Food and Wine Festival

[twh2006]

Tell me what to expect! We are getting the ddp and only plan to sample at the festival. How will that work? Money-wise. I have heard of a gift card? Also in general just tell me what to expect. We're so excited it's our anniversary and we're staying at the Contemporary Bay Lake Tower and our first trip to the Food and Wine festival.

 

[Iceman10]

The festival is a blast. In fact i am quite bummed cause this will be the first time in like 7 years I will miss it. I've never used it, but I believe they have a sort of "drink card". Basically you have food & drink stations all over the park so you can sample all sorts of goodies! Personally I would save the DDP for that day and sample all the good stuff around the park. Use that credit for a better meal at a different time.
Here is a great source of info on the goings on!
http://allears.net/tp/ep/foodwine.htm


Have fun! I'm jealous.

 

[figment_jii]

The F&W Festival at Epcot is a lot of fun. There are several different level of events, which vary in cost. Around World Showcase they set up food booths that sell tasting of various ethnic foods. Each booth is themed to a specific country/place. I think the tastings have ranged from about $3 to $6 in the past. Each booth also has a drink (usually alcoholic) for sale. It's pretty easy to spend a lot of money at the F&W because it goes in little increments (e.g., $10 here and $10 there), but adds up quickly!

Last year, we were able to use the snack credits from the DDP to purchase tastings.

They also had a gift card (which work like any other gift card from Disney), but it came with a stretch wrist strap and a F&W logo design. We loaded those and used them to pay for items as we wandered around (easier than pulling out the wallet each time). These gift cards can be used at any sale point (so you can use them outside of the F&W) - we actually finished ours off at Disneyland the next year.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

We had two dinners at F&W by using our snack credits only for f&W on DDP last year.

Basically throughout the world showcase are a number of stalls with three foods in general per country and a few alcoholic drinks. also a nice ice-cream stall. We wander and found three or four snack credits was enough for us as a meal but we had dinner there following a 'proper' lunch.

Husband loves seafood and found plenty of choice. Also rates the beers on offer at the German and Canadian stall. DD didn't touch anything except ice-cream she had some type of counter service meal. DS loved the cheddar cheese soup from the Canada but hated the maple candy. I loved the lamb from Australia. The pomegranate kir from France was excellent too.

Beware the huge (fairly drunk) crowds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings - we prefer mid-week but then we have got children in tow.

 

[Hopefully]

The Food & Wine festival is great fun and we have been going for years. There are 2 general ways to consider it.
There are about 27 International Booths set up around World Showcase lagoon. They are included with Epcot admission. They each offer about 3 "native" dishes" in Tapa size tasting portions. At least one is usually a dessert. There is also a local wine or beer at the booths. The food tastings cost about $4 - $7 each, and for the last several years you can use DDP snack credits for the food samples.
We have been on the DDP on our last several F&W trips. Generally we "Nosh Around the World" one evening and save that 1 TS dining credit to combine into a 2 TS restaurant a different night of the week. This has worked great for us.
There are many "extra" cost events during the F & W festival. There are Sweet Sundays, Party for the Senses, Signature dining adventures, wine seminars, book signings etc, etc, etc. Some are very reasonable and some are very expensive ($ 9 for a wine seminar,m $450/person for Victortia and Alpert dinner experience). Many of these sell out in advance.
We love the "included" noshing around WS and have a great time.
Enjoy

 

[oybolshoi]

There is a sticky thread at the top of this forum devoted to F&W discussion - it's got more than 100 pages of information and links that you can check out. There are a number of people posting there who have many years of information about the festival to share - all you gotta do is ask.

 

[honeydiane1953]

It works like this u spend a lot of money, eat a lot of great food and usually dodge a lot of people all the live long day.

 

[Jetta8300]

The Food & Wine festival is great fun and we have been going for years. There are 2 general ways to consider it.
There are about 27 International Booths set up around World Showcase lagoon. They are included with Epcot admission. They each offer about 3 "native" dishes" in Tapa size tasting portions. At least one is usually a dessert. There is also a local wine or beer at the booths. The food tastings cost about $4 - $7 each, and for the last several years you can use DDP snack credits for the food samples.
We have been on the DDP on our last several F&W trips. Generally we "Nosh Around the World" one evening and save that 1 TS dining credit to combine into a 2 TS restaurant a different night of the week. This has worked great for us.
There are many "extra" cost events during the F & W festival. There are Sweet Sundays, Party for the Senses, Signature dining adventures, wine seminars, book signings etc, etc, etc. Some are very reasonable and some are very expensive ($ 9 for a wine seminar,m $450/person for Victortia and Alpert dinner experience). Many of these sell out in advance.
We love the "included" noshing around WS and have a great time.
Enjoy

This is what we are doing, paying OOP one night for the F&W Festival, then we will get to do a signature dinner another night!!! Sounds like a plan!