2017 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival: August 31, 2017 - November 13, 2017

Booo. I disagree. If you're going to a signature restaurant or experience, you should look the part and fit in. We're there to have a luxurious experience, not be with riff-raff-looking people.

I have to agree with you on this one, especially with events like PFTS and dining experiences at the signature restaurants. If you are doing the Parisian Breakfast - fine wear park attire, but an event like PFTS that is $170 or more I would prefer to see people a little more dressed up. Cocktail dress & suit dressed up? No, but at least a little more dressy. For our group the women usually wear dresses and the men are in slacks & dress shirts(at least a polo). If you were on vacation in New York City and going to a high end restaurant - would you wear the shorts to dinner that you wore while touring the city?

For us, PFTS and signature restaurants are dining events and we enjoy getting dressed up a little.
 
Booo. I disagree. If you're going to a signature restaurant or experience, you should look the part and fit in. We're there to have a luxurious experience, not be with riff-raff-looking people.
Wow. You're still in a theme park. At a hotel is a different story.

Does the way others are dressed REALLY impact your experience of a meal?? Odd to me.

And this is funny to me... in a theme park, those who ARE NOT dressed up at these events DO fit in! We've been to plenty of them.

DH and I dress better-than-theme-park as a personal preference -- nothing fancy, just not jean shorts and a tank top. And even with that, we're usually overdressed compared to most.

Live and let live! If Disney wants a dress code they'll impose one. Until then, odd to be bothered by this, IMO.
 
everyone please cross your fingers for me. I really, really need to get away this weekend and have not been to F&W yet this year. I am trying to come down tomorrow but I am standby and the flights are filing up. I am now contemplating flying into Tamp and driving over (only an extra forty minutes according to mapquest). I NEED this. Work sucks lately, DH has been out of town and the kids have been extraordinarily teenagery this week. I need to have the Australian lamb chop and a cocktail.
 


everyone please cross your fingers for me. I really, really need to get away this weekend and have not been to F&W yet this year. I am trying to come down tomorrow but I am standby and the flights are filing up. I am now contemplating flying into Tamp and driving over (only an extra forty minutes according to mapquest). I NEED this. Work sucks lately, DH has been out of town and the kids have been extraordinarily teenagery this week. I need to have the Australian lamb chop and a cocktail.
Walking around Epcot, enjoying the booths and all the sights is so fun and relaxing. Here's hoping everything comes together and you get to go. pixiedust:
 
I have to agree with you on this one, especially with events like PFTS and dining experiences at the signature restaurants. If you are doing the Parisian Breakfast - fine wear park attire, but an event like PFTS that is $170 or more I would prefer to see people a little more dressed up. Cocktail dress & suit dressed up? No, but at least a little more dressy. For our group the women usually wear dresses and the men are in slacks & dress shirts(at least a polo). If you were on vacation in New York City and going to a high end restaurant - would you wear the shorts to dinner that you wore while touring the city?

For us, PFTS and signature restaurants are dining events and we enjoy getting dressed up a little.
Nothing wrong with dressing as you like. I also am OK with others dressing as they like while they are in Orlando on vacation.
 


Attended today's What's Cookin with Art Smith (originally scheduled for Sun 9/24) and had a great time. Scheduled arrival/start time was 9:45 but they started letting people in to sit ~9:30.

The primary brunch menu (which in years past has been the same for every What's Cookin With during the festival with the chef dish changing) was fresh fruit kebabs, some pastries for the table, English muffin with fried egg topped with asiago cream, oven dried prosciutto and tomato. Slow cooked petite beef filet with grape reduction. Split marble potatoes with leeks. It was ok. But then again I'm not a big breakfast person.

The chef's dish today was grits with Tasso ham, egg and hot sauce and was delicious. He was fantastic- seemed genuinely happy to be there, told fun stories, and managed the demo well.

The time seemed compressed this year - in a good way- less time up front before the chef comes out --but I could be wrong. I thought I had remembered a 2 hour experience in the past but we were out by 11:10am

A funny aside, the host started the intro talking about "Homecoming" and notably switched to "Homecomin'" when she returned.

Another observation, for those who have attended in past, you can envision there are two "rows" of tables. The back row was completely empty today. Now the date changed from Sun to Fri so that may be part of it. But wonder if price point is finally proving an issue. The host did remark that the group was small by design to allow for Q&A but I couldn't decide if that was true or "spin"

All in all a fun morning and Art Smith seems as nice as you'd hope he would be.
 
[QUOTE="2xcited2sleep, post: 58236904, member: 172789]

Another observation, for those who have attended in past, you can envision there are two "rows" of tables. The back row was completely empty today. Now the date changed from Sun to Fri so that may be part of it. But wonder if price point is finally proving an issue. The host did remark that the group was small by design to allow for Q&A but I couldn't decide if that was true or "spin"

All in all a fun morning and Art Smith seems as nice as you'd hope he would be.[/QUOTE]

Was Pam the host? If so, I would believe nothing she said.


I went to my first evening tonight

Quick reviews.

1. France. passion martini slushy. Just ok. I probably won't get another
2. Scotland. Fresh Potato pancake with Salmon Yummy. Citrus Thistle drink- another winner
3. Canada. Cheddar cheese soup- another winner
4. Cheese Studio. Cheese tart - very disappointed, Boursin is one of my favorite cheeses, there was no taste to this. Bland and boring, it's a good size portion but I threw half of it away
 
Today was my Epcot day. Did the Mexican Tequila lunch fun not a lot of food or Tequila but not bad all in all. The welcome Margarita a cucumber based drink was amazing and so was the Dessert Tequila with Espresso. The dessert course was my favorite. Then I did some snacking around the F & W booths:

1st stop the Coastal Eats I picked up the Seared scallops with roasted corn and butter bean succotash and Chile Chipotle butter sauce. The plate I got was nice and hot the scallop wasn't chewy it was cooked just right the corn was perfect with it I don't know if it was the batch that I got but the butter beans were bitter when I ate them it made the dish taste bitter.

Next I went to Active Eats and had the Sweet Avocado Crema I also liked this a lot but I felt the tortilla strudel took away from the taste of the dessert.

Then the Odessey center to get a bag of L'Orange because I love cotton candy.

I had the Mexican Mule which was excellent! Very tasty and you could taste the Tequila.

Then I went to Hawaii and had the Teriyaki glaze spam hash I also got this very hot the spam was very tasty but the hash was very salty and this is coming from someone who adds salt to her food I feel like if they were going to make the hash that way they probably should have added something sweet like a pineapple or something to buy it balance it out.

I had the Apple Ice wine from Canada so very good small but nice, sweet and cold. Cm's tried to fill it up to the top it's spilled a little but they did their best I could have gone for a whole glass of that.

I had the Margarita with lemoncello and tequila from Italy it was refreshing as it was large but I didn't taste any tequila in that one.

Lastly I went to Farm Fresh and got the Crispy chicken with griddled cornbread and red-eye gravy the crispy chicken was amazing so tasty the corn bread by itself was just okay but combined with the gravy and the chicken it was excellent. The gravy was a little salty.

That's it for now more tomorrow.
 
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Yesterday was my last day at the Festival.

I tried the chicken and corn bread dish at Farm Fresh and loved it. Very tasty. I had some filet and cheese soup at Canada. Both were excellent. The beef skewer at Patagonia was tiny and mashed boniato served with it was one small teaspoon. Poor value. The cheese and stout dip at Ireland was too salty.

At this point, I am wondering if I will ever go again. Between the threat of hurricanes this time of year, the hassle of planning around the Halloween parties, and the ridiculous prices of the wine samples at the Festival, I am now questioning whether it's worth it. This was my fourth F&W and the first time I wasn't head over heels in love with it.
 
At this point, I am wondering if I will ever go again. Between the threat of hurricanes this time of year, the hassle of planning around the Halloween parties, and the ridiculous prices of the wine samples at the Festival, I am now questioning whether it's worth it. This was my fourth F&W and the first time I wasn't head over heels in love with it.

The heat this time of year doesn't help either. Sorry to hear you were just meh on the festival this year. Portions and prices certainly going in opposite directions. I use a Disney Visa rewards card and try to put the prices out of my mind, LOL.
 
They normally do not publish the Italian menus ahead of time. They do change the food and wine pairing menu so what someone earlier had may not apply to when you go.
 
Lunch today.

Chocolate Nitro Truffle. Great. But a slow serve so if you see a short line jump in

Mexico - Tequila Shrimp. Yummy. I really liked this

Ireland - cheese dip and bread offering. Just ok. Dip was very unappealing in appearance

Joffrey's. Frozen Chia Tea with Bailey's. Great. (You can use sampler coupons on this which is a change from 2016)

It was really hot. As it approached 12:30 the park got hot and crowded. I headed to the pool!
 

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