F & W Festival if you don't drink?

[PrincessTrisha]

I am going to Disney next October - after going to the Christmas party I really want to see the Halloween party. And I thought it would be a great time because of the food and wine festival as well.

I was looking over last years info on Deb's site and it seems that most of the "special" events (not the booths) are pretty heavy on the alcohol.

Neither my parents nor I drink. Now I don't mean we rarely drink or occasionally drink or will have one on special occasions, we don't drink AT ALL. It doesn't matter if other people are drinking - that doesn't bother us, we just don't.

I have no doubt that we will spend some time wandering around WS sampling some delectable goodies but would it be worth booking any of the special events?

 

[Skroops]

We have enjoyed the FW a couple of times, and have never booked a special event. The dessert one looked good, and the meals prepared by celebrity chefs looked fun too. I am kind of a "cheapo", and I found it too expensive for my taste. Too many other ways I'd rather spend my money. We totally enjoyed the many food booths throughout the WS. If you plan to spend time at WDW during the FW, I think it is worth it to go to Epcot and try all of the taste sensations! IMO, the drinking aspect has been mostly overrated. We have went to FW during the week and have yet to see any blatent over-indulging (except in our waistbands that is! ). We enjoy WS any time of year, but the FW is an added bonus.

 

[ZoZo]

I just went in October with three friends who are very into wine. They attended at least one or two tasting "seminars" each day, and two of them did an all-day class. I do not drink wine at all (and very rarely drink any other kind of alcoholic beverages), so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Here are my thoughts: Since neither you or your folks drink, you should be just fine. Enjoy the food booths (we went to Epcot for at least part of each day for seven days and I had a great time). You might want to attend one of the complimentary seminars about food (they have one per day), if you are interested in food/cooking, but otherwise, if you're not a wine drinker, I wouldn't spend my time at the tastings/seminars.

Luckily I feel comfortable doing things by myself, since everyone else in my group was very focused on the wine events. We spent part of each day together, then I split off to do my own thing while they were in the seminars. But since none of your group is interested in the wine part of things, you should be just fine!! I hope you enjoy it - I really had fun eating my way around the World!

 

[DOOM1001]

You can sample foods from different countries at the many booths throughout the World Showcase, bring some extra $$ since they range from $1.50 to $4.75.They have food seminars you can do, get in line early if you want to make sure you get samples.And every day they have the Eat to the Beat concerts 3 times at the America Gardens stage, we've seen the Commodores, the Beach Boys, Three Dog night, Kansas, Arturo Sandoval etc..

 

[DMRick]

I was disappointed that they had no prices for the special dinners for those of us who do not drink. They were very expensive, and of course that was because it often included wine tasting. We would have liked to have seen more "food" specials and classes, without the wine, and about the food.
Except for the night when people thought the park was closed due ot a hurricane. it was very busy with long lines at most food concessions.

 

[ccw]

I was at this years F&W Festival with 5 girlfriends and we all love wine but the one day we spent at EPCOT, we each only had one glass of wine over the course of about 7 hours..as others have said, the food is really just as much the attraction. None of the special events appealed to us that much because of the cost and the constraints they put on our schedule (i.e. we wanted to be more flexible/spontaneous and not have to sorry too much about being at a certain place at a certain time) Lots of fun and I hope to be there again this year.

 

[Lynn4Mel]

Once in a while I will have a glass of wine. We went down there in October and I went through one wine tasting station. Had 4 samples. About knocked me on my butt from walking around in the heat all day and not too much to eat. Needless to say I got some more food to eat and then was fine. Next time I may try one glass from somewhere that looks interesting. The one thing I really did not care for at the Food and Wine Festival was the behaviors I saw from some of the guests who had a lot to drink.

 

[Lynn4Mel]

Forgot to finish my post.... oops! The food booths were fun and we had a great time! You can easily go and not drink. Would go again.

 

[Merriwind]

If you've never done F&W before and you don't drink, I would think that cruising the WS and getting food samples at the booths would keep you happy and busy. We've done it for two years now. I have only a very occassional glass of wine and am a light eater (I'm very small) so the cost of the special events never really seemed worthwhile to me.

PS - Eat to the Beat is awesome. Kool and the Gang was the best, imo!

Enjoy--F&W is great!

 

[Momof6]

I don't drink and was somewhat concerned about the same thing before going. DH and I went for the first time this past Nov. We spent 4 evenings at Epcot enjoying the food, the entertainment and several classes. I went w/dh to both of the complimentary beer tastings. At both he just drank mine, too, and I kept him company. It was interesting to listen to. I also highly recommend the sessions that they have in the Odyssey. There is a chef (all different people) who come and do a presentation and then you get to sample what they've made. We ate soooo much food there! The chefs were funny and interesting and several of their creations were things I would do at home. I bought a cookbook and had it signed by one.
In all, both dh and I loved our time there. And, I was sick - still had fun! Don't let not drinking stop you from going. There is a lot to enjoy there.


Denise

 

[liamsaunt]

I agree with everyone else, it is worth going to even if you do not drink. We went last year with a few friends, one of whom does not drink, and he had a great time sampling all the different foods and desserts. He did not mind accompanying us to one of the beer tastings, which was great--we got to drink his sample!

They even sell a cookbook with all of the recipes from the booths--it makes a great souvenir.

 

[ImprovGal]

The festival itself is definitely worth it even if you don't drink. I saw some posts that said there was only one free food lecture a day, and I'm not sure where they got that figure. I've got the 2005 booklet here in front of me and the free cooking demos & authentic taste lectures were all held at the Odyssey Pavillion and there were 4 (5 if no ticketed events were to be held) every day.

When walking around Epcot, the booths have a variety of food offerings, as well as some specialty non-alcoholic beverage options (this year, the Mexico booth had fresh conga fruit juice available, China had a peach oolong iced tea, Puerto Rico had a coconut soda; there may have been others).

As for the ticketed events, some may be worth it to you, some may not. I think Party For The Senses is definitely worth it -- there are so many chef stations that you'd have a full evening just running around from station to station trying everything, not to mention watching the Cirque du Soleil acts present! I know they had bottled water (Vittel, IIRC) available and I always snag a bottle for my table since I don't drink much wine and can really guzzle the water. There is also coffee and tea available, but I don't remember soft drinks.

There is no discount for any of the events if you decline the wine, but you may feel some events are still worth the cost -- perhaps the Lunch & Learn (spectator class in preparing a 3 course lunch presented by a guest chef), Odyssey Cooking School (actually, I got shut out of my date this year.. I don't know if they even had wine there -- it was a hands-on cooking class presented by a WDW or guest chef), perhaps the Sweet Sundays.

Enjoy!

 

[mjh8955]

We do not drink at all either, and have been during the F & W Festival twice. We did not participate in any of the ticketed events, but really enjoyed wandering around all the booths and looking and sampling the awesome choices of foods. I will comment though, that this is the only time we saw someone drunk and almost passed out at The Happiest Place On Earth. I think this guy must have sampled a few too many wines. He was with friends at the tables near the Norweigan bakery in World Showcase, with his head down on the table and had already thrown up nearby. Our DD10 and DS13 were fascinated with the whole thing, having never actually seen someone drunk in person before. My husband and I were wondering how on earth the other people were going to navigate him out of the park, it was a long way to any transportation home and he clearly could not walk, let alone stand. All of the others in his group seemed to be stone cold sober, not sure how this guy got so far off track.