LOVED the 7 seas food festival!

CaLuCa

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
We bought Florida resident AP because another family we are friends with have them and we wanted to go to Aquatica with them this summer. I am not the biggest fan of TL and BB, but I am hard core Disney. We went Friday night for the food festival and feel like we have discovered the Bizarro world of Food and Wine! It was awesome! Fridays in March are double pours for the sample size.

We bought 2 lanyards (2 adults and 4 kids, one who eats like a pig)...the 20 punch for 15. $65. I added up everything we ate and drank. One lanyard was used completely. We "spent" $76.36 on food alone. I couldn't figure out how to price the drinks since they were the sample size. But on that lanyard we got double pours of: Mudslides, dos Equis, Watermelon Margaritas, Cowboy Punch, Ouzu Lemonade (awesome!), and Copper Tail.

One the other lanyard, we used 13 punches, but already spent $71.39. Less alcohol for that as I was driving and DH was stuffed, so just a double pour of some wine and the non-alcoholic Pear drink in Asia. Still have 7 punches left!

We liked it so much we are going back next Friday with two more lanyards (feeding those kids makes me have that other lanyard!).

Our faves:
The scallop and the lamb and the chocolate mousse along with the Ouzu Lemonade all from the Mediterrrean Market.
Hot Dog slider from All American
Steak from Brazil

Kids faves were the foot long chocolate covered pretzel (I made them share this, but next time they are requesting one each), the Pear Drink from Asia, mixed reviews for the ice cream donut.

Misses:
Baja Taco from Pacific...tasted like a Mrs. Pauls fish filet in a tortilla.
Taco in Mexico...wasn't bad, just not awe inspiring
Watermelon Margarita...not my favorite
cowboy punch...they didn't have ice at the all American so it was warm...there was ice two booths over, though?
Bacon and Cheddar hushpuppies...couldn't taste any bacon, just very done hushpuppy
Avocado tostada from the vegan...served on a crispy and thin corn shell with a thin layer of guac...not as delightful as the pic
Key lime fritter...wanted it to be so much more
Cinammon pork belly...had the tiniest piece of pork, which was awesome and some not so good sweet potato mash...not warm and lacking any flavor

DH said the lobster roll was good, but I didn't taste it.

I've done all the Epcot food festivals within the last year. This food was on par with those. There are always some dishes that work out well, and some that do not. I LOVED having the lanyard. Basically, each item was $3.38. Epcot can't even touch that! The lamb (the one bite I got of it before DD8 stole it!) was just as wonderfully prepared and flavorful as the New Zealand one in Epcot. I loved how most of the food was prepared right then. A dozen scallops were on the big cast iron skillet cooking and they looked amazing!

We did the Shamu One Ocean show. Three of our kids were so little they didn't remember ever coming to seaworld so it was awesome for them. They loved the show.

My kids have been rasied on Disney. That is all they know of theme parks. I took them on the Wild Arctic ride while their dad was finishing his wine. I had never been on it, and told them...Oh, it's just like Star tours, probably. Well, even at 8, my little Disney snobs were not impressed. They looked at me and told me it was the lamest thing they had ever been on. "It was NOT just like Star Tours." They were not impressed with the lack of que theming, the minimal movement of the ride, or basically anything.

We are excited to eat more food, drink more double pours, and see more shows. Only one kid is tall enough and brave enough to ride the big rides. One big chicken and two much to short adrenaline junkies. Unfortunately, Sesame Street is not in their radar. My oldest really liked it, but the younger three never watched that much.

any questions? Happy to answer if I can!
 
So happy to read this! We'll be there in 5 weeks. Oh wait!! 4 weeks and 5 days :) Would love to read more when you go again.
 
We will be there over Easter, can't wait. Your post is very helpful. How did you get at 20 punch lanyard for the price of a 15 punch?
 


We just did the Seven Seas Craft Beer and Food at Sea World San Diego. It was great! Our lanyard choices were 15 for $65 or 10 for $50. No option for 20 or we would have taken it.
All the food we tried was great, definitely different options over here, but still good. The Tuscan booth had a Passionfruit Panna Cotta and Pistachio Cannoli that I could eat every night for the rest of my life, it was so good.
Loved that you could use punches for alcohol since you can't do that at Food & Wine at DCA.
We will definitely be doing this every year.
 
Yes, the 20 punch is an AP option...same price as the 15.

There is a pistachio cannoli at the Italian booth here too, but I didn't see any Panna Cotta. We missed Italy so will hit it Friday. Have to go in a different order to get new things in!
 


Yes, the 20 punch is an AP option...same price as the 15.

There is a pistachio cannoli at the Italian booth here too, but I didn't see any Panna Cotta. We missed Italy so will hit it Friday. Have to go in a different order to get new things in!

We do have APs, totally would have taken the 20 if it was available, what a great deal!
I think we got our AP discount off the $65 so it was closer to $60 and then added tax back on.

The cannoli was good, but man, that panna cotta was just so delicious!
We had a Parisian area here too, had several good things from there.
 
Part two:
Not as amazing, but still good. Kind of felt like an off night for them.

(Side note: it had been at least 10 years since I've gone on a non-Disney roller coaster. DH and I did Mako...holy cow, my kids are not ready for real roller coasters.)

I bought 2 new cards, which was good because I left the partial one at home. Waited in line for 10-15 minutes at guest services where we had picked up the cards the week before only to be told to go to a booth to get them.

Faves:
Italian Sunset (drink)...great mix of flavors! Best drink all night
Knockworst (Germany)...much better than expected. Cabbage added a nice element. (my German potato salad is better, though.)
Steak (Brazil)

Repeats:
Lamb (mediterrean)...lamb was just as good, but the potatoes had been sitting in the serving container too long and were not crispy.
Hot dog slider (all American)

Misses:
Strawberry Basil smash (Caribbean)...worst drink of the night. Weird combination of cough syrup and Hi C punch
Bao Bun (Asia)...not enough sauce, poor execution, just off
Salmon Slider (Pacific)...rock hard bun, minimal sauce, too much arugula (poor execution here again)
Cuban slider (Caribbean)...again rock hard bun, could only taste onions and bread

Honorable mentions:
Caprese salad (Italian)...basic, traditional caprese like any chain restaurant
Cinammon bread pudding donut (all American)...tasty, but was a crumbled up donut in a waffle cone, not a true bread pudding
Rum Runner (Cuba)...traditional rum drink
Chicken Pinchos (Caribbean)...perfectly cooked chicken skewer with an overly salted, flavorful sauce

I did not like the Frozen Caipirinha in Brazil, but DH thought it was great. I felt it needed a little more simple syrup.

Instead of double pours, they let you pick 2 drinks and have one of each (small size). We did that on some booths.

My kids were so looking forward to the chocolate covered pretzels. We let them stand in line for them and waited at a table. (Elementary age) After a few minutes, DH went up to see what was going on. The servers were ignoring them and handing pretzels to people behind them in line. Finally, he gave DD one. I waited with them while DH ate his knockworst. Of course, they ran out with 3 of kids still without one. We were told it would be 15 mintues! Now here is where SeaWorld and Disney differ. At Disney, they would so make this right. At Seaworld, it was sorry. 15 mintues. Not happy kids. Not happy parents. And then in the end, when they got the pretzels, they couldn't eat it. This is so much bread! I wished they had shared, but why listen to mom? We threw away half of at least two. They are good with a great chocolate sauce, but it is just too much bread.

Money wise...Spent $80.35 on one card with 5 double pours not counted in that price.
Second card we had 9 punches and spent $30.95 with 4 double pours.

We have some punches left, but double pours are over. We'll go back and eat the rest of our food. Still want to try the bison slider at Flamecraft, Shrimp cake at the Florida Market, and Skewered Pork at Asia. We missed the mini donuts again.
 
thanks for your report!! Will you be going again?

Yes, we have APs. We really bought it for Aquatica because we wanted to try different water parks. Kids really loved the Shamu show, so I know we'll go back. I don't know if holding SeaWorld and Disney APs are the best and we probably won't do that again. I'm hard core Disney, so it takes me a lot to look outside the gates. DH has been asking for years to head to Universal and I'm almost there. IF I get to keep my Disney.

We still have 18 punches left and the festival doesn't end till May 5. Probably go late April.
 
How are the crowds for the food festival? Thinking of either going midweek for low crowds(but shorter hours) or heading to SW on the last Friday of the food festival(May 3rd I believe).
 
It currently is only on weekends, although last year they did run it during some busy weeks. The weekends have been busy but manageable if you get there earlier in the day. Once it gets close to concert time the lines seem to grow fairly decently. Not sure what they are like during the concert or on Friday when there is no concert.
 
Both Fridays we were there didn't have any concerts. I'm use to Disney and Epcot and those level of crowds. SeaWorld seemed like a ghost town. Walked right on Mako. Only waited in line to order for a short while. (Only line was the guest services about the lanyard and the ridiculous chocolate pretzel snafu.) The Shamu show was 2/3 full.
 
We just went Friday night. It was fantastic! So much better than F&W at Epcot. Only waited in one line and the food was a major step up. I did find the portion sizes odd. Some things, like the shrimp cake, were actually sample size and others were full size. We got the banana cheesecake cone and it took all 4 of us to eat it!

Kids' favorite- Sweet: Germany Chocolate covered pretzel
Savory: North Atlantic Market poutine w/o gravy, so basically cheesy fries
Dh's Favorite- Savory: Mediterranean Market Sea Scallops Provencal
Sweet: Says he wasn't a fan of any really, but I thought he had no problem eating his share of the cheesecake cone. :)
My Favorite- Savory: Asian Market Char Siu Bao
Sweet: North Atlantic Market Banana Foster Cheesecake Cone

Favorite family drink- Asian Market Sparkling Pear- We had to go back and get another!

With the AP punch card, our 20 samples totaled over $120. Such a bargain! We were stuffed and had to get a few things like the donuts to go!
 

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