I love me some Food & Wine planning! I’m shocked (pleasantly) that it’s out so early this year. Like you, I’m a bit underwhelmed at the offerings.
It's so awesome how early they released information this year....must be easier with fewer events to plan!
Based on the lack of events this year in September, we actually decided today to move our trip in 2020 to be mostly in October now!
I did three food and beverage pairings last year and LOVED them. But I went specifically for chefs/sommeliers I “knew” (a Top Chef winner, Chef Scott from V&A, and George & his chef from Wine Bar George). You’ll see on the F&W thread that others attended some they didn’t enjoy. It is a pretty small plate and drink portion.
Good to know, thanks! My mom knows the chef that will be at that one and is pretty excited, so I think she'll be happy even with small servings. We're planning on hitting up the food booths that day anyways, so if it's not enough food we have options.
I have had hit or miss experiences at the beverage seminars. The pours are extraordinarily small but I have found that if it’s the owner or winemaker or a master sommelier presenting it can be really interesting. I tend to steer clear of those with a “beverage presenter”
Ohhh, interesting. We'll keep that in mind, haven't actually looking into any of the beverage seminars while we're there, but that could be a fun thing to add in our free time.
I’m going to give PFTS another try thanks to your much improved rating last year. Thank you for that! I’ve also only done the tequila lunch & Italian regional lunch (loved both) so will try to pick something new- I’m between wine vs. beer or French family meal, if you have a suggestion.
Yay! That is awesome! I'm so sad we don't get to go this year, last year's event was so awesome! I hope you have a fantastic time! As for the lunches, goodness, you picked two that are are on the top of our list! I think if I had to pick, I'd do the French Family Meal, but I really like French food, our last meal at Monsieur Paul's was one of my favorites ever. The wine vs beer sounds awesome too though, so I don't think you could go wrong with whichever one you pick!
If looking to supplement your agenda, there’s the culinary tour at AKL (free) or the wine tasting at Jiko. I signed up for the latter for Oct. Several of the deluxe resorts have the painting with a view events that I’m pretty sure involve wine. If you haven’t visited Wine Bar George, they’d do a tasting for you “on the fly”. Or have you tried “Highway in the Sky”? Or do your own monorail tour. Forgive me if you’ve done all of these and I’m not remembering.
Woah, a culinary tour at AKL?!?!? I've never heard of this before, that sounds amazing! Need to look into that, especially for 2020 since we're planning on staying at AKL for a portion of our stay! Thanks for the suggestions, haven't done any except for Highway in the Sky which we would love to do again. Maybe in 2020... (funny enough, 2020 is already so booked we keep adding days to fit everything in. I think we've reached a point of extreme Disney planning!)