we just got back sunday evening. the flower festival officially starts on april 25th I believe. There were signs of some of topiaries and flowers starting to appear around epcot as of late last week. I have never been during the wine festival, so, I really can't compare the two. The flower festival, in my opinion, doesn't really affect your touring any. In fact, if you didn't know it was going on, you really wouldn't notice any difference if that makes any sense? It is really gorgeous with all the flowers and topiares of all the characters and such. The fragrances of all the different flowers is lovely as well.