How do you eat during F&WF?

[miste76]

I am starting to plan a trip for the end of October... this is my first trip to the Food & Wine Festival. Usually, there are certain ADR's that need to be made... but now I don't know how to plan it - Will the F&WF be all that we want to do?

Should I expect to graze all day long and not be hungry for regular meals?

Also, is there a lot going on during the week, or are most of the festivities on the weekend?

Thanks for any help that you can give!!!

 

[buckeyebill1995]

This will be our third F&WF this year. The first two years we made dinner reservations at Epcot anyway because we were on the DDP and there are several restaurants we haven't yet tried yet. Both years it was a waste of money and time. We were all so full/tipsy from grazing all day that we had no interest in sitting down for dinner and barely touched our food. Plus we felt that we could have tried a couple more countries that looked good if we didn't feel like we had to 'save room' for dinner at our ADR.

Hope this helps!

 

[MickeyNicki]

We always go to the F&W, usually for a long weekend so we snack the stands and do not do dinner ressies but last year and Oct 08 we stayed for 9 days. What we did last year was plan alot of TS breakfasts and dinners but no lunches so we snacked the stands...we were way too full from breakfast and no hungry for dinner so we wound up cancelling a few reservations.

This year we are going to have just 3 TS breakfasts and the rest will be CS at the resort. We will have TS places for dinner for a few nights too. It is much too fun and yummy to eat at all the countries and if you find favorites you want them more than just one day!

 

[jezebella]

We typically go 4-5 weekends every year. It always falls on my bday, so instead of a sit down meal, I opt to meet up with all of my family and some friends and we graze and drink around the world. I don't think I could begin to manage to eat a full TS and then do F&W booths.

 

[OKW Lover]

We've been doing F&W for several years now and love it. We typically just "graze" for the first couple of days - being sure to start around WS in opposite directions each day. However, we usually find that by the 3rd day or so we want to do an actual sit-down meal.

 

[suzycute]

This is exactly the question I wanted to ask ahead of our trip in October. We have ADR's for 3 nights out of 7 and was worried I should have made more. However I now have been thinking that "grazing" would be enough for us for the other days as we're not big eaters anyway. Thanks for these responses - very helpful!

 

[winterman]

As most other replys state: Graze, Drink and Enjoy. You will have the opportunity to try foods that you would never prepare for yourself at home.

A large dinner meal is anti-climatic.

Have a great trip!!

 

[domiii]

We take 2 days and work our way around WS. We eat a light breakfast and are happy sampling the goodies available. It take us 2 days because we are full when we get half way around!!

 

[NancyIL]

I also graze during Food & Wine, and I don't eat at table service restaurants at Epcot.

 

[TDC Nala]

I will eat at the booths and the special events, and very rarely at a TS restaurant (that isn't hosting an event).

 

[sdickison]

The F&WF is great. But the food at the booths are more like samplings, not full meals. And they range from $3 to up to $5 or $6. It could get pretty pricey just eating at the food booths for the festival. It's not gonna fill you up just the food at the festival, at least it doesn't me.

Stuff is going on all week. They are busier on the weekends with the crowds.

I remember seeing "Carmal Ginger Ice Cream" at the Japan pavillian at the festival. I was over at Epcot the other week and the tea place at Japan has the same ice cream for sale all the time. I had no idea. Some of the items sold at the countries that are permanent countries there, usually bring out samplings from their menus. Canada had their "Canadian Bacon Chedder Cheese Soup" at the festival, which I got, because I love that soup. It's part of the menu at Le Celliar Steakhouse if you can get a seat, they are booked 6 months in advance. Hard to get a table there. But my sampling at the festival was probably about 4 spoonfulls and it was like $4 for that little bity cup. So you could rack up quite a big bill just eating at the food booths.

Reservations are definately the way to go before you come. If you have your trip booked and are on the dining plan you can book reservations for dining 180 days in advance. When I didn't live in Orlando and was coming to Disney I always booked them in advance. Now that I live here, I don't really need to book a room over there, so I don't have the dining plan. But I still can book a table service reservation over there even though I'm not staying there or on a dining plan, kinda nice. I usually eat at O'hana's at the Polynesian Resort, excellet food, my pick for the best table service in the entire complex. And my friend Ed is a server there. Actually his picture is on the WDW website for O'hana, he's the tall guy. He's worked at Disney for around 15 years. He's an excellent server.

I am starting to plan a trip for the end of October... this is my first trip to the Food & Wine Festival. Usually, there are certain ADR's that need to be made... but now I don't know how to plan it - Will the F&WF be all that we want to do?

Should I expect to graze all day long and not be hungry for regular meals?

Also, is there a lot going on during the week, or are most of the festivities on the weekend?

Thanks for any help that you can give!!!

 

[Aimeedyan]

I would disagree with some of the other posters, but only from a financial perspective. It would have cost us boatloads of money to eat enough to skip meals in Epcot during F&WF.

Each sample was practically bite size for $4-$5. Add up enough for 2 people to eat a full day's worth of food (and soak up all the wine...) and you have some pricey meals. And honestly, some of the stuff wasn't appealing or tasty.

We tried anything and everything we wanted to but still opted to have a real dinner. Also, with it being hot and on our feet most of the day, it was nice to book an 830 reservation time so we had a chance to rest at the end of the night.

Now we didn't feel like a 3 course meal after the day but we did sit and have a bite.

If I was independently wealthy, I'd graze for days.

I'd personally make a dining reservation for late in the evening, start when WS opens that morning, and cancel if you don't feel up to it later in the day. The last time we went, the walk up like for Alfredos was 30 people deep so we were so thankful to have a cool place to sit down at within minutes of checking in.

 

[monkeyhouse]

I was just going to ask the same question as miste76. Thanks everybody for the answers

 

[jezebella]

The F&WF is great. But the food at the booths are more like samplings, not full meals. And they range from $3 to up to $5 or $6. It could get pretty pricey just eating at the food booths for the festival. It's not gonna fill you up just the food at the festival, at least it doesn't me.

Stuff is going on all week. They are busier on the weekends with the crowds.

I remember seeing "Carmal Ginger Ice Cream" at the Japan pavillian at the festival. I was over at Epcot the other week and the tea place at Japan has the same ice cream for sale all the time. I had no idea. Some of the items sold at the countries that are permanent countries there, usually bring out samplings from their menus. Canada had their "Canadian Bacon Chedder Cheese Soup" at the festival, which I got, because I love that soup. It's part of the menu at Le Celliar Steakhouse if you can get a seat, they are booked 6 months in advance. Hard to get a table there. But my sampling at the festival was probably about 4 spoonfulls and it was like $4 for that little bity cup. So you could rack up quite a big bill just eating at the food booths.

Reservations are definately the way to go before you come. If you have your trip booked and are on the dining plan you can book reservations for dining 180 days in advance. When I didn't live in Orlando and was coming to Disney I always booked them in advance. Now that I live here, I don't really need to book a room over there, so I don't have the dining plan. But I still can book a table service reservation over there even though I'm not staying there or on a dining plan, kinda nice. I usually eat at O'hana's at the Polynesian Resort, excellet food, my pick for the best table service in the entire complex. And my friend Ed is a server there. Actually his picture is on the WDW website for O'hana, he's the tall guy. He's worked at Disney for around 15 years. He's an excellent server.

I tend to disagree. I can't possibly imagine to eat an all you can eat meal at 'Ohana after sampling sufficiently the F&W festival. My family is not light eaters either (except for me, but husband can easily handle 4 double cheeseburgers in a go) and even he gets stuffed sampling and picking food. F&W plus a TS= for us!