trip.

Thanks for the update!

This is the first year we are attending the FWF and I'm really not sure what to book with the schedule not being out. We will be there 10/17 to 10/21 and already have 10/19 evening for the Mickey not so scary Halloween Party (never been to that before, either.) We planned on the PFTS on Saturday 10/18. Maybe the Sunday Sweet thing for the morning of 10/19. Eating around the world at the booths for lunch on 10/17 when we get there. Not sure about 10/21 (Monday) though. Anyone have any suggestions for a festival newbie? What do we do on Monday? Are there even any special events then?

Since I'll be in Alaska when reservations are taken (leaving 8/18) I have to have my mom or sister make the reservations for us on the 25th. That's another question... what phone number do you use to call for reservations? I assume I'll have to leave my credit card info with them to book these, too.

By the way, I've read just the last few pages and I agree that Disney should be doing more to keep the business of childless couples who are willing to spend money at WDW. That would descriibe me and my DH. We are also DVC members and just this year decided we'd allocate our BWV points each year to going to FWF in October for a Fri-Tues trip. I"m hoping that will still make sense for us after we try it for the first time this year.

OK, this is just my opinion, but don't over-schedule! PFTS on 10/18, then a Sweet Sunday and MNSSHP on 10/19, might be a bit much in such a short span of time! I'd choose PFTS and MNSSHP and skip the Sweet Sunday. (again, JMHO! ) Monday would be a good day to visit some of the food booths on World Showcase and maybe do one or 2 of the free wine seminars or cooking demonstrations.

Your credit card will be charged at the time of booking - and is non-refundable so make sure your mom or sister confirm (and then re-confirm!) what the CM is booking. The phone # to call is 407-WDW-DINE.