Is the wine pricing at this year's F&W a response to guests over imbibing?

[JerseyJanice]

I just could not get over the high prices and minuscule size of the wine samples at this year's Food & Festival.

I traveled with a family group that included my nephew who has not gone to the Food & Wine Festival since 2011. He was shocked by the wine sample sizes and prices compared to his memory of what they were 6 years ago. He wondered whether it had to do with people getting out of control drunk at the Festival.

Last year for the first time, I witnessed groups wearing "drink around the world" slogan T-shirts and looking inebriated. One young man threw up on the pavement near where we were standing and sprayed my sister. (She is like a magnet for drink strangers.)

So this week in the news, I see that Alex Morgan, a 28 year-old soccer star, was kicked out of Epcot for being drunk and rowdy at the Rose & Crown along with two other soccer players.

As an older person who enjoys getting a buzz on at Epcot and who knows how to handle it, it annoys me so much that the wine samples may have been ruined due to out of control partiers.

Worse, I hope that ridiculously small sizes and high prices don't ruin my ability to responsibly enjoy adult beverages at Epcot. It is a theme park, and people should not be noticeably drunk around families. I would personally prefer that Disney hire effective security to keep the rowdies under control rather than pricing people out.

 

[CarolinaBlue99]

The news about Alex Morgan has me rethinking our family's arrival night plans of checking out Epcot (we're staying at the Swan so it's an easy jaunt) with dinner at the Rose and Crown. It'll be a Saturday night during Flower and Garden. Is this a bad idea now?!

It's too bad since it seemed a great way to try for a FP for FEA and do some low-key exploring, letting our DD7 start searching for the Easter eggs. Maybe after the Alex Morgan incident they will come down a bit harder on public intoxication ...

 

[gdrj]

We've gone the past 2 years and are going in a couple weeks. In 2015 we ordered a wine from one of the stands and thought the size was tiny. That was the last one we ordered. We use the regular stands or Kiosks in the for our beverages.

In regards to Alex Morgan, the only difference between her and the many others who probably were removed or could have been, is she is somewhat known. Many people make mistakes or poor choices.

Alcohol has had an ever increasing footprint at the parks. While it is disappointing when guests get unruly, to me it was more shocking that at DHS the alcohol stations really increased the last couple years, I'm guessing in an attempt to offset some of low loss revenue from the park operating as a construction site. I think it was in 2015 when I saw basically a ballpark beer vendor walking down near Tower of terror and Rock n Roll coaster.

 

[JerseyJanice]

The ballpark vendor beer sellers have been in Fantasmic for as long as it's been. Moving them out into the park is not something I've seen, but I've spent little time in HS during the past two trips so IDK.

The wine samples this year were quite small but the prices went up a few dollars. Samples of wine at F&W were mostly $4-$5 in 2016, $6-$7 in 2017. For 2-3 ounces of commercially sold wine, that's crazy.