2017 Epcot Food and Wine Festival beginning August 31st

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Epcot has to be one of the most photographed and video recorded locations on the planet.

You would think there would be at least a few documented examples of the issues people cite.

The fact that there don't seem to be suggests that the problems people complain about are few and far between.

I'm not saying there are zero incidents of boorish behavior at Food & Wine festival, but there's no supporting evidence for claims that it's a steady stream of obnoxious behavior and wasted patrons.
It is actually ranked 3rd on the most Instagramed places in Florida.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/12/01/whats-most-instagrammed-place-every-state/94701900/
 

Simba's Mom

Well-Known Member
Anyone ever dare ponder that F&W might keep getting longer because it's popular and the public might be demanding more days of it?

Food, or wine, for thought...

Jimmy Thick- Bueller....? Bueller....?

I agree! And we haven't seen any more drunks during the F&W than at any other time of the year. DH says that at the prices and size or the drinks sold, you'd have to be super-rich and/or have a low tolerance for alcohol to get very drunk. However, I think it may be more that we avoid Epcot after dinner time, and NO weekends, any hour.
 

LuvtheGoof

DVC Guru
Premium Member
Haven't been there in 2 years, but based on my experiences there:

And at least one year, they actually SOLD a tray for you to carry your food.
We go every year, and what you state about the food simply isn't true. We sampled many of the booths, and the food was excellent to outstanding this past year.

Oh, and they still sell the trays. We bought a few more just last year.

Then you can't comment on the quality of the food this past year, which was nearly universally excellent. I had a few things that were so-so, but plenty of terrific things that I most certainly couldn't easily make at home.
Yup, completely agree that the food was universally excellent. We can say the same for this years Flower & Garden. Not one bad bite in the bunch of booths that we tried.
 

jakeman

Well-Known Member

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
So it was overall a more relaxed experience than even a weekday at Food and Wine.
Let me ask you -- how prevalent were the "big t-shirt groups" at Flower & Garden? You know, the groups wearing custom shirts that say something like "drinking around the world!" or has some Disney character getting drunk on them? They were everywhere at the last F&W fest I went to, and made the environment pretty gross.
 

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Let me ask you -- how prevalent were the "big t-shirt groups" at Flower & Garden? You know, the groups wearing custom shirts that say something like "drinking around the world!" or has some Disney character getting drunk on them? They were everywhere at the last F&W fest I went to, and made the environment pretty gross.
Typical for a day at Epcot. We were there on a Sunday though.

We've steered clear from F&W on Fridays and Saturdays for several years now just based on crowds (not the behavior of such). So during the week the groups that you mention are elevated during F&W but we've only encountered a handful of misbehaving ones over the course of the 15 years we've annually attended. It's increased over the years since Disney started marketing towards locals, but I've never found it as intolerable as some here have maintained.

Flower and Garden very much reminded the wife and I of what Food and Wine used to be a decade ago and Epcot is beautiful. I hope it stays that way.
 

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
We've steered clear from F&W on Fridays and Saturdays for several years now just based on crowds (not the behavior of such)
Absolutely, to be clear, I never experienced 'drunkytown' or big groups behaving poorly, just extremely large crowds and very long lines on weekends. The only people truly misbehaving I've seen in the 8+ years I've been going to F&W have been some teenagers joyriding on scooters and running into people. It's never been intolerable. I've just noticed the homemade shirts getting more and more... borderline in terms of taste and family-friendliness to the point of being amazed they were allowed through the gate.
 

rael ramone

Well-Known Member
We go every year, and what you state about the food simply isn't true. We sampled many of the booths, and the food was excellent to outstanding this past year.

Oh, and they still sell the trays. We bought a few more just last year.


Yup, completely agree that the food was universally excellent. We can say the same for this years Flower & Garden. Not one bad bite in the bunch of booths that we tried.

Quoted twice on a post made 5 1/2 months ago on the same day....cool......

That said I stand by what I originally said. Haven't been in the last two years, but after going to the event for just about every year since 2001 I saw a pronounced decline in the quality AND quantity of the samples that they paired with a huge jump in price (and this decline added to a reason to not to continue to go during a time of year that is more crowded and has higher prices). The Cheddar Cheese Soup was always good, but that can be made at home (and I have).
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
One of the things we liked about Flower and Garden, which we attended for the first time in ten years this year, was how much more manageable the number of booths were.

Also, the locals don't really know/care about it...yet. So it was overall a more relaxed experience than even a weekday at Food and Wine.


It really was. I had a great enjoyable time. I sampled quite a bit and found everything tasty and portions were decent. I was happy overall. And you can't beat how beautiful they make the park.
 

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
Never seen that, thankfully.
I'm in no way a prude, but it was bad enough this year that I sent a complaint in and got a call from customer service to chat. They basically said that they're in a weird position; on one hand they appreciate the effort people go to with custom shirts, but huge groups with borderline-unacceptable shirts make the CMs at the gate into the 'morality police', judging whether to ask a 30-person group to all turn their shirts inside out, etc, and that it's hard to police that many people's attire. They said they'd gotten lots of complaints this past year and are trying to figure out how to fix the issue.
 

ChrisM

Well-Known Member
Oh, and they still sell the trays. We bought a few more just last year.

Because I'm a lazy and the mere concept of THE GOOGLE is too much for my pea brain to comprehend, lest actually use, tell me of these trays. Do they have slot to hold a drink? Where can they be purchased?
 

ChrisM

Well-Known Member
I successfully jumped the railing and saved the lives of the extended Johansson family from Minneapolis. Probably the biggest day of my WS lagoon life guarding career.

And you have the thanks of a grateful (Tapestry of) nation(s).
 

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
tell me of these trays. Do they have slot to hold a drink? Where can they be purchased?
They were pretty handy, actually -- they were clear plastic trays with enough room for a few food items and a cupholder built in. With so little 'table space' available at F&W they were far preferable to using the top of a trash can or something. They sold them at the Festival Center (Wonders of Life) and the F&W merch booths.
 

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