For those who have done F&W Festival

[kathyg]

We'll be going in October to our first Food and Wine Festival. That means next month I can make my 6 mos dining reservations. But how do you do that if you don't know the F&W Festival events? I'd hate to make a ressie at a restaurant that I didn't want to miss just to later find out it's on the same day and time as a festival event I didn't want to miss. Is there some trick to this?

Thanks.

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

This is one of the biggest complaints from people wanting to do special events at F&W Festival! I will get flamed for this, but maybe you could make your ADRs, then make another set using your husband's/travel partner's cel phone number? As soon as you get your dates for F&W, cancel the ADRs you don't want.

 

[oybolshoi]

In April, at our 180-day mark, we make ADRS for those restaurants we really want for our trip dates during F&W - then when the actual program information is released during the summer we check to see if there are any potential scheduling conflicts. If there are, then we make a decision about which is more important - the ADR or the F&W event.

For what it's worth, I've never had issues making ADRs in August or even September for our October trips - that's not to say that I wait until then to make them all, but I've changed things up quite a bit and have never not ended up with what I wanted.

 

[ElizabethB]

Welcome to a dilemma faced by many who attend the F&W Festival. It's not just ADR's. Plane flights have to be planned. Hotel rooms have to be booked. All in advance of Festival details. And, each year, the release of details and actual booking occur later in the year and closer to the Festival opening. I recall booking used to occur the first week in July. I think it was sometime in August when booking began for the 2007 Festival.

 

[oybolshoi]

Welcome to a dilemma faced by many who attend the F&W Festival. It's not just ADR's. Plane flights have to be planned. Hotel rooms have to be booked. All in advance of Festival details. And, each year, the release of details and actual booking occur later in the year and closer to the Festival opening. I recall booking used to occur the first week in July. I think it was sometime in August when booking began for the 2007 Festival.

I don't even want to get into the rest of it. We just pick our dates at the 11-month DVC booking window for 10 days in October and keep our fingers crossed that something good is scheduled during our visit. My husband doesn't have enough flexibility in his vacation schedule for us to wait until mid-summer to make a decision about when we're visiting WDW. It has to be in October (which bums us both out a bit because we'd love to attend the Brewer's Dinner with Jim Koch and that's always in November).

And you're right - last year the booking for F&W events wasn't until the first week of August and it was very frustrating. There's no easy answer, that's for sure. You just gotta find a way that works for you and live with it.

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't do ADRS during food and wine festival.

And I get around the room/flight planning thing by just booking pretty much every weekend

this year I'll be there the weekends of October 4 and October 18 and from October 31 to November 9.

Booking for 2007 began August 6 and the schedule was released only a week before that.

 

[davinakb]

Another thing to do is look at past years' F&W Festival Guides for events you might be interested in doing. Most of the F&W pairings are kept on the same days (Morocco is Tuesday) and so on. For example we always do a P4TS so we know not to book something for Saturday night. Certainly make a few ADRs but maybe designate an open day or two for a F&W event. FWIW.