Food & Wine Festival-Do You Still Make Regular ADR's?

[MermaidsMom]

Do you eat enough at the festival to make a regular meal such as lunch or dinner? Do you still make dining plans or are you just too stuffed? If stuffed enough for a meal, which meal would you plan to skip?

 

[OKW Lover]

Funny you should ask this. We normally don't bother with actual sit-down meals during F&W, but for the last couple of years we've found that we actually get tired for just snacking and want a nice sit-down meal just for a change of pace. You may want to make reservations for one night of your stay.

 

[DVC Grammy]

Over the years of going to F & W, we've discovered that the best plan for us is to have a TS breakfast (rarely requiring ADRs) and then "graze and sip" through the rest of the day.

The seminars don't usually start until 11:30-12, so it gives us a relaxing start to the day and fills us up enough so that the small "noshes" are all that we need. Also, we've noticed that the beverage seminars that interest us the most seem to be held around dinnertime (5:30-7-ish).

It's just DH and me, and doing it this way makes for a very relaxing WDW vacation. (F & W is one of our WDW trips that we don't invite guests along; my DH is so into F & W that he's always in some seminar, so nobody would get to see him anyway! )

 

[suzimar57]

yes, we're making ADRs during the food & wine festival

(dinner at coral reef one night, narcoosees the other night)

we'll "graze" the food booths during the early afternoon (in place of lunch) both days we have dinner ADRs

 

[Leota]

The way we do F&W is to have a TS breakfast (For DH, he loves a big breakfast) then we graze F&W for lunch & have a Late TS dinner. We usually do signature dinners for F&W Fest keeping with the Foodie theme, lol.

I hope to do more seminars this year. I really feel like I'm missing out on those, but we usually take a long afternoon-early evening break before dinner.

Our Park speed during F&W is about 2 mph. All we seem to do is eat & lounge. It's actually very nice. I think last year, the whole week we were ther, we did maybe 5 attractions.

 

[ZoZo]

Funny you should ask this. We normally don't bother with actual sit-down meals during F&W, but for the last couple of years we've found that we actually get tired for just snacking and want a nice sit-down meal just for a change of pace. You may want to make reservations for one night of your stay.

This is our strategy as well. I'd recommend making two or three ADRs (you can always cancel them if you decide not to use them). It's nice to sit down and be waited on for a change!

Even though it's a "slow" time of year, we had trouble getting a Le Cellier dinner ADR while on site (we didnt' pre-plan). Ended up with an 8:45 ADR, but by the time we got our food (after popping outside to see Illuminations), we didn't actually eat until 9:45 or so. Waaaay too late to eat dinner for me.

My philosophy is: plan ahead, make ADRs, then know you have the flexibility to make changes if needed. You may be very glad you have a few ADRs.

 

[Rpsemont]

We never eat anywhere but F&W during F&W (No ADR's)
We're not breakfast eaters. We try to sample everything in the food booths. Last year, it took a full four days to do that. (of course, we keep going back for our Favorites, too)
If you enjoy culinary experiences and wine, and want to sit down for a meal occasionally, do a pairing. We did two last year. They are usually held around 2:30 or 3PM. On those days, we would only try a few things right around the noon hour. Then go to the pairing. We'd be full until around 8PM, and we'd just have a couple things before the end of the night.
If you plan on visiting other parks, you might want to plan ADR's for then.

 

[TDC Nala]

Definitely not. But I do the ticketed F&W events.

Especially in recent years, the food at those is a LOT better than anything they are serving on the regular restaurant menus.

 

[Hopefully]

We do a combination. This will be our 3rd F & W fest where we are on the DDP. We have ADR's in WS on some evenings and on others we just "Nosh" aroung the world, with no ADR at all. We take the "extra" TS credit and use it to do a Signature Restaurnat durning the week. We haven't done the ticketed events, but that surely would change our pattern.
We love the F & W.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Dh and I share the items at the F&W (lunchtime) so we always make ADR for dinner

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We plan 5 or 6 ADR meals during our F&W festival trip. We always plan ADR's on the weekend because Epcot is so packed that we don't want anything to do with it then. We spend part of every day during the week in Epcot.