We arrive on the last day of the F & W. We hadn't planned on going to a park that day. But looking at last years photos I think we will need to add on another day of tickets and take a swirl around the world to taste and drink : ) it looks fabulous!!!
So I love F&W and my DW and I have gone the last few years and we plan on continuing to go to this event. That being said, we went last year and our trip ended on the last day of F&W which was a Sunday I believe. That Saturday and Sunday were quite an eye opening experience!!!!
Before our trip in 2013 I had read on the boards about people complaining about the level of intoxication that people at the event were reaching. I kind of disregarded these complaints as people that were just hung up on the whole drinking thing. I guess we had avoided going on the weekend before because when we sent on the weekend this trip the crowds were pretty amazing. lines for booths were so long at some, I didn't get in them but I assumed they were like 20 minute wait times if not more.
A large crowd is one thing, and something you kind of expect at WDW in general. the attitude at that last weekend of F&W was pretty over the top. I assume it was so bad because it was the last weekend of the event. But there were so many people that were there with the sole intention of just getting wasted drunk. It wasn't just observed behavior on my part, my DW and I both heard several conversations of people talking about how they paid for babysitters that day or had arranged for people to drive them home that night.
It was like watching a bunch of college kids celebrating after finals. That was when I realized that this was some of the behavior that people on the boards were complaining about. Now I don't have any hangups about public drinking or even some moderate over imbibing on vacation. However this was shocking to me. As a former bartender I would have been concerned about serving people some of the people that were still in line to get drinks from the booths.
My whole point is to just be weary about F&W on a weekend, and especially the last weekend of the event. I think on the last weekend, a lot of procrastinating locals tend to come to really "tie one on" I think if you get there when the event opens for the day at 11 am you can easily enjoy yourself. If you haven't gone before I highly encourage you to go, however if you go on the last weekend and don't like it because of the volume and attitude of the people, don't think the festival is always over the top. And if my little warning is turning you off, don't let it. F&W is great. Like I said earlier, I have been many years now and this was the first time I saw anything that over the top, it may have just been an aberration of that one day.