With F&W going on ...do you need a ressie?

[AutieMom]

I was contemplating a restaurant at Epcot for our October trip but we will be there during F&W and I know we will be snacking around all day. We've never been to F & W before and will have two kids ages 13 & 9 with us. Do i really need to make a sit down dinner ressie or is it better to just wing it? We'd probably only be interested in Le Cellier so not sure what to do.

Any thoughts?

 

[TDC Nala]

If you are going to be snacking all day are you going to want a dinner reservation? If you are going to want a full restaurant dinner, you need a reservation. Especially Le Cellier. You may not be able to get in there if you don't have a reservation. It's a credit card hold restaurant, so you can't skip it at the last minute without paying the no-show fee.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

If you want a sit-down dinner, you definitely need a reservation. If you really want to go to Le Cellier but you want to try some bites from the kiosks too, I recommend sleeping in a little, skipping breakfast, getting to the World Showcase promptly at 11am and utilizing the Marketplace booths for a brunch. Stop snacking around 1 or 2 and schedule a late dinner.

 

[AutieMom]

I just figured you'd get rather full after all that sampling and wondered if most people bother to go to dinner after that. We love Le Cellier so I guess we'd have to take our snacking lightly lol

 

[BriarRosie]

I just figured you'd get rather full after all that sampling and wondered if most people bother to go to dinner after that. We love Le Cellier so I guess we'd have to take our snacking lightly lol

I find it really easy to fill up on the kiosk food offerings, so the advice about taking it easy and getting a later dinner would be good to heed.

 

[Hopefully]

It really is up to you and how much snacking you want to do. We have one evening where "Noshing Around the World" is our dinner. But we also have other evenings where we snack less and have a sit down dinner.
There is plenty of food to eat, but it is likely that some won't appeal to you. Enjoy

 

[TDC Nala]

If I want to do justice to the festival offerings, I would not book a restaurant. I would definitely caution against booking Le Cellier unless you plan to pace yourself so that you are ready to eat there, because skipping it will cost you.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I should add that we use the strategy I laid out above for all our EPCOT days during Food & Wine and we cannot make it to all the booths in one day. We spent 4 or 5 afternoons in the World Showcase last year before we had sampled everything we wanted to taste. It was probably day 3 that we actually completed our passport.

 

[Pakey]

We do not book meals on our F&W days. We are not big eaters and it's just too much food for us.

 

[cruisingkat]

We (DH and I) also do not book dinner reservations while at F&W. We divided the World Showcase into 3-4 sections, doing one section each day for lunch. We get one of each food item offered at each booth and share. It is definitely filling - so much so that for dinner we end up sharing something back at the resort. There are about 30 booths each offering 2-5 food items with most offering 3. Granted they are tasting sizes, but if you have enough tasting sizes, you can end up eating as much as you would at a table service restaurant.

 

[mfd25wife]

I loved F&W, but looking back on it, I'm not sure a lot of kids who are 9 yrs old will find a lot. My DD would have loved it. She tries everything. My ss, not so much. if it wasn't a chicken nugget/finger, pizza, or taco he wasn't interested.

 

[mfd25wife]

If I want to do justice to the festival offerings, I would not book a restaurant. I would definitely caution against booking Le Cellier unless you plan to pace yourself so that you are ready to eat there, because skipping it will cost you.

I prefer the above. I want to try something from every country. We ended up booking a couple of TS, but I would have been fine just munching around the world. If the kids end up needing more and you can't get in at a TS, you could always go back to Sunshine Seasons at the Land Pavilion or the outdoor restaurant at Mexico. I can't remember the name. SS is a good selection of food.

 

[disnut8]

We've gone the past two years for the Food & Wine Festival and I can tell you we never wanted a sit down meal. There's just too much to choose from. I would highly suggest you go to a website (like allears) and look at the menus from prior festivals and see if the kids would like anything on there. It can be adventurous for them to find out what all the food terms mean - I had a blast figuring out what I would eat. I tried new things just because I looked on wikipedia for what the item was and, oh man, I was in heaven.

And if you or the kids are hungry and nothing at the festival interests you, then all the regular counter service options are still there.

 

[Celidh]

I'm glad to see this question here. My partner and will be in WDW for food and wine this fall. We have never been and to be honest, really wasn't sure what it involved. (other than new food and drinks to try ) We didn't specifically book this time of year for the food and wine, it just worked out that way so I haven't really researched it.

I take it that there are lots of items you can buy but they also have free samples of food, is that correct?

This is an adult only trip, so it will be nice to try things without a child saying "yuck"

I'm a big on grazing rather than big meals, so I think I will really enjoy this. I also hate having to choose one item when ordering meals, which is what I like about going to a buffet, no decisions to make.

I must check out allears to see what has been offered in past years.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I take it that there are lots of items you can buy but they also have free samples of food, is that correct?

No free samples. The food and beverages at the Marketplace booths are all for sale. There are samples at some of the culinary demonstrations, but you Pay to get in to the demonstrations too.

 

[mfd25wife]

I'm glad to see this question here. My partner and will be in WDW for food and wine this fall. We have never been and to be honest, really wasn't sure what it involved. (other than new food and drinks to try ) We didn't specifically book this time of year for the food and wine, it just worked out that way so I haven't really researched it.

I take it that there are lots of items you can buy but they also have free samples of food, is that correct?

This is an adult only trip, so it will be nice to try things without a child saying "yuck"

I'm a big on grazing rather than big meals, so I think I will really enjoy this. I also hate having to choose one item when ordering meals, which is what I like about going to a buffet, no decisions to make.

I must check out allears to see what has been offered in past years.

You pay, but to me it's minimal $3-$6.50/sample. I absolutely loved it. The week we went, the Eat to the Beat series was so good we went almost every night (Air Supply, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Night Ranger, and another that I'm drawing a blank on). We went to different parks in the mornings and moved back to Epcot by late afternoon or early evening. I cannot eat gluten so we printed out the gf options before we went. Almost every country still had things for me to eat or a way to eat it, say...w/o the bread bowl for example. There was a curry dish this year in a bread bowl. Heck, my friends were jealous because I got an entire plate full of the filling and they just got a tiny amount poured in the bread.

I hope to go back many many times.

 

[Coconuts]

We F&W last year with another family of 5. We had 2-3 TS dinners at Epcot that week. The adults would have been happy with sampling and filling up on the different countries' offerings, but none of the kids were really interested. Whenever we would get something from a country, 1 or 2 of them would maybe try a bite, but still wanted their sit down meal.

Maybe our kids are odd or non adventurous; I guess it depends on what kind of eaters your kids are. If they like to try new, different things, then just snack. If they are pickier, then do the TS.

Hope this helps.

 

[AutieMom]

I loved F&W, but looking back on it, I'm not sure a lot of kids who are 9 yrs old will find a lot. My DD would have loved it. She tries everything. My ss, not so much. if it wasn't a chicken nugget/finger, pizza, or taco he wasn't interested.

Yes...that is what I worried about. I knew me and hubby would be sampling but the kids...maybe not so much. We might be full but they will be wanting to sit down and eat. I guess there is plenty of snacking we can do for them or give them CS somewheres. I'm excited to go but did not want to waste a TS meal if there was going to be so much to sample during the day.

 

[AutieMom]

We F&W last year with another family of 5. We had 2-3 TS dinners at Epcot that week. The adults would have been happy with sampling and filling up on the different countries' offerings, but none of the kids were really interested. Whenever we would get something from a country, 1 or 2 of them would maybe try a bite, but still wanted their sit down meal.

Maybe our kids are odd or non adventurous; I guess it depends on what kind of eaters your kids are. If they like to try new, different things, then just snack. If they are pickier, then do the TS.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a ton. So...did you just schedule later dinners and let the kids snack around in the meantime? I'm thinking maybe that is the way to go

 

[Coconuts]

Thanks a ton. So...did you just schedule later dinners and let the kids snack around in the meantime? I'm thinking maybe that is the way to go

No, we booked our ADR's at normal dinner times, @5-6pm. The adults bought from the kiosks when we saw something that really looked tasty to us. DH and I love to eat (think Pooh sized!) and had no problems finding room for a few snacks before or after dinner. Quite frankly, a good portion of our stops at kiosks were to sample the cocktails/beers. DH and I can't wait to do an adults only trip to F&W.