Food & Wine Festival -- Dining

[ancestry]

DH and I are taking an adult trip in October primarily for the purpose of attending the Food & Wine Festival. If possible we would also like to take the Keys to the Kingdom Tour at Magic Kingdom on one of the days that we are there. We normally can't take this tour because we have kids who aren't old enough.

Anyways...for those of you to have been to the Food & Wine Festival do you use the food items as a full meal replacement or do you do a sit down dinner on top of the food sampling?

I guess I am trying to decide if I need to make any ADRs or if the Food and Wine items will be enough to satisfy us for both lunch and dinner for the two full days that we will be there. Also if we do the Keys to the Kingdom Tour we get lunch on that day as part of the tour.

Any experience with only eating at the Food and Wine festival and NOT doing any sit down restaurants?

 

[madalex]

I've been to the FWF the last two years. The way I do it is to graze around World Showcase for lunch and drinks, but still do a sit down dinner at night. However, there is certainly enough food and variety that you could do both lunch and dinner there every day for a few days.

 

[gallagher35]

The last two years we've sampled our way around the world for dinner. Last year I had a list of things to try and stopped ordering 3/4 of the way around b/c I couldn't eat another things

 

[TDC Nala]

It's definitely possible to do, but it may be more expensive than eating in a table service restaurant, and definitely more expensive than a counter service.

 

[smcabee]

DW and I have 1 or 2 table service dinners that week. We eat breakfast and lunch in the room or at a counter service and the rest of the time we slosh and gnosh around the world.

 

[ElizabethB]

We graze the F&W booths for lunch, then do a sit-down dinner, usually later around 8:30 pm or so.

 

[carps09]

Yes, you will have lunch as part of the KTTK tour, most likely at Columbia Harbour House. We enjoyed snacking around the world for lunch, but were definitely hungry for dinner. I guess it's possible to eat enough samples to satisfy for all your meals, but I think you'd spend less money just ordering a regular meal at a restaurant.

 

[MarilIncredible]

I tried a few things, but I thought a lot of the F&W items were kind of ordinary and not really worth the prices. We did one sit-down meal at Epcot during F&W, and sampled a few small plates for lunch.

 

[hotspot14]

The food is yummy!

 

[BillSears]

I've never been to the F&W festival but I'm going this year for the first time.

While at EPCOT I plan on just eating at the booths. Sure it might be more expensive then eating sit down or counter service but I'm there for the F&W and I want to sample as much of it as I can.

 

[Hopefully]

We've done just CS for lunch and used snacking at the F & W festival for our dinner. It was great and certainly plenty of food.
We do the DDP (it works for us ) and use the TS from our noshing day for an added credit so we do one 2 TS meal another night. We have also been able to use snack credits for the booths, making it more economically feasible. It can get expensive.
When we did the Keys tour we ate lunch at Columbia Harbour House. It was great fun, I think you will love it.

 

[pixiesnake]

Just adding my two cents.

If I was only going to be there for two days I would definitely not plan any ADRs and just use the F&W festival booths as a meal replacement. There are always so many things I want to try that I'm full after just a few booths. Its a different story if you are there for a week. We usually go for a full week, and eat lunch most days from the F&W booths then have a sit down dinner.

Have a great time!

 

[lpizzuro123]

We always just walk around getting food from the booths. My DH and I share most things because 1/2 way around you will definately start to get full. We also love to sit and listen to all the concerts going on so we do not plan any sit down meals while at the F&W Festival.

Linda

 

[JERSEYDISFAN]

You really have a choice. We have spent the day in EPCOT dining our way around the WS and skipping dinner. On other days, we start early in EPCOT and quit eating in the mid to late afternoon. Then, later in the evening, we have an ADR reservation. However, we usually just eat off the appetiser menu as we are still digesting the afternoon's delights. And no, the restaurants do not frown on you only ordering appetisers. They see it all the time.

 

[milonadams]

We'll be right up the road! Arriving Oct 11th! We can't wait either, our 1st Food & Wine Fest!

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

There are just too many unique things to taste to waste time with ADRs! If you're going specifically for F & W, then I wouldn't bother with ADRs, and just enjoy the booths.

 

[LisaInNc]

This will be my 3rd F&W the days that I have planned for the booths I don't have an ADR scheduled for that night. I plan on using counter service if we need it but a full meal after all that grazing would be too much for us.

What I am doing one of the days is scheduling an early lunch, we always go back to the resort for a nap and then doing the booths for dinner in the evening.

Lisa

 

[Sweet Melissa]

We graze the F&W booths for lunch, then do a sit-down dinner, usually later around 8:30 pm or so.

That's my plan for our next trip too. We figured that we'd rise late, utilize the festival kiosks for "brunch", then have late dinners.