Hello. I'm going to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival for the first time this October and was wondering how much time I should allocate to this? I will be in WDW from October 26-31 and plan to see each park, have some rest and relaxation and hit the food and wine festival. I enjoy food and wine a lot.
Also, is the festival better in the late afternoon/early evening? That is when I typically enjoy walking around the World Showcase.
Thanks.
I have gone to the Food and Wine the past two years with friends for my birthday (in fact this year it actually starts on my birthday) and was able to do it in one day (of course we went back at least a second weekend to have our favorites from the festival again). The first year I went, there were 26 kiosks and I had food for over half of them (I was being adventurous and tried alot of new things, the ones I skipped had ingredients that I knew I did not like). Last year I did about the same. We started walking the countries shortly after the Worldshowcase opened so I guess it was about lunchtime and we made it around before the park closed.
Some tips
- Bring cash, they do have credit card readers but it is so much easier to use cash. Food is tapas style (small portions, a good taste for one or two people) and is between $2-5. There is of course wine or some other alcoholic beverage at as well which cost a bit more.
- If you are able to check the Disney site before you leave and download the festival guide it will list all the kiosks and what they are serving. It's easier to map out the ones you want to stop at.
- Some of the lines are long (especially at the beginning and end of the festival) so if you are with others, split up and wait on different lines to cut your wait time down and bring your eating food time up.
- Be prepared to eat standing up (or sitting on the ground). There are bar height tables and the normal benches scattered around but never enough to accomodate everyone, and it can be hard to try and cut your food while holding a plate, napkin and drink.
- If you go to the concert, unless it's someone you are a huge fan of, I would skip waiting in line to get seats in the arena. You can easily sit in front of the theatre that has the American Adventure and hear just as well, and there are tables and funnel cake there too.
Hope this helps.
Just thinking about it makes me hungry. :slurp::slurp:
