One of my favorite times of the year to visit Disney World is during Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival. Why? Because Disney sets up an additional 25+ marketplaces featuring tapas-sized portions of food, wine, beer and cocktails. Each marketplace is specific to a country or region with most of the food/drinks priced from $3.00-$8.00. One of my family’s favorite things to do at Disney World is eat, so of course the festival fits right into that.
The festival also hosts various seminars, tasting events and dinners, book signings and Eat the Beat Concert series. This year the festival will run from September 19th to November 10th.
Below are some tips to help you experience the festival.
Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival Tips
- DO NOT plan to attend the festival on a Saturday, unless you have no other option. Epcot is extremely busy on Saturdays during the festival because locals and annual pass holders tend to frequent the event on that day. This means long lines at the marketplace booths, nowhere to sit and wall to wall people on the walkways. The best days to visit the festival are Monday-Thursday.
- Plan to attend the event over several afternoons, so that you are able to sample a large variety of food and beverages. My family usually spends the morning at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom and then heads to Epcot around lunchtime to start eating our way around the world. The Marketplace booths and the World Showcase at Epcot does not open until 11:00am.
- If you are planning to visit Hollywood Studios before visiting Epcot, plan to take the boat or walk (it is about a 20 minute walk). This brings you in the back door of Epcot, letting you arrive between France and the United Kingdom in the World Showcase.
- Review the Marketplace menus ahead of time. This not only builds excitement about your upcoming trip but also allows you to pre-plan. You may find that you want to sample everything from some booths or only one item from others.
- If you are attending the festival over several days, instead of hitting every booth as you work your way through the World Showcase try to skip some and then on the next day hit the booths that you had previously skipped.
- The Marketplace booths are not just for adults. There are many food options that will appeal to children and several non-alcoholic drinks for them to try. It is also a great time for children to sample foods that are new to them or outside their comfort zone as the portion sizes are small. When my daughter was 22 months, she enjoyed the Festival and sampled many options with the shrimp taco in Mexico being her favorite. On our most recent trip in 2013, she was almost 4 and tried all of the food that we purchased including escargot.
- Pick up a complimentary Marketplace Discovery Passport at the Festival Center, any Disney Vacation Club kiosks in Epcot or at any of the Marketplace booths. You can get your passport stamped at each marketplace booth and check off which items you tasted. It makes a great free souvenir from your trip!
- Plan to attend one of the free Eat the Beat concerts held at the America Gardens Theaters on select nights at 5:30pm, 6:45pm and 8:00pm. Since the theater is outside, even if it is full, you can still enjoy the music in the area around the theater. We have heard a variety of performers including Sugar Ray, Boys 2 Men, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
- Consider picking up Disney gift cards to pay for your purchases at the Marketplace booths. Disney even sells small gift cards on a bracelet so that you can wear the gift card to make it more convenient to pay. Another option is to pay using your MagicBand. We found using our MagicBands for payment very convenient because we did not have to dig in a purse or wallet for money or credit cards.
- If you have a Disney Chase Visa card, take advantage of the Chase VIP Lounge located on the third floor of the American Adventure pavilion by using the elevator between the attraction and the gift shop. At the Lounge, you will be able to relax in the air conditioning, recharge your cell phone, enjoy complimentary soft drinks, play board games and purchase wine and beer. In 2013, the Chase VIP Lounge also had a limited number of wristbands for a special viewing area for Illuminations and for some of the Eat the Beat concerts.
While many of the Festival events are included with admission to the park there are some experiences that require a separate purchase or admission fee including the Marketplace booths, seminars/demonstrations and tasting events.
I hope these tips help you and your family enjoy Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival!
For more information about Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival, please visit Disney World’s website.
If you are heading to Walt Disney World this fall you may also enjoy:
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Great tips, I know one of my favorite things on your list is to print the menus before my trip and circle what I want to try at each booth. It’s so much fun to plan my “eating” trip around the world!
I think planning my trips may be as much fun as actually attending!
Well I absolutely love this post… I’ve always wanted to attend the food and wine festival at Epcot. Maybe someday I’ll get to go! 🙂
I hope you do Leslyn! It is so much fun.
What a great way to introduce children to foods from around the world! Sounds like a great festival. I’m rethinking our annual spring visits to Disney in favor of fall.
There is so much to do in the fall at Disney World! I definitely like to rotate our trips so that we can experience different events!
These are great tips! I have always wanted to go to this! The pictures of all the food make me want to go that much more. Thank you for sharing!
You would love this festival Logan!
Great tips, will safe them for when we head over to Disney World! Thank you!
Thanks Nicole!
I want to go to Disney World soooooo bad!! When I do eventually plan my trip you better believe it will be during the Food and Wine Festival!!! LOVE your pics!!!
Thanks Ricci! You’ll have a blast for sure!
I never knew Epcot had this event. I need to go to Disney World more often because I love trying different foods, especially from different countries.
Yes, Louida while I love Christmas at Disney World, Food and Wine is awesome!
Another option is if you enjoy running, there is the Wine & Dine Half and afterwards they have they let you Wine & Dine at Epcot after the evening race! It wasn’t overly crowded (just open to those that ran and their families). It was a really great time and I want to go back!
That sounds like fun, I would love to do that one time! Thanks Carrie!
Thi slooks amazing! I hope we are here fo rthis during our next Disney trip…definitely something to attend!
Yes, everyone should attend at least once 🙂
I would LOVE getting all of the stamps in my food passport–what a fun idea! I also didn’t know about the small gift cards. I’d love to have one for our upcoming trip to make souvenir and snack purchases easier. Pinned for a future Disney trip!
You can buy the little gift cards in the gift shops or at the food booths.
OMG what a wonderful walk down memory lane!! I loved going to this! Thank you for sharing Paris 🙂
http://NEATLY-PACKAGED.COM/
Some of our best trips! 🙂
This is my type of festival! Looks so great! I have yet to go to Disney world 🙁 but this looks so amazing!
You’ll have to go for food and wine, Fatima!
The Food and Wine Festival looks like a fun and super tasty way to enjoy Epcot! We’ll be heading to Disney next year and II’m so excited to start planning all our activities. Thanks for all the helpful tips!
You are going to have so much fun! I love the planning process it’s also so exciting.
This will be our third year attending, and we love it! The shrimp tacos from Mexico are my favorite, but the creme brûlée from France and the food from Italy is also delicious! And you can’t forget the dole whip with rum! haha There’s just so many things that are must-haves when going to the Food and Wine Festival!
Also…love your tip about going in through the Boardwalk entrance. So true! It puts you right in the middle of everything!
Oh yes the chocolate creme brulee is awesome! There are so many delicious food and drinks! I love trying it all! 🙂 Have fun at this year’s festival!
This is definitely on my bucket list. We went to Disney last year for the first time ever and we skipped Epcot in favor of Hollywood Studios because we felt like it would have more to appeal to my, then, 4 year old son. We plan on going back in two years and I am not missing Epcot this time! The food is a biggie for me even at Disney and I really hope to go during the festival. Thank you so much for the great tips! Pinning. Thanks for sharing on Merry Monday!
Epcot is one of our favorite parks! It can be a little slow for kids, but with the fountains, characters and kid spots we can make S happy. You will love the food and wine festival!
Sorry if you already mentioned it but when exactly is the festival? I’ll be at Disney in Late March-early April 2015 and would love to catch it.
Found you from West Coast Momma’s Weekly BLog Hop (http://westcoastmama.net/blog-hop-11/). Looking forward to staying connected on Twitter (@zoojourneys), Goolge+ (Sarah De Diego), and Instagram (journeysofthezoo).
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The food and wine festival runs from September 19th to November 10th this year. You will have so much fun at Disney World in the Spring – Epcot does have the flower and garden festival at that time. Here is a link to a post I wrote about that festival https://www.mybigfathappylife.com/epcots-international-flower-and-garden-festival-tips/
I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Sounds like a fabulous time! Visiting from Oak and Oats-have a great week!
Thank you Nicki! The festival is so much fun!
I never heard of the International Food Wine Festival in Epcot. What a great way to introduce food that we would never have tried before. Thanks for linking up to #WeekendWanderlust.
Thanks Carmen! I love the festival, so much fun to your way around more countries at Epcot!
AHHH I LOVE FOOD & WINE!!! We’ve gone every year for the past 5 years, and we’re set to go for our first go round next Friday. I had NO idea about the Chase VIP lounge! Talk about a hookup – I’m definitely using that to my advantage!!! Thank you for this post! (Stopping by via the That’s Fresh Friday Link-Up)
I’m jealous that you are going! We are not attending this year 🙁 Have lots of fun at the Chase lounge!
so funny you posted this! I was just thinking of you and your Disney tips the other day. I am thinking we might want to go for our wedding anniversary this year – 28 years – so this would be different and potentially fun 🙂
You will have so much fun on a Disney trip! Let me know if you have any questions!
This post really informative and helpful. My husband and I are planning to visit Disney world sometime next year ! Thanks for sharing !!
Thank you! You are going to have so much fun on a trip to Disney World!!!
AHHHHHH dying to go to the Food and Wine Festival!! Thanks for making me drool in my cube 😉
Such an awesome time to be at Disney World!
Oh what fun this would be!! Thanks for sharing 😉
Thanks so much for linking up at Teach Me Tuesday last week! You are very much appreciated! Hope to see you again this week. Starts tonight at 8pm CST.
Have a great week!!
Always a great time at Disney World! Thank you Bobbi!
Hey, Congratulations on being featured on Wake-Up Wednesday Linky Party.
Check it out here- http://tanyaanurag.blogspot.com/2014/09/it-that-time-of-year-wuw-linky-party.html
-Tanya
Thank you so much Tanya!