I'm back from a week at Food and Wine Festival....

Jill in Chicago

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
1,156
My husband and I went to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It was absolutely wonderful!! We rented a house with our own pool. Loved that! We were there last week. The weather was around 92 every day until the Sunday we left when it dropped dramatically.

The heat was very doable at Epcot. We simply had to eat in the shade. During the week Food and Wine was practically empty. The lines were super short. On Saturday though YOWZA! The place was packed. It was hard to move and the lines for the food, standing in the sun, not good. So as everyone says go during the week.

Since it was just DH and I we meandered. We went to the movies in France and Canada, visited the gardens in England, ate way too much, and loved the wine.

The front of Epcot seemed fairly "full," but we used fast passes and really never waited longer than 15/20 minutes for anything.

We ate lunch at Chefs de France, one of our favorites, but found the food pretty bland and boring. Remy was there though and he's a cutie patootie!

We also had dinner at Artist's Pointe which was spectacular. We arrived early and had cocktails on the outdoor balcony overlooking the pool area. (I think we took the elevator up to the third floor.)

Another night we ate at Flying Fish. Superb! This time we arrived early and toured the Boardwalk Inn and sat outside on their ginormous deck overlooking boardwalk.

We went to the Character Meet at the front of Epcot and I met: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Originally DH did not want to do this, but we went at rope drop and there was about a 5 minute wait.

We have never had so much leisure time to do all this little things. It was such a special trip!!
 
My husband and I went to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It was absolutely wonderful!! We rented a house with our own pool. Loved that! We were there last week. The weather was around 92 every day until the Sunday we left when it dropped dramatically.

The heat was very doable at Epcot. We simply had to eat in the shade. During the week Food and Wine was practically empty. The lines were super short. On Saturday though YOWZA! The place was packed. It was hard to move and the lines for the food, standing in the sun, not good. So as everyone says go during the week.

Since it was just DH and I we meandered. We went to the movies in France and Canada, visited the gardens in England, ate way too much, and loved the wine.

The front of Epcot seemed fairly "full," but we used fast passes and really never waited longer than 15/20 minutes for anything.

We ate lunch at Chefs de France, one of our favorites, but found the food pretty bland and boring. Remy was there though and he's a cutie patootie!

We also had dinner at Artist's Pointe which was spectacular. We arrived early and had cocktails on the outdoor balcony overlooking the pool area. (I think we took the elevator up to the third floor.)

Another night we ate at Flying Fish. Superb! This time we arrived early and toured the Boardwalk Inn and sat outside on their ginormous deck overlooking boardwalk.

We went to the Character Meet at the front of Epcot and I met: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Originally DH did not want to do this, but we went at rope drop and there was about a 5 minute wait.

We have never had so much leisure time to do all this little things. It was such a special trip!!

Thanks for the report!

We are leaving on Sunday and can't WAIT till we hit the Food and Wine festival! I even want to check out the new bar area in Mexico.

So I am assuming there are about 28 food and wine kiosks?
 
Twenty-eight sounds about right. On Allears.net you can get a comprehensive list of each country and what they offer. I would highly suggest you have a game plan choosing what sounds yummy ahead of time. You do not want to do a lot of back and forth around the booths or you will be exhausted. My husband and I are huge eaters, but even we hit our limit each day. :rotfl2: So you will really want to pace yourself and pick and choose!

We saw, but did not partake of the tequila tasting. It looked very cool, and we love the shopping area in Mexico. Have you seen the hand carved and painted little wooden animals in Mexico? They are so nicely done and perfect as a gift for a child or adult. (Great stocking stuffer!)

And the Mexico boat ride is silly and cute!
 
Food and Wine Festival is a great expierence for everyone if your on the sidelines thinking about it. Just be aware as others have mentioned on weekends it can and does get rowdy. :goodvibes
 

We were there at the same time. We did F&W Sunday, mid day and evening. Crowds were moderate. Liked it so much we took the kids back Tuesday. Then met some more friends there on Wed LOL. But OMG, Saturday we were there for lunch at Chefs De France, and in all my trips for F&W, I have NEVER seen lines like that! It was insane! I was so glad we had eaten all we had wanted to earlier in the trip. After lunch, the crowds were so crazy dh says "time to either get out or start drinking".
 
Unless you want to hear the lecture about making tequila and sniffing tequila I would suggest not doing the tequila tasting. Just go to the bar and order a tequila flight and some food. While the lecture is quite interesting, they do not give you much tequila at the food & wine sponsored tasting.

Saturday the 17th was the most crowded I have ever seen Epcot - ever. And I am an Epcot fan, so I am there a lot on my trips.

I understand that was due to the locals taking advantage of the cool weather.
 
Hijack here!

DS and I will be at Epcot on Saturday (arriving at ropedrop). How bad will it be? We really aren't going for the food, just the usual attractions. We plan to leave by mid afternoon. I'm a bit concerned...

We hope to go Sunday afternoon as well; again, just for the usual attractions, not the food.

Opions welcome!
 
If you're not going for the food, it won't be bad (that is if you are planning on sticking to Future World). You might want to stay out of the World Showcase, especially if the temperature is below 80. If you must do anything in World Showcase, go right at 11 when they open.

In the afternoon last Saturday it was difficult to even walk around World Showcase and the lines for any kind of food and drink were unbelievable.
 
Happy 25th Anniversary!!! We celebrated our 25th at WDW in May 2008. We had a fantastic time.

We went to the Food and Wine for the first time last November and loved it. We are planning to go back next year. This year we are doing our first trip during the Christmas season.

Flying Fish is one of our favorite restaurants at WDW. I'm happy to hear you loved Artist Point. We are dining there for the first time this December.
 
cutie patootie!
what a lovely saying! I have never heard that expression!
 











Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE











DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top