Epcot’s Annual Food and Wine Festival remains one of the park’s most anticipated events every year. Even with Epcot’s festival lineup having doubled, the Food and Wine Festival remains king, and as of 2017, the celebration is available to guests longer than ever.
Maybe you’re a veteran of the Food and Wine Festival, or maybe it’s your first time. Want to get the most out of your visit? We gathered some of our best tips, tricks, and hacks to make the most of your culinary adventure.
1. Have a “must-try” list
Avocado Crema
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
While you certainly can have a blast swan diving head first into the Food and Wine Festival without any sort of plan, if you’re looking to get the most out of your festival day, it pays to know what your “non-negotiable” items are. No one wants to be in the position of spending your budget on an impulse disappointing corned beef only to realize you totally missed that Liquid Nitro Chocolate Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey Caramel you were dying to try. Even if you have carte blanche to enjoy what you want, eventually your stomach will give out if you aren’t selective with your choices (and no, the Epcot Food and Wine Festival does not serve those little ipecac shots from The Hunger Games so you can keep horking it down).
Finding menus, food pictures, and even detailed reviews on Food and Wine Festival items is not difficult. Do a quick Google search before you trip and take a look at the items available this year. Which ones speak to you? For example, during our visit, we knew without a doubt we wanted to hit the Beijing Roasted Duck Bao Bun in China, the Chocolate Picante at Flavors of Fire, and the Spicy Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew with Vegan Yogurt and Quinoa in Africa. All three ended up being some of our favorites, and we planned our festival explorations around hitting those three kiosks. Everything else we found was icing on the cake (literally, in the case of the exquisite Pistachio-Cardamom Cake in India).
You can track your list even more easily if you grab a festival passport available at most of the kiosks and the Festival Center. They even come with stickers you can use to mark which kiosks you visited!
2. Set a budget and share dishes to save
Image: Disney
This is the tip guests are most likely to ignore, but seriously—set yourself a budget. Especially if you are a foodie, it is very, very easy to get carried away at the Food and Wine Festival, particularly if you are imbibing in multiple drink flights.
Most of the dishes at the festival cost around $5-10. By checking menus ahead of time, you can get an idea what you are likely to spend. One method would be to take the amount you would normally spend on table service meals and use that as your budget. You also can have a Food and Wine Festival-specific budget. Just know what your limits are.
To stay within the budget, you can purchase Food and Wine Festival gift cards with a convenient wrist strap to use throughout the event. You can also bring your own gift cards or a limited amount of cash. The Tasting Sampler package (which gives you 8 dishes or drinks for $65) is not a good value unless you’re spending the entire thing on alcohol.
The best way to stay in budget? Share your dishes! Very few of the festival dishes are so tiny that two people couldn’t share enough for you both to get a taste. If you really love something, you can always get a second one. This allows you to try to more items and save while doing it.
3. Have a “Treat Yo Self” day
Pistachio Bundt Cake from India
Image: Disney
Have some breathing room in your budget? The Epcot Food and Wine Festival is the perfect opportunity to TREAT YO SELF.
Don’t know what that is? The premise is simple: give yourself enough flexibility on your festival day that if you see something you want to try that you normally wouldn’t, you just say TREAT YO SELF and do it. This is especially fun if you have a friend and want to try some new things.
I know what you’re thinking. We just said set a budget, right? While the original (and hilarious) Treat Yo Self concept from the show “Parks and Recreation” is a good way to end up in crippling debt in real life, taking the “Treat Yo Self” mentality with some boundaries in place is a surprisingly fun way to approach the Food and Wine Festival. Part of the fun of the festival is spontaneity, trying new things, and enjoying a little luxury and decadence you wouldn’t normally imbibe in. It’s a chance for a schoolteacher to feel like a queen sipping apple wine and a musician to feel like a rock star eating escargot croissants.
The key is to give yourself permission to have fun. Definitely hit your “must eat” items, but try to leave room for the unexpected during your explorations. The Avocado Crema and Jamaican Beefy Patty were both “Treat Yo Self” items we tried and loved. Even something as silly as the wacky Vanilla Tonic Water with Cotton Candy in the Light Lab proved enjoyable taking this mentality. The key is have fun, try something new, and take some opportunities to TREAT YO SELF!
4. Don’t skip the Festival Center (especially if you’re nostalgic)
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
The Festival Center is an extremely-easy-to-miss highlight of the Food and Wine Festival. Even with giant signs pointing the way, we had trouble locating it, tucked behind the now-deceased Universe of Energy.
Are you a fan of the Epcot of yesteryear? If you are, you will be delighted to learn that the Festival Center is housed in the old “Wonders of Life” pavilion. Not much has changed inside this lost marvel, and it really is a fantastic location. Enjoy it while you can as rumors suggest that the new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster will take up the ground currently held by both Universe of Energy and this forgotten legend.
Inside the Festival Center, you can cool down, peruse a wide range of festival merchandise, and enjoy cooking demonstrations by respected chefs. Annual Passholders can pick up exclusive buttons and other souvenirs. Wine connoisseurs can watch a short film about the process of wine-making, then peruse a full selection of vintages available for purchase (there may be professional sommeliers signing bottles when you visit). You can even get free chocolate samples at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience, and if you have kids, you can pick up a packet to sign them up for the year’s festival scavenger hunt (currently it is based on Ratatouille). Don’t miss this place!
5. Drain all those pesky low balance gift cards
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
We did find one surprising hack that we absolutely loved for our Food and Wine Festival visit. In our previous articles about tricks to save money at Disney World, we talked about how you can drain low balance debit-style gift cards at Disney World by splitting your purchases between two cards. Some Disney cashiers know how to do this, others don’t.
We were thrilled to discover that the credit card machines at the Food and Wine Festival drain many low balance gift cards automatically. Just hand the cashier your low balance card, let them know it may or may not process since it’s a low balance card, then have them run it like normal. The amount that was on your gift card is reduced from your price, and you can pay the rest using a normal card.
A few things about this method. First off, there are no guarantees it will work for everyone. Credit card machines are finicky, and cast members are under no obligation to make this wacky hack work. Second, try to limit using this trick to less than three cards per kiosk and even less if there is a long line. When your receipt is printed, it will spit out as many receipts as you used cards. You only need one to get your dish.
This ended up allowing us to get a handful of extra dishes using otherwise-inaccessible pocket change. We were even able to drain some pesky cards that only had like $.30 cents on them. By and large, the cast members were very helpful, and we showered them with gratitude for their assistance.
6. Avoid getting sloshed on tiny drink flights
Image: Disney
One big catch about the Food and Wine Festival is that, if you are partaking in any drink flights or trying alcoholic beverages from multiple booths, you are extremely likely to get tipsy. Just stop and take a moment to watch passerbys during the Festival. If you’re a Disney regular, you’ll probably recognize a lot more giggling groups, bleary eyed faces, and romping lumberjacks than usual (okay, maybe only in the Canada pavilion).
It is extremely easy at the Food and Wine Festival to mix beer, wine, and liquors without realizing it. Particularly on wine flights, the cups are so tiny that it feels like you aren’t drinking anything at all. This can catch some guests unawares—even those who normally can hold their alcohol. While being a little tipsy might be fun for some, getting hammered or completely sick at Disney World isn’t the best way to enjoy your day. It also puts you at higher risk for dehydration.
Image: Disney
If you will be drinking at the Food and Wine Festival, make it a priority to stay hydrated. Bring a refillable water bottle with you, and refill it regularly at drink fountains. Every chance you get to pick up a free cup of water from a quick service station, do it. Not only will this help your tolerance, but it will prevent you from getting dehydrated, which can come on extremely quick in the Florida sun. Don’t count on alcohol to hydrate you. It can actually have the opposite effect. If you catch yourself getting woozy to the point you don’t feel well, head straight to First Aid next to the old Oddysey restaurant, and they will get you cooled down and rehydrated.
Second, pace yourself, and try to always pair drinks with food. Share a tasting flight with a friend rather than each getting your own. You can always get more if you really enjoy something. Take regular rests in air-conditioned spaces, and definitely do not– I repeat DO NOT go on Mission: SPACE Orange Team if you have been drinking your way around the world (and no, that is not a viable means of “freeing up a bit of room” for one more Tipsy Laird).
What are your favorite tricks for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival?
