Which festival do you prefer? F&G or F&W?

[DisneyCowgirl]

Flower and Garden. The lines for the food booths are always outrageous when we're there.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

I just got back from a great trip with DD16 and am now in the midst of thinking about and starting to preplan for a trip with DH. Thinking 2025 for F&G.

My last two trips I've been in early November with DD and never really had a chance to truly eat around the world since DD isn't the biggest fan of waiting in the booth lines. When DH and I go we really want to devote time to Epcot and the booths and that experience.

I'm leaning towards F&G due to a few things: pretty flowers and landscaping, no Christmas music and Christmas taking over the parks (I LOVE Christmas but I miss hearing regular music in the parks!), nice weather if we go end of April/beginning of May, they seem to have great booths.

DH kinda wants to go to F&W (honestly as long as there is beer, liquor and booths he will be fine - we ate around the world before during a non festival time) but I don't want to go in November again due to all of the Christmas theming, September is tricky with hurricanes and October is very Halloween and not my most favorite holiday. I'm actually planning an October trip in the next few years with DD since she's a huge Halloween fan and wants to do MNSSHP. I guess I just want OG Disney parks. LOL

Which festival do you prefer?

Flower and Garden! My favorite.

 

[snikki]

Loving all the replies. Makes my decision so much easier. Now if only I could go in 2024 lol. But it’ll have to wait.

 

[snikki]

Love this thread! Just got back from doing F&W for the first time... now I'm even more excited to go back this spring and do F&G.

Same! We enjoyed F&W (although we didn’t partake in too many booths) but now really looking forward to F&G!

 

[Micca]

F&W fans here! I like that I can try some food that I might otherwise not get to sample in everyday life. Also...Day drinking

 

[mckennarose]

Honestly, we do both for the past 8+ years because we like the festivals so much. I do like F&G a little better, even though there’s not as many food booths as F&W. I think just walking around in the warm spring air after winter makes things so much better. We live in the north so our winters are very cold and snowy and I love all the flowers and topiaries. But F&W has the filet from Canada and I love fall in WDW. Our weather starts to get colder here in Sept-Oct so it prolongs summer a little for us when we can go. See why we go to both?! Lol! I can’t pick one.

This Fall we saw Shelia E perform at F&W and it was such a highlight of the trip! We never stop at the concerts for more than a few minutes but we watched TWO of her shows, she was so good! Speaking as a former 80’s teen! I will definitely check to see when she’s performing next fall and see if it works with our vacation time.
We are already planning our next spring trip for F&G.

 

[Scalemaster34]

Is there a time where the Food Booths actually aren't open anymore?

Festival of the Arts: Jan 13 - Feb 20
Flower and Garden Festival: March 2 - July 4
Food & Wine Festival: July 14 - Nov 19
Festival of the Holidays: Nov 25 - Dec 30


I do like the "concerts" for F&W and F&G more, Arts has some acts that can be good as well. But between the summer/fall of F&W and the spring/summer of F&G... I like F&G in late April, just before it gets too hot.

 

[Genie+]

Is there a time where the Food Booths actually aren't open anymore?

Festival of the Arts: Jan 13 - Feb 20
Flower and Garden Festival: March 2 - July 4
Food & Wine Festival: July 14 - Nov 19
Festival of the Holidays: Nov 25 - Dec 30


I do like the "concerts" for F&W and F&G more, Arts has some acts that can be good as well. But between the summer/fall of F&W and the spring/summer of F&G... I like F&G in late April, just before it gets too hot.

Some F&W booths open late, like August, Sept and even Oct 1st. The most creative food dishes happen during Art Fest, seems like F&W phones it in alot because they can rely on the buzz. Like this year 2 new booths- French Fries and Mac and Cheese. I realize that’s popular and high profit margins, just not interesting. Refreshment Port already has poutine including seasonal options.

We’ve only done Holiday Fest once. Nothing we need to repeat though I would go again for the overall experience at WDW that time of year.

I love F&G by far the most! Art Fest is worthwhile too. Makes that off season more fun.

 

[gatorlisa]

Between those two Flower & Garden for sure. Food & Wine is my least favorite of all the festivals. I have food allergies so half the stuff will kill me. For me, the festivals are all about the other experiences outside of the food booths. Festival of the Holidays is my favorite, with the decor and storytellers, followed by Flower & Garden, then Festival of the Arts. I love to see all the topiaries and other flowers throughout the park.

 

[IndyToThere]

But aren’t the spring break crowds insane? We had to move our November trip to April so we will be in Epcot two different days in April, one of which will be Easter sunday
I’m mentally preparing for massive crowds

Yeah, I should have mentioned to not go during Spring Break weeks. Our week in early May was great and wouldn't mind doing again, crowd-wise.

 

[OKW Lover]

Difficult question to answer. In past years I'd go with Food & Wine, simply because we are big wine drinkers. But over time, these two festivals have kind of merged their food and beverage offerings so that difference really doesn't matter anymore.

So, now I'd go for Flower & Garden. The park is just so beautifully decorated and you still get to enjoy some good food (and wine) at the pavilions.

 

[picktails]

Thank you for posting this question! We lost 2 days of our trip at the end of September due to Hurricane Ian, so we have scheduled a return trip the first week of May 2023. I've been to F&W many times over the years, but never F&G!!

 

[DVCjj]

1. Flower & Garden
2 Food & Wine
3 Festival of the Arts

 

[WEDWDW]

Difficult question to answer. In past years I'd go with Food & Wine, simply because we are big wine drinkers. But over time, these two festivals have kind of merged their food and beverage offerings so that difference really doesn't matter anymore.

So, now I'd go for Flower & Garden. The park is just so beautifully decorated and you still get to enjoy some good food (and wine) at the pavilions.

No doubt.

Before F&G had the Outdoor Kitchens,I "may" have had to give F&W a slight advantage.

BUT once F&G added Outdoor Kitchens(known then as Food and Beverage Marketplaces) starting in 2013,it was F&G HANDS DOWN!

(A little F&G tidbit-the miniature Train in Germany(Epcot Garden Railway)was installed as part of the 1995 F&G and was to be removed at the end of that Festival but was so popular that it has remained to this day.)

 

[goofyernmost]

Festivus

 

[TLSnell1981]

I just got back from a great trip with DD16 and am now in the midst of thinking about and starting to preplan for a trip with DH. Thinking 2025 for F&G.

My last two trips I've been in early November with DD and never really had a chance to truly eat around the world since DD isn't the biggest fan of waiting in the booth lines. When DH and I go we really want to devote time to Epcot and the booths and that experience.

I'm leaning towards F&G due to a few things: pretty flowers and landscaping, no Christmas music and Christmas taking over the parks (I LOVE Christmas but I miss hearing regular music in the parks!), nice weather if we go end of April/beginning of May, they seem to have great booths.

DH kinda wants to go to F&W (honestly as long as there is beer, liquor and booths he will be fine - we ate around the world before during a non festival time) but I don't want to go in November again due to all of the Christmas theming, September is tricky with hurricanes and October is very Halloween and not my most favorite holiday. I'm actually planning an October trip in the next few years with DD since she's a huge Halloween fan and wants to do MNSSHP. I guess I just want OG Disney parks. LOL

Which festival do you prefer?

Both festivals are unique. We usually visit a couple of times during F&G and once for F&W due to schedules.We like each of them. Although we tend to visit in October (F&W) since Christmas has been erased from the World. We really miss Christmas in WDW.

So many things we loved are gone. DH has been ready to sell DVC for about three years. I’ve held back because the kiddos loved it. Although they are becoming disillusioned with the rapid changes at Disney.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I used to love the little 45 minute seminars at the F&W festival. Loved them even more when they were free (<2009). And back then, I even saw a few who were on the Food Network. But over the years, they're completely gone now, so the F&W is now my LEAST favorite festival, and so crowded. Flower and Garden had strawberry rhubarb upside down cake, and since rhubarb isn't available where we live, and I love it, that elevates F&G to my #2 spot over F&W. Festival of the Arts in my #1

 

[WEDWDW]

I used to love the little 45 minute seminars at the F&W festival. Loved them even more when they were free (<2009). And back then, I even saw a few who were on the Food Network. But over the years, they're completely gone now, so the F&W is now my LEAST favorite festival, and so crowded. Flower and Garden had strawberry rhubarb upside down cake, and since rhubarb isn't available where we live, and I love it, that elevates F&G to my #2 spot over F&W. Festival of the Arts in my #1

Definitely!

When the Festival Center went away for both F&W and F&G it took a lot of the fun away.

F&G was in its PRIME when it was sponsored by HGTV and had all the HGTV stars appearing in the Festival Center.