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

[karrit2000]

We booked the PP (and Illuminations) for a Tuesday night. The WDW info says nothing about a corkscrew in the bag this year. And since it's an in park pick up, I bet there will not be one. Maybe it will be a screw cap...

There was nothing last year about the corkscrew either. They added it to the bags after guest complained they couldn't open the bottles at their hotels & guest traveling via airplane would not have been able to take the wine home with them since you can't take it through TSA Screening. Also according to pictures posted on some blogs the wine definitely has a cork in the bottle. I still don't see how they are expecting guest to pick up the goodie bag at the festival Center since per WDW policy you can not carry the bottles in the park.

 

[kristenrice]

Question...is there any way to buy those F&W MagicBands in advance? Do they sell them at the festival? I don't remember seeing them last year, but I honestly wasn't specifically looking for them.

 

[YodasMom]

There was nothing last year about the corkscrew either. They added it to the bags after guest complained they couldn't open the bottles at their hotels & guest traveling via airplane would not have been able to take the wine home with them since you can't take it through TSA Screening. Also according to pictures posted on some blogs the wine definitely has a cork in the bottle. I still don't see how they are expecting guest to pick up the goodie bag at the festival Center since per WDW policy you can not carry the bottles in the park.

If it were me, I would try to find out if they will deliver to the park entrance or gateway to hold for your park departure. They do sell wine at the Festival Center, so they may provide that service. Also, if you buy something at the gift shop at the festival center, they will deliver to your room, etc. They may also do that for the gift bag. I would want to know all of that before I paid for the package. May be hard to find out right now, though....LOL

 

[karrit2000]

Question...is there any way to buy those F&W MagicBands in advance? Do they sell them at the festival? I don't remember seeing them last year, but I honestly wasn't specifically looking for them.

The special F & W Magic Band is only available as part of the Premium Package so no you can not buy it in advance Of course there's always ebay because I'm sure some enterprising individuals will be selling them.

 

[Missyrose]

If it were me, I would try to find out if they will deliver to the park entrance or gateway to hold for your park departure. They do sell wine at the Festival Center, so they may provide that service. Also, if you buy something at the gift shop at the festival center, they will deliver to your room, etc. They may also do that for the gift bag. I would want to know all of that before I paid for the package. May be hard to find out right now, though....LOL

None of that would be knowable via asking a phone CM. Those phone CMs have no knowledge of actual park operations, even though they pretend to.

 

[YodasMom]

None of that would be knowable via asking a phone CM. Those phone CMs have no knowledge of actual park operations, even though they pretend to.

Yes, I know that.............

 

[FoodieFriend]

That IS weird, but somehow not surprising. If you get the runaround (because it's hard to imagine that the CMs will know how to fix it), consider changing the date of the package to the Monday of the week you're there. Good luck.

Haha! the date showing on MDE is for Monday Sept 28 but there is no available dessert party when I view the dessert party schedule as a separate online purchase. i'm hoping what Tink10 posted about an exclusive party is correct. I spoke with a CM this morning (5am HST) who was unsure if there would be a party on that day & I was still not able to book my culinary demo yet.

It's my understanding that the dessert party for Premium package guests takes place on Monday nights and is not available for booking to non premium guests

hope you're right!!!! I was concerned that because I chose my usage week starting Monday Sept 28, the reservation shows up as "Sept 28 830pm" referring to the package NOT the dessert party. like I mentioned previously, there is no dessert party available for separate booking on Sep 28 and the CM I spoke to this morning had no idea if there would be a special dessert party just for PP users or not but per her notes my dessert party is on Sept 28 since that's where my reservation is showing up.

If it were me, I would try to find out if they will deliver to the park entrance or gateway to hold for your park departure. They do sell wine at the Festival Center, so they may provide that service. Also, if you buy something at the gift shop at the festival center, they will deliver to your room, etc. They may also do that for the gift bag. I would want to know all of that before I paid for the package. May be hard to find out right now, though....LOL

per other wonderful experienced DISers, Disney will not send foodstuff (including bottles of wine) to your room from the park. at most they will send it to the front of the park for you to pick up (hopefully that includes International Gateway also). per the CM I spoke to this morning, she can't speak for the Festival Center workers if they will hold the swag bag with wine bottle for you there since that will cause a serious pile-up of swag bags. she said there are lockers for rental that you can keep you swag bags in all day (one MORE thing I have to pay for????). I think because the packages are no longer tied to a room reservation (which satisfied the disgruntled AP holders who couldn't get PP last year), the pick up must be at the park but no one in Disney considered premium package users will have to each drag around a bottle of wine & wine glass all day. I tried to explain this to the CM and she stuck with her "pay for a locker rental" solution. what a bummer. i'm not regretting purchasing the package, i'm disappointed at Disney's short-sightedness in planning this "Premium" experience to be seamless for all.
to add to seamless-ness, will there be somewhere in the Festival Center where you can activate your EF&WF magic band & load it with money to start making your food purchases? i'm sure when everything went to your room, you could do all of that at the hotel before heading to the park. now that the bag will only be available AT the park on the FIRST DAY of use (absolutely no early pick up per every CM I spoke to so far), I hope Disney has that all set up. am I too much of a dreamer???

 

[supersnoop]

what's weird is that MyDisneyExperience has my Premium Package booked on a night where there's no Illuminations Sparkling Dessert Party offered.
guess another round of phone calls is coming up!!!

date showing on MDE is for Monday Sept 28 but there is no available dessert party when I view the dessert party schedule as a separate online purchase.

I asked this same question earlier this week, but nobody every responded. I have an IllumiNations dessert party reservation during Food & Wine that I booked at 180 days. But now, that date is not even an option to book online. I don't know if that means they cancelled the party, or just that it's full.

 

[YodasMom]

per other wonderful experienced DISers, Disney will not send foodstuff (including bottles of wine) to your room from the park. at most they will send it to the front of the park for you to pick up (hopefully that includes International Gateway also). per the CM I spoke to this morning, she can't speak for the Festival Center workers if they will hold the swag bag with wine bottle for you there since that will cause a serious pile-up of swag bags. she said there are lockers for rental that you can keep you swag bags in all day (one MORE thing I have to pay for????). I think because the packages are no longer tied to a room reservation (which satisfied the disgruntled AP holders who couldn't get PP last year), the pick up must be at the park but no one in Disney considered premium package users will have to each drag around a bottle of wine & wine glass all day. I tried to explain this to the CM and she stuck with her "pay for a locker rental" solution. what a bummer. i'm not regretting purchasing the package, i'm disappointed at Disney's short-sightedness in planning this "Premium" experience to be seamless for all.
to add to seamless-ness, will there be somewhere in the Festival Center where you can activate your EF&WF magic band & load it with money to start making your food purchases? i'm sure when everything went to your room, you could do all of that at the hotel before heading to the park. now that the bag will only be available AT the park on the FIRST DAY of use (absolutely no early pick up per every CM I spoke to so far), I hope Disney has that all set up. am I too much of a dreamer???

Yes, I honestly don't think Disney thought about some of these issues (as usual). And, I'm sure they did decide to request that people pick up the bags at the Festival Center since the package is open to all guests. The Festival Center is going to be a mess early in the mornings if they don't coordinate extra staff to handle these package credential and gift bag pick-ups. The Sampler Package credentials also have to be picked up daily at the FC.

 

[ethanwa]

Question...is there any way to buy those F&W MagicBands in advance? Do they sell them at the festival? I don't remember seeing them last year, but I honestly wasn't specifically looking for them.

Nope sorry, only for Premium Package people only. Must be picked up in person.

 

[FoodieFriend]

I asked this same question earlier this week, but nobody every responded. I have an IllumiNations dessert party reservation during Food & Wine that I booked at 180 days. But now, that date is not even an option to book online. I don't know if that means they cancelled the party, or just that it's full.

gee you have BOTH the PP and a separate Illuminations party? eek! well I guess that's good if you really like desserts. I would hope they let you refund the party if you didn't want it 2x.

hoping for good luck for all of us calling in with questions in the following week(s)!

 

[karrit2000]

Since we are all seeing the logistical issues that are involved with the Premium Package elements its definitely easy to see why it took them so long to publish the details. Last year they finally addressed a lot of the logistical issues with a post on the Disney Parks Blog that addressed a lot of the basics but there were still many details that were worked out on the fly once the festival started. I'm sure we'll see something on the Blog next week but don't expect most of the questions we have to be answered until the festival is in full swing. You would think they would have figured some of this out after last year but since they changed one basic aspect, that you had to have a hotel stay attached, they have essentially reinvented the wheel with the package this year and opened up a whole new set of issues.

 

[MatzoBelle]

I see the problem you are facing, Foodie. The dessert party is offered every Monday in Oct. and Mondays for the first two weeks of Nov., but not Mondays in Sept. There is no question that they will take care of you, but it's unfortunate that you may have to wait for answers, go to a lot of trouble to get them, and have to delay planning.

 

[ksromack]

So are they having people who book the premium package as well as people who just book the Illuminations dessert party all together at the parties if so won't that make for super crowded parties? Or is there a separate dessert party for the premium pckg people???

I am very concerned about this too. I booked the super-sweet Illuminations Dessert Party for the tuesday of our F&W trip.

I asked this same question earlier this week, but nobody every responded. I have an IllumiNations dessert party reservation during Food & Wine that I booked at 180 days. But now, that date is not even an option to book online. I don't know if that means they cancelled the party, or just that it's full.

I think it will be a surprise for all of us, lol! My dessert party is the first night of our vacation and is only 5 days after the beginning of F&W

 

[VrBchJ]

Even with me being a lover of the Food & Wine Festival as well as a huge graphic MagicBand collector, I can't get myself to pull the trigger on this $200 package. All of the benefits take place during the week when I won't have anyone to watch my kids, so the benefits will be really limited between Noon and the time I need to get the kids from school. I wouldn't be able to go to the demo or the desert party. If it had the $50 gift card then it would probably make it worth it for me, but I'm having a really tough time with this one.

The issue is that the Limited Edition MagicBand might sell on eBay for $100+ later on, and at that cost I might as well just book the Premium Package anyway! Tough one for me this year...

I want that special Magic Band!!! I still only use the one from last year so I want the new design to use this year.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I honestly don't think you will get a corkscrew in the Premium package As I said farther up the thread they don't even sell corkscrews at Epcot for a reason... No opening the wine in the park. If you want to open your wine in the hotel either bring one with you or plan to tip a bartender at the hotel bar to open it for you.

And at least for those of you going the first half of the festival I would plan to head right back to my room after pick up. Those lockers aren't air conditioned either. Letting that wine sit in the Florida heat all day probably means the lack of corkscrew is the least of your issues regarding the drinking of that wine.

We actually have a Illuminations Desert party booked for our full week, but are considering cancelling. I was not big on booking anyway based on reviews, but now I am afraid that it will be PACKED with the Premium Package. At least we have a few weeks of reports before we make a decision. (You can cancel desert party and get a refund!)

 

[supersnoop]

gee you have BOTH the PP and a separate Illuminations party? eek! well I guess that's good if you really like desserts. I would hope they let you refund the party if you didn't want it 2x.

hoping for good luck for all of us calling in with questions in the following week(s)!

No, I didn't book the Premium Package; just the dessert party. I was considering cancelling it (and offered to coordinate) until I saw that nobody would be able to book it since the date isn't even an option anymore.

 

[POOHsie]

There was nothing last year about the corkscrew either. They added it to the bags after guest complained they couldn't open the bottles at their hotels & guest traveling via airplane would not have been able to take the wine home with them since you can't take it through TSA Screening. Also according to pictures posted on some blogs the wine definitely has a cork in the bottle. I still don't see how they are expecting guest to pick up the goodie bag at the festival Center since per WDW policy you can not carry the bottles in the park.

We didn't get a corkscrew in our goodie bags. Our PP was the first week it was offered.

Right, you can't take wine thru TSA screening, but you can pack it in your luggage. I bought a wine sleeve for my DD's bottle, for her trip home. It arrived fine.

per other wonderful experienced DISers, Disney will not send foodstuff (including bottles of wine) to your room from the park. at most they will send it to the front of the park for you to pick up (hopefully that includes International Gateway also). per the CM I spoke to this morning, she can't speak for the Festival Center workers if they will hold the swag bag with wine bottle for you there since that will cause a serious pile-up of swag bags. she said there are lockers for rental that you can keep you swag bags in all day (one MORE thing I have to pay for????).

At last year's F&W Festival, we bought some wine and beer. The CM wouldn't let us take the purchases with us. I remember her saying that it was a new rule. So the CM had to wrap the items to create a parcel, then write up paperwork and have the purchases sent to the Front Gate. I'm almost sure they could be sent to the Int'l Gateway, too. That's where a great deal of F&W enthusiasts are coming from.

This is why I think the PP goodie bags will be sent to Epcot entry gate by Festival Center personnel.

 

[SarahInMN]

We booked the premium package a few days ago and I called today to book our free seminar. A few things....

1) Disneyfoodblog had been reporting that the 5pm culinary seminars would be included. I asked the guy to book a 5pm but only the 3pm culinary demos were showing up.
2) He asked for our room ressie before even searching - I gave him the room ressie from 11/6 through 11/8 (the 1st half of the stay) and he said "you shouldn't have been able to book the Premium Package." I then gave him the room ressie for 11/8-> 11/15. This leads me to believe only hotel guests can book but the guy sounded confused regardless.
3) he then attempted to book it, checked with is supervisor, and "they are working on it but we cannot book any of the entitlements with the Premium Package."
4) at this point I became concerned regarding dessert party details. When I booked originally, I had no idea a dessert party was included and the CM did not ask me what date I wanted. MDE shows 11/9 and i attempted to confirm this with him. He said that I would need to call back when "they got the problems worked out" and select my night for the dessert party (and book our chose seminar at that point).

Summary...the included stuff apparently cannot be booked/confirmed at this point and the CMs remain confused about what is going on.

 

[ppiew]

I tried to book PFTS for 2 nights and both were filled! Never ran into this before is this legit??