Is food and wine getting out of hand?

[Vivianne]

How do I know the woman who grabbed me was stinking drunk? Because she reeked of alcohol. No, I wasn't following her around. Why would I waste my vacation time on that? I was standing at UK railing, away from the pavilion, waiting for Illuminations to start. A pretty nice spot in all my years of visiting for the fireworks. By the way, that's the area where I noticed it the most. You can believe what you want which is fine. But this is Disney's problem and they know it by observing the security guards. There were about 4. Three of which followed the men yelling at the crowds, one stayed behind and went into the pub.

 

[wilkeliza]

I've never been to F&W and probably never will. It just doesn't appeal to me... Wall to wall crowds, drunks, over priced drinks.. Ugghhhh. Not my thing.

How is the security on the weekends? Do they really beef it up? I would assume there is security everywhere for crowd control.

I would never bring a kid to F&W on a weekend night.
I'm not judging anyone because if you aren't a local and it's your first trip you may just assume a festival at Disney would be tame, even with "wine" in the name. When I think of wine I think a glass of wine with dinner, I don't think of drunken frat boys roaming everywhere you look.

If it's that bad it's only a matter of time before something awful happens... And then things will drastically change. There will be a fight that ends in a death, or someone will do something stupid because they're wasted and end up killing themselves or someone else. Or someone will die from drinking too much or even a horrible DWI crash involving a drunk leaving Epcot and taking out innocent people. Or Lord forbid a kid getting hurt badly by an unruly guest. Something is bound to happen because I can't imagine Disney's security is totally in control of this. It seems like an impossible feat.
Now this is all contingent on if things are truly as awful as we hear. I tend to believe it but, then you do have those people who jump in to say, it's not bad at all.

It honestly isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. 99% of the drinking "teams" are respectful and self police. There is usually always 1 designated driver. With the DUI thing Orange County Police Department is very away of Food and Wine and stations officers outside of Epcot (both the guest and CM entrances and exits) to ensure no one makes it very far if they are drinking and driving.

The event is 20 years old. If someone wants to drink themselves to death they can do it on a non-festival day just as easily as during the festival. Same goes for drunks being stupid. Some of the worst behavior I experienced form guests as CM wasn't even at Epcot and wasn't during Food and Wine. For every silly shenanigan story that a Epcot CM can tell the MK CMs have hundreds more and until BOG started serving alcohol it was a dry park.

 

[Dash7]

Last year we heard all of the warnings about don't go on weekends, it's crowded and full of rowdy drunks, and how it wasn't a place for kids. We went anyway, on a Friday night, with kids. And, guess what? It was totally fine. It was busy, maybe even crowded in spots. There were definitely people who were there to party. But it was not the Thunderdome that it had been made out to be. It was like attending a busy state fair/festival/taste of event. In fact it I would say it was quite a bit more tame than lots of those. I didn't understand what all the dire warnings were for. I wouldn't hesitate to take my kids at all. Maybe some people who go to F&W don't go to those kids of events at home and are not used to crowds or people out drinking or something? Anyway, it was fine. It was fun!

 

[larandtra1990]

I was there this past weekend and it seems to me many of this stuff is overblown. The lines were not bad at all and there werent a ton of drunk people.

 

[Bullseye]

When you reply that you haven't experienced this kind of behavior at F&W you don't have to qualify your statement. Just because you say you've never seen it happen doesn't necessarily mean you're implying that it doesn't happen. It just a matter of sharing your personal experiences in reply to the op. That's the point.

 

[LisaRay]

The last time we were there was 2012 and it was me DH and DS who was 12 and yes it was a Saturday night but we had hopped over from DHS for just a short time because it was the only day we could go. We expected the crowds and had planned to not get through it all. Our goal was to just try a handful of booths that I had read about online.
The crowds didn't bother us since it was expected but my son who had been enjoying being "brave" and trying a few different dishes was not enjoying seeing a drunk girl get sick and vomit in the bushes! This girl could barely hold herself up her boyfriend (i assume) was keeping her in an upright position and they were making out so much they needed to get a room! The next thing you know she is throwing up. It was especially gross because it was right next to us. DS was done after that of course and ready to get out of there.
I also used a restroom while there and a different drunk girl getting sick. At least she made it to the bathroom i guess.
There is a difference between having some drinks with friends or family and having fun or not being able to stand up! Some of these people should not have still been being served. I know that's probably impossible to control because of the crowds and how busy the employees are etc.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I felt like it was much more crowded than last year. I was glad I had the Premium Package so I could have a nice place to sit and didn't have to wait in the lines for food and drink.

I went on a Wednesday and Thursday. I saw plenty of people stumbling around drunk and can only imagine the amount of money they spent to get that way.

I decided that I most likely won't worry about going during the food and wine festival for a few years - if I happen to be there when it's going on, I'll try some food but I won't make that my focus of the trip like I did this year.

 

[nco91590]

I've seen drunken behavior on a regular old trip through WS. I don't think it's "unique" to F&W. Last time I was there, a large bachelor party was shamelessly harassing the women working at Kringla in front of my kids. It was gross. I've got a pretty high tolerance for drunken, harmless shenanigans, but those guys were acting lecherous.

 

[asc]

I am more take back at the crowds. As a person who was at some of the early F&W events (the ones in which they gave out three FREE cans/bottles of beer over on the UK terrace during the beer sampling, not to mention the FREE wine seminars), the crowds last year were just ridiculous. I have no issues with the alcohol consumption. They do a pretty decent job of policing the same. Now on NYE at epcot...well, that is another story.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I will agree with OP. We went last year on a weeknight and agreed that if we ever go in he fall again, we will only be visiting Epcot in the mornings. We had gone in wanting to try some of the foods, but once we saw the lines at each booth, we changed our minds, and there were quite a few drunk adults stumbling around acting ridiculous. We actual cut world showcase short and left early.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I entered EpCot and saw/heard a young man at the top of the Spaceship Earth ramp shouting/cursing, it definitely freaked me out! I had no idea there was a wine festival going on

This assumes that the young man at the top of the ramp at Spaceship Earth (a long way from the festival setup) was shouting and cursing because of the Food and Wine Festival. He might just be a jerk. Jerks are year-round.

There was a story here from someone who saw an Epcot patron sic security on a couple of young women they thought were behaving untowardly after indulging in alcoholic beverages but it turned out they were 18 years old and hadn't been drinking at all, they were just being exuberant. The offended patron assumed the worst, however.

 

[maxiesmom]

This assumes that the young man at the top of the ramp at Spaceship Earth (a long way from the festival setup) was shouting and cursing because of the Food and Wine Festival. He might just be a jerk. Jerks are year-round.

There was a story here from someone who saw an Epcot patron sic security on a couple of young women they thought were behaving untowardly after indulging in alcoholic beverages but it turned out they were 18 years old and hadn't been drinking at all, they were just being exuberant. The offended patron assumed the worst, however.

Exactly. Too many people see loud behavior at Epcot and turn into their Aunt Ethel. "Oh no, they serve ALCOHOL! How low class!"

 

[heyyoaight]

We were there this past Saturday (oct 17th) and there was a very spring break feel and atmosphere to the worlds. Lots of power drinking frat boy types and "whooo!" girls. Some with 2 drinks in their hands while waiting in a line of (I kid you not) 75-100 people to get their next drink. Have been told by quite a few people and cast members it's best to be out of there by 3 or 4 pm to avoid a lot of the "bad behavior".

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Yes, a couple of years ago there was one guy who went nuts and ran backstage and assaulted three cast members. This guy was arrested, convicted of a felony and said goodbye to his promising career in the Navy. Out of 20 years of festival, there has been one felon. There have been more arrests of people who got into fights at MK waiting in line for the mad tea party. It's not the Delta House.

Were the power drinking frat boy types and whooo girls misbehaving?

 

[wilkeliza]

I'm seeing a lot of over generalization in these threads. "frat boys and whooo girls". I've seen just as many falling over piss drunk mommy and daddies as a CM as I have seen college kids.

My favorite drinking team is the Vikings. They are a rowdy bunch and somehow Disney knows they are coming before hand because we always got forewarned during our morning meeting but they were really harmless. They could drink around the world twice in one day! They were usually around the month before the festival and would blow their horn and come dressed as vikings all in good fun. Does anyone know if they are still around?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I remember seeing the Vikings last year. There were a lot of them, and they were standing in a group drinking beer. That's all they were doing. Was a Saturday morning I believe...Saturdays are usually the days the most groups come.

 

[wilkeliza]

I remember seeing the Vikings last year. There were a lot of them, and they were standing in a group drinking beer. That's all they were doing.

I should have clarified that by "rowdy" I just meant good old fashion fun that if a kids was doing it in the World Showcase nobody would bat an eye but seeing grown adults doing it you might laugh. Usually just things like singing Disney songs, inside jokes with each other, being incredibly friendly with the CMs and just having a good time in general. I never saw them get piss drunk but if I saw them more than once in a day I would always ask them what round they were on.

 

[heyyoaight]

No. They weren't really misbehaving. Just not really the type of crowd I personally want to be around. If I did, I'd go to cancun in March, not Disney in October. If that's how they want to spend their vacation and their money so be it. Who am I to say anything. I just think it wasn't as much like this the last time I was here (Oct 2012) and I'll be more careful in planning my Epcot days my next Oct trip.

 

[Emily Gilmore]

We leave in about two weeks and are planning to go on Friday night because it's my birthday and I want to. That being said, we typically go in June/July, so I'm used to crowds. I think if you go in with the correct expectation, you USUALLY don't come out disappointed.

 

[Bullseye]

I remember seeing the Vikings last year. There were a lot of them, and they were standing in a group drinking beer. That's all they were doing. Was a Saturday morning I believe...Saturdays are usually the days the most groups come.

Wow Vikings hanging out drinking beer in the morning at Epcot ....

Where do I sign up! Do you know if they're accepting new members!?