Epcot Food & Wine Festival – Is it too much?

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Travel Review

Epcot Food & Wine Festival – Is it too much?

Roller coasters make me sick, so therefore it probably comes as no surprise that despite living in Florida my whole life, I’ve never ventured outside of Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  Epcot is an awesome place to visit.  When I was a kid, it was the closest I could get to actually traveling the world.  I’d do anything I could to visit there, so I could see their exhibits of countries in the World Showcase section of the park.  The World Showcase section of the park doesn’t open until 11am, so I’m  usually killing time in the main section of the park until it opens.

When I heard about the Food & Wine festival, I had to go check it out!  Aside from the usual countries exhibited in the World Showcase, Epcot brings in samplings of food and wine from a variety of cuisines and cultures from around the world!  What’s not to love!?  Here’s my take on it.

The Food
The food ranges from good to amazing.  There was nothing I had at the festival that I didn’t like very much.  The problem is how it is served.  There are small little food stands (kinda like the ones you’d expect to get an ice cream at), but everyone has a massive line of people waiting to order.  I knew the food wasn’t going to be cheap.  I paid about $5 two inches of sausage and a tablespoon of sauerkraut on it.  I also paid about $8 for piece of manicotti about half the size you’d see in a small frozen dinner.  It tasted good yes, but was it worth paying that much for such a small piece and having to wait in line for a while….questionable.

The Wine
Similar issue.  Small portions, long wait, expensive.

The Festival
Going to the food and wine festival in Epcot and expecting to fill up on the samples of food alone will easily cost you a ton of money.  We got so tired of trying to get in at each of these tiny carts which were squeezed into the most random parts of the world showcase.  I remember one food stand was shoved in between a bathroom and Japan.  Another seemed almost in the middle of the sidewalk with the lines causing a human traffic jam.

After a couple hours of this, we decided to simply just go eat at one of the restaurants in the World Showcase.  My fiancé chose Morocco, and for $16 each we had a delicious, 3 course meal, in a nice restaurant with air conditioning, and it was not crowded at all.  As I was paying the bill, I was thinking how Epcot is nice enough on its own, and that it doesn’t need the food and wine festival.  I feel that the festival and Epcot are actually doing a disservice to each other.
My Two Cents
The festival would be much better if it were done at a separate location.  Food vendors could spread out, people wouldn’t be sitting on curbs, railings, and trash cans eating their tiny food samples.  There would be room for tables.  Vendors could sell gifts and have bigger displays representing their cultures, rather than trying to portion them out through an ice cream stand.  Besides, Epcot doesn’t really need the festival.  It has enough to offer on its own.   My advice to Disney, keep the festival, but don’t try to shove it into the already crowded area of the World Showcase.  My advice to TWiBT readers, skip the festival, but definitely visit Epcot.  It really is an awesome place!  Where else can you see 11 countries for under $100?  Also, the Orlando area is an extremely over saturated hotel market, so you should have no difficulty getting an amazing hotel deal.

-Jason of TWiBT