Food and Wine Festival Question

Pooh's-Honey-Pot

DVC owner since 2020 - VGF, BLT and SSR
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May 31, 2007
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Hello!

This October will be our first F&WF - can't wait!!! :banana:Does it just happen at weekends, or will there be food stands out whatever day of the week we decide to go in this period?

Thanks!:goodvibes
 
They are open at 11:00AM every day.:goodvibes
 
I love the F&W Festival! Yes, the stands are open each and every day. The weekends attract lots of locals and can very very crowded ... but fun!

If you are on the dining plan, note that you can use your snack credits for food at the booths (at least the last two years you could).

Every night they will have entertainment at the America stage. There are also little seminars and cooking/wine demos that you can attend each day. Last year there was a charge for them and you could purchase tickets in advance on-line a month or so prior to the festival.

Lots of fun!
 

Yes as mentioned open every day and best on the weekdays after the first week. We have been there opening week and was very crowded, but last year we went the last week in October and it was perfect weather and all.
 
If you don't want to wait in line for food/wine/beer, then YES avoid the weekends. But if you have to go on the weekend, you'll still have fun.

Usually there is a website set up specially for the F&W festival with info on entertainment and the seminars but it seems like that wasn't really complete until a month or so prior to the event.

Another nice thing you will notice is that you can purchase wristband gift card in the shops. Basically, you "load" some $$ on the card and then just use the card to pay for your wine, food, etc. In this way, you don't have to get your money out all the time. It does, however, make the spending less painful and thus (at least for me) makes me spend more!! LOL!!
 
Weekends are great for couples iMHO. Lots of fun and the crowds are all having fun at the concerts etc. We prefer weekdays with children because it is less busy and less 'merry' people.

The booths are great, with three foods and one drink per country. The foods are all available as a ddp snack credit.
 
Don't do weekends if you can help it, unless you want to risk waiting in huge lines for pretty much everything (huge crowds descended on the festival on October 17 and October 24, 2009, both Saturdays - these dates apparently had better weather, which brought out more local visitors; if the weather isn't good, it might be a bit better, but weekends are always more crowded than weekdays).
 
As others have mentioned the festival goes on every day. It starts at 11 and ends when Illuminations starts (9 pm) - so buy any of the foods you want to snack on before seeing Illuminations.

In terms of the food booths, the same items were offered on weekends and weekdays. Some of the special events were only on select days (typically weekends) and the demonstration offers were sometimes better on weekends (i.e., more famous chefs tended to be around on the weekends).
 
Another nice thing you will notice is that you can purchase wristband gift card in the shops. Basically, you "load" some $$ on the card and then just use the card to pay for your wine, food, etc. In this way, you don't have to get your money out all the time. It does, however, make the spending less painful and thus (at least for me) makes me spend more!! LOL!!

Love, love, love the wristbands! :thumbsup2
 
Just so you have an idea about the food and booths, here are the pictures I took from the 2009 Food and Wine Festival.

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The Rock Shrimp Ceviche
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This is the Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki sauce it was very tasty.
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This is the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup and the Spicy Chicken Sausage with the Sweet Corn Polenta
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Here we had the Seared Sea Scallop with Vegetable Slaw and Lemon Oil (This was my favorite of the entire F&WF) and the Lamb Slider with Tomato Chutney
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Here we had the Lobster and Scallop Fisherman's Pie and the Kerrygold Cheese Selection
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Here we had the Warm Pretzel Bread Stick with Warm Cheese Dip and the Landjaeger
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This is bread pudding from New Orleans
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This is the end of Day 1 Will post more later :)
 
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This is the Beef Empanada with Tomato Salsa (We were not crazy about) and the Grilled Beef Skewer (This was really nice, the Chimichurri sauce was the best part!)
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Here we got the Tostada de Pollo and Quesadilla con Chorizo
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Next was Barcelona, Spain
We got the Taste of Spain (Serrano ham, Chorizo, Manshego, Olives, and Tomato Bread) and the Red Snapper
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Here we got the Kielbasa and Potato Pierogie
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Here we got the Pork Pot Stickers (these were ok) and the Rice Pancake with Shrimp (this had to have been the worse thing I have ever had... It was cardboard):sick:
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Here we had the Mealie Soup with Crabmeat and Chili Oil and the Seared Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Puree and Mango BBQ Sauce

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Here we had the seared Barramundi with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes Arugula and Lemon Oil and the Grilled Lamb Chop with Red Wine Sauce and Sea Salt
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Here we had the Nuernberger sausage in a Pretzel Roll
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This is Jambalaya from new Orleans
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This is the Lobster Roll
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This is the Sushi
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Those photos bring back some great memories. I was there for the 2009 FWF and had many of the dishes pictured. Yummy! I am going back for the 2010 FWF. I can't wait!
 
I wanted to suggest avoiding the first weekend (1st-3rd) if you don't want large crowds. Not only is the first weekend very busy because of the locals but this year is the inaugural Wine & Dine half marathon on Saturday night. It is a new event and no one really knows how it will effect the crowds but I think it will make Epcot pretty busy.

Many of us are making this a short weekend trip sine the marathon weekend in January most of us running fools long trips. They are also offering runners discount single park tickets and many of us will be using either those or our GAD-GAD vouchers to go to one park, and that one park will be Epcot for a large number of us.

Now, if you would like to do the half marathon, the 5K, or be part of a two person relay go to the registration page and then come on over and introduce yourself on the Inaugural Wine & Dine thread on the WISH boards.
 
Excellent thread! Thanks for the pictures. It may help me decide on a few things ahead of time since they don't change a whole lot each year. We went two years but we both had colds and weren't very hungry.

I'm going to F&W on the day it opens which is a Friday. My questions are will the booths be ready to go that first day or will they still be in training? Will it super busy during the day and even busier at night when the locals get off work? And my last question, are the menu's posted on any sites before F&W starts?

TIA
 
We love the F & W Festival, so much so that we bought BCV DVC so that we could stay near Epcot in October :rotfl2:
I agree with Nala, we were there October 17th last year and it was MOBBED. We had friends join us just for that night and it was a huge disappointment. It was so crowded we did not enjoy ourselves. The weather had not been great all week leading up to that Saturday and I think it brought the locals out in droves. I would definitely go on weekdays versus weekends if you have the chance.
 
I have never in all my years of visiting Disney seen crowds at Epcot like there were on October 17th of this past year ... unbelievably crowded. On the plus side, it seemed to be a very happy, well mannered crowd but it was still craaaaaazy.

We prefer to do most of our booth snacking during the week.
 





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