Food and Wine festival

[Disfan]

Ive never been to it but it looks like we may have a chance to go! Is it worth going to? It's just in epcot right?

[dzneeprincss]

Yes, the F&W is just in Epcot and definitely worth the trip. Hubby and I have gone every year since 2003 and wouldn't miss it for anything. This year my youngest and her fiance are coming with us and they are both legal to drink now so they are excited.

[Rosie0610]

I do have to say the first year I went it was all about the WINE festival and I seemed to have missed the FOOD part! Well, I was on my honeymoon. How sad that we actually ended up eating chicken fingers for dinner that night!

We will be there for 2 days of it this year and I plan on enjoying some FOOD this time!

[dzneeprincss]

Rosie-
Just be sure to stop in France and get a Grand Marnier Slushee. Also try the Rosa Regale with chocolate in Italy.
Marie

[Tink]

The food and wine festival has changed dramatically over the years. When it started there were what seemed liked zillions of booths. More than there now are, at any rate. There were free cooking demonstrations throughout the world showcase (where you could actually sample what the chef cooked) and the Disney resort chefs were well represented on a rotating basis. Samples were small (dessert) plate sized and full! All were between $1.00 and 4.00 with the majority being at the lower end. The food was diverse and very savory; a true representation of the country being featured, or the chef's skills.

Now, it is much smaller, more on a mass market basis quality of food wise (read, bland for the majority palate) far fewer booths with no Disney resort representation in the general festival. Any booth food demonstration is just that with no sharing of the samples. There are still free food demonstrations but so few and far between you'd better be on line at least an hour prior, and that goes for the wine tastings (the free one) and the beer samples (again the free Sam Adams).

The samples are tiny now and all are in the $3.00 and up range. Very few if any are $1.00 any more. I've seen some at $6.00. :sigh;

There are now extra ticket events you can attend. We did one, Party for the Senses. It cost us $200 (then) and we were terribly disappointed.

So, is it worth a visit? Yes. But for those of us who have been around since ice covered the earth (no sniggering back there, I'm not deaf yet) it's really fallen off.

You will end up spending far, far more at the festival (if you go to "eat") than you would at a nice full service dinner.

[Rosie0610]

What if we plan to share food Tink? Will we still spend lots of $$? I don't have dinner planned for this night but I could find somewhere to go eat a real meal and just sample here.

In 2005 we did a winery taste. It was an Australian winery and I think we paid $15 for 4 samples (but I think we went back for a 5th at one). They were HUGE samples and it probably had something to do with the fact that I missed all the food!

[Tink]

They still had the Winery Walkabout last year, but the samples were definitely not huge.

You could certainly share the food, but in some places you'll only get a bite. If you stop to think that 2-4 samples of just food could total $8-20, and then add samples of wine or beer, you see how quickly it adds up.

Now, don't misunderstand, if you like the food you are sampling then it's all good fun. I'm not as huge a fan as I once was (it used to be my absolute favorite thing at Disney) because they've made the dishes so bland, but we do still go and sample here and there.

We have moved to having our dinner at a full service restaurant though, and just sampling for "snacks" or appetizers or light lunch, something like that.

You know it's pricey when they put in those little machines for credit cards. We used to fill our pockets with dollar bills, but no more. We'd need a barrow!

[uscwest]

We normally do not plan on dinner while we are gnoshing our way around the World Showcase. As Tink says it build up price wise but we normally do it over 2-3 days and never leave hungry.

[Keith]

I'd love to try it! We're never there at the right time

[Tink]

Well, if you've never been, it certainly is worth a visit.