Disney’s Food and Wine Fest!

Every year Disney World’s Epcot Center hosts the Food and Wine Festival from September until mid-November. It is a collection of food and wine from around the world! The tastings range in a variety of accessible wines less than $20 at your local grocery stores to premium wines and decadent things like chocolatey treats and international beer and ale.

Since it is such a big event I wanted to share a quick guide for you and tips on how to get the most out of your experience (aka avoid my mistakes lol).

First, you should know how this festival works. You will need to buy admission to the park. The festival starts at 11 am. The food is not included in this cost. You will need to pay for the wine pours or food and those are served in a tasting size. So the food is served in a tapas style portion. Wine or beer a small tasting portion. They will provide you a small container for the food but it is very helpful to buy a tray to put the food and drink on as you will be walking from stand to stand. It is affordable around 7 dollars.

 

The food is set up in 2 places: The Wonders of Life Pavillion toward the middle of the park and in the World Showcase (Also called Around the world)…this is the large area at the back of the park with the various countries recreated so you can visit and learn more about their culture like Mexico, France, Germany etc. In the midst of these large countries, you can find small stands with menu signs that will display the food and wine available and the cost to purchase each. One note – I would buy a gift card if you are not staying at a Disney property (if you are staying you can use your magic band to purchase everything). Disney Gift Cards are small and on a bracelet, making it easy for you to walk around with and not lose. This way you will not have to open your wallet each time you purchase something.

The food is delicious. My fave was Australia where I tried lamb chops and a delicious ale.

The World Showcase is over a mile around so lemme share what I learned about what not to do when you go…(aka how I messed this up lol).

1. *shouts in a bullhorn* GO TO EPCOT FIRST! – Look, there are other parks with bigger attractions but you will wear yourself out if you go to those first. We went to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom (in the same day) and walked over 19,000 steps! We were so tired that when we got to Epcot the next day and went to lots of other rides before the festival started at 11, we were exhausted from the heat by the time we should get to eating.
2. Share the food – You will be full if you eat each individual tasting alone. My niece shared this pointer with me. You need to split everything or you will be full and ready to go (as I was) and you won’t see half of the countries or more to the point, try much food.
3. Split the festival up – if you can buy park hopper tickets for your trip, I would go to Animal Kingdom and then come back to Epcot to eat again. The food is great and you could divide your eating and enjoy even more over time.

I really loved this festival and cannot wait to return. I have my pointers all ready to go and I look forward to sharing even more great experiences with you from the Epcot food and wine festival in 2018! In the meantime in between time, I am sharing more pix and videos below. I hope you enjoy aka Bon appetit!

xo Danie

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