EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, Sept. 25 - Nov 16 2015

[Biceratops]

Bummer but I guess that is what was expected.

Now it says "bon appetit!" when I scanned it at Mission: Space.

 

[Disbug]

I would like to hear experiences using sampler credits past booked date. Also before you could only pick up on that day. Anybody able to pick up on an earlier day?

Would also love to hear about French Family Traditions.

When I purchased mine, the CM definitely wanted me to know I had to pick up the package on the DAY OF, not before or after. Earliest pickup was at 9 AM. That's what she said...!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Luckily these don't all have to be redeemed within a single day, otherwise the only problem I see is being able to stand or see straight.

Hmm, I've been wondering whether I should pick one up for the drink savings. I'm going for 2 days and was thinking I should buy one & my friend should buy one but I was thinking the alcoholic drinks were along the pricey samplers line and not too high on the alcohol content. Is 4 alcohol samplers a day really that much booze or is it like a couple glasses of wine? We're very average in our alcohol tollerance levels but now I'm thinking maybe we should buy one and count on splitting the drinks? I know everyone is different and all but thoughts? I'm not going until Nov so I don't expect it to be really hot weather wise like it is right now. I've been debating the sampler for the last couple days, I'm torn!

 

[AngiTN]

I keep thinking I need to get at least 1 sampler myself. I went through and there are at least 8, if not more, items over the approx $7 price point to make it worthwhile.
DH and I will have all day on Wed and Thur to use them, at a minimum. Fri/Sat/Sun crowd permitting. I know I'd like the Pin. The concerts no so much since we have zero interest in the 2 playing while we are there.

 

[Judyfun]

There are 3 of us, and we are there for multiple days, I went ahead and purchased the sampler. Happiness!

 

[CJ Gren]

Can someone advise me how purchasing wine in the Festival Center works? I know they don't allow you to walk around with it and I've heard suggestions to do it earlier in the day for pick up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tozzie]

Hmm, I've been wondering whether I should pick one up for the drink savings. I'm going for 2 days and was thinking I should buy one & my friend should buy one but I was thinking the alcoholic drinks were along the pricey samplers line and not too high on the alcohol content. Is 4 alcohol samplers a day really that much booze or is it like a couple glasses of wine? We're very average in our alcohol tollerance levels but now I'm thinking maybe we should buy one and count on splitting the drinks? I know everyone is different and all but thoughts? I'm not going until Nov so I don't expect it to be really hot weather wise like it is right now. I've been debating the sampler for the last couple days, I'm torn!

I don't purchase the specialty drinks at food and wine as I prefer wine I personally don't think that 4 is too many especially during a entire day, the beer and wine are half the size of a "normal" pour so 4 of those are only 2 regular ones and I would have 2 glasses of wine with dinner and not bat an Eye. I also drink more than the at the festival I just eat obviously and drink a lot of water

 

[Tozzie]

Can someone advise me how purchasing wine in the Festival Center works? I know they don't allow you to walk around with it and I've heard suggestions to do it earlier in the day for pick up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

You can have it sent to the front of the park or theInternational Gateway, it takes 3 hours minimum to get there so I would buy it as soon as you get to the park to ensure it is wiring for you when you want to leave

 

[pepperandchips]

Just a word of caution for those that booked the premium package early in the frenzy (July 30th?) - MDE basically garbled my reservation to the point where my Illuminations Dessert Party was completely missing and the reservation did not look like it was supposed to in the system according to the CM I got on the phone this afternoon. I was aware of this because I got an email from Disney this afternoon "Your itinerary for EPCOT Food and Wine Premium Package" and it told me to report for my sparkling dessert party on the wrong day at 5:00(!!!) pm. I like to believe that Disney would have sorted this out for me when I checked in on Monday, but who wants to waste precious vacation time sorting out MDE errors? The very gracious and patient CM I reached this afternoon had to get a supervisor to rebook my package and refund the first one. The call took 50 minutes though.... I knew what the reservations were supposed to look like in MDE as my mom's was booked correctly (separately) but I could see it in my MDE family view.

Here's the body of the email from Disney, with the error pointed out. If anyone sees any personally identifying information please let me know so I can remove!

 

[FunkyDuckToo]

Sorry if this is a stupid question...but I'm just starting to research this now. Is the Food&Wine Festival a hard ticket? If we are in Epcot with a Dining Plan...are we able to purchase from the marketplaces too or is this a special ticket? TIA

 

[AngiTN]

Just a word of caution for those that booked the premium package early in the frenzy (July 30th?) - MDE basically garbled my reservation to the point where my Illuminations Dessert Party was completely missing and the reservation did not look like it was supposed to in the system according to the CM I got on the phone this afternoon. I was aware of this because I got an email from Disney this afternoon "Your itinerary for EPCOT Food and Wine Premium Package" and it told me to report for my sparkling dessert party on the wrong day at 5:00(!!!) pm. I like to believe that Disney would have sorted this out for me when I checked in on Monday, but who wants to waste precious vacation time sorting out MDE errors? The very gracious and patient CM I reached this afternoon had to get a supervisor to rebook my package and refund the first one. The call took 50 minutes though.... I knew what the reservations were supposed to look like in MDE as my mom's was booked correctly (separately) but I could see it in my MDE family view.

Here's the body of the email from Disney, with the error pointed out. If anyone sees any personally identifying information please let me know so I can remove! View attachment 126453

Thanks for the alert. I booked ours well after it was all sorted out (lesson I learned a long time ago, give Disney time to sort things out before booking)
It looks correct on MDE for now but I'll make sure to read the email I get too.
Is this something you got for next week? Trying to know when to be on the lookout for ours

Though honestly, how did it ever get a 5:00 time for Illuminations? Strange

 

[AngiTN]

Sorry if this is a stupid question...but I'm just starting to research this now. Is the Food&Wine Festival a hard ticket? If we are in Epcot with a Dining Plan...are we able to purchase from the marketplaces too or is this a special ticket? TIA

Nope, not a hard ticket event. Though there are some hard ticket events inside Epcot. For the food they are just extra places to eat at Epcot. You can use your dining plan (snacks, or converting QS to snacks as outlined above) anywhere they are marked as DP eligible. But word of advice, it's an awful use of your credits. Items are mostly $5.

 

[FunkyDuckToo]

Nope, not a hard ticket event. Though there are some hard ticket events inside Epcot. For the food they are just extra places to eat at Epcot. You can use your dining plan (snacks, or converting QS to snacks as outlined above) anywhere they are marked as DP eligible. But word of advice, it's an awful use of your credits. Items are mostly $5.

Okay...So if I understand this correctly I could convert my QS credit to 2 snack credits? or 3?

 

[pepperandchips]

Thanks for the alert. I booked ours well after it was all sorted out (lesson I learned a long time ago, give Disney time to sort things out before booking)
It looks correct on MDE for now but I'll make sure to read the email I get too.
Is this something you got for next week? Trying to know when to be on the lookout for ours

Though honestly, how did it ever get a 5:00 time for Illuminations? Strange

Angi, I think I got the email today because my Dessert Party was (mistakenly) scheduled for exactly a week from today. I had not heard reports of others receiving this email so I wanted to help out any fellow DISers still planning!

I am with you though, I don't know how in the world the system messed up my reservation so bad. The original confirmation number they gave me in July somehow got tied to my culinary demonstration and it was showing that I paid ~$635 for the culinary demonstration, which WAS supposed to be at 5:00 on October 6th. The CM told me I was supposed to attend the dessert party on the 6th, which honestly would have been fine except I jumped through a bunch of hoops to book an extra PP for my mom for the dessert party on the 5th.

I think Disney bit off a little more than they could chew this year assuming that the glitchy IT dining reservation system could handle an event with two sub-events. They should have just given another $50 gift card like last year and said, "Here, book some hard ticket events on your own!" They already didn't promise availability with the "included" events on the premium package... the fine print on that email was ridiculous.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

Okay...So if I understand this correctly I could convert my QS credit to 2 snack credits? or 3?

3 at the same booth

 

[NicoleLarson]

I have the 3PM demo with Amanda fritag this weekend booked. How early should I arrive? Also my DD6 is coming with me, I know they won't give her wine if there is any but could I get hers and drink it myself?

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I have the 3PM demo with Amanda fritag this weekend booked. How early should I arrive? Also my DD6 is coming with me, I know they won't give her wine if there is any but could I get hers and drink it myself?

Nope they generally won't give you her wine (even though you paid for it )

Seating for this is first come first served first come I think so the earlier you get there the better your seat. For big names lining up an hour in advance is not uncommon.

 

[marsh0013]

Nope they generally won't give you her wine (even though you paid for it )

Seating for this is first come first served first come I think so the earlier you get there the better your seat. For big names lining up an hour in advance is not uncommon.

Interesting that in general they won't give the kid's wine to the parent. Last year we went to the Andrew Zimmern demo and there was a family of 4, 2 parents, 2 kids, and they definitely let the parents have 2 wines each and the kids none. They offered the kids soda in place of the wine, but the parents declined the soda in favor of wine. If they kids wanted soda, however, the parents would not have been given the extra wine. This could have been an exception, but it doesn't hurt to ask!

 

[karrit2000]

Angi, I think I got the email today because my Dessert Party was (mistakenly) scheduled for exactly a week from today. I had not heard reports of others receiving this email so I wanted to help out any fellow DISers still planning!

I am with you though, I don't know how in the world the system messed up my reservation so bad. The original confirmation number they gave me in July somehow got tied to my culinary demonstration and it was showing that I paid ~$635 for the culinary demonstration, which WAS supposed to be at 5:00 on October 6th. The CM told me I was supposed to attend the dessert party on the 6th, which honestly would have been fine except I jumped through a bunch of hoops to book an extra PP for my mom for the dessert party on the 5th.

I think Disney bit off a little more than they could chew this year assuming that the glitchy IT dining reservation system could handle an event with two sub-events. They should have just given another $50 gift card like last year and said, "Here, book some hard ticket events on your own!" They already didn't promise availability with the "included" events on the premium package... the fine print on that email was ridiculous.

The system probably messed up your reservation so bad as you put it because those first few days rather than telling everyone the event couldn't be booked and refusing to make bookings until the issues were totally corrected some of the CM's answering the phones & their supervisors were trying anything they could to book the PP for people who were insisting it be booked for them. Disney Dining should have totally halted any possibility to book the Premium Package and related events until they fixed all the "IT" issues properly. They should not have continued with any PP bookings until they contacted everyone who had already "booked the PP" & corrected all the mistakes that were entered into the system by CM's trying to manipulate the system to make the incomplete improper bookings. They mishandled the entire thing from day one and did nothing to reach out to those whose bookings were incomplete as far as I know. This leaving it to the customer to waste their time fixing Disney's errors is totally unacceptable but people keep booking thinks without knowing what they are actually getting & throwing their money at Disney with little or no questions asked & then they wonder why things like this continue to happen every year.

 

[pepperandchips]

The system probably messed up your reservation so bad as you put it because those first few days rather than telling everyone the event couldn't be booked and refusing to make bookings until the issues were totally corrected some of the CM's answering the phones & their supervisors were trying anything they could to book the PP for people who were insisting it be booked for them. Disney Dining should have totally halted any possibility to book the Premium Package and related events until they fixed all the "IT" issues properly. They should not have continued with any PP bookings until they contacted everyone who had already "booked the PP" & corrected all the mistakes that were entered into the system by CM's trying to manipulate the system to make the incomplete improper bookings. They mishandled the entire thing from day one and did nothing to reach out to those whose bookings were incomplete as far as I know. This leaving it to the customer to waste their time fixing Disney's errors is totally unacceptable but people keep booking thinks without knowing what they are actually getting & throwing their money at Disney with little or no questions asked & then they wonder why things like this continue to happen every year.

I'm sure you are partly right about this being related to the early booking of the package. The only reason why the mix-up surprises me is because at one point (likely a few weeks ago) everything appeared correctly booked on MDE. I just wanted to give others a heads up to check it out to hopefully head off any long lines in the festival center or guest relations. I'm still greatly looking forward to it.