Going to Epcot Food & Wine ... Should I get a "regular" dining reservation too?

[mstravelista]

We're planning on going to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival in October (we'll also visit MK and HS too during our trip).

I understand that the Food and Wine festival serves "snack" size portions of the foods so that you can try many different foods without getting too full from a single portion.

For those of you who have been to the Food and Wine Festival, did you think it was necessary (or even just nice) to have a separate, table service meal during your visit? Or did you just eat all the Food and Wine festival snacks throughout the day? If you recommend a table service meal, which meal do you recommend (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, etc?)

I'm just trying to figure out if we'd even need a table service meal so that I can narrow down some Epcot restaurants.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

No, I have never felt the need for a table service meal during Food and Wine. I am generally full from the tastings. That said if you are there on Saturday or Friday evening, book dinner. The lines will be so long you won't get much food.

 

[powellrj]

I think it depends on when you plan to eat the the Food and Wine. We ate a small breakfast at a CS and started the Food and Wine at 11am. We ate off and on all afternoon until the concert and left after the first concert because I was in a ECV and it was raining. We had a counter service late dinner. Because it rained again the next night, we did the same thing.

This year I am planning on a late TS dinner, but we won't eat anything after the first show.

 

[JimmyV]

I enjoy snacking around Epcot as a proxy for a more structured lunch. But for dinner, I still enjoy a nice TS meal. It's purely a personal choice.

 

[figment_jii]

I agree that it's a personal choice. For my family, we usually have a F&W lunch where we try a lot of different items and then have a TS dinner. Usually by dinner time, we're ready to have a relaxing meal, where we can all sit down (in an air conditioned building) and take a break. F&W is fun for lunch for my family, but it means hunting for a table (or eat standing up) and someone usually ends up being a runner to get the foods (if you find a table to base at).

 

[LSLS]

We just ate snacks. Some of the snack portions are decent sized, so a couple of places and you could basically have a meal already. But if there is a TS you really want to eat at, go for it. If nothing is a must do and you are way more interested in all of the different quick options, skip the TS.

 

[Miss Frankie J]

When we went in 2014 we had booked a ressie for La Hacienda de San Angel in order to view Illuminations from inside and take a break from the festival. We ended up canceling because there was SO much good food we wanted to try! This year I have no plans for TS as I want to eat from every booth.

if you do make a TS ressie do dinner, the festival gets busier at night.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

We've done F&W many times. We'd start right at 11:00am when WS opened and sample several of the food offerings. We'd always have a TS dinner but personally I was never hungry for dinner. I would have rather just sampled a few more offering and skip the TS but DH & DD always wanted to eat at one of the WS restaurants.

 

[dreamseeker9]

It depends on who you are with. My brother, our friend and I were fine snacking at F&WF. But when our parents (in their mid-60s) were with us, and it was very hot outside, they wanted a dinner reservation somewhere inside in the A/C.

 

[karrit2000]

I personally find plenty to eat at the booths. We don't plan TS meals for any days we are doing F & W. The only exception is the special F & W dining events we book. We do several of those each year. We end up full enough from those & usually don't even get anything from the booths on those days unless it's much later in the evening. We usually avoid EPCOT on Saturdays except for if we have one of the special dining events booked.

 

[disBEAST]

Saturdays are a good time to book TS meals during F&W. The dining events hosted by the various World Showcase restaurants are also a lot of fun. The Mexican tequila lunch was especially memorable, as was the lunch at Monsieur Paul and Tutto Gusto.

I'd also recommend the cheese seminars at the Festival Center. They are educational and well presented with generous helpings of cheese and wine. The mixology seminars on the other hand are very blah, avoid those.

All of the events mean you'll have to spread out your snacks around the world, but we've always managed to collect every stamp

 

[PSUGuy]

We 'Graze Around the World' during F&W for most of our food needs but we hit Raglan Road on Sat evening due to the crazy crowds on that day in WS. We'll probably hit the Clam Bake at the Beach Club once and we do have breakfast and snacks in our Board Walk studio kitchenette.

Bill From PA

 

[DisneyHardin]

DH and I go most every year during the festival and we do like to have an evening ADR. The snacks are fun, but for us, a bite here and there isn't enough to substitute for dinner.

 

[elgerber]

We do not do sit down dinners at Epcot during F&W. We usually spend 2 nights eating at the festival, and even sharing everything, we are always stuffed!

 

[Chelley00]

We do, but we do 2 days at Epcot. We graze around one side and then have a late dinner. Second day we hit the other side of World Showcase and then late dinner. We like the ability to sit down and relax. Plus it gives us more time to enjoy grazing and we aren't stuffed to the gills.

 

[loves to dive]

I do one of the food and wine pairing dinners offered during the festival, otherwise nope it's just snacking around the world. I do eat a QS kids breakfast and have tea at the GF because I must. I was there for 5 days last year and barely managed to get something from every booth and I had to stretch it by counting drinks at some of them. I did attend a cooking demo every day and at those you get a little taste of what they prepare along with a glass of the "house" wine. Normally I just start at whatever entrance I enter the park at (I stay at Epcot resorts so it's usually IG) and go in one direction grab something from the first booth, walk around while I'm eating it, when I'm finished I grab something at the next booth I've ended up at. Sometimes that can be two or three booths down the line since I'm a slow eater. I go one direction one day, the other the next. If I've been to MK or AK and enter through the main gate, I use the same method. I did have to take the boat across the lake a couple of times last year just to save walking around that darn lake so many times.

 

[mstravelista]

Thanks everybody! It's a lot to consider! For right now, we're planning on doing two non-consecutive days at Epcot, so maybe I'll make a TS dinner reservation for the second day, and we can cancel it if, after our first day at Epcot, we think we'd prefer to eat the F&W tastings.

 

[roselark]

I am a fan of trying something at every booth! I could never eat TS as well. Some of these portions are actually decently sized. They are snack sized compared to normal Disney portion sizes...

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We have done F&W and I think this all depends on you. I like a TS meal and am just not a big fan of snacking. Still, we snacked around the WS for three days in a row and we still decided to do dinner each night. The one night I canceled my ADR, I regretted it. So, we approached it this way...substantial early breakfast...ride attractions...snack around F&W during the afternoon...TS dinner on the later side.

 

[Stefecatzz]

For me personally, I can easily make a meal out of 3-4 samples from the booths. But I do not like to eat a full meal & then have to walk around in the park after that. If I need AC, I find a QS inside or stop for a break in the museum in Japan, Norway, etc.