Food and Wine - still get sitdowns?

[kevallen]

My wife and I are heading off in October to the Food and Wine Festival and starting in the next week I can get our ADR. Here's my question. We certainly will get some ADRs for some of our favorite places, but for those of you who have done the F & W in the past, do you find yourself stopping at all the booths and "sampling" so much that dinner is covered by "grazing"? Just wondering...

 

[Niki in NJ]

We stopped at so many booths and were stuffed; however, I would still make sit-downs for dinner. Plus, you probably won't be eating in Epcot everyday, and if you were doing F&W grazing everyday of your vacation, then you would probably be eating less at a time and still be hungry at dinner time.

 

[BillSears]

I grazed all day instead of real meals. It was fantastic.

 

[TDC Nala]

I would eat at some sitdowns but I would not reserve them. (I don't know if I would recommend that for anyone who knows which TS they want on which days, or who are on a dining plan with TS credits)

 

[disneygirlmass]

i would still make a dinner reservation, even though you definitley will munch off a few stands during the festival

 

[cruisingkat]

How many days will you do Food & Wine? Are you adventurous and try new things?
If you are only going to spend a day or two at F&W and are going to sample everything - then you might not want to get dinner reservations for those days. Hubby and I split the world into 3 parts and do one third each day. We stop at all the booths and get one of each item offered. We do split each item so we only get a taste of each. The booths serve a minimum of two different items with a lot serving 3 different items and with 27 booths last year - that is quite a lot of food even though each is a small tasting portion. Even sharing each item between us - we ate enough to not want dinner - if we did get a little hungry late at night, we woud grab something small at counter service.
Here is a link to last years list of booths and offerings: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guides/epcot/events/foodandwine-map.htm
The only thing we did get advanced reservations for was the 3D dessert party which was new last year. Great desserts, cordials, and VIP viewing spot for Illuminations. It was only offered one night each week (Friday or Thurs.) We are hoping that they offer it this year.

 

[TDC Nala]

I will not be going back to the 3D dessert party. Best thing they had was the cream rum samples and the flambee'd donuts. Seriously, donuts.

I'm going to do a Party for the Senses though.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We are going for four nights during F&WF. We plan to do two afternoons dedicated to sampling at the booths. I still made a dinner ADR for each night. I found last time that by the end of the day going around the festival, I was ready to sit down for a meal. And with just four nights to play with, I wanted to get in ADRs too. If it was a longer trip I probably wouldn't book a dinner for each night.

 

[sue_gowin]

We've been to the F&W fest for the past 4 years. We usually graze during the day (have a piece of fruit for breakfast and don't have an official lunch) and then have an ADR for dinner. We love the Epcot restaurants too much to not have a TS!!!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

We still do sit-down dinners on our Epcot days. We usually rise late, skip breakfast and start snacking at the festival booths when they open. We stop snacking in the early afternoon and schedule a late dinner around 8:30 or so. Certainly you could do festival booths for dinner, but we like to have a nice table-service meal together at dinnertime.

 

[Tess]

We book dinner ADRs for the busiest of nights at F&W, i.e., Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Last year we didn't book many TS meals--just several favorites on the weekends. This year we added a few ADRs simply because our traveling companions requested them.

We will still have plenty of dedicated time to graze and several days with no plans for dining. We managed to sample from all of the booths and many of them more than once.

Last year we found by around 9:30 p.m., we were hungry. It worked out fine since we were at BC and found we really enjoyed the freshly made Caesar Salad and a flatbread for our shared bedtime snack. There's always food to be found at Disney, ADRs or not.

 

[madalex]

I've done the F&WF the last three years. Each trip has been 4 or 5 days long. Like others, I do lunch at the festival by sampling food from 3 or 4 booths and then do a sit down dinner at night. Unless you are a really adventurous eater, not everything at the festival will appeal to you, so that trying 15 - 20 things from the various booths (which is what you would eat over 4 - 5 days of lunches) is more than enough for me. If I tried to do lunch and dinner each dinner only from the festival, I would be eating the things I like 2 (or even 3) times, which would be a bit repetitive.