With respect to pricing on the events, when the dinners were Reserve Dinners held under the circus tent in the Wonders of Life Pavilion and later, Exquisite Evenings at Epcot held in the Millenium event space, we felt the dinners were definitely worth the price. The groups were small -- about 30 for the Reserve Dinners and about 60 for the Exquisite Evenings. The food was outstanding and vintners brought out their very best stuff -- we were once served Penfold's Grange ($400 a bottle) at an Exquisite Evening focusing on Australia and sponsored by Penfold's.
At a dinner focusing on South Africa (again under the tent at the pavilion formerly known as Wonders of Life), the wines were amazing and each person's dessert was served on a large chocolate tablet that was held aloft by four molded chocolate elephants -- truly spectacular. To top it all off, there was a drawing with two couples winning all-expense-paid trips to South Africa!
Another time, we attended a Regional Dinner focusing on Turkey, which was held at the Millenium space. Again, the group of attendees was pretty small, the food and wines were lovely, we were treated to a performance by an outstanding group of dancers flown in from Turkey and a drawing was held for an all-expense paid trip for two to Turkey.
The Reserve Dinners often featured a musical combo playing during cocktails. And, we were picked up at our hotel and chauffered to the event and back!
Needless to say, we have not seen anything like these dinners in several years.
Moreover, the pricing for the festival dinner events has doubled and, in some cases, tripled since then, while the quality has plummeted.
With larger groups now being hosted at big restaurants, we usually find the food is pretty average and the vintners don't open their best wines. They go for something middle of the road that can be poured economically to a larger crowd. We first learned this at a Signature Dinner held at Bistro de Paris, 3-4 years ago. We had attended an Exquisite Evening at Epcot featuring J. Colombo wines, and it was outstanding. However, when serving the larger group at the Signature Dinner, the J. Colombo wines served were their lesser quality rose wines, and we were disappointed.
As a result, we have come to the conclusion that most of the dinners, as they are now run, are not worth the price. We did attend a Signature Dinner at Wonders of Life a couple of years ago, that was an exception to the current trend. It featured outstanding Boisset burgundies and pinot noirs; however, the food did not rise to the level of the wines, unfortunately.
Since then, we just haven't been impressed with the offerings for the price -- and that includes the signature dinners, the French regional lunches, etc.
Nothing in this year's schedule has changed our mind that the best years of the Festival have truly come and gone. The focus now seems to be on getting as many people into the events as a restaurant or event space can possibly hold. Those kinds of events do not interest us.
I tried to explain to them that we won't know what we have until Aug. 16
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So should I cross it off my list? It would be the one & only event I would do, but $90 is a lot of money for something that may or may not be subpar. I love dessert & I would consider myself a serious amateur baker. I would love to see Buddy in person & get some tips from him, but on the other hand I don't want to throw $90 away. That's a lot of tastings from the food booths! What to do? 
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