The Party's Over F&WF 2008

[redzinner]

It's over, finis, under, maybe over, our belts! Like any event catering to a large group of people (world wide Disney vacationers) over a long period of time (6 weeks), this year's Festival had the good, the bad and the darn right ugly (for some).

For the 2009 Festival, which is already being planned, my wish list is:

1) REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE ATTENDING THE PARTY FOR THE SENSES!
I don't think it's possible to add more seating so the attendance numbers have to decrease.

2) Disney should be a pro at queue lines! Why isn't there one for the PFTS. The cattle stampede is unworthy of the event.

3) Keep City Tastes or something like it. I believe these were the old Signature Dinners in a new format and titled City Tastes for the theme of Cities in Wonderland.

4) Reintroduce more of the old Signature Dinner format. Formal evening dining, not a buffet. There were only 2 this year. The other was a Champagne Brunch.

What would you like to see brought back or maybe eliminated for Food & Wine Festival 2009?

 

[TDC Nala]

4) Reintroduce more of the old Signature Dinner format. Formal evening dining, not a buffet. There were only 2 this year. The other was a Champagne Brunch.

What would you like to see brought back or maybe eliminated for Food & Wine Festival 2009?

And the Champagne brunch was cancelled. The two signatures this year were V&A (on November 2) and Bluezoo (on November 7). These were the only two dinner events, presented only five days apart. That's got to change.

The Bluezoo dinner was awesome.

guess what, there was foie gras (take that, you big mouse)

As for what else I'd like to write - I don't have the time right now. I did not go to a City Tastes but from what I have heard it was NOT comparable to a signature dinner.

Holy crap, I'm in redzinner's signature.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I would like to see bigger portions in the drink category....we had the Pina Colada for $6.50 and the Raspberry Vodka cocktail for $8.50 and the glasses were these little dinky things

 

[dizneykid]

Regarding the Food Booths -

1. Keep going with new items, keep some old favorites, but continue to add new tastes.

2. MOST IMPORTANT - Disney needs to watch the temperatures of the wines that they are selling at the food booths!! Come on Disney - one of the red wines we tried at the Mexico booth was 85.7 degrees. Room temperature doesn't mean sitting in 80 degree weather!! That's totally rediculous!!! Yes, I brought a thermometer with me and took temps. Most whites were around 68 degrees and reds ranged from 72 degrees on up. Not acceptable.

3. Add some more signature dining events. Blue Zoo WAS definitely a hit, although they need to better organize the "cocktail hour" part of the event. Guests who came in toward the end most likely didn't get many appetizers.

4. Bring back more free seminars on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The events on those days were packed. We did a few seminars this year and thought the presenters were great.

That's it for now. Can't wait until next year!!!

 

[TDC Nala]

It's a good thing it is a national holiday because it means I have time to post a lot of crap.

Party for the Senses:

Okay, that’s enough. Quit admitting that many people. It’s too crowded now. If you need to cut corners so you can still provide the event without jamming the population of Connecticut into the World Showplace all at once, then cut down on the number of chefs and wineries. Nobody ever gets to all of them. I had to skip some of the ones I wanted to try because I was full. (Or just get rid of the jugglers.)

Stop giving it away. We had comps to a convention on the 8th (a third of the attendees wore convention badges - really cool ones that lit up but still convention badges). We had Year of a Million Dreams winners with reserved tables (!) who brought in tons of little kids. Apparently there were PFTS guests being comped all over the place.

If you are not going to cut down on the number of tickets you sell, either remove the seating or assign seating. (Problems with both. Removing seating would then mean you need to provide for those who have mobility problems and can’t stand for the entire thing. Guess what – pretty much everybody is going to come up with a mobility problem. Assigning seating would mean that groups that wanted to go to the party together, but purchase their tickets separately, won’t be able to sit together.)

The Festival Center:

I for one will refuse to attend any paid event in excess of $100 in cost that is held in a wide open and very noisy space bordered only by a circle of palm trees. They still had the background music playing for goodness sake. Not to mention that you can hear everything from the cast members rolling big carts full of cooking implements into the kitchen to a group of festival regulars having a long conversation right next to your head while they’re waiting for the demo that follows your event because they can’t see you through the soundproof (not) palm tree. The venue was fine for the free demos – lining up indoors is priceless – but I won’t pay to sit in there and eat. And they needed to turn down the air conditioner. It was so cold in there you had to inhale your Cook Book and Bottle food before it froze.

I may have to go back to the pairings next year just to get out of that center.

I did like the bit about handing out cards for the demos – but the last weekend the cards had been printed with "This is not a fastpass. You must stay in line to be admitted.” Then why hand out the cards at all?

I am not sure what to think about no demos on Mondays or Tuesdays. On the one hand there wasn’t much reason to go near the festival center if those were the only days you had. On the other hand, with the center being so far from the World Showcase, you knew you had Monday and Tuesday to graze the Showcase.

Quality of the food demos was really good this year. I like the new bit where they serve a wine pairing with every culinary demo.

The last demo I attended I dropped my sunglasses and had to go under the table to get them. Seems like nobody had vacuumed under that table since the festival started. If you're going to serve food (even free food) clean the place please. Or move it back into an actual restaurant.

Signature Dinners:

Would love to have these back. In the restaurants, not in the festival center. The Bistro lunch was great (I’d do that again) but it wasn’t like going to a signature dinner. If they want to add some signature lunches in the resorts, fine – they’ve done those before.

The Booths:

I did enjoy them this year – most everything I had was good. Some of the “specialty” drinks were lacking (and in very small quantities as was already noted). I had a lot of beer this year. Beer everywhere. LOVED the New Orleans section.

 

[LowesChevy]

ITA about the PFTS. We attended October 4th's party. We had a great time, but I can't say I will be buying tickets next year. It is so Un-Disney for the event to be so unorganized-people start pushing through to get their glasses/plates, it is chaos.

We also found it difficult to juggle a glass, a plate and eat with silverware at the same time until we were able to grab a table.

As for the booths, the portions I tried were generous, but the samples were the same as last year. I would also like some new tastes each year.

 

[betterlatethannever]

Party for the Senses:

Okay, that’s enough. Quit admitting that many people. It’s too crowded now. If you need to cut corners so you can still provide the event without jamming the population of Connecticut into the World Showplace all at once, then cut down on the number of chefs and wineries. Nobody ever gets to all of them. I had to skip some of the ones I wanted to try because I was full. (Or just get rid of the jugglers.)...

,,, Nobody ever gets to all of them. ...

I'm "proud"(?) to say we've hit every chef and winery (not all the wines ) at every PFTS we've attended. Granted, I had to sit and recover before making it all the way back to the BC/BWI some nights. I think it's a case of "I paid for it so I having it, even if it kills me" attitude.

Obviously I would like less people to attend. And I wouldn't mind that, while reducing the number of guests, the number of chefs/wineries were reduced. It would take the pressure off in making sure I didn't miss anything.

I definitely vote for more signature dinners. The Jiko Dinner Series special dinners are already sold out for October and November of next year. It was the only "signature" dinner we did at this year's F&W festival.

Anyway, for as negative (and worried) as I was before the festival because of the cutbacks, I enjoyed the festival.

Ed

 

[ElizabethB]

Bring back the Exquisite Evenings at Epcot. Also, more Signature Dinners.

It's a pipe dream, unfortunately. The clear intent is to create cheaper events that accommodate more people.

We did the V&A Signature Dinner this year. It was excellent, of course. We also enjoyed the booths around World Showcase. We avoided the rest of it, most especially all the celebrity chef stuff.

Years ago when they had the Reserve Dinners, DH and I used to say to each other, "Let's enjoy this while it lasts, because it will never be the same once the sharp pencil MBAs get ahold of the Festival."

At least we enjoyed the Festival in its heyday.

As for even showing up next year, I'm really on the fence. Probably won't bother.

 

[redzinner]

The Bluezoo dinner was awesome.

Yes, it was! Passed hors d' oeuvres were great too! If anyone has a recipe for the ceviche shooters I would love to have it.

guess what, there was foie gras (take that, you big mouse)

Bluezoo manager said the same thing to the Mouse

Holy crap, I'm in redzinner's signature.

It was a profound statement, not to mention hilarious in the context of the post.

 

[pixie08]

1) REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE ATTENDING THE PARTY FOR THE SENSES!
I don't think it's possible to add more seating so the attendance numbers have to decrease.- I so agree. I was with my brother who is in a wheelchair and unable to eat at the high bar tops. They did not even have any disbaled seating reserved. I had to dash to get a table in front of my party. It was insane.people were eating off theirs laps! To me this is unexceptable for the amount you pay!

2) Disney should be a pro at queue lines! Why isn't there one for the PFTS. The cattle stampede is unworthy of the event. Also agree!

3. this was our PFTS and I wished there were more events- another tasting and maybe a signature to try!

We did enjoy PFTS once we had a table and we enjoyed the Sweet Sunday with Richard cappizzi! We also ate at like every booth lol!

 

[EpcotBeauty]

I have a simple request: bigger portions of the soup.

I know, how trite! That really is my request.