The Official 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival Thread - July 15 to Nov. 20

[Simba's Mom]

Has anyone been to the F&W on the very first day? Was everything fully open? The only day I have for Epcot is July 15th, and I'm hoping that everything (except, of course, those that said they'd open Oct. 1) will be open.

 

[Rm4OneMore]

I recommend 2 days at Epcot. Look at the menus (when they post them online) and watch a few YouTube videos. If it looks like there is a lot of food or drinks (both?) you'd like to enjoy then give yourself two days. After spending multiple days at F&W for years, my wife and I convinced ourselves that we only need one day for F&W on our last trip and immediately regretted it. We were there all day and still didn't get to enjoy everything on our list.

 

[lovethattink]

If you start at 11am you should be able to get through all the booths in one day if you keep moving. But if you want to enjoy shows, attractions. Then you’ll definitely need more than 1 day.

 

[NoMoneyThanks2Disney]

We did. It was our first Disney trip, and we had no idea it was the first day of the festival. It was packed with long lines for the booths, but everything was open. This was a few years ago though.

 

[windcriesamy]

After spending multiple days at F&W for years, my wife and I convinced ourselves that we only need one day for F&W on our last trip and immediately regretted it. We were there all day and still didn't get to enjoy everything on our list.

Whenever we have tried to do F&W or F&G in one day we find we're too full by the midway point around the Showcase. Even with the stopping and sitting and shopping in between, we just can't do it all. It definitely works better for us to add a second day!

 

[Micca]

I'd try to break it up, after 3-4 F&W booths we need to take a break from eating for a while. Besides it's still 100% Summer in September at WDW, mix in some cocktails and you can hit your limit pretty quickly. I guess if you think 3-4 booths are enough it's a one day thing. Also consider rain, there are things to do at WDW in a rainstorm, but sampling food from booths at Epcot isn't one of them.

 

[DWillowBay]

For me, yes...2 days. There are just so many food items that I would like to try, I could never eat that much in one day. So, I narrow it down (not always easy) to 3 - 4 picks each day. Good for my budget and waistline!

 

[Skywalker3]

I would do 2 days at Epcot to really get to try all that you want to , and maybe repeat some favorites. There are so many more food booths than there used to be, and it takes awhile to get to all of them, and like previous poster said, you will be full about half way through. even with a break between lunch/dinner, you might still not get to everything. If you're doing boo bash one day, that's another day in MK, so I'd plan 2 days in Epcot if you want to really enjoy food/wine

 

[VAtink]

I would look at the food booth menus (hopefully out soon!) to see how many items interest you. Depending how many of the food booth items you want to try it could be done in one day. If we do food booths for lunch and dinner we usually can get through 6-8 items each for a day, and since we always split what we get so really we get to try 12-16 items in a day. If you have a lot of things you want to try it would be good to have a second day.

Also *if* they have any of the special events this year (tequila lunch, Italian food and wine lunch, etc), I recommend booking one, they are fantastic. So that could influence the number of days you end up in Epcot as well.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Has anyone been to the F&W on the very first day? Was everything fully open? The only day I have for Epcot is July 15th, and I'm hoping that everything (except, of course, those that said they'd open Oct. 1) will be open.

I have. 3 or 4 of the last 5 years. Generally fully operational. Hot. Potentially long lines for novelty items (past examples of long lines: orange bird sipper, beaker souvenir cup, passholder exclusive merch). Opportunity to see a lot of your favorite vloggers, bloggers, podcasters.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

If you start at 11am you should be able to get through all the booths in one day if you keep moving. But if you want to enjoy shows, attractions. Then you’ll definitely need more than 1 day.

Getting through the booths and having room for everything you want to eat are two very different things. We certainly would have had time to stop at every booth, wait in line, get our items, and eat if we started at 11 and just kept moving. But we were stuffed and 'over it' by the time we got to America. We took a few hours off from the nonstop eating but still only had room for a few more booths at dinner time.

I would definitely recommend 2 days if at all possible - or even just a full day and a hop afternoon/evening - to reduce the pressure to eat everything at once. Being able to stop for the day and know we could come back to finish out the loop later in the week meant we could enjoy ourselves and still get to try everything we wanted.

 

[samara]

Just got back from a full week, family trip, but DH and I are already talking about trying to do a long weekend just for this in the fall. I really hope they bring back some of the special events and seminars! We did this festival a few years ago and those are some of our favorite memories!

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

Has anyone been to the F&W on the very first day? Was everything fully open? The only day I have for Epcot is July 15th, and I'm hoping that everything (except, of course, those that said they'd open Oct. 1) will be open.

It depends-- some booths don't open due to glitches on the first day. For example, I went to the first day of festival of the arts in 2020, and two of my favorite boots weren't open, but had cast members stationed outside to explain what was going on. They did not open that day, but they were open the next day.

 

[Tinks]

Wonder when they will release Food and Wine magic bands this year....... any guesses??

 

[tinkerhon]

I didnt book due to F & W (didnt know the dates when we booked), but our 1st park day turned out to be Epcot (Via Napoli dinner)

Yay !!!

 

[MelissaP0603]

I have looked everywhere but I can't figure out if I need reservations for the Food & Wine Festival. How does it work? My daughter and I will be there August 13th but we can't figure out how to participate. Is it a meal?Do you walk around and try things? As many times as we've been to Disney we have never done this and since its just the two of us this time we thought we might try it. Thanks!

 

[figmentfinesse]

All you need is a reservation to Epcot, the festival is included. Booths are all over the whole park but mostly are in the World Showcase. You have to buy anything you want to try, prices per plate run from about 4-10 dollars. It is not a meal, they are all small plates. The menus should be coming out in the next 2 weeks!

 

[Heather07438]

I have looked everywhere but I can't figure out if I need reservations for the Food & Wine Festival. How does it work? My daughter and I will be there August 13th but we can't figure out how to participate. Is it a meal?Do you walk around and try things? As many times as we've been to Disney we have never done this and since its just the two of us this time we thought we might try it. Thanks!

You just need entry into Epcot, right now that means buying a ticket and making a park reservation there.
The festival offers many things around the park. Most obvious are the 20+ food booths located around World Showcase and the lagoon. There are also paid and free classes and presentations such as wine tastings and demonstrations. They also hold a concert series called Eat to the Beat which usually has some awesome classic bands.

 

[Heather07438]

I have looked everywhere but I can't figure out if I need reservations for the Food & Wine Festival. How does it work? My daughter and I will be there August 13th but we can't figure out how to participate. Is it a meal?Do you walk around and try things? As many times as we've been to Disney we have never done this and since its just the two of us this time we thought we might try it. Thanks!

Also, check out the booklet from 2019 Food & Wine. You can pick it up for free at most counters in Epcot to get an idea of the offerings.
https://mickeyblog.com/2019/09/10/c...ssport-for-this-years-food-and-wine-festival/
a couple sample pages

 

[MelissaP0603]

Thank you for the information!