Food and Wine Festival

[Love That Stitch]

We are going to be in Disney for FWF. We have never done it before and are really looking forward to it. I have some questions for the FWF experts out there.

Walking around the WS does every country have something available or is all different countries not just WS?

How expensive are the snacks and wine? I need to budget? Can you use a snack off your DDP?

Can you make a meal out of it? We love Le Cellier and don't want to miss out on it. Which should we do? I don't think we could do both.

Can someone give me an overall picture of how it works?

We may have children with us... how do I ask this?.... Those that are partaking of alcohol do they behave themselves or are there issues? I envision there to be some very inebriated people and I wonder if anyone has had some issues with that. I am sure people bring their children to the FWF so I can't imagine it would be that bad.

I am a Disney Veteran and have never done this and am very much looking forward to a new experience at Disney.
Thanks for your help.

 

[ElizabethB]

We love the F&W Festival and have attended many times. So, I'll try to answer your questions:

There are booths from lots of countries, each offering foods from the country and wine (sometimes from the country, sometimes not). The prices are usually $3-5 for a food sample, same for a wine sample. It gets very pricey walking around WS and sampling. DH and I usually budget $60 or so for a sampling-style lunch. We usually do lunch by walking around WS tasting various foods and wines. We plan regular sit-down dinners at 2 TS restaurants or at the wine dinners offered during the Festival. At least last year, a snack credit could be used for one food sample.

If you want to avoid drunks, don't go to the Festival on Friday or Saturday nights.

 

[Love That Stitch]

thanks for the reply Elizabeth. What time in the morning does the festival bring? Lunch sounds like a better idea.

You put it so elegantly.... but I agree Friday and Saturday are probably the best times to avoid.

 

[Leota]

The sampling booths open at 11am with the rest of WS. There are some ticketed events & demos in FW that may start earlier. You will get a schedule for those.
We do lunch daily at the Fest & also one dinner on Friday and PftS on Sta night. Fri - Sun are crazy.
I've seen "happy" people, but only one really obnoxious person & he was a 20 something guy who was most likely obnoxious with or without alcohol.

 

[ElizabethB]

Love That Stitch -- You're right -- that bit about the drunks was truly elegant, eh?! Truthfully, however, we tried to do the booths once on a Friday night and gave up -- far too many "happy", "really happy" and "way too happy" people lined up for beer. By contrast, a weekday at lunch "tour" is lovely.

As for your question about when the Festival opens, the booths are open at 11:00 a.m. when World Showcase opens. That's usually about when we start our lunch "tour". It's great fun!

 

[DaniandRyan]

wdwinfo.com has pictures of last year's menus here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/Photos/FW-menus-06/index.htm

 

[garnet1240]

I never thought about this until last year..I have a different experience here.. I took my 2 DD ages, 15 & 19 and my DN age 15. They attracted alot of unwanted attention the later it got in the evening.. I even had to get in "in front" of some guy to get his attention that these girls where kids..back off. So we'll adjust our times we go..there's all kinds ...but still wouldn't miss it, our favorite time to go to the World!

 

[gatour]

We have also gone many times. The key word is to pace your self. They provide a guide of what countries have stands. All of the permanent countries have a stand and then there are 10-15 other countries stands along with a Florida stand.

Deb's website currently list last year stands along with what they offered. The particular countries don't change much from year to year and what each offers don't change much from year, so you can use her site as a guide if you are planning on attending the first weekend or two. She is usually pretty quick in getting the current offerings listed once the festival starts.

There are usually severals stands relatively close to each other, so what I do is to check out all of the offerings in the general area and pick out an item or two. I usually let my wife pick first as she is slightly pickier than me ( I will try anything at least once) Once she decides what she wants then, I then select something different from either the same stand or one close by. We then share whatever each of us chose.

We usually make this a very extend lunch and I can't imagine having dinner that night.

If you have interest in the extra cost dinners that requires reservations, you pretty much have to make it the week they open the phone lines for reservations.

 

[Phedre]

Food and wine fest time is definitely the best time of the year if you ask me

Walking around WS, you will find that all the usual countries there have offerings at the food booths, plus they have been setting up other countries such as Ireland, Australia, Spain, ect. I believe almost all of the food can be done as a snack on the dining plan.

Here's how it usually goes with my family. As soon as we enter Epcot, we grab the list of complimentary seminars offered for the time we are there. Several are repeated so we can pick the ones that are the most important to us and the times we like best These you will probably need to line up for early. If it’s on a weekend, I'd say about an hour early. Weekday, maybe just 30 mins. Sometimes you are waiting in the direct sunlight. Be prepared, it can be warm

Then what my family usually does is start hungry at one end of WS. We go up and buy an assortment of food from the first booth, whatever looks good. Then we group together and share with everyone. Then move to second booth on the path and repeat til full. Then it's time to take a short break until hungry again

Also, Debs site will post the events that you have to pay extra for as soon as they are announced. We go through the list and decide what we are interested then. Then, exactly 90 days out, at 5:58 am (my time) I start calling 407-WDW-FEST (redial, redial, redial) and I book our choices! I would recommend Party for the Senses but it seems like it's getting more crowded and I don't want them to jack up the prices again if so many more people are interested, so I'm not going to recommend it.

I really haven't noticed anyone overdrinking so that it caused a problem.

I'm sure you can find room for a meal at Le Cellier in there. What I would do is start practicing stretching out your stomach about 2 weeks ahead of time. This way when you go you'll be able to fit in all the food you desire It's a good plan. It works, I promise I hope you have a FANTASTIC time

 

[Love That Stitch]

great suggestions! you guys are great!