I 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.

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?

Never 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:  

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.

3. 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! 

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