I've been for the last two years and will be there the first week it opens this year as well. I go specifically for the event so every single one of my afternoon/evenings are spent in Epcot. I go solo and try to get something from every booth, I accomplished that last year but had to cheat at a few and just get a drink. It took my 4 days/nights to make my way around all the booths. I don't do many table service meals while I'm there, most of my meals except breakfast are eaten at the booths, I might have done a QS somewhere last year, I really don't remember and I did do the afternoon tea at GF and had dinner at HBD one night. Only because those are two must do's for me any time I go and at HBD I got a cheese plate and an appetizer portion of the Cobb Salad so even that wasn't a full meal. The have special food and wine pairing meals at different restaurants in the some of the countries throughout the festival, they can range from around $70 to around $100 per person, according to the time of day and the location. I had an excellent sort of late lunch one at Spice Roads last year, I think it was a 4 course meal with a different wine paired with each course. They also have meals at some of the resorts and Disney Springs with celeb. chefs. They have little seminars (dubbed deminars here on the boards) at the festival center just about every day (may be every day) usually at least two each of cooking demos given by on site chefs with samples of what the chef prepared paired with either a red or white festival wine and then at least two wine tasting seminars, you usually taste about 3 wines. I think these were about $15 each last year, I got an AP discount for the ones during the week so I don't really remember. I booked all but one of the ones I went to in advance but none were totally fully and could easily have been booked that morning. The menus are posted at the venue a couple of hours before the deminar. Otherwise all you know is who the chef is and what the protein is, i.e. beef, chicken, lobster, etc. You don't know what the dish is unless you happen to be at the center when the board goes up. I've always been able to find seating at the concerts without doing any of the dinner packages, all those do is get you seating up front, since it is an open air theater you can even stand at the back and watch. I do buy the wrist band type gift cards, just makes it easier to me to hold up my wrist and let them scan the card and it makes it easier to budget. I don't charge to my MB, I've found that hit and miss just about every time I'm at WDW, sometimes the readers work, sometimes not. I don't really ever have a plan, I just start at the closes booth from where I happen to be, buy what I'm interested in and walk around noshing on it, then when I'm finished, I go to the next booth I land at. Keep in mind, this meant I walked around the entire WS at least 3 times each day, but hey, it was good exercise and burned off some of the wine. I was there on a Friday night, the first weekend it opened last year and did not find it too crowded, I left around 8:30 on Friday night because I was full and tired. I left for home on Saturday but was finishing up my eat at every booth quest that afternoon before I left and was there until at least 2 and again, didn't find it too crowded to bear. Could have gotten worse as the night progressed but I had to drive home.
