2017 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

On 8/11/2017 at 4:31 PM, h2odivers...Ray said:

 Are the weekends really as bad as I've heard? Crowd levels? Drunks?

 

During F&W I'd recommend avoiding Epcot like the plague on Friday night/Saturday (all day)/early Sunday.

Crowds are nuts and it gets more and more drunk-tastic as the day/evening goes on.

Used to be you might get a couple of early afternoon hours in on a Saturday before things got too bad, but we tried this last October, starting in Mexico - and by the time we hit France (around 3ish?) it was like a concert let out and you could hardly walk through the crowds. 

Other park crowd levels don't seem to be affected.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

15 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

During F&W I'd recommend avoiding Epcot like the plague on Friday night/Saturday (all day)/early Sunday.

Crowds are nuts and it gets more and more drunk-tastic as the day/evening goes on.

Used to be you might get a couple of early afternoon hours in on a Saturday before things got too bad, but we tried this last October, starting in Mexico - and by the time we hit France (around 3ish?) it was like a concert let out and you could hardly walk through the crowds. 

Other park crowd levels don't seem to be affected.

The stretch of the World Showcase between Germany and France can become gridlocked on weekend nights during the Food and Wine Festival.  Two factors contribute to this- the big one is the food booths themselves- they encroach and take up space on the walkways, and force more guests into a narrower path.  The second factor is those Eat to the Beat concerts- when they dump out, hundreds of guests are added to the congested walkways all a the same time.  There's no crowd control, so foot traffic basically comes to a stop.

That said, you will not find any better people watching, and as long as you're not starving and trying to hit all the food booths, it is a very festive atmosphere. I think everyone should try it at least once.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

The stretch of the World Showcase between Germany and France can become gridlocked on weekend nights during the Food and Wine Festival.  Two factors contribute to this- the big one is the food booths themselves- they encroach and take up space on the walkways, and force more guests into a narrower path.  The second factor is those Eat to the Beat concerts- when they dump out, hundreds of guests are added to the congested walkways all a the same time.  There's no crowd control, so foot traffic basically comes to a stop.

That said, you will not find any better people watching, and as long as you're not starving and trying to hit all the food booths, it is a very festive atmosphere. I think everyone should try it at least once.

TCD

Yup you get to see humanity in all of it's me first glory!  Pushing, shoving, drunks, people blocking overcrowded walkways taking selfies and just chatting with friends.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

The stretch of the World Showcase between Germany and France can become gridlocked on weekend nights during the Food and Wine Festival.  Two factors contribute to this- the big one is the food booths themselves- they encroach and take up space on the walkways, and force more guests into a narrower path.  The second factor is those Eat to the Beat concerts- when they dump out, hundreds of guests are added to the congested walkways all a the same time.  There's no crowd control, so foot traffic basically comes to a stop.

Good point - although the crowds didn't thin out until we wove our way past Canada and took the path over to Imagination.  It was crazypants.  I've never seen it that bad that early in the day.

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

That said, you will not find any better people watching, and as long as you're not starving and trying to hit all the food booths, it is a very festive atmosphere. I think everyone should try it at least once.

Agreed!  Eat early and find yourself an out of the way bench to enjoy the show.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

One thing I meant to mention about the crowds- I think that the extended dates will spread some of the crowding out.

It wasn't that long ago (5 years), that the Food and Wine Festival ran from September 28, 2012 through November 11, 2012.  It was only a few days longer in 2013, running from September 27 through November 13.  In 2014, they started it two weeks earlier, and they've extended it each year since to what we have now, with it starting on August 31st.  Crazy.

I don't think September weekends will be that bad.  It's too hot out, and I just can't see people being that into it.  With so many more weekends, I'm thinking that  early October won't be so crazy. I'll bet that the second half of October and the November weekends will be when it's most packed.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎8‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 1:25 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

We have our answer to this question.

I just got my August Passholder e-news, and the only free Passholder gift mentioned is these three buttons (there will be one for each month of the festival) (even though this year, the festival will include parts of four months) (but that is none of my business) :

Note that there are more buttons available if you buy something at one of the new Future World Marketplaces.  But, they're not showing any photos of what those might be.  And, the fact that they say passholders may have a chance to acquire these new buttons after making a purchase is not the same as saying that they're free.  Hmmmm.

TCD

I have a follow up on the additional passholder buttons mentioned in this post.

Here's a photo of them that they had on display on the counter where AP holders can pick up their Remy buttons. They are tiny, and not very fancy.  But, they are free:

They tell you that you have to purchase something to get one, but most of the CM's will hand a button over if you ask.  I wasn't asked to show my pass or ID when I asked for a button after making a purchase, and the CM asked me how many I wanted.  I'm guessing these won't be in stock for very much longer.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

2 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I have a follow up on the additional passholder buttons mentioned in this post.

Here's a photo of them that they had on display on the counter where AP holders can pick up their Remy buttons. They are tiny, and not very fancy.  But, they are free:

They tell you that you have to purchase something to get one, but most of the CM's will hand a button over if you ask.  I wasn't asked to show my pass or ID when I asked for a button after making a purchase, and the CM asked me how many I wanted.  I'm guessing these won't be in stock for very much longer.

TCD

I got 5 of the tiny buttons at one kiosk.  At another they only gave 1 each to my 2 daughters

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

17 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

II wasn't asked to show my pass or ID when I asked for a button after making a purchase, and the CM asked me how many I wanted.  I'm guessing these won't be in stock for very much longer.

TCD

Hmm... I guess we'll see if they have any left when we get there Nov 1.

[Travisma 1,317]

18 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Hmm... I guess we'll see if they have any left when we get there Nov 1.

There are 4 different colors, supposedly you got them at 4 different stands.

They are not impressive at all.  Even the Remy button leave a lot to be desired.

I would've rather see them do the three visits scanned onto your MB, then give you a decent pin instead of a cheezy button!

But hey we are only low life passholders and not Elite DVC members!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

16 minutes ago, Travisma said:

There are 4 different colors, supposedly you got them at 4 different stands.

They are not impressive at all.  Even the Remy button leave a lot to be desired.

I would've rather see them do the three visits scanned onto your MB, then give you a decent pin instead of a cheezy button!

But hey we are only low life passholders and not Elite DVC members!

You must not be able to see my photo- there are 8 (not 4) different little AP buttons- one for each of the kiosks shown in the photo.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

You must not be able to see my photo- there are 8 (not 4) different little AP buttons- one for each of the kiosks shown in the photo.

TCD

No I can't, but I thought a previous article I saw only had 4.  Guess I need to go back to simple math.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

There are 4 different colors, supposedly you got them at 4 different stands.

They are not impressive at all.  Even the Remy button leave a lot to be desired.

I would've rather see them do the three visits scanned onto your MB, then give you a decent pin instead of a cheezy button!

But hey we are only low life passholders and not Elite DVC members!

Yeah, so not excited about the whole button thing.  I know they're just going to end up in a drawer, vs the passholder glasses we've gotten the past couple of years that we use all the time.

That said, I kind of like the AP pins... maybe I can work them into some snazzy craft project.