2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Guide
Our ultimate guide to the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival provides likely event dates, tips & info, booth lineup, snack & dessert reviews, entertainment details, things to do for kids, and everything else you need to know about Walt Disney World’s foodie event.
Walt Disney World has not yet released dates for the 2024 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, and we’re actually reluctant to make concrete predictions since it has had a wide range of starting dates since 2019, beginning as early as mid-July and as late as the end of August. (More on that below.) We’re actually more confident about when it’ll end–likely on November 23, 2024.
The other big unanswered question is whether the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival will be entirely back to normal, with its full slate of seminars, special dinners, celebrity chef panels, and various enhancements. These have been absent for the past few years for a variety of different reasons, but there’s a good chance they’ll all (or mostly) return this year. If you want to be notified about 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival official details, dates, or anything else, sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World email newsletter.
Turning back to dates, there are a range of possibilities for the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. One noteworthy thing that happened last year was a shortening–rather than an extension–of the event. This was unprecedented. EPCOT festivals have a history of getting longer, but never shorter. Last year’s event ran a total of 115 days, starting 13 days later and ending a day earlier than the previous year. It was 2 weeks shorter than in 2020-2022, but still over one month longer than 2019 or earlier.
Our suspicion is that Walt Disney World has data indicating that guests get “festival fatigue” and there are diminishing returns from running the same event for multiple months. Basically, that it wore out its welcome, and there wasn’t value in starting the festival in the late summer. That’s really they only reason they would’ve shortened it.
We’ve speculated that something similar might happen with the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. After all, the fall foodie festival started in late August from 2017 to 2019, and in September prior to then. So even with last year’s late July start date, it was beginning over a month earlier than the historical norm.
To that end, we want to point out that Walt Disney World has announced a start date but not an end date for the 2024 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival. This event is incredibly popular in March and April…and loses its luster by May. Throughout June and into early July, there’s far less interest. EPCOT festivals are fueled by locals and Annual Passholders, and the ‘shelf life’ on most events is a little less than 3 months.
Point being, we could easily see a scenario where the 2024 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival wraps up by late May and the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival starts in late August. In fact, we’d bet on both events being shorter than they were last year. What we wouldn’t necessarily bet on–but what we think would be the smartest move of all–is Walt Disney World introducing a brand-new summer festival for June through August to fill the long gap in between.
This could all be totally wrong. Walt Disney World could conclude it made a mistake last year and extend the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, making it longer than ever before! Regardless of what happens, there’s enough uncertainty that we are not going to predict a start date for the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. It could begin in in the first half of July or September 2024–or anytime in between–and we wouldn’t be surprised. That range of potential outcomes is quite wide, and all plausible.
What’s more certain is the end of the event being November 23, 2024. The EPCOT Food & Wine Festival usually concludes the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which is that date. Even that isn’t a 100% sure thing, though, as Thanksgiving is later than normal and Walt Disney World might opt to end Food & Wine early to start Festival of the Holidays, especially if Food & Wine starts early.
That’s unlikely. The end date of November 23 is probably 95% likely for the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. We’ll keep you posted, updating this section accordingly as dates are rumored or announced!
Even though Walt Disney World has yet to release the full details of the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, we already know roughly 80% or more of what it’ll entail. That’s actually a lower number than usual–it’s usually 95% the same from year to year, but with CommuniCore Hall opening in 2024, we’re expecting a lot of changes.
Although the event is never 100% the same from year-to-year, it follows a familiar formula with significant annual overlap. Most of the food booths and menu items are at least 75% the same year-to-year, as is almost everything else about the event.
As noted above, the big exception to that is the culinary seminars, demonstrations, meals with celebrity chefs, and other special events. These have been on hiatus since 2019, but we’re guessing that they finally return to the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival now that the CommuniCore Hall events space will be open.
However, it was honestly somewhat of a surprise that last year’s Food & Wine Festival didn’t bring back these elements. It seems like a no-brainer, as all of these special events are expensive and generate a lot of revenue. If Disney opts against them, it’ll almost certainly be due to insufficient staffing (the bane of Walt Disney World’s efforts to scale back operations and resume full normalcy right now).
We’ll keep you posted about the status of the Party for the Senses, celebrity chef meals and demonstrations, beverage and cheese seminars, and other events if/when Walt Disney World announces them. For now, here’s what you need to know about the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival!
There’s a reason Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival is beloved among many Walt Disney World visitors. October and November are typically the busiest time of the year at the park, and this event is popular primarily because it allows guests the opportunity to eat and drink their way around the World Showcase and parts of Future World, trying new and inventive cuisine along the way.
Although it can be an expensive event, we’ve found ways to get more bang for our buck, and have fun dining at EPCOT before the fireworks. This comprehensive guide to the 2024 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will cover everything you need to know when planning for the event, including how to budget your time and money!
What to Expect & Festival Overview
At the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, there’s something for every budget. While you can enjoy some events without spending anything, it’s very easy to spend a lot of money, particularly as you graze around the marketplace booths. Once you start looking at the special events and celebrity meals, well, the sky is the limit on how much you can spend during the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival!
We’ve done the Food & Wine Festival many times every year for the past decade-plus, spending more money on snacks than we care to think about. We spend several days in Walt Disney World every year during July, August, September, October, and November, grazing the marketplaces and partaking in the Food & Wine festivities.
All in all, we usually have a good time. Weather-wise, July and August are definitely the least pleasant months for the event and November is the best experience, but after grazing the booths the first three months, we’re usually a bit “over it” by the end. (However, if we were planning only one trip, it’d be in November.)
Beyond that, a few things stuck out that are worth noting. First, and I say this every year, but it’s true once again: by and large, your money doesn’t go very far. Portions don’t seem smaller than last year, nor do prices seem higher, but both were already pretty bad last year, so it’s not like this should be construed as a positive thing. You’ll definitely want to seek out a few sizable dishes.
Second, crowds are far worse on the weekends and after work and not nearly as bad on weekdays between 11 am and 5 pm. When EPCOT is more crowded, don’t be surprised if you wait in line 10 or more minutes at the cash registers and another 10 minutes at food pick-up.
In the past we’ve cautioned about long lines on the weekends for the more popular booths, which is especially true during peak times in October and November. This compounds the effect of being out in the sweltering heat and humidity. By contrast, on a weekday in September (or even later in the year), you might encounter no lines whatsoever.
Third, some of the best booths are in Future World. To be fair, there are great items scattered around all of the booths, but the best pound for pound options are often those found closer to the front of the park. This includes the best booth of Food & Wine, Flavors from Fire.
Finally, and most importantly, food quality remains high. The last couple of years the food lineups have been really strong, and I would say that last year’s EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival surpassed the previous year’s event in terms of quality. From the quality of the snacks to the booths themselves (some, like India, are gorgeous!), everything is incredibly well done. It almost makes the higher prices and smaller portions a bit more palatable. Almost.
Although this article will provide tips for the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, there are a lot of things we recommend doing in the fall. Read our 2024 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Guide and our When to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 posts to get an idea of what else to do this time of year. Fall is the perfect time to visit Walt Disney World! Well, my personal “perfect” time of year is Christmas (nothing beats Christmas at Walt Disney World for me!), but fall is a close second.
If you’re looking for what’s new for the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival or what our recommend plan of attack is for the festival? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s our strategy for keeping your sanity at the event…
EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Strategy
Strategy for snacks? Seems like overkill, right? Not at all. While the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival is a fun way to sample (mostly) good foods, it’s also insanely popular and expensive (I would say overpriced, but “popular and overpriced” seems like a bit of a contradiction).
By midday, some Food & Wine Festival booths have lengthy lines for ordering and pickup. By late-afternoon, World Showcase is a sea of sweaty humanity with some booth lines having wait times exceeding those for attractions. Add to this little shade and some slightly inebriated guests, and it can be an unpleasant mix. By evening, some areas of World Showcase feel like a mild frat party, with lines being quite lengthy, especially on weekends.
First, you can find the full menus for these booths for the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival here. We highly recommend reading these menus before your trip. Study them, learn them, master then. Knowing what you plan to try before you go is great so you don’t wander aimlessly or end up getting things that aren’t what you want most on impulse.
Below are some tips to make your festival experience more pleasant…
Leave the Shrimp, Take the Salmon & Scallops – With rare exceptions, shrimp at EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival is overpriced, rubbery, and just generally unappetizing. In all our years of doing the event, we’ve found it’s one thing that the culinary teams consistently do not get right. By contrast, salmon and scallop dishes are almost always good–better than you’d expect for their price and being prepared in small kitchens.
Avoid the Hot & Heavy – For an event that starts in the summer and continues in September and October–two months that are still typically quite hot and humid in Florida, there are typically a lot of hot and heavy dishes at the event. While a lot of these are good and worth trying, you’ll want to space them out so they don’t further overheat you. Ideally, have them early in the day or later in the evening once the sun has gone down. (Although that flies in the face of one of our next tips…)
AC Break – During the hottest part of the day, taking a break from the activities in World Showcase and going to the in-door and air-conditioned films and other attractions is a good idea. General tips for surviving a hot day at Walt Disney World also apply here.
You can get free cups of water from any counter service restaurant, you want to hit places with air-conditioning (I’ll put in a plug for the underrated Impressions de France, which is now only shown in evenings for some stupid reason), and you want to pace yourself when eating and drinking. We expand upon these tips in our Drinking Around the World Showcase article–the idea is the same here.
Go on a Weekday – We noted this above from a crowds perspective, but you’ll want to go on a weekday to avoid the party atmosphere. Weekends are when local college students descend upon EPCOT, and turn the place into a veritable frat party. I love frat parties just as much as the next guy, but there is a time and a place for frat parties. Namely, at a frat house when you’re in college. Not in family-oriented theme parks. Your opinion of Food & Wine Festival could differ dramatically based on whether you go on a weekday or weekend.
Go Early – Slightly before Food and Wine starts, you should be lining up for your first kiosk. Lines are far shorter earlier in the day, but just as important is that it isn’t quite as hot at 11 am as it is at 2 pm. There is very little shade at the booths. If you’ve ever waited in line 30 minutes for some wine and creme brulee in France while sweating through your shirt, you know what I’m talking about.
Stay or Arrive Late – Lines for the Global Marketplaces typically peak during prime meal hours, and drop by around 8 pm as people are finding spots for EPCOT’s nighttime spectacular. While we recommend doing likewise and grabbing a viewing location, sending someone to grab a few of the heavier dishes that you skipped earlier to enjoy after the sun has gone down is a great idea, too!
There’s probably more strategy than this, like a scientific approach to which direction around World Showcase you should go, the ideal moment to purchase items for maximum freshness, etc., but this is a solid plan of attack. After your second or third drink from one of the kiosks, you’ll be so oblivious to what’s going on that standing in line for snacks may not even bother you.
Fun for Kids at the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
Those of you with families and kids might be thinking that the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival sounds very adult. In some ways–many ways–it definitely is. However, as you can see in perusing the menus, there’s cuisine that’s appropriate for all ages, and many of the dishes aren’t strictly high-brow “foodie” cuisine–they’re fun and universally approachable. So there’s plenty for kids to eat.
Beyond that, there’s entertainment and fun for all ages. The big thing, beyond the fact that this all occurs in a theme park with attractions like Frozen Ever After, princesses, and other characters, is the scavenger hunts and culinary challenges. First, there’s Emile’s Fromage Montage–you sample a variety of delicious cheeses served in inventive ways, and collect a stamp for each on your “cheese crawl.” Collect all 5 stamps and bring the stamped Festival Passport to Shimmering Sips for a specialty prize unique to the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.
Finally, there’s Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak Scavenger Hunt. Embark on an adventure inspired by the Pixar film as you search for Remy on a savory scavenger hunt during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. Simply purchase your map and stickers from select Festival merchandise locations, then locate statuettes of Remy hidden all around World Showcase and match the ingredient stickers to your map. Once you’ve found them all, take your completed map to select gift shops and choose a surprise, compliments of Chef Remy!
Our pro tip here is to look at the prizes before purchasing the map. If they’re something you or your kids want, then buy the map. If not, do the scavenger hunt on your own without the map. It’s a fun activity either way, and the map is absolutely unnecessary to searching out the statues and having an enjoyable experience. We buy the map about half the time–the prizes are often good, and the price is usually fair by Walt Disney World merchandise standards.
Eat to the Beat! Concerts
America Gardens Bandstand – Local Central Florida bands to take the stage at America Gardens Theatre in World Showcase Tuesdays through Thursdays most weeks, when crowds are typically lower at EPCOT.
Eat to the Beat Concert Series – During these Eat to the Beat concerts, popular bands from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s perform some of their greatest hits for the Food & Wine Festival crowds. These concerts are included with park admission, and take place three times per evening on Fridays through Mondays at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.
No, you’re not going to find current big-name artists like ZZ Top or whatever the kids are listening to these days, but it’s a free concert in Walt Disney World. You can find the full line-up and performance dates on our Eat to the Beat Concert Series Schedule.
Food & Wine Festival Seminars & Events
In addition to the booths at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, there are normally a lot of events. Some of these are regular things like seminars that are offered on a daily basis, and are easily accessible to the average guest. (Again, nothing in this section has been confirmed for the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.)
Other offerings are premium special events (the use of both ‘premium’ and ‘special’ is basically Disneyspeak for ‘super-duper expensive.’) that are relatively unknown to the average guest and often sell out far in advance. We aren’t really fans of super-duper expensive stuff, but we are fans of words like free and low-cost.
For those looking to splurge on special events during Food & Wine, the slate of celebrity chefs might be of interest. These visiting chefs host a variety of daily demonstrations, Party for the Senses, grand tasting experiences, beverage and cheese seminars, and other events, all of which are a big part of the festival.
Past celebrity chefs have included Cooking Channel host Tiffani Thiessen and Richard Blais, Alex Guarnaschelli, Robert Irvine, Masaharu Morimoto, Buddy Valastro, Art Smith, and Carla Hall, plus many others.
Low-Cost Culinary Demonstrations – The low-cost culinary demonstrations are our favorite aspect of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. At $15 to $20 each, they offer a lot more than the free seminars, and a lot of times the samples you receive at these seminars are a better value than what you’d receive if you simply went around to booths and ordered items. In addition to the samples, you receive some basic background information and some entertaining presentations.
These seminars, in general, definitely are not geared to the same level of foodie audience as the special event meals, nor are the samples of the same caliber, but you get what you pay for. We have done several of these, and they generally offer the best value at the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. These low-cost seminars offer a good primer to the topic covered, plus pretty good samples.
Walt Disney World has a schedule of the culinary demos, and advance booking info on its Food & Wine Festival Culinary Demos page.
Premium Special Events
The EPCOT Food & Wine Festival features a number of special events, many of which are quite pricey. Like, over $100 per person in price as the starting price. Reviews for these events are often prefaced with “despite the cost, we enjoyed it…” (or something along those lines), so if there’s one that strikes you as being interesting and you have disposable income, consider giving it a try. Not all of them cost quite that much, but they aren’t cheap.
Here are just a handful of the many premium special events:
- Interactive Culinary Adventures – Held at select Walt Disney World Deluxe Resorts, these special events encourage guests to ask the experts, taste and cook alongside chefs.
- Sunday Brunch with the Chef – A 2-hour event featuring a breakfast buffet hosted by a culinary TV personality, and includes a sparkling wine toast as well as a meet-and-greet photo opportunity with the celebrity chef.
- Mix It, Make It, Celebrate It – This hands-on workshop gives guests the opportunity to learn from professional chefs in cake decorating, garnishing, cocktail mixing, and other culinary activities.
- Party for the Senses – The most popular special event of the Food & Wine Festival, this typically occurs on select dates in September, October, and November.
- What’s Cookin’ With – This features some of the country’s top celebrity chefs, beginning in the morning with a delightful plated brunch and sparkling wine toast. This starts with a demo, followed by the chefs answering questions from the audience and sharing their anecdotes.
Personally, I think there’s not just the standard Walt Disney World premium here, but also scarcity pricing, in that many of these events are extremely small. Disney knows there are enough guests with significant disposable incomes who won’t balk at high prices to fill the events. That’s just my take, though. Other Walt Disney World fans love these premium events!
Summary & Conclusion
If you like food, the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival should be a lot of fun for you. You don’t need to be a foodie to enjoy it, as there’s really something for everyone. Food & Wine Festival can be a great event and you don’t have to break the bank doing it, but it can also be expensive, crowded, hot, and unpleasant. Good planning and strategy makes all the difference in the experience you have. If you take away nothing else from this post, remember that.
We’ve done EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival multiple times each of the last several years and have generally enjoyed our experiences. In part, this is because we picked weekdays to visit, and had great luck with getting excellent food from the marketplace booths.
Additionally, there’s a ton to do. Even if you went to the park every day of Food & Wine Festival, you couldn’t experience it all, but you would go broke trying! We mention cost here a lot, and for good reason: you can spend a ridiculous amount of money without really trying. Just grazing the various booths for an afternoon can set you back a lot of money.
This isn’t meant to scare you away from the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. To the contrary, in fact. The event can be a tremendous amount of fun if you plan ahead, avoid the hordes of people on the weekend, and get lucky with mild weather. World Showcase feels like an actually living, breathing World Showcase during the festival, with a culinary focus.
Food & Wine is one of Walt Disney World’s most popular events of the year–for good reason. We typically spend a couple full weeks in EPCOT over the course of the event, eating our way around the park. Last year, we bought and ate over 100 snacks (literally), covering every dish at the event in our comprehensive Global Marketplace Food Photos, Reviews & Booth Menus: EPCOT Food & Wine Festival index.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For overviews of all of these topics and so much more, the best place to start is our comprehensive Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide to make the most of your experience!
Your Thoughts
Have you done the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World? What did you think? Any favorite marketplace booths or culinary demonstrations you’d recommend? Ever had any negative experiences? Have any tips of your own to share? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Our son and wife are bringing us down for our 50th wedding anniv and it is their 10th we want to celebrate together and surprise them too they went for1st time last yr and loved it we have not been any suggestions
Everything is very open with a really clear description of the issues.
It was definitely informative. Your website is useful.
Thank you for sharing!
We’re planning on going on November 10th to the festival. Have you ever been on the last day? I heard rumors that they run out of foods and I was wondering if there’s any truth to that? We can also go the day before on that Sunday, but were trying to avoid the crowds. Which would be best for us do you think?
Could you please tell me the dates for the 2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival< I am going to Orlando next year and i want to attend this festival when i am there.. Thankyou
The 2015 Epcot Food & Wine Festival dates have not yet been released. Expect them to be very similar to the 2014 dates.
Attended the Food and Wine 2014 yesterday, September 19. Was very disappointed that the Lobster Roll, for years my favorite food, has been removed from the menu. Substituted with Baked Lobster Alfredo that was ok, but not great.
New destination, Patagonia, had a great new addition, Roasted Verlasso Salmon with Quinoa Salad.
EPCOT has never been the most exciting park for me, but the boyfriend loves it for the nostalgia of going there with his German grandmother as a child. However, as a someone who loves to cook (and drink wine while cooking…) I could not be more excited for EPCOT this trip! We are especially excited that Terrapin will be there and plan to rock our Georgia gear that day. Anyway, I’m just excited about this upcoming trip and have to get all the “Disney talk” out of my system before I start driving coworkers crazy 🙂 Love your blog, Tom and Sarah!
As many have mentioned using snack credits at the Festival we had planned to save our snack credits to use on the first day of the Festival (which is our last day there). We noticed, however, that when we looked for information on the Disney website, it stated that the Dining Plan was not applicable at the Marketplace (food stands at the Festival). I called Disney to ask about it and was told that this year they will not accept snack credits at the Festival. Did this person tell me the wrong thing? I ask as it has been mentioned here that snack credits can be used.
Thanks for the info! I’m a lifelong Disneyland local and I am finally planning my first trip to WDW for Sept. 2015. I’m kind of OCD when it comes to vacation planning and Disney, so it can never be too early to start taking action. I notice this year the festival starts a week earlier than previous years. Wondering if I should book for the same weekend in 2015 or wait until 2015 dates are announced just to be safe. Your website is such a valuable resource so thanks in advance for helping me plan this trip of a lifetime.
Hi! First, thank you SO much for this website. It has been hugely helpful!
My wife and I LOVE Disney. We live in Alaska, yet we went to Disneyland last year, Disney World earlier this year, and next year (September 2015) is our 10th anniversary and we are planning a trip back to WDW during the Food & Wine Festival. Any idea when then may announce their 2015 festival dates?
Thanks!
I have the same question Adam! Planning my first WDW trip now for Sept 2015 and want to make sure I am there for Food and Wine. I know it usually begins in mid September. Just wish they would announce dates for it now. Never too early, right? Especially for over-planners such as myself.
Since I’m a real ‘Type A’ planner I enjoy spreadsheets way more than I should… Do you know of anyone who has compiled an excel doc listing the countries and their food and beverage offerings available at the Food and Wine Festival, and where I can find it online to download? If not, I will begin making my own I guess. Thanks!
I haven’t seen any, but I’m guessing someone on the Disboards has made them already!
Do you know anything about the gluten free options at the Food and Wine fest? Do they make these as we go around? Disney has always been the best place for someone like me to eat without getting contaminated and I’m really looking forward to the festival.
Sorry, no clue about the gluten free snacks at Food & Wine Festival. I’m sure there are some offered, though!
If you go to the official listing for the menus (link is in Tom’s article), Disney has marked the ones that are gluten-free. Looks like you will have LOTS of options!
Hi Jamie! There’s lots of gluten free websites out there, but I ended up using this one the most the last time I was in Disney. Hope it helps!
http://www.gfinorlando.com/2014/09/epcot-international-food-wine-festival.html
I will be attending the food and wine festival on it’s last day, Nov.10th. This is the only day I can attend. I’m going regardless, but am a little worried that being the last day of the festival, it will not be as good. Any advice on that? Very excited no matter what!!
I don’t think it will make a difference. It’s not like Flower & Garden Festival, where things start to die as the festival wears on.
Last year, we used our Disney Dining Plan snack points on filet mignon and lobster. That’s a much better use of snack points that soda or a bottle of water. The food and wine festival really is a great time.
Absolutely! Stockpiling up those snack credits for Food & Wine Festival is a must do. They are the absolute best uses of credits on the Disney Dining Plan, especially the expensive things like you mentioned.
This will be my 4th trip to F&W. It’s our favorite time to go to Disney World especially going later in the month when the weather is really nice. I think The festival is pretty easily planned out if you follow just a few guidelines. Go during the week (and in late October if you can when it is cooler and the crowd level is pretty low), pre-load a gift card and put it on your wrist, and plan out a menu so you know which booths to hit that day. Visiting during the week right when The Showcase opens is the single best piece of advice for anyone going for the first time. The crowds are dramatically lower Mon-Thurs. I remember my first visit was on a Sunday and it was packed so we left after an hour. We back the next day and the park felt empty on a Monday. Also, if you pre load a gift card with your budgeted amount for that day’s touring you save the pain of over spending which is really easy to do when hopping from booth to booth.
Personally, I think bloggers make too much of the frat atmosphere. World Showcase is a drinkers paradise year around so it doesn’t feel much different to me during food and wine.
The DFB has good tip that I haven’t tried which to bring a small tray that can fit in a backpack. Even on slower days there is limited space to set food down so you can eat.
That tray tip is a good one, but only if you’re carrying a bag that will fit it. I wouldn’t want to walk around the park with a tray in hand all day! 😉
Duffy looks too cute in his Food and Wine Festival apron. I want one!! 🙂
They typically have a new Food & Wine Festival Duffy each year. I think they’re usually some variation of this chef look. Definitely cute!
Great post Tom! Especially with the link to your previous favorites. I somehow missed that post before.
We’ve been to the F&W twice now and the MO we’ve developed is to peruse the menus at home before we go (and by “peruse” I mean study like there’s a F&W entrance exam) and then ask for 1 copy of the guide for each adult in the group at check in. When we have some downtime we each circle items that we want to try ( or try again) We take the guides with us to the park. We often split up to stand in lines when it’s busy- double the treats in the same amount of time
By the “guide,” I assume you mean the passport. I can’t believe I forgot to mention that! I always have fun getting those stamps, although sometimes I think that encourages over-buying just to get a stamp at each booth. I’m a total sucker…
I am a former Orlando resident and used to frequent Food and Wine quite often! I haven’t made it back to Orlando in the fall in many years and am excited I’ll be visiting this October with my boyfriend, sister, and her husband. I can’t wait! Great post as always! your site is a favorite of mine!
The real Dread Pirates Roberts retired ten years ago and is living like a king in Patagonia. AHA!
As you wish.
Did you go to college in Eastern Pennsylvania? I don’t know many places outside of that area that play beirut over beer pong….
Great tips. In 2012, we saw Sarah at F&W (last week of September/first week of October- don’t remember the date) but I didn’t want to be a pest. We did our real eating right after a thunderstorm. Amazing how the place cleared out. It was the perfect night- with Starship playing in the background!
We’ll be there this year the week of Oct 12. We’ve already printed the menu and highlighted our “must haves.”
Nope, college in Indiana. Last time we went back for homecoming, they were calling it beer pong. I guess beirut was an ‘old school’ thing.
I remember exactly the night you are talking about! Sarah and I got separated because I was taking sunset photos, and it started POURING. I got stuck on one side of the park and she got stuck on the other…and we both got soaked.
You should’ve said hello!
Thanks for the great post! My husband and I will be attending the Food and Wine Festival for the first time this September and we can’t wait! We were wondering about the best way to tackle it and as always your posts deliver!
One more tip that is not mentioned in the post but I figure I’ll add since you’ll be there in September. If you are there for the very start of the Festival, in the past it has always opened a day before the official start as a soft opening, of sorts. In our experience, this day is the lightest day for attendance.
Good to know! Thanks!
ALWAYS? We are there for the first weekend, but had planned to do Magic Kingdom the first half of our stay. Might want to change it around if it soft opens early. I want to avoid Food and Wine fest crowds as much as possible.
Hi Tom,
My husband and I are looking into the Food and Wine Festival,we have never gone. Do we only have to have Epcot park pass or is there a fee for the Wine Festival. ? Thank You
What time do kiosks open on the soft opening day? Is is all the kiosks or just some? I am wondering if I should cancel my restaurant reservations for the day of the soft opening. Thanks!