Category Archives: Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

WDW in October – What we Plan

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Epcot in SummerJust 52 days from now, Raymond and I will be off on our dream vacation – solo, alone, sans kids, as a couple – and pretty stoked about it (in case you were wondering).  Yes, indeed, we’re celebrating quite a few things at our house this year – Raymond and I both have milestone birthdays, our 25th wedding anniversary is this fall, and, after the first year, we’ve adapted (admirably, in my opinion) to our empty-nested-ness.  Time for a well deserved sort of second honeymoon!

Trying not to break my own Walt Disney World vacation planning rules, we’ve tried to strike the perfect balance between over- and under-planning.  Usually, when we hit the World as a Epcot's World Showcasefamily, we rope-drop, park-hop and squeeze as many rides, attractions, and experiences into each day as possible.  I’ve always been a little envious of those travelers who have the luxury of not planning blocks of time between parks and FastPass+ appointments.  I’ve wanted to try being one of these UN-planners and now is my opportunity!  I’ve also asked a bunch of you guys out there on social media and really tried to take your excellent advice to heart (see Safari Mike’s Food & Wine Festival tips here).  On 3 of our 7 nights there, we have no ADRs – this is unprecedented UN-planning!

DVC Resort Bay Lake Tower / Walt Disney WorldI’ve divided our plans into three categories –

  1.  Must Do – Includes special events we’ve pre-paid for and some plans we’re super excited about – all are things we have never experienced before,
  2. It’s on the Agenda – the things we’d love to fit in if at all possible, and
  3. If We Get to It – the rest of our plans that we hope we get to, but we will be okay if we have to pass.

Let’s get on with the plans…

Must Do –

  • Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party – We’ve heard so many positive reviews and comments about this seasonal bash, we can’t pass up the chance to see what all the Epcot's France Pavilion / Monsieur Paulhubbub’s about.  I’m working on a couple of semi-costumed looks for the big event.
  • Italian Food & Wine Pairing – Gosh, there’s nothing about the sound of that we don’t love!  Available at Via Napoli, Italy Pavilion, 1:30 – 3:30 pm on Thursdays during the Festival.
  • French Regional Lunch – This takes place at the French Pavilion’s Monsieur Paul (Fridays and Sundays during the Festival) from Noon – 3:30 and includes 4 courses (highlighting a specific region of France) and information on the wine pairings from a visiting winery representative.
  • Dinner at California Grill – We haven’t eaten at this restaurant (Contemporary Resort) since it’s extensive refurbishment in 2013.  This is our official Anniversary Dinner Celebration.
  • Massage for Two at the Senses Spa (Grand Floridian Resort) – It sounds romantic and relaxing – just the ticket for a trip like this one!
  • Tutto Gusto in Epcot's ItalyEpcot After Hours Wind Down – This sounds like the perfect way to end an evening (especially during Food & Wine).  We’ve got FastPass+ for special seating at Illuminations before we head on over to Tutto Gusto (Italy Pavilion) for a late night snack and wine flight.
  • FastPass+ for Meeting Talking Mickey Mouse – Why not?  We haven’t seen the Big Cheese in this new high-tech version and I’m a big advocate of at least one character meet-n-greet on every Disney vacation.  I picked this one.
  • Dinner at Sanaa – This is on the evening of our fist day.  We have to visit Animal Kingdom Lodge (unbreakable tradition for every trip) and have yet to try Sanaa after hearing its praises sung repeatedly.  Now’s the perfect time!

It’s on the Agenda –

  • Dinner at Citrico’s (Grand Floridian Resort)- We’ve never been before, so we made an ADR.Festival of Fantasy Parade  If something interferes with this, we won’t be heartbroken – it was just something new to try that sounded good.  Since it’s on the monorail loop, it’s an easy ride back to the Contemporary (we’re staying at Bay Lake Tower).
  • Dinner at Be Our Guest – If there’s anyway possible to make this into a lunch, we’re doing that instead.  I’ve not heard the food’s all that great, but getting inside for a look around was on my Disney New Year’s Resolutions list and I’m running out of time to get that accomplished.
  • FastPass+ for the Festival of Fantasy Parade.  We loved this parade when we saw it for the first time in May and would like to see it from the special FP+ area this time.
  • Trying a certain 10 of the 66 special dishes at the Food & Wine Festival booths.  I let Raymond pick these by himself for two reasons:  First of all, I chose all our FastPasses without asking for his input and second, Raymond’s a more discriminating diner than I am – Let’s face it; if it’s food, I’ll eat it.  Pretty much everything sounds good to me!  It’s “All in WDW” had the list Raymond used to make his selections here.  I’ll share our 10 foods in another post (coming soon) and write up a review on each when we get back.

Schofferhoffer Grapefruit BeerIf We Get to It –

  • The rest of the FastPasses I selected.  I did pick some in each park, but if we don’t get to them all, no big deal.  One day for Epcot, I was somehow allowed to only choose two, probably because the first one is for 6:00 pm.  We’re taking it easy, ride-wise.
  • Specialty beers and adult beverages around the World Showcase.  We know those will be available and would like to sample a few.
  •  The Kiss Goodnight in the Magic Kingdom.  That would require us to make it to park closing and beyond, but it’s been recommended and we’re going to do our best to be there Cinderella Castle at Nightfor it one night.
  • Electric Water Pageant – We haven’t seen it in a few years and I love this perky little show on the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.  Hopefully, we’ll get back to Bay Lake Tower early enough one evening to catch at least some of the pageant.

I’d like to give a BIG Shout Out to the Mighty Men of Mouse – the podcast that gives back!  In exchange for an iTunes review, the hosts of this show (Russ Shuttlesworth, Kip Springfield, and Dutch Lombrowski) will give you “Three Good Minutes” on their show, discussing a topic of your choosing.  I emailed the Mighty Men recently, having finally decided on a topic (I left a review back in January) and requested ideas for our October vacation.  Thank you, Mighty Men of Mouse (Episode 167)!  Many of your suggestions were incorporated in the plans detailed in this post.

As always, I’d love to hear from you!  Anything you think we should add, change, skip?  What Must-do’s have you planned for your next trip to Walt Disney World?

So It’s Not the Food & Whine Festival

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View of World ShowcaseI had a moment of panic today when I thought we might have a problem with our upcoming trip to Walt Disney World for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.  We might have erred, made a mistake, screwed up, taken a wrong turn.  We have certainly looked forward to this particular trip for years (and years!) – I realized today that our expectations could possibly be a tad too high – we might have set ourselves up to be disappointed.  Food & Wine rookie mistake?  Perhaps.

I’d been determined to use my existing knowledge of WDW vacation strategies along with some tips and suggestions from friends, websites, and podcasts to make sure we have a great time – regardless of the weather, the crowd levels, the price tags.  It is our 25th anniversary trip after all and we want it to be memorable – in a good way. Wine Wall in Epcot's Tutto Gusto

The source of my panic…

Do you know Safari Mike?  He and his buddy Dave McBride host the Radio Harambe Podcast – which is one of my absolute favorite, not-to-be-missed shows (no, it’s not your imagination, I do have a bunch of favorite Disney podcasts).  Anyway, on the latest episode of Radio Harambe, Mike said some rather negative things about the Food and Wine Festival – yes, the very event I’ve been waiting years and years to finally attend!  Imagine my horror – my lonely little self, driving along in the car on the way to work, happily enjoying the show and POW!  Waves of doubt came crashing over me!  What if the trip we’d used as a carrot to keep us going through our children’s teen years was not going to be the magical, epic, spectacular week (alone, at last!)  we were envisioning?

Epcot's World ShowcaseNever one to sit and brood, I went straight to the source and reached out to Safari Mike on Twitter.  I asked him for some details about the cause of his somewhat sour attitude toward the event at the heart of Raymond’s and my dream trip.  Mike cleared everything right up for me – it seems that if you go to Food & Wine several times, you become quite familiar with its pros and cons.  Mike offered some valuable tips I’ll share with you now.  I’ll be new to Food & Wine and don’t yet have any tricks and strategies of my own – but with Mike’s help, you and I can make sure that our first visit to Food & Wine doesn’t turn out to be food & whine.

Safari Mike’s Advice and Tips for Enjoying the Food & Wine Festival:  China Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase

1. Weekdays at lunchtime and early afternoon are great times to enjoy the festival – This is good news!  I’d prepared for this by planning to spend Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning/early afternoon at Epcot with no plans other than sampling good eats and drinks and soaking in the festival’s atmosphere.

2. Be prepared for crowds and pricey food – Not much we can do about the crowds except by trying to mostly follow tip #1, but we’re attempting to combat the prices by purchasing a bunch of discounted gift cards in advance.  We can buy $150-worth of cards at our local big box club for $143.  No, it’s not much, but if we set aside the money and stick with the cards for a budget, it’ll keep sticker shock at bay.

Germany Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase3. Expect a different World Showcase experience – the atmosphere of World Showcase is not as it usually is – don’t expect to enjoy it the same way as during other time of the year.  This is also good news for us since we had a wonderful time enjoying our favorite World Showcase pavilions, stores, and restaurants during our May visit.

4. Hit the most popular booths early – I’m pretty sure I know what these are, but a little extra research is in order.  I’ve read that there will be something like 66 different specialty food offerings available.  If I can narrow that list down to a dozen or so we’d really like to try, I think that’ll be doable.

5. The Food & Wine Festival and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party are two events every Walt Disney World fan should try.  That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.  Mike may have been the one to throw me into a bit of a panic, but he was also the one to calm me back down.  We are going to Food & Wine and Mickey’s Not So Scary and we are Walt Disney World fans.  I think we’ve got this.

Got any tips and tricks for Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival?  Please leave them in comments! 

Follow Safari Mike (@JamboEveryone) on Twitter.

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Give Radio Harambe a listen!

Be sure to check out the Jambo Everyone blog, too.

53 Days in Autumn – Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival

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Epcot in SummerIn case you’re new here or have somehow missed the first 15 times I’ve made this announcement – I am going to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival for the first time this year!  I’m pretty stoked about it, too, as is my husband, Raymond.  See, we’ll be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in September and this trip will be like a second honeymoon.  We’ve been dreaming, planning, and discussing visiting Walt Disney World during Food & Wine for a long time.  I love it when dreams come true, don’t you?

Food & Wine runs this year from September 19th to November 10th.  Raymond andView of World Showcase I will get to experience this special event for 7 days in October.  Mostly, we’ve always wanted to take advantage of all the limited-time food and beverage offerings – the ones everyone with an Epcot park ticket can enjoy at the special kiosks and booths set up for the event’s duration – all the food from different countries not normally represented in Epcot.  According to the Disney Food Blog, this year more than 25 marketplace booths will feature culinary samples from countries including Scotland, Brazil, Argentina and Chili (together in the Patagonia booth), Greece, Puerto Rico, and many more.  You’d think this would be enough, but I was thinking…

Epcot's France / Window DisplayA huge variety of special events within the main event are offered ranging from cooking demonstrations ($15 per person) to food and beverage pairings ($55) to cheese seminars ($79) to Parisian Breakfasts at Les Chefs de France ($39) and also a swanky sounding Italian White Truffle and Wine Pairing Dinner for a whopping $295 per person.  We’ve got only 4 ADRs (advance dining reservations) booked for the week and we’ve got tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party one evening.  That leaves plenty of time to book a couple of really special (romantic even) Food & Wine extra events for the two of us, right?

I’ve narrowed down the choices to a few things I thought we would enjoy that (sort of) fit into our budget and sound a little romantic.  Feel free to weigh in with comments and/or suggestions…Remember, we’ve never been to WDW for Food & Wine before and would welcome any tips and pointers you could offer.

So here’s what I was considering…

French Regional Lunch at Monsieur Paul ($135) – either the “Tour De France” version or the “Bordeaux, Cedric Villars, Les Domaines de Rothschild” session.  Either one will fit in our Epcot's France Pavilion / Monsieur Paulschedule.  They both begin at noon and end at 3:30 pm.  The Disney Food Blog describes this as “Have a four course lunch and learn about paired wines throughout the meal from a winery principle.”  That sounds suitably romantic to me…what do you think?

Another option I think we would like is either the Italian Food & Wine Pairings ($83) or the Italian Food & Beer Pairings ($76).  Both are held at Via Napoli which we’ve heard so many great things about, but have yet to try.  Either option, again, fits into our schedule – can go either Tuesday (beer) or Thursday (wine) from 1:30 – 3:30 pm.  How can we go wrong with Italian food and libations?

Epcot's Morocco Pavilion / Spice Road TableFinally, there are Food & Wine Pairings available at three other restaurants for $55 per person.  Choices include Tokyo Dining, Spice Road Table and Restaurant Marrakesh.  It’s been years since we’ve eaten in the Japan Pavilion and we’ve never eaten in Morocco.  We like to try new things, but I’m just not sure.  These are offered in the afternoon on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Advice is welcome!

Okay – Please!  If you’ve been to Food & Wine or even if you just have an opinion and want to weigh in – help me decide what extra special add-ons we need to make our first Food & Wine Festival experience the best it can be.