Is the Food and Wine fest as good as they say?

[keishashadow]

meh

if i were a local, would probably be there every weekend for the concerts

despite the crowds (some of food/wine booths have lines longer than rides ), which make it non-appealing to me as a vacationear...prefer to visit on the week days for more elbow room

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I have never been but I have frinds that have and said it is very nice.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

DH and I love it and wouldn't miss it! We've gone every year since 2003, when we first discovered it. As another poster mentioned, we also just happened to be at WDW during the Festival.....and we were hooked!

The atmosphere is like a big, crowded street party....everybody drinking, eating, laughing, partying. There's lots of entertainment, too. We never go to the ticketed events (although I'd do a wine pairing dinner if they had a vegetarian one! Same with Party For The Senses!)--we just go around to the different booths.

 

[davinakb]

I enjoyed years prior to 2008. I have heard the 2008 festival refered to as Food and Whine by many. Like everything else in today's economy, it had been scaled back and offered fewer hard ticket events, .... To me F&W is not what it once was. In fact, I haven't made any reservations to go this years and I will wait until the summer when they announce the hard tickets and then decide.

Same here. F&W is one of our favorite events, but we skipped the 2008 festival, and my guess is that we would've been a little disappointed. After reading the details posted here from people who did go, lots of things were scaled back: P4TS, the free food and wine classes were cut, the most popular F&W pairings, etc. So we'll look forward to seeing what 2009 offers, hoping for the better. FWIW.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Like the PP said, it's like a big, crowded street party with everybody eating, drinking, laughing, drinking, and partying. Definitely PG-13. We took our Godchildren last year on a Saturday night and they were exposed to more un-Disney-like behavior from grownups than I would have preferred. We'll see how a weeknight is this year. My DH and I had been the year before, and we enjoyed ourselves, but I noticed things this last trip with young children that I hadn't before.

 

[MinnieLee]

DH & I have been going every year since the first one and we love it. We did notice the prices have gone up though and the portions have become smaller. My DH loves trying the different beers. The hard ticket event prices have sky rocketed. Love sampling different foods and always buy the cookbook to make some of it at home. Stay away on the weekends - it gets packed and the lines are unbelievable. Great concerts. Last year we saw Kool & the Gang, Atlantic Rhythm section and Espose. Combine your trip with the MNSSHP and you will have a great time.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Dh and I went in 2007 without the kids and will be returning this year without the kids but with my parents

We had read reviews of the individual booth offerings before attending, so we had a decent idea of what to avoid (basically "regular" food like lasagna, some of the Polish offerings, the overpriced lobster roll, etc). We put some money on a Disney gift card and used that to simplify paying for the food/wine.

We spent part of three days at F&W. The first day we did every-other-booth and the second day we did the remainder. Day 3 was for our favorites. We would order one or two items from each booth and split EVERYTHING. By taking our time we never were stuffed.

We didn't participate in any of the paid events. None of the wine tastings those particular days appealed to us (others on the schedule for the whole festival did but alas!). We enjoyed the Australian wine walkabout immensely and now buy two of those wines at home.

 

[onelilspark]

I love Food & Wine.

I don't do any of the seminars or special events, just stick to the booths.

What we've found is that if you stick with just doing the booths and splitting it with whoever you're with, you wind up spending as much money as you would on a sit down dinner. Which isn't bad because you've been snacking pretty much all day.

It's my favorite time of year!

 

[ntsammy5]

We've been several times and always have a great time - going again in October.

 

[tamclan]

Never been to one, when is it held?

Thanks,

 

[ntsammy5]

Generally late Sept thru Mid November - we've been the first weekend and the last weeken before - both very crowded - and a few weekends in between!

 

[Brer Shay]

We happened to be there the first two days of it last year. I thoroughly loved it! We were on the DDP and I used many snack credits sampling items from around the world. I didn't have anything I didn't like. DH liked it as well. The other four in our party are a little less adventurous when it comes to food and skipped it to go ride TT. I spent about an hour and am hoping to make it back for F&W in a year or two.

 

[crisi]

It falls during the time of year we've generally gone - which used to be quiet - and turns one of our favorite parks into a much busier, much more crowded place with more drunks than normal. We go with kids, or perhaps we'd join the drunks, browse the food booths, and have a much better time.

(It isn't particularly cheap, as noted many times above, but the food and wine are good and there are lots of options - for us, we aren't going FOR F&W so it inconvinences us. I think I would enjoy a childless trip of sleeping in each day, F&W-ing all afternoon and evening. But I don't know that I'd enjoy it enough to go out of my way to do it.)