talk to me about Food and Wine

[DisneyLove2015]

Talk to me about food and wine . We're planning a trip for end of September/beginning October and are planning one full day and maybe 1-2 half days at Epcot (knowing to avoid weekends). We will have an 8 year old and an 18 month old with us.

What is your favorite booths? If you snacked around the world for lunch, did you find that you were hungry for dinner? We're planning on doing DDP to use snack credits and to allow us to do some fun dining experiences we haven't tried yet.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you are doing F&W, DDP isn't a great fit. Not all of F&W take snack credits, and I'd you try to break up QS credits for extra snacks, you have to use all 3 in the same transaction - not at 3 different booths.

You will not need a "real" dinner if you snack F&W.

 

[Hopefully]

If you are doing F&W, DDP isn't a great fit. Not all of F&W take snack credits, and I'd you try to break up QS credits for extra snacks, you have to use all 3 in the same transaction - not at 3 different booths.

You will not need a "real" dinner if you snack F&W.

I disagree that the DDP doesn't work with the F & W Fest. October will be our 8 th festival with the DDP. IT WORKS FOR OUR FAMILY ( We are 3 adults).
We have never had a booth not take snack credits for a food item -ever. drinks are OOP.
We visit Epcot for some part of 5 of our 7 days. We "Nosh Around the World" snacking. Most days we use a QS credit for lunch, but since we are 3 last year we did convert 3 QS credits for F & W snacks. We usually have a late dinner ADR. But one day we use the booths for dinner & combine that TS credit with another & do a Signature dinner one night.
Saving money is not the driver for our using the DDP ( Although the last time I actually priced it out we did save). But it is how we eat We want a TS dinner eac night. DH & DS do eat a dessert at lunch & dinner. I like the "all inclusive" feeling. Since it is not all about money for us, we do enjoy this way of touring at the festival. Lots of festival prices are high and costs add up quickly. Using credits is a big saving here
Have Fun

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I think there is a big difference between

IT WORKS FOR OUR FAMILY ( We are 3 adults).

and

We will have an 8 year old and an 18 month old with us.

When splitting down a QS to three snacks, it's easier to do at a booth with three adults. It's also easier to be creative about dining schedule with three adults than with an 8 and an infant.

And alas, in Food & Wine, he wine part is all OOP.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I was on the DP this past trip and used my snack credits for F&W. It worked out great! Although I had free dining, I wouldnt pay for it if it werent available for free. I'd definitely go oop. Once my snack credits ran out, I used my magicband as I had loaded $50 solely for F&W (I dont like to leave a creditcard connected to my magicband). Purchasing snack via magicband worked out wonderfully. So convenient. You can even use a giftcard if you wish.

You can definitely stuff yourself at F&W. For what its worth, I had F&W snacks for lunch and was still able to eat a TS dinner. You just have to know when to stop so that you have enough time to work up an appetite for dinner. F&W is a lot of fun, I highly recommend it. You can check out some pics of the food in my link below (scroll to the bottom, its listed after my restaurant reviews). My fave items were (in no particular order): Canada, France, Italy, Greece, Belgium....everything really! Its delish!

 

[DisneyHardin]

DH and I have gone to the Food and Wine Festival the last 5 years and used the DDP. We try a lot of things and I usually use a snack credit for anything that is over about $5. We love the snacks, but for us, they don't substitute a meal, so we still used all of our QS credits for actual meals and didn't break any down into snacks.

If you 8 year old is good about trying new things, he will definitely like trying the booths. I do believe you will still want dinner if you are doing booths for lunch.

 

[Splashboat]

I suggest you go right at 11:00 when the booths open. It gets very hot and very crowded. There are very few places to sit and few shaded areas to avoid the sun. We bought the trays to hold food and drinks but it was still difficult to manage with kids.

 

[kastoney]

As someone who as done F&W with a kid, I'd suggest bringing some entertainment for them. We brought my daughters iPAD for the day which kept her occupied while we ate. If that isn't an option, you may want to also hit up the kid cot stations in each of the countries and have your 8 year old do that while you all snack.

Now onto FOOD. We found it best to share items so we could try more and didn't get too full. Lunch time is definitely the better time to go. We ate enough to fill us up, but not too much that we didn't want dinner. This of course would be subjective. Everyone has their own favorites, but from 2 years ago we enjoyed the pork sliders in Hawaii, pork belly from Brazil, shrimp taco in Mexico, and hash/chicken from the farm fresh booths the most. Here are a couple of pics to wet your proverbial appetite.

 

[craigkerstiens]

While the menu may change this year a bit, there's often a lot of return dishes. From last year our favorites were:

• Hawaii - Kalua pork slider
• Australia - Grilled sweet and spicy bush berry shrimp
• Canada - Both the cheese soup and the filet are always a hit
• China - Beijing roasted duck in steamed bun with hoisin sauce
• New Zealand - Lamb meatball with spicy tomato chutney (probably our overall favorite dish)
• South Korea - Roasted pork lettuce wrap with kimchi slaw

As for drinks, we did a full post on wine that was there - http://www.thedisneywineblog.com/2015/07/21/disney-food-and-wine-festival-wine-rundown/

 

[disnut8]

Talk to me about food and wine . We're planning a trip for end of September/beginning October and are planning one full day and maybe 1-2 half days at Epcot (knowing to avoid weekends). We will have an 8 year old and an 18 month old with us.

What is your favorite booths? If you snacked around the world for lunch, did you find that you were hungry for dinner? We're planning on doing DDP to use snack credits and to allow us to do some fun dining experiences we haven't tried yet.

You can check online before you go for what is available and then choose your selections from there. I get really geeky and copy everything into a spreadsheet and then reorganize it since what is downloaded is alphabetical by country and not by the actual locations. But - that's just me. The great thing about Food & Wine is that with my husband and me, he likes spicy stuff and I'm more cheese and crackers so we stop a lot along the way, each getting what we want and if a plate needs to be "set down", we find a place for the one of us to eat. So, it takes a while to make one circuit.

As far as being hungry for dinner, what we found after one trip (we had made trips before and after) was that eating a burger at Rainforest Cafe and then going to the Festival after was not a good choice for us. We only did Rainforest for my father who was in his last years. So now, we just do Food & Wine and no sit down meals planned at all. But, that is us.

 

[jerseygal]

It was just DH and me for F&W so we "grazed" and shared a lot of the items. On one of the days we did do a sit down dinner which we enjoyed. We were not on DDP for the part of the trip which we spent at Epcot. Glad I made the ADR because I welcomed having a sit down dinner. Crowds were very manageable, but we avoided more crowds of Fri,Sat,Sun. CAN'T WAIT for October '16 again; Hoping older DS and girlfriend can join us!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

We usually have free dining when we go. We've started to plan one signature dining experience each trip since we usually replace at least one meal with the F&W kiosks. Like a PP said, we use snack credits for everything over $5. Going at lunch is the best and definitely avoid Saturdays. We like the lamb in Australia, the pork slider from Hawaii, the waffles in Belgium, and almost everything France.