EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, Sept. 25 - Nov 16 2015

[TheFairyGodmother]

At past F&W Festivals, the WS kiosks would be from 11am to 9pm, regardless of evening EMHs. Last year, the Crafts Beers market, located in the Odyssey building between Mexico and Test Track, opened by 10:30am (maybe earlier). So I wouldn't be surprised if the kiosks in FW are open prior to 11am.

World Showcase opens at 11:00 and so do the food booths. You may find that the booths just outside of Future World open a bit sooner if the food is ready.

 

[CJ]

Does anyone know exactly where in Future World the F&W booths (Wine Studio, Cheese Studio, Chew Labs, and Sustainable Chew) will be located? Is it likely that the four of them will be open for a "soft opening" on Friday September 24th?

 

[karrit2000]

If you mean Thursday 9/24, they normally do a soft opening of the booths on the Thursday before the festival officially starts so they probably will be open. As no one has seen a map yet for this year's Festival we don't know exactly where these new booths will be located.

 

[CJ]

Thanks, I did mean Thursday. Does anyone with previous years' experience have an idea about when the 2015 map will likely be released?

 

[lovingeire]

We are officially going without the dining plan! Thank you everyone for your advice!

 

[Octoberbaby]

I have been searching for the mixology siminar on Oct 3rd & 5th constantly. What are the chances of someone canceling one of those? The seminars are non refundable, right? I'm about to give up!

 

[FeralCatRogue]

worse comes to worse show up that day and see if they have a last minute spot, I got a booking for a very tightly booked ADR that way once.

 

[rpb718]

OK, I just have to share this. This will be our first trip to F&W, although we did "accidentally" have a trip a few years back in the Spring that coincided with the beginning of F&G. That was the year when they started doing the food and drink kiosks during F&G. So this year we decided to go for it. We have the Premium Package and have scheduled some other activities.

So what is DW excited about doing during F&W? Getting our F&W Premium Package swag? No. The Illuminations Sparkling Dessert Party? Not really. Eating and drinking around the world several times? No. Sitting at the reserved areas and having stuff brought to us? Nope. The Champagne, wine, etc. deminars? No, that's not it.

No - what DW is excited about is doing the Remy’s Ratatouille Hide and Squeak! 30 years married, but still a kid at heart.

 

[Biceratops]

Is that the $10 scavenger hunt?

 

[Stinky_Pete]

We are officially going without the dining plan! Thank you everyone for your advice!

The only reason I'll have the dining plan this time is because I did the math and it will be cheaper for me to pay rack rate on my room than to purchase all my food. It will be nice to use my snack credits at the F&W booths, but I would need about three times the number of snack credits to get everything I'll want at the festival!

 

[goNsoon2WDW]

I am so excited to hear that I can use my snack credits at the food and wine kiosks. Is it a possibility to exchange and use a quick service credit at the kiosks, too? I am planning on going to EPCOT a number of afternoons and evenings during our trip and nibbling as I use all of my snack credits at the kiosks rather than eating meals. Based on my current plans will run out of snacks but have quick service credits left over. Is it possible to trade out quick service for snacks at the kiosks?

 

[POOHsie]

I am so excited to hear that I can use my snack credits at the food and wine kiosks. Is it a possibility to exchange and use a quick service credit at the kiosks, too? I am planning on going to EPCOT a number of afternoons and evenings during our trip and nibbling as I use all of my snack credits at the kiosks rather than eating meals. Based on my current plans will run out of snacks but have quick service credits left over. Is it possible to trade out quick service for snacks at the kiosks?

Nothing has been announced by Disney officially at this time about use of CS credits at Food & Wine. In the last couple of weeks, a discussion came up on Disboards about this subject. Someone said the idea would be that you could exchange a CS credit for 3 snacks at one of the F&W kiosks. NOTE -- that would mean all 3 snack credits at one booth.

This is RUMOR at this point. And using all 3 credits at one booth doesn't sound very flexible. However, it would be a way for Disney to manage the handling of CS credits at F&W, given the limitations of the Dining Plan's fairly simple computerized tracking program.

 

[ksromack]

I am so excited to hear that I can use my snack credits at the food and wine kiosks. Is it a possibility to exchange and use a quick service credit at the kiosks, too? I am planning on going to EPCOT a number of afternoons and evenings during our trip and nibbling as I use all of my snack credits at the kiosks rather than eating meals. Based on my current plans will run out of snacks but have quick service credits left over. Is it possible to trade out quick service for snacks at the kiosks?

I think this is the 6 million dollar question. We probably won't know for sure until the first people are actually there and trying to do this. We arrive on 9/29 and the festival will have been going on for 4 days already. Hopefully someone will post! I'm anxious to learn if this is possible as well....we'll be on the DDP but I'm guessing we'll use up our CS credits over the 8 days we're there. I do plan on having some $$ on a Disney Card to pay our F&W expenses.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I think this is the 6 million dollar question. We probably won't know for sure until the first people are actually there and trying to do this. We arrive on 9/29 and the festival will have been going on for 4 days already. Hopefully someone will post! I'm anxious to learn if this is possible as well....we'll be on the DDP but I'm guessing we'll use up our CS credits over the 8 days we're there. I do plan on having some $$ on a Disney Card to pay our F&W expenses.

HAHA I'm visiting for 10 nights and have "free dining." I'm thinking my snack credits will last maybe three days. That's only because I'm only going to use them for the most expensive items!

I'm going to pick up a few gift cards at Target with my 5% red card discount to pay for the rest. It's only 5%, but I'll take it!

 

[ksromack]

HAHA I'm visiting for 10 nights and have "free dining." I'm thinking my snack credits will last maybe three days. That's only because I'm only going to use them for the most expensive items!

I'm going to pick up a few gift cards at Target with my 5% red card discount to pay for the rest. It's only 5%, but I'll take it!

We have the same philosophy. Only use a snack credit for items over $5 or $6.....of course, we'll need the Disney card to pay for the adult beverages

 

[CyndiLouWho]

HAHA I'm visiting for 10 nights and have "free dining." I'm thinking my snack credits will last maybe three days. That's only because I'm only going to use them for the most expensive items!

I'm going to pick up a few gift cards at Target with my 5% red card discount to pay for the rest. It's only 5%, but I'll take it!

You can open an account at Cardpool.com. They sell giftcards at a discount. You can get a target gift card for 6-7% off. They email you the "card" which you can use on Target.com to buy Disney gift cards. If you log in to target.com with your Redcard info, then change to the Target gift card to pay at checkout, you get the Redcard 5% discount & free shipping.

 

[ksromack]

You can open an account at Cardpool.com. They sell giftcards at a discount. You can get a target gift card for 6-7% off. They email you the "card" which you can use on Target.com to buy Disney gift cards. If you log in to target.com with your Redcard info, then change to the Target gift card to pay at checkout, you get the Redcard 5% discount & free shipping.

yep, I'm all over that......waiting right now for $150 worth of Disney cards. It does take about a week to get the disney cards from Target dot com, though

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I also got a free Target gift card at shopkick used it, of course to buy a disney gift card.

 

[lovingeire]

I also use Target gift cards to buy Disney gift cards. I mostly earn them through Shopkick, Swagbucks or by buying diapers at Target. I have one put aside already for our trip and will be getting another one soon. I also buy gift cards at my local grocery store for the gas points and use my Walmart Savings Catcher money to buy Disney gift cards. All those gift cards will go toward our food for our W&D weekend.

I decided against the dining plan mostly because I wasn't sure how it would work to switch the credits from QS to snack and I wasn't sure we'd want three things at each booth, but I also don't think we'll use the QS meals if we can't switch them over. Normally I do love the dining plan, and for a longer trip or non race weekend it might work, but for us I think this will be the right fit. I'm so excited now! DH and I looked over the menu and were picking out the things we wanted to try at the booths!

 

[Dug720]

Can AP holders report in when the special wine glasses are gone? I would love to get one, but since I can't get there until the weekend of the Wine & Dine Half I'm 99% sure they'll be gone - especially since reading in the Mickey Monitor it is not just one per pass holder, but you can just keep going back and getting three stamps and get another for every three stamps. Still, IF they are still available, I can hit EPCOT after the expo and before resting to get my stamp on Saturday. But if they're gone, I won't bother hitting a park on Saturday.
Thanks!