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

[jerseygal]

Curious, anyone who was at opening this weekend, what has the weather been like? HOPE you're having fun!
TIA!

 

[sunnygal041]

Hey folks. I wanted to give a quick review of my F&W experience. The soft opening was awesome early and then it got crowded later in the evening. Friday was a crowded mess. I knew it was gonna be packed when the lines in the Festival Center were crazy. There were lines waiting to get into the Chase lounge! I got the Discovery sampler package and I highly recommend it. It's even better because you have until 11/16 to use the entitlements. I went to the Burger Block party on 9/25. I had no expectations and I left with mixed feelings. The beef sliders that were served weren't seasoned and no condiments to be found. I guess they felt that the toppings were enough. The booze was abundant and no complaints there. Andrew Zimmern came on stage and yakked for a bit and left. He never even went to his table. I never saw him again. To sum it all up, I've never seen such huge crowds on opening day and I've been going for years. I'll be going back next weekend and then for the Wine&Dine half Marathon. Hope i was able to help.
Cindy

 

[jerseygal]

Hey folks. I wanted to give a quick review of my F&W experience. The soft opening was awesome early and then it got crowded later in the evening. Friday was a crowded mess. I knew it was gonna be packed when the lines in the Festival Center were crazy. There were lines waiting to get into the Chase lounge! I got the Discovery sampler package and I highly recommend it. It's even better because you have until 11/16 to use the entitlements. I went to the Burger Block party on 9/25. I had no expectations and I left with mixed feelings. The beef sliders that were served weren't seasoned and no condiments to be found. I guess they felt that the toppings were enough. The booze was abundant and no complaints there. Andrew Zimmern came on stage and yakked for a bit and left. He never even went to his table. I never saw him again. To sum it all up, I've never seen such huge crowds on opening day and I've been going for years. I'll be going back next weekend and then for the Wine&Dine half Marathon. Hope i was able to help.
Cindy

THANKS for your review! Amazing, even long lines waiting to get into Chase lounge! How was the weather by the way? TIA!

 

[jacinda824]

I was there last night to see the David Cook concert. OMG it was insanely crowded. I got there about 415. I had planned on stopping at a few booths along the way back to the America pavilion. The lines were extremely long for all of them. I started counting the people while I was passing. Easily there were 40-80 people in EACH booth line. They had both sides of the booths open whenever possible (cannot remember if all of them had two sides). I have been going to F&W for about 11 years now. I have never seen it as bad as last night. I ended grabbing a sandwich at the America pavilion just so I had something to eat that night. It was the first time I have ever gone and not eaten anything from the booths. It slowed down a bit at 830 but still long. I overheard sooo many people disappointed about how long it took to get anything. Not sure what Disney could do to make this better.

 

[ScrappyRN]

Are they still doing concert wristbands in the Chase Lounge on weekends this year?

 

[jacinda824]

Yes but the line to get into the Chase lounge is about 25-40 people depending on the time you go.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

im at the festival center and was just informed they are already sold out of ap tshirts

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

im at the festival center and was just informed they are already sold out of ap tshirts

Considering the lines I am not surprised. I generally avoid buying AP merchandise as I don't want the CMs to assume I am guilty by association.




It's HOT. Let me restate for those of you asking. It is HOT.

If it works this is the line for the passport stamps for the AP glass at 9 am. Sign said the location opened at 11.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

woah they let us into innoventions for them before 9. looks like we really lucked out on that one

 

[rpb718]

Just FYI - plenty of food and drink pics on the food blog site now.

 

[AngiTN]

Anxious to get reports on what crowds are like during the week. I hope they are somewhat lighter. In glad now that we switched our plan and get Wed and Thur on F&W, with the premium package. I've switched plans so we are at Epcot only those days and we plan to eat most of our choices those days, with the staff to get them, leaving few things for the weekend. Hopefully that way we can try everything we want most

 

[emilymad]

We were there Friday around 4 and were able to do 4-5 booths with very little wait. It got busier after that. We left around noon yesterday and it was packed. It also been crazy hot. We never would have made it around yesterday. Going again tonight and hoping crowds are a little better.

 

[SarahInMN]

We were there Friday around 4 and were able to do 4-5 booths with very little wait. It got busier after that. We left around noon yesterday and it was packed. It also been crazy hot. We never would have made it around yesterday. Going again tonight and hoping crowds are a little better.

For our very first F&W (2010?), we arrived at MCO early on Saturday, checked into BCV, and went straight to EPCOT around 1pm. We were so disappointed by the crowds and thought to ourselves "this is going to be a horrible trip if every day is like this." Sure enough though crowds cleared out by mid afternoon on Sunday. We just have learned to avoid the food booths from late Friday to midday Sunday.

 

[hsmamato2]

interesting..... I saw those pics on the food blog (OMG) and lines..... I had NO idea the lines got like this..... well, it's going to be interesting!

 

[sunnygal041]

THANKS for your review! Amazing, even long lines waiting to get into Chase lounge! How was the weather by the way? TIA!

It was/is hot. I live in South Fla so I'm kinda used to it. Friday nite it stormed badly, but I was inside for the burger party. Like others have said, huge crowds on opening day that I have never encountered. Let's hope the weekdays are better.

 

[emilymad]

Storms were really bad Friday night. We were waiting for the monorail and it lost power. They shut the whole loop down and were going to bus people back to the hotels. We ended up taking Uber back to BLT.

Even with the crowds and heat F&W had been really fun. The heat is worse than the crowds for us anyway.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

andrew zimmern was awesome he didnt let the lady talk over him like happened last year when i saw cat cora ill post pics later tonight

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

andrew zimmern was awesome he didnt let the lady talk over him like happened last year when i saw cat cora ill post pics later tonight

I agree Really glad I booked this.

Crowds are not as bad right now but after all the wine and food at the Zimmern event I am heading back to hotel for a nap


(And Pam claims she doesn't cook. Should make her demos interesting. She's as bad as I recalled LOL)

 

[SarahInMN]

(And Pam claims she doesn't cook. Should make her demos interesting. She's as bad as I recalled LOL)

pam is sooooo annoying! She doesn't let the chefs talk and she is always interrupting them.

 

[brnrss34]

Food and wine ap shirts are not sold out just ask someone. Someone in line ahead of me just bought one. Andrew Zimmerman was doing his book signing a few mins ago.