Some Haphazard Disney World Tips – Part 2
We’re back with Part 1 of our new Walt Disney World tips & tricks post, this time focused on dining and new construction developments in the parks. If you haven’t read it, check out Haphazard Walt Disney World Tips – Part 1, which covered transportation (primarily Uber and Disney buses) and hotels (mostly high-end off-site ones).
Consider that post, along with this one, a cut and dry look at our recent Walt Disney World trip with info that will hopefully prove useful for those planning trips. If you, for some inexplicable reason, yearn for the tangents and random musings of my trip reports of yore, the good news is that I’m currently posting The Brickers’ Fall 2015 Walt Disney World Kinda, Sorta Trip Report over on the forums. Follow along there if have spare time at the office. 😉 For this post, we will dig right into dining.
Given that our visit was in the fall, of course we had to partake in Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival. One thing I’ve been grumbling about for the past few years is the number of obnoxiously drunk people–particularly college-age people–at Food & Wine Festival. We have no problem with drunk people, but there’s a difference between respectfully feelin’ good and loudly shouting the lyrics to a Wu Tang song while scaling the side of the Mexico pavilion. There’s a time and a place for both kinds of inebriated, but the latter probably doesn’t belong in the family setting of a Disney theme park.
The good news is that we spent several days at Food & Wine this year, and didn’t see a single person who was visibly wasted. The bad news is that even on weeknights (we only did weeknights, which is perhaps why we didn’t see any crazy drunks), World Showcase is absolutely slammed. It’s like a herd of blood-thirsty walkers shuffling along, elbow-to-elbow. Except worse, because this is sweaty, stinky tourists instead of well-mannered zombies.
Earlier in the day, the ambiance in World Showcase is much more pleasant, and we really enjoyed partaking in Food & Wine Festival. Disney has really stepped things up in terms of the design of the booths, and the layout and placement of locations outside of World Showcase is very well done. In previous years, it has felt like a temporary event shoehorned into the park, but this year, there is definitely a polish to the event that I have not seen in the past. Kudos to Disney on that.
From a culinary perspective, the snacks we tried were mostly good. I wouldn’t describe any of them as exceptional or truly inspired, but they are mass-produced items pre-prepared (out of necessity) to serve to a large number of people, so what do you really expect? Well, for the prices, I have to say I honestly expect a little more. Were it not for the fact that I write a blog about Walt Disney World, I could not have justified how much we spent on very small portions.
Even with the blog, I tried to sample as few and inexpensive items as possible. If I were on the Free Dining promo, I’d stock up and use them at the booths at Food & Wine, but the value proposition is awful if you’re paying out of pocket. If I had oodles of disposable income, perhaps I’d feel differently (doubtful–even if I won the lottery, I’d probably still be thrifty).
Aside from and despite that, we really enjoyed Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival this year. Just wandering around, sipping and snacking around World Showcase, chatting with friends about the different options, seeing the Festival Center, and getting mad amounts of Coke Freestyle at the Chase Lounge made it fun. Despite never having heard of “The Chew” prior to this, I also really liked its integration into F&WF.
Overall, we came away thinking that Food & Wine added something to the Epcot experience, rather than detracting from it, and that would hold true if you spent $0 on the event. Whereas it most definitely had “take it or leave it” status after our last visit to Food & Wine Festival, the experience was sufficiently positive this year that it’s back to “try to ‘take it'” status, and I’m thinking about finding a way to do the Wine & Dine Half Marathon next year as a way to get more–and something new–out of the experience.
As for the rest of our experiences with food at Walt Disney World, we ate at a bunch of restaurants. Here are my quick notes about those meals:
- Electric Umbrella – I was eating here again after a good meal on a recent trip thinking maybe Electric Umbrella had improved. Yeah, definitely not the case…
- Studio Catering Co. – Not sure why I ate here since it’ll likely be closing (better get that review up soon!), but with their new-ish menu, this might be the best counter service restaurant in the Studios. Not that that’s saying much.
- Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory – Takes the cake for Walt Disney World restaurant with the creepiest theming, but there are some real gems on this menu. Had multiple meals here, was very pleased with them all.
- Riverside Mill Food Court – My meal here was fine, but that was partly my fault since I showed up 10 minutes before closing with them serving a limited menu. I’ve found it to be slightly above-average in the past.
- Harambe Market – Already reviewed this one…
- Whispering Canyon Cafe – Ordered my go-to, the Canyon Skillet, and it was excellent as always. First time with the red/green interaction cards, which I think are lame (on the part of the guests necessitating them), but whatever.
- Jack Lindsey’s Hangar Bar – I touched upon this one and The Boathouse in our trip report on the forums, but the ambiance and theming here were great, but I can’t comment on anything else…
- The Boathouse – Ate here with friends, and this might have just replaced Raglan Road as my Disney Springs go-to. Maybe. Probably depends upon the mood.
- Morimoto Asia – Braced for an expensive meal here, and it definitely could have been, but I was surprised by the variance in entree pricing. My meal here was very good, and not all that expensive. This feels like a very classy restaurant–much moreso than most Walt Disney World Signatures. Hopefully they keep the Disney Dining Plan out, and it stays that way.
- Crew’s Cup Lounge – Already reviewed this one…
- Contempo Cafe – Tried something new here, and this spot once again delivered, demonstrating why it’s one of my favorite counter service restaurants.
- Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe – The new menu here is a considerable improvement, and this is now a go-to restaurant for us in the Magic Kingdom…for now. I say for now because the new toppings bar has some high quality stuff, including guacamole. UNLIMITED GUAC?! Yeah, I don’t see that lasting too long.
- Sunshine Seasons – I had a new “temporary” item, the Lamb Skewers, which were incredible. Sarah was less impressed with her meal.
- ABC Commissary – It is what it is. Come for the air conditioning, stay for the…air conditioning!
I think that about covers it. We also had several meals at Universal Orlando Resort, and a few at our off-site Walt Disney World hotels, none of which really bear mentioning here.
My husband and I just returned from a WDW trip in conjunction with running the Food and Wine Half, or half half, I should say. I was hoping the after party would give us short lines for the F&W booths, but it was just like any other night. I was sadly disappointed with the crowds as well as the shortened race course. On the other hand, I never thought I’d see 5 minute waits for Soarin’ and Test Track.
I was wondering if you bring a backpack into the park and you proceed on the ride is there like a little cubbyholes to put your backpack while you’re on the ride or do you need to purchase a locker what is your suggestions on bringing backpacks into the park
We just got back from Disney last night, we were at Epcot on Monday night, it was insanely crowded. The back street boys were playing and there were many intoxicated people.
We enjoyed the few foods we tried, we ate dinner at Via Napoli and it was good, but incredibly noisy.
Food and Wine not my favorite gig.
Oh, you KNOW things get frisky when BACKSTREET’S BACK (ALRIGHT)! 😉
I have to apologize, I said the Back Street Boys were playing, and it was not them it was Boyz 11 Men!
(I got the boy part correct)!
But it was still a crazy drunken fest!
Boyz 11 Men? What happened to the other 9 after Boyz II Men?! 😉 (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
Ok Tom, you have to cut me some slack!
I’m a (somewhat) old lady who loves Disney, can’t see very well, and the sign for the group was waaaay down in the American Garden Theater.
Your post got me thinking about the Food & Wine crowds. You know, and I know, just how much Disney loves their hard ticket events these days. What if the made the entire Food & Wine festival a hard ticket event on certain nights? Friday and Saturday night World Showcase closes to gen pop at 8 pm and the special food and wine party begins. For $79.99 adults and $59.99 children, you can have the pleasure of enjoying food and wine without the crowds. Souvenir mug included. Of course, the price of food and drinks are not included. I bet you it would sell-out. And it probably would still be crowded 😉
I think even Disney isn’t willing to go that far to make a buck.
The blowback would be astronomical.
I could see a couple of hard ticket preview nights like this before the official start of F&WF, but it’ll never happen during the festival itself. I think a big part of why it’s so busy at present is the Free Dining crowd (best use of snack credits, by far), and a big chunk of that demographic isn’t going to spring for an additional $40-80 ticket.
I really enjoy these posts with your opinions and perspective on the state of the parks.
Due to poor planning and having two ADRs, I spent a day and a half in HS recently. I didn’t do it all (TSM and RnRC were the attractions I have the most regrets about missing) but there was quite a bit of padding both days. The Great Movie Ride was down at one point, and while waiting to see if the ride would re-open, I spent about 30 minutes looking at the handprints in front of the theater and chatting with a cast member about them. And I went in Muppet Vision 3D at least three times. My biggest Disney fear is that the axe will fall on this attraction at any time. That may be unfounded (Really… chow many more attraction cuts can HS stand?) but at the rate things are going, I wouldn’t put it past Disney to continue the HS attraction purge. Anyway, the strangest thing is that this was the only park this trip we stayed at an entire day without parkhopping. Like I said, this was the result of poor planning more than anything else, but it wasn’t a bad experience.
There are few things at Walt Disney World that I’d describe as a “bad experience,” and enjoying the ambiance at DHS–even right now–is not on that list. It’s not bad by any means, but for a first-time or infrequent visitor, it is far (FAR!) from an optimal use of time. Similarly, it’s really poor value for money as compared to other ways to spend limited vacation time.
That’s all I mean. For regulars or locals, there’s nothing wrong about spending time at DHS. Especially if you want to savor the park the way it is now before the radical changes.
Can’t wait to see all of the reviews! How did you feel about the guacamole at Pecos Bill? Was it legit guacamole, or was it like that weird stuff that Dunkin Donuts and Subway try to pass off as guacamole but is really just gross green mush?
I’d say it’s slightly better than Subway guacamole, but it’s not on par with something you’d find at a Mexican restaurant or something. It’s palatable, but not incredible.
We last visited 2 years ago in the middle of the Food and Wine Festival with children aged 1,5 & 7 years. When we first went to Epcot midweek, it was busy with a number of groups of adults drinking but nothing that detracted from our visit. We returned on a Sunday afternoon and it was awful!! Large numbers of groups of adults – not all young – whose sole purpose was clearly to get drunk. There was nowhere near enough cast members to monitor/deal with the number of drinks being purchased or behaviour. The final straw was when I stood in a queue with my 7 year old, behind 2 college aged students having a loud and totally inappropriate conversation about what they had got up too with their boyfriends the night before!!! I actually stood in queue at customer services to complain. I didn’t object to the sale of alcohol, or people enjoying themselves, but the failure of Disney to provide sufficient staff to deal with the obvious likely outcomes. It was the first time in 30 years of visiting that I had a real feeling of “profit before people”. It made me quite sad.
I was at the Food and Wine Festival tonight and really enjoyed the ambiance it added to World Showcase. I’m not a foodie by any means but it was nice to take a 2 hour photography hike around the lagoon and grab a tasty snack whenever I felt like it. Only downside was that the larger crowd makes getting good photos a bit more difficult.
Food & Wine Festival is perfect for that type of thing if you don’t want to have a full meal. Of course, this only works if the lines for those kiosks aren’t insane!
Tom,
Always like reading your blogs!
I was wondering if it was possible to put the exposure settings for your photos either below or as a mouse-over.
I am an amateur/hobbyist, and am still learning photography. I’ve read Bryan Peterson’s book (thanks to you!). I found it very helpful. Along with your photography posts here and at Travel Caffeine.
I’m sure I’m not the only person that would find it interesting, or see another way to make an exposure.
Thanks for all you do!
Bill
Bill – do you use Chrome? If so, download an extenstion called “EXIF Viewer”. Then, when you mouse over a photo you will see the EXIF information. It’s quite useful.
Thanks Kevin. I’ll try that. 🙂
I read somewhere that the backstage area housing Mulch, Sweat, & Shears’ truck and equipment was part of the construction zone, which is why they got the axe. It’s not a good reason (we’re not talking about a ton of needed space here), but it’s at least a reason.
We got to see some of their final performance and it was nice to see several Disney execs in the audience.
That’s a nice story, but I think it’s just that.
The performers in Mulch were salaried with benefits, and had all been around at Walt Disney World for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a month or so a new act is announced consisting of new contractors.
One thing that excites me about Disney springs is the headliner food options that are emerging. My husband is “not a Disney person” (whatever) but with morimoto and art smith having restaurants at Disney springs I could imagine that being a selling point for him. High end dining with a national reputation is not a bad thing for Disney to develop to diversify its appeal.
I agree about the dining options there. Some really nice stuff, and I’m actually surprised that the Orlando market can sustain some of these options (although I hope it doesn’t happen, I assume some will inevitably accept the Disney Dining Plan).
I realize Disney’s goal is to keep international tourists from going off-site to the other malls and outlets in the area, and to that end, Disney Springs satisfies that goal. I think many people who don’t live by higher-end malls will also be satisfied with Disney Springs, but anyone with a nice mall near them will find it familiar (South Coast Plaza and Irvine Spectrum are our “local” malls, and I’d say they are both just a notch below Disney Springs in terms of design).
Overall, Disney Springs is a huge improvement over what was there, and will fill an important void in the Walt Disney World lineup, it’s just a bit disappointing that it doesn’t aspire for more in terms of theming.