Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

[WEDWDW]

Yesterday was the very first day of my very first trip to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.

I had no idea.

Oh my.

 

[Disneylover99]

Yesterday was our first time too.
We left Epcot at about 5:30pm.
We never even tried any food or drinks from any of the booths. We couldn't even find the end of the line to most of the booths.
Oh well, at least I can say I went.

 

[AmyB2006]

Weekends at F&W are crowded, yes. But you didn't try anything??? Try to go during the day on a weekday. Much less crowded.

 

[yulilin3]

We were there yesterday as well, not our first time so we knew to expect large crowds. Arrived at Epcot around 12:30pm and even though it was crowded and the lines were long we found all of them moved very quickly.
We ate food from Hawaii, Argentina, South Korea, Ireland and the Refreshment Post.
The only problem we encountered was at the Ireland booth, after making the line (maybe about 10 minutes) we were told that the system was having problems with the gift card and if we didn't have another form of payment.
I told them no, and that someone should be at the end of the line telling people about the issue, he understood and gave us the fisherman's pie for free.

 

[The Hendies]

We enjoy the F&W Fest, but the lines can get crazy long! In fact, many times the length of the line dictates whether we get to sample or not! But I have never had anything I din't like, and I have never waited more than 5 minutes in a line. We use F&W as our 'meal' at least twice each time we are there. It was much easier last time we were there when we had the little wristband debit card! Are they doing that still?

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

Oh yes, F&WF can be VERY crowded on the weekends. This photo was taken on a Sunday afternoon last October.

 

[Disneylover99]

Weekends at F&W are crowded, yes. But you didn't try anything??? Try to go during the day on a weekday. Much less crowded.

We just flew down for the weekend with the kids for MNSSHP, so a weekday at Epcot is not an option.

The kids just wanted a hotdog from the Outpost and my husband was just happy to have a meal at Kringla.

 

[DOOM1001]

I hear this weekend is pretty crowded,I was there last weekend and didn't find it too bad at all,Saturday was the busiest but I've seen much worse,like one weekend Boyz II Men were in concert,I usually get decent seats for the concerts but that weekend was like nothing I had ever seen before,the best seats I could get were towards the back of the theater.The holiday weekend is probably already adding to the crowds.

 

[AmyB2006]

We just flew down for the weekend with the kids for MNSSHP, so a weekday at Epcot is not an option.

The kids just wanted a hotdog from the Outpost and my husband was just happy to have a meal at Kringla.

Yeah. I know it's hard to weekdays. We used to do that, but now that my DD is in 1st grade, I don't like taking her out of school so much. We're going, as it is, Sat/Sun/Mon/Tue, so hopefully I can hit it on that Monday. But most probably on Sunday.

 

[disnut8]

Yes, weekends at the Festival are crazy. If that's the only time you can go, you will have to put up with the lines and some craziness. Someone asked about the wristband gift cards and Disney still does do that.

One thing about Disney that I've noticed particularly with the Festival is that if there is a repeat problem (like long lines), there will be attempts at getting a solution. Years ago, no wristbands and there was only the "normal" way of ordering which was go up to the booth, order your food and/or drink, pay and wait for the stuff to get to you. You'd move on, the next person did the same. Now it's order food at one place, walk to the window to get your food and then leave. It's not perfect but it's better than before.

I'm lucky with no school age kids so my plan of "attack" is to arrive on a Sunday and leave Friday morning.