{"id":31079,"date":"2013-09-27T05:50:19","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T09:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=31079"},"modified":"2022-05-04T20:38:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T00:38:49","slug":"foodie-friday-tips-epcots-international-food-wine-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/foodie-friday-tips-epcots-international-food-wine-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Foodie Friday:  Tips for Epcot&#8217;s International Food and Wine Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_0800-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-31081\" alt=\"IMG_0800 copy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_0800-copy-300x223.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_0800-copy-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/IMG_0800-copy.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today is the day!\u00a0 The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival is here!\u00a0 For those of us who love to eat at Walt Disney World, it&#8217;s like Christmas!<\/p>\n<p>With the past couple of posts, I shared with you a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/2013\/09\/foodie-friday-preview-epcot-international-food-wine-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">preview<\/a> of what the Festival will offer, in the way of food and beverages, as well as what other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/2013\/09\/foodie-friday-epcot-international-food-wine-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">activities<\/a> you shouldn&#8217;t miss when visiting.\u00a0 (I did mention how much I love drinking chocolate, right?)\u00a0 Today, I thought I would help and share some great tips for enjoying the festival.\u00a0 It&#8217;s such a huge event and I don&#8217;t want you to miss out on something!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li>To avoid the biggest crowds, try to visit during the weekdays.\u00a0 The weekends are crazy crowded with locals who love attending the event and flock the booths in droves.\u00a0 By far, the best days to visit the Festival are Monday-Thursday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another tip in avoiding crowds is to start experiencing the booths when they first open at 11 am.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As the day wanes on, the crowds tend to get bigger, causing larger waits for booths and less tables to dine at.<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of tables, I will admit, they are often few and far between.\u00a0 Disney is getting a bit better about including more areas to eat at, but just keep in mind that you may have trouble finding a place to sit.\u00a0 So, don&#8217;t pass up that trash can as a table&#8230;trust me&#8230;while not ideal, it works.<\/li>\n<li>Bring something to carry your food around with you.\u00a0 You&#8217;re going to be given these take-out &#8220;plates&#8217; of food and if you have more than one item you&#8217;re ordering, it can be difficult to carry it all, especially while finding a table.\u00a0 Disney is selling little tray like plates that have a spot for your food and beverage, consider picking one up.<\/li>\n<li>While it&#8217;s Fall, it&#8217;s also still really hot in WDW this time of year.\u00a0 (Trust me&#8230;I&#8217;ve been visiting the past 3 years!) so make sure to hydrate with water when walking around the promenade.\u00a0 In addition, make sure to take in some of the shows and attractions around World Showcase.\u00a0 There have been days when I have been so close to over-heated.<\/li>\n<li>DON&#8217;T plan on eating everything in one day.\u00a0 The Epcot Food and Wine Festival is a lot of food and you feel very full if you try to eat everything you want in one sitting.\u00a0 Take in the event for at least a couple of days.\u00a0 If you cannot, make sure to share your portions with someone else.\u00a0 It will help.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve already done this, but if you haven&#8217;t check out the menus ahead of time and get a game plan.\u00a0 While things may change while you&#8217;re there, at least you&#8217;ll have a general idea of what you want.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(I&#8217;m guilty of this&#8230;I&#8217;ll have a few things planned out and then when I get there, something on the menu at that particular time looks really good.\u00a0 I just have to have it.\u00a0 It has happened to me literally every year.)<\/li>\n<li>Want a fun way to remember what you&#8217;ve eaten, as well as serve as a great souvenir?\u00a0 Pick up a Marketplace Passport, which can be stamped at each booth.\u00a0 Each one has it&#8217;s own unique stamp!<\/li>\n<li>Pick up a Festival gift card.\u00a0 Put a set amount of money on it (so you know how much you&#8217;re spending.\u00a0 Nothing worse than budgeting $100 for food and drinks only to discover that you&#8217;ve actually spent $200!)\u00a0 This gift card can be reloaded AND has a bungee cord attached so you can wear it on your wrist for easy access.\u00a0 You can put any amount on it that you want.<\/li>\n<li>Did you know that you can use your Disney Dining Plan Snack Credits on many of the options during the Festival?\u00a0 This is by far one of the best uses of your snack credits, as many items can be upwards of $5 that are included.\u00a0 Make sure to look out for the Disney Dining Plan logo on the Marketplace Booth menus.<\/li>\n<li>I have children&#8230;will they like the Festival?\u00a0 There&#8217;s a lot of dishes on the menus that look a little weird (even for me&#8230;I am a pickier eater) so while it may seem like there&#8217;s not a lot of options for kids, have them try a little bit of something that you&#8217;ve ordered for yourself.\u00a0 Who knows&#8230;they could end up LOVING it.\u00a0 In addition, some booths do offer things that are more kid friendly.<\/li>\n<li>This goes for adults too&#8230;try new things.\u00a0 These are tapas sized portions you&#8217;re getting.\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t like something, you shouldn&#8217;t feel guilty throwing it away.\u00a0 Or passing it off to someone else in your group who does enjoy it.\u00a0 I have tried something every year I was leery about (I told you&#8230;I&#8217;m picky&#8230;) and each year I come up with something else that joins my I Love It List.\u00a0 (Of course, I still don&#8217;t think I could eat escargot&#8230;)\u00a0 This is also why I have yet to stand in the Italy Marketplace Booth line&#8230;I can get great Italian food at home&#8230;I want something unique and the festival certainly delivers on that.<\/li>\n<li>Every year there is a cookbook sold that includes Disney recipes from both the event, as well as from some of the restaurants.\u00a0 If you&#8217;ve ever wanted to cook Disney food at home, this is your best chance to do so.<\/li>\n<li>If you want to catch the Eat to the Beat Concert for that night, consider going to the earliest showing, which is at 5:00 pm.\u00a0 The later it gets, the more people start to pack the auditorium.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure to get to any seminars you&#8217;ve signed up for early.\u00a0 Seating is limited and if you want a spot close up, those spots will go quickly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whew&#8230;ok&#8230;that&#8217;s a lot of tips&#8230;but not every tip for enjoying the Festival.\u00a0 If there&#8217;s something that you can think of that I missed, about ANYTHING relating the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, make sure to let me know in the comments section.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, if you are going to the Festival, make sure to click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/walt-disney-world\/planning\/events\/food-and-wine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> for even more info about the event.<\/p>\n<p>Also, to help either with planning, or while down there, make sure to\u00a0 check out the Food and Wine Checklist!\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/a.pgtb.me\/N2TqKx\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">http:\/\/a.pgtb.me\/N2TqKx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned, as next Friday, I&#8217;ll actually be down there for the event&#8230;so be on the lookout for a future article in a couple of weeks all about my experience with this year&#8217;s Festival.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t wait!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the day!\u00a0 The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival is here!\u00a0 For those of us who love to eat at Walt Disney World, it&#8217;s like Christmas! With the past couple of posts, I shared with you a preview of what the Festival will offer, in the way of food and beverages, as well&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":31081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1688,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wdw-dining","category-walt-disney-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84695,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31079\/revisions\/84695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}