2018 Epcot Food & Wine Festival: First Impressions & Photos
The 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is now underway at Walt Disney World! We were on hand for the opening day of the event, and ate our way around World Showcase and Future World, stopping at every Global Marketplace and trying nearly everything on the menus.
We’ll be updating our Ultimate Guide to the 2018 Epcot Food & Wine Festival and Global Marketplace Menus & Food Photos for Epcot Food & Wine Festival posts over the weekend after we’ve done a few more things the next couple of days. For now, we wanted to drop in with a preliminary report from the front line of the event.
I’ll be honest: the Epcot Food & Wine Festival is my least favorite of the Epcot festivals. I still enjoy it, but there’s far less substance to this event, and way more of the event is predicated upon spending money on undersized and overpriced food and alcohol. You’ll see way more coverage about Food & Wine than any of the other festivals because there’s more reader interest (and in the internet era, that’s becoming something of a self-fulfilling prophecy as sites like this one hype up Food & Wine), but I’d take the Epcot International Festival of the Arts any day over Food & Wine. That’s my personal favorite.
Nevertheless, the fall foodie festival is still fun if you know how to approach it. The 2018 Epcot Food & Wine Festival retains a lot of the same standout items that have been added to Global Marketplace menus in the last few years, but doesn’t really build upon those with a robust slate of new offerings in World Showcase. To be sure, there are some good new things around World Showcase, but the best items there are returning favorites.
The biggest surprise was that most of the highlights of the 2018 Epcot Food & Wine Festival for me weren’t the standalone country booths around World Showcase, but the permanent snack spots that had specialty items for the event.
For example, the Maple Bacon Funnel Cake near American Adventure was shockingly good, as were the croissant doughnuts at Taste Track.
The Pancake Milkshake was also a winner, as was one variety of new poutine. These are all items I’d consider “fun” rather than ambitious culinary creations, but these humble treats nonetheless steal the show to some degree.
Other booths that were hits were not much of a surprise. The entire Next Eats area remains solid, with Flavors from Fire once again being the highlight of the event. Everything we tried at Islands of the Caribbean was good, as well.
On the other hand, booths that have been consistently poor over the years remained that way. We spent $27 ordering all of the food items from the Italy pavilion, and that money would’ve been better spent ordering an entree at literally any restaurant at Walt Disney World.
Price-wise, this year’s event is on par with the last couple of years. In other words, expensive. A couple could easily drop $100 grazing around Food & Wine all day and still leave the park hungry.
Unless you’re visiting for Free Dining and plan on using snack credits, the prices can be intimidating. Having a plan before arriving at Epcot so you don’t spend too much is a smart move.
If you compare prices from 5 years ago to today, you’ll notice a huge increase, but compare this year’s prices to last year’s and there’s almost no difference. In fact, a handful of items are slightly cheaper than last year.
Still, this is hardly a blue light special on the food, and prices are still out of control. Of course, this is true pretty much across the board for Walt Disney World. We’ve commented on this before, but it’ll be interesting to see whether these pricing trends can continue unabated if consumer confidence falters or there’s an economic downturn.
The Festival Center is once again in the old Wonders of Life pavilion, which could soon be the new ??? pavilion. (Well, “soon” as in 2022 or 2023, but still.)
I didn’t see any signs of work going on in there, and the Festival Center is more or less the same idea it has been in previous years. The main difference this year is the addition of Shimmering Sips and Craft Drafts, which are options for mimosas and beer.
Another offering here is the coffee film, which is a relaxing way to get off your feet for a bit.
Merchandise is pretty typical, with a mix of designs that feature Mickey, Figment, and Remy. I can’t say anything stood out to me as a must-have (although I do like the above mug and another shirt).
Generally, I think merchandise has been a strong point of the event for a few years. It’s whimsical yet tasteful, and there are some clever designs.
The prizes this year for Remy’s Hide and Squeak scavenger hunt are lenticular character cups, which are pretty cool.
I remember having cups like this as a kid and loving them. The Figment one above might be my favorite piece of merchandise from the entire event!
We’ve done opening day of Epcot International Food & Wine Festival a few times now, and it has come to be something about which I have mixed feelings. That shouldn’t be the case, as gorging myself at Walt Disney World is pretty much a dream scenario.
I absolutely love Food & Wine Festival in early November when the weather is cool and it’s a joy to be outdoors in Florida. ‘Rope dropping’ global marketplace booths at 11 a.m. and eating around World Showcase non-stop until the sun goes down in August is another story entirely.
With that in mind, I made some personal changes to my approach for the 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival that made it considerably more enjoyable this year. Some of these are immaterial to you, but not all of them, so I’m going to share what I did differently this year.
For the last several years, I’ve carried my entire camera bag and tripod to the event, which collectively weighs close to 30 pounds. Obviously, neither a tripod nor are 5 different lenses not necessary to photograph food. However, I’ve always brought them just in case there was an incredible sunset that I’d want to waddle around and photograph after stuffing myself at the booths.
This year, I took the infinitely more sensible approach of just carrying my Sony a7 III with the Rokinon 35mm f/2.8 lens attached, and no camera bag or tripod. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that today alone justified my decision to purchase a lightweight mirrorless camera. It was like walking through Epcot on clouds as compared to my usual set-up. I felt on top of the world.
Although your backpack probably doesn’t weigh 30 pounds, not carrying a bag (period) this time of year at Walt Disney World is incredibly liberating. If you can find a way to leave it behind, I’d highly recommend doing so. Even if that means wearing cargo shorts or a fanny pack (they’re coming back into style!), go for it.
In addition, make sure to come armed with a Frogg Togg Chilly Pad, which we recommend everyone take to Walt Disney World in our Ultimate Disney Packing Guide. I also wore a Dry-Ex polo that I bought on clearance from UNIQLO (it’s like Nike Dri-Fit, but a fraction of the cost–I should’ve bought like 20 of them).
Breathable, quick-dry clothing like this is great. On a normal summer day at Walt Disney World, my shirt gets soaked with back sweat and I smell like Krumm from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters by the end of the day. I probably still didn’t smell like roses at the end of Food & Wine’s opening day, but I felt so much better.
All in all, these changes made the experience of doing the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival all-day in August much more comfortable.
This anecdote is pertinent, I think, because it’s important to underscore just how hot and humid Florida is this time of year, and also because until you’ve experienced Food & Wine, you might not realize how much of the event occurs outdoors in uncovered shade.
Most planning resources focus on the snacks you want to try and how fun you’ll have snacking around World Showcase, and that’s helpful advice. In August or September, it’s just as important to come prepared for being outdoors for extended amounts of time in potentially oppressive weather, or you won’t be able to handle being outside long enough to do much of the fun snacking.
The point is that November is always going to be a better time to visit Walt Disney World weather-wise than September, but if you plan accordingly, and the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival can be fun no matter when you do it.
Ultimately, this is just the opening act of the 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, but we’d say things are off to a good start. We still have a lot more to experience during the event, and will have several future posts about the festivities. From today alone, I have literally 300+ unedited food photos, and after the next couple of days I’ll have even more…so stay tuned for a lot of Food & Wine coverage in the coming weeks. For now, we hope this post has offered you a good prime to Epcot’s 2018 Food & Wine Festival!
For Walt Disney World trip planning tips and comprehensive advice, make sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide and related articles. Also make sure to read our other Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews and Disney Dining Plan Resources.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Anything you’re excited to try at the 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival? What do you think of the lineup of Global Marketplaces? Special or premium events you’re doing during Food & Wine? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I’m going this weekend early Sept and following your advice, as I did last year. That means dri fit clothes, hiking sandals rather than sneakers and socks, a stack of $1 ponchos, a quick service dining plan for the budget, and the chilly towel plus the mini usb fan. Add all that together, plus asking for water at every stop, taking frequent breaks to cool off at the film fest, the seas pavilion, the festival center- places with AC in between food. Finally- I do this over three days. Left side one day, right side another day, and the middle ones one day. that way I don’t have to stagger though it all at once. I did this year year and had a blast.
Great review! Thanks for posting it! I haven’t seen this anywhere yet.. how does the Disney Dining work work for the Food & Wine event. It’s hard to see how, even with a Disney Dining Plan, it would help the cost at all.
Thanks!
Almost all of the items at the Global Marketplace food booths count as snack credits on the Disney Dining Plan, so it’s advantageous to save those up for your Food & Wine days!
Wait, your Disney credits don’t expire? Apologies for my ignorance, but I thought each days credits expired at the end of that day!
Jason,
All of your dining credits expire at midnight of your check-out day, I believe. You get x # of credits per night of your stay and you can spread them out throughout your stay however you want.
Is each country offering beers and wines native to their culture to complement their food?
We were there the same day!? I would have enjoyed meeting you to thank you in person for your outstanding photos and blog!
I also love Figment! Do you recall how much the Figment Tervis cups were selling for?
I enjoy and gain from your reviews on various Disney related events. I wish the Food and Wine had more gluten free food items. I don’t know how other food allergies fare at the Food and Wine Festival.
Wanted to provide some thoughts 🙂 We went on Day 2 this year. Pancake milkshake was a hit for the kids and not too large or thick. I was very disappointed in the sweet potato poutine from the Refreshment Port- just thought they were half hearted. The Moqueca from Brazil was ok but MUCH more soupy than it appeared in the booklet. The salmon from Active Eats was decent but the avocado on top was a bit airy for me.
The surprise for me was the Leffe Blonde Belgian Pale Ale from Belgium which was really great. Also a winner – the Tropical Mimosa from Shimmering Sips. Some thought it was a bit too sweet and preferred the Blood Orange but I loved the Tropical. And of course – can never go wrong with a Liquid Nitro Chocolate dessert.
– Rachel from happygosunny
I did pretty much what you did – had the cooling towel w/me but ended up not using it. But in terms of the weather – totally agree. I basically dressed like I would for a heavy workout, light, moisture-wicking material. I have a pair of cargo shorts like that but opted for regular gym shorts and took the backpack; this was a day trip/playing hooky from work day for me so it wasn’t heavy, took a rain parka (which, if you were there opening day, you know it ended up being utilized) and a few bottles of water, sadly no towel, which I’ll remember to bring when I go this week. Couldn’t agree w/you more about the prices. Simply insane. I’ve found, however, a good way to save is don’t buy ANY alcohol at the booths – get it from regular places like Rose & Crown pub or any other lounge around World Showcase. Of course I didn’t follow that to a “t” – I was actually the official “first customer” at Shimmering Sips per the cast members who served me – the tropical mimosa was good but not $6-for-a-sippy-cup good. The passholder merch was decent. Got my magnet and will ultimately over the season end up going back enough to get the cutting board. Like you said, it’s worth doing but it pays to prepare properly.
Are you going to go completely mirrorless? I’ve been a long time SLR user and have been thinking of adding a mirrorless camera to my bag! Either the Sony a6000 or the Fuji XT100. What are your thoughts?
Hey Tom, have you seen any Epcot International Festival of the Arts dates for 2019? I can’t seem to find any published…
Tom, a few questions: How much did you spend in one day? How are the prices for samples remotely reasonable? Why do Disney bloggers feel they have to be there on Day 1 (or get free previews) and eat/drink every item? Does this really push your click counts? If you ignored the event until say … October, which was really when this event always appeared on the calendar … would that significantly harm your site? And, finally, going to write a post about Disney’s horrendous decision to turn Artist Point into a character dining locale (there really aren’t enough of them)?
I realize these are the type of things that we’d normally discuss in private, but I think people might be interested in what your thoughts are.
The last couple of years we haven’t been there ‘opening day,’ but we did it this year because it was the day after getting back from a Royal Caribbean cruise to Key West & Havana. As I note at the top of the post, Food & Wine is an incredibly popular event, but my least favorite of the festivals. In terms of clicks, I could’ve avoided the heat & humidity, not spent an astronomical amount of money, and just stayed in and covered the ‘breaking’ news of alcohol in Disneyland, as my commentary on that was far more popular.
I wrote a post on Artist Point yesterday that’ll go live today. One post per day–that was the third biggest story of Thursday.
Do the Festival Center and Taste Track booths open at 9am?
Always very useful info that is such a pleasure to read!! Keep on!!
Non-food-related, but Disney really needs to pair with a different shirt vendor and offer Dri-fit t-shorts. All the Disney shirts are cotton, and there is no comparison in the Florida heat!
I’m glad Chilly Pads work for you, but I don’t find evaporative cooling in Florida humidity to be effective enough to warrant carrying around wet (and eventually stinky) towels all day. But many people like them, so perhaps it’s just me.
I couldn’t agree more about the weather. I love the Florida heat, so much so that we moved to Orlando a year and a half ago and have enjoyed every minute of it…… except for the first day of Food & Wine festival last year because it was too dang hot to enjoy that much eating. That being said, we’ll be there tomorrow. But we will approach it differently than our late festival visits.
We never leave hungry.
I’m happy to hear that “going mirrorless” is working for you this time around. The photos look great. I just received a Fuji 35 1.4 this week and I don’t see it leaving my camera anytime soon, unless I need to use my Rokinon 12mm.