**2010** Epcot Food & Wine Festival ENDED 11/14. 2011 FESTIVAL 9/30-11/13

[TDC Nala]

Just read the first post of this thread. The information is there.

 

[redzinner]

here you go...

Thanks pixie08!

 

[redzinner]

So who was at the PFTS tonight with me and what did you think? I thought it was pretty crowded and had too many duck and lamb dishes for my taste. I ate mostly scallops tonight and CHEESE. Loved the cheese. Desserts were great, too.

DD and I were there Saturday 10/23. I thought the crowd was very manageable compared to previous years. I did not attend any of last year's themed ones. We did not stake out a table but still found plenty of table space to enjoy our food while roaming. I agree with the OP that there were too many Malbecs for my tastes (and headaches). For some reason that grape gives me problems. I could have camped out at the Bastiolo and the San Guiseppe wine booths. Enzo Fargione Elsir's Ricotta Cavatelli with Braised Lamb Ragu and Pecorino Cheese with the San Guiseppe Ripasso Valpolicella Classico Superiore were by far my favs for the evening. Irvine's Seared Beef Tenderloin was yummy too. Unfortunately I think the Scallops (3 booths!) were all cooked too long. Just not a good food to serve the masses.

The cheese table had great selections ... goat cheese was delicious.
IMHO, nothing spectacular in the dessert selection.

The Milagro Tequila/Margarita was very nice. He was pouring shots of anejo for anyone that wanted a sample.

 

[BriarRosie]

As I said, we missed last year. I presume I missed some discussion of this last year. If I get a chance, I'll try to wade through the archives, but I will guess that there were other disappointed attendees then.

There were lots of people disappointed about the change, but it also helped those of us who travel from far away a shot at getting into the deminars. I do remember when they were free, a recognizable group of people would go just to eat or drink the freebie, leave while the presenter was still talking, and get back in line for the next freebie. The costs seem to have stopped that practice.

I know I heard there was a change in Florida liquor taxes, which also might have been a factor in Disney starting to charge for these. I didn't book any deminars, but I did spend $100 on kiosk noshing, myself.

 

[The Expert]

We returned a few days ago from our extended trip with mixed reviews. We had a few days before and after family joined us to do just F&W, but still managed to hit every booth (and I have the stamps to prove it!) and do some seminars and events.

3D Desert Party 10/15: We liked the size and attendance of this event. We stopped doing PFTS two years ago due to the crowds and rudeness, but this was closer in scale to the Spain feature night we did a few years back (miss that event!). I agree with one of the earlier reviews that the food items were repeated and there could have been more, but I thought there were plenty of beverage options and some things I didn't see elsewhere. I liked the tea/coffee/water stations. The doughnut was the BEST! We skipped Illuminations but saved the glasses for our nephews and nieces to use later in the week.

Wine School, Pinot Noir w/ Andrea Robinson 10/16: I have a few nitpicks about this one. We were in the very last group called up to the room so I had trouble seeing from the back table, even on the aisle (she is short and so am I, and the stage was not elevated). They also started the seminar before we were up there and seated, so we missed a little bit. That really annoyed me as we had already waited nearly 30 minutes past the scheduled start time to go upstairs to begin with. The school itself was quite informative and the pours were generous to say the least. I'm not a chardonnay fan so saved some of my favorite pinot to have with the bites at the end. The food was fine, but nothing great. I think I would do this again if it were a grape varietal I was more interested in. Pinot Noir is fine, but I'd love to do this for Malbec or Cabernet.

Coppola beverage seminar 10/19: We signed up for this in advance online and popped over from MK to do it. The information was interesting and the presenters were entertaining, but it was mostly a sell to visit their new winery in Sonoma. We're big fans of Coppola wines and were hoping to try some wines we hadn't yet, but two of the three bottles were ones we have in our cellar at home. That certainly wasn't their fault, but a bit of a disappointment for us personally.

French Regional Lunch, Bordeaux 10/22: We had a lovely table with fun people and the food and wines were fantastic. My only complaint is that the wine representative hardly said anything about most of the wines. She gave an introduction, talked a short bit about the first and third wines, but never said anything about the second or last ones. They did refill wines through the lunch, which was great. The desert was SO good! Saint Honores with chantilly cream and a fresh raspberry coulis. Mmm!

Cheese Seminar, Spain 10/23: This was TERRIFIC! The cheese portions were huge and the guy really knew his stuff. We also were poured a white and a red Rioja and were taught a lot about pairing wine with cheese. They took us through each cheese, then had us try each one with each wine and talked about why one worked and one didn't. VERY informative! We also left with a goody bag from the winery (bottle keychain, wine tool, booklets, etc) and some literature on artisanal cheeses.

Taste, Shake and Indulge 10/23: Hands-down this was the best event of the festival for us. I'm sure it'll be back next year and probably cost twice as much. It was an absolute steal and so much fun. The presenter was French and hilarious! We were given a mimosa, glass of water, a few spongecake cookies and a dark chocolate, along with three 1-ounce pours of different Grand Marniers. The presenter went through the history of the company and talked extensively about each one we tasted. We then made our own cocktail, which was a ton of fun, and they demonstrated crepes souzette. At the end we were served a desert plate with a crepes souzette, raspberry mousse and orange sections. So yummy! I would do this one again in a heartbeat.


As for the booths, we thought the salmon in Canada was much improved this year (it's been dry in the past), the Spanikopita was way too garlicky, and the beef skewer in Argentina was the best thing offered anywhere. There was a HUGE crowd difference between weekdays and weekends, so avoid F&W on Saturdays if at all possible. I haven't seen so many people in the world showcase since we went for New Year's Eve!

LOVE the new Cava de Tequila in Mexico and fell in love with their avocado margarita and the jalapeno margarita. We stopped in to have them three different times during the fest!

That's all I can recall off the top of my head, but we ate at every booth so if you are curious about something, just ask.

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

Tried to look throught the posts but didn't have much luck in finding an answer. Are the recipies avaialable for the foods sold at the booths? We tried a few things we would like to make at home.

 

[TDC Nala]

Recipes are not available at the booths, but there is a cookbook for sale.

 

[pixiesnake]

Just want to say thanks to everyone for the reviews. We are usually there for the first week of the festival, but this year opted to go when the weather would be more pleasant. It's been so nice to read the reviews in anticipation of our turn to nosh around the world. Only 10 more days to go! Thanks again.

 

[dgbg100106]

When I was there two weeks ago, I was using the wrist gift card to buy something from one of the festival stores in the WS. The CM there mentioned that some people have a problem with the plastic clasp that holds the wrist band to the card opening up, so she taped it for me. I never had a problem with it either way, but that made me feel safer.

And to the person who originally asked about the wrist gift cards, yes you can purchase them with your room key (assuming you have charging purchases on your room key).

Hi we just got back and mine broke off within an hour of purchase. Then I started looking and lots and I mean LOTS of people were walking around with the wrist strap and no card!

 

[The Expert]

We used the wrist cards for our whole trip and didn't have any trouble with them breaking off. I did keep mine tucked in under the strap just to keep it out of the way, so maybe that helped. Didn't see anyone else with one broken either, but perhaps we just weren't paying attention.

In any case, if you keep the top portion of the gift card that you break off when you buy it, they can use that to deactivate and reissue a card if you do lose one. As long as you have that, it may be a pain, but you won't be out your money.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Recipes are not available at the booths, but there is a cookbook for sale.

The cookbook that we looked through had some recipes for items that were offered in previous years but not offered this year. On the other hand, there were some items offered this year that didn't have recipes in the cookbook.

 

[TDC Nala]

Still, the cookbook is the only way to get the recipes, as they don't hand them out at the booths themselves anymore (they used to, years ago).

 

[conandrob240]

Yep, cookbook was definitely outdated. I have heard that if you e-mail WDW food and beverage department (not sure how), they will send you a recipe for anything made on property. Not sure if this applies to the F&B kiosks?

 

[glendalais]

In any case, if you keep the top portion of the gift card that you break off when you buy it, they can use that to deactivate and reissue a card if you do lose one. As long as you have that, it may be a pain, but you won't be out your money.

This is actually a very common misconception.

Any Walt Disney World Resort Guest Relations location will be happy to reissue your Disney Gift Card if they have the Gift Card number, which is a 16 digit number found on the back of the card above the magnetic strip, as well as on any receipt issued to you during a Gift Card activation or reloading transaction. This is not to be confused with the code on the top of the minature Disney Gift Cards.

The top portion of the minature Disney Gift Cards contains no information that can assist in reissuing your card, and can be disposed of without any ill effects. It's mostly for aesthetics, really.

 

[The Expert]

Good to know! We were told that by two different CMs when purchasing different sets of cards.

 

[heathers4um]

I am more than sure this has been asked and answered but I cant seem to find it...

Can someone please tell me if the F&W kiosks honor the Tables in Wonderland card?

I am doubting that it does, but I would like to make sure before I leave in 3 days, 12 hours and 58 mins!

Thanks!

 

[TDC Nala]

Can someone please tell me if the F&W kiosks honor the Tables in Wonderland card?

No, they don't accept TIW. They don't accept any discounts at all (unless you count DDP snack credits).

 

[BGK]

A question for the Florida residents: is F&W being promoted heavily in your area? Here in the Ft. Myers market, I've seen at least a dozen billboards around town (the one with the creepy lobster hugging the wine bottle), and the radio stations have multiple ads per hour. They're even sponsoring NPR local segments. If this kind of push is happening across all of southern Florida, this may explain the seeming-record crowds on weekends.

 

[sasmmb]

Hi! In prep for my trip next week I wanted to see what the reviews were like for each booth from AllEars.net survey. To print it out is like 33 pages which is too much to take with, so I created a Word doc and got it down to 4 pages. An example of the content is below (the formatting gets lost in the post but looks good in the doc).

I thought others may be interested, if so PM me, or if someone knows how to make a Word Doc accessible via a post, I'd be happy to send it to you to post.

3. Argentina (Location: Mexico Pavilion)
Winner! Worth a Taste Did Not Like
Roasted Corn and Cheese Empanada 45.7% (118) 41.9% (108) 12.4% (32)
Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce and Boniato Pureé 74.8% (208) 21.6% (60) 3.6% (10)
Bodega Norton Cosecha Tardía 30.6% (11) 55.6% (20) 13.9% (5)
Bodega Norton Reserva Malbec 46.0% (29) 49.2% (31) 4.8% (3)
Kaiken Cabernet 29.6% (8) 59.3% (16) 11.1% (3)
Pasual Toso Toronte 28.6% (6) 57.1% (12) 14.3% (3)

 

[redzinner]

I will try to put the list of our selections up tomorrow but I wanted to post that we had a savory selection this evening at the Dessert Party: Cheeses, Prosciutto, crackers, melons, other fruits, yogurts.