Planning your trip around a festival at Epcot? Comparing them?

[Farro]

We normally always go in October and experience Food/Wine. We actually love Epcot during a festival, brings an added excitement to the park (yes, with crowds too). We stay 9 nights total and and stay at the Epcot resort area just to allow us extra time to enjoy it all.

Next trip we are thinking of going during first two weeks of May to do the Flower and Garden festival. We love going to the Botanic Gardens in the neighborhoods where we live, so I thought this would be a great festival.

Those who frequent flower/garden, do you find you spend more days at Epcot due to festival to enjoy all the displays? How are the food booths - I know not as many as food/wine, but are they good?

We also chose May because we like the heat!

Let me know your thoughts on Flower/Garden! Do you enjoy it as much as food/wine? less or more?

Edited to add- I'm also interested in the festival of the Arts, but we live in Chicago and I dislike planning trips in January due to the weather here and flying out, but talk to me about that festival too!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I'm more partial to Flower & Garden. Seems prettier and more interesting to me.

F&W 'feels' more just about the food/drinks - which is great of course too.

To me the food is comparable at both but I'm also not one to hit every booth so feel less qualified to answer that part.

If I were planning a trip just for one though, it'd be Festival of the Arts. It's like a mini-version of both with more interesting displays and photo ops. It may leave some F&W and F&G purists flat though since it's so toned down.

Ultimately, all of the above!

 

[Farro]

@GADisneyDad14 Thanks!

Would absolutely love Festival of the Arts, it's just that time of year is my least favorite to travel. And the weather at Disney, we want it warm enough to swim. It was jacket weather when we were there last October and we did NOT like that at all! We need our Florida vacations to be warm.

I'll have to research traveling there in Jan/Feb...

 

[Kazrak]

@GADisneyDad14 Thanks!

Would absolutely love Festival of the Arts, it's just that time of year is my least favorite to travel. And the weather at Disney, we want it warm enough to swim. It was jacket weather when we were there last October and we did NOT like that at all! We need our Florida vacations to be warm.

I'll have to research traveling there in Jan/Feb...

We love early January. "Warm" is as always a relative term, but it's generally warm enough that only the most cold-sensitive members of the group need a jacket, and that only some days. I'd assume late January is similar.

I've only been there for one Epcot festival, a single day during Flower and Garden, and I really liked it. I can't compare to F&W but the topiaries were fantastic and the extra food booths were quite good. The concert that night was a definite nostalgia trip (The Orchestra, aka 'A few former minor members of ELO as the core of an ELO cover band').

I'm looking forward to having a bit more time with F&G next year, and...still pondering F&W next year. We'll have annual passes, so at that point it's "only" airfare and hotel and food and souvenirs. (And race registration, as my excuse would be the Wine & Dine Half Marathon.)

 

[Farro]

Thanks @Kazrak !

I will think on it, but I really just want to be in shorts the entire trip! But that festival is very appealing.

I can't wait to see of the topiaries in person, they look amazing...

 

[kwdw]

I prefer F&G to F&W - and the Festival of the Arts just seems "mini" to me. Some of the art was cool to look at, but we found the lines for the fun photo ops to simply be too long the day we were there. And yes - for the weather you want - Festival of the Arts could be pants/jacket weather depending on the day.

F&G is beautiful - it really makes the park pretty - everywhere. And there are more food booths than I need; even though there are fewer than F&W.

I also think F&W brings in more locals to drink than F&G - especially on weekends. I think that makes it fun for the local Floridians - it's a "thing" to do - but it's not the atmosphere I need in the park.

But mainly - its about all the flowers! On a sunny day in the mid-70's/low 80's - F&G is just beautiful!

 

[Farro]

@kwdw thank you!!!

Your post got me excited to go during Flower and Garden festival!

 

[fla4fun]

I would rate them

1 Festival of the Arts
2 Flower and Garden
3 Food and Wine

I am not a Food and Wine fan. Most of the food has things in it I don’t like, and I don’t drink alcohol (never liked the taste). There aren’t as many things to do there if you aren’t eating and drinking.

The other two seem to have more going on than just food and drinks. I think the arts festival has the most to do outside of the booths, but I do love the displays for Flower and garden as well. I usually manage to visit during both of them and spend a lot of time at Epcot on those trips. You can see my avatar is from Flower and Garden. That area is one of my favorite photo ops.

They are all different in tone, but can feel similar in a lot of ways too. I think you will like Flower and Garden.

 

[AngiTN]

I love Festival of the Arts too. However, it can be very cold depending on your luck of the weather draw.
Last year January was pretty cold in Orlando. Very few were in shorts and pretty much everyone in jackets/long sleeves.

For weather and activities, I'd pick Flower and Garden. I find it beautiful and you have a lot more food booths than the Arts festival.

The one thing you lose is food/wine pairing events. I'd have a hard time giving up going to that all the way around just because we love treating ourselves to at least once special pairing event.

 

[Karen46]

We attended all three Festivals this year and even though all are good, we loved the Festival of the Arts. The Flower and Garden is beautiful and I would strongly suggest going on the Flower and Garden tour. This tour was very interesting and you really get to appreciate all the work that goes into this Festival. We like Food and Wine and had the luxury of attending this during the week for a few days. I have to say everyone is correct and the weekends are horrible. It is also very different from the past. Everyone is in drinking t-shirts and there are bachelorette Parties and the vibe is different not bad but different. We had a wonderful, wonderful time at the Italian Food and Wine Pairing. Try to book at least one Food and Wine pairing. The food offerings at Festival of the Arts and Flower and Garden though smaller than F&W are fine and just as fun. So if I had to return it would probably be

Festival of the Arts
Flower & Garden
Food & Wine

 

[reluctantredhead]

We haven't been to the Festival of the Arts yet (but just booked a February trip for 2019!), but we've now done F&G twice (2017 & 2018) and just attended our first F&W this year. I'll echo what several others have said in that the F&W festival felt much more crowded to me than F&G, and more about the food (makes sense I guess, since it's in the name). H and I rarely drink alcohol, so all of the events themed around that are pretty much lost on us (we only had one alcoholic drink during the F&W festival, and we shared it, lol). As vegetarians (so YMMV) we also have preferred the food at the F&G festival, as it seems "lighter" to us, and there seemed to be more non-dessert veg options at the F&G as compared to the F&W festival (though that could be our imagination).

Like several others have said, I absolutely adore the beautiful displays and topiaries at the F&G, and especially since we live in snowy Northern Michigan now, that wonderful burst of all things spring has been so wonderful to escape to during F&G! This past winter we had almost two feet of snow covering our property until mid May (which had begun accumulating right after Thanksgiving and never completely melted, so we had nearly 6 months of snow cover ), so I cannot possibly describe to you how wonderful it was to escape that for the little bit of heaven that was the BWI and the F&G festival last April.

ETA: It is currently 39 degrees and sleeting at my house...so I'm longing for those warm and sunny days at the F&G right now!

 

[Jennasis]

Flower & Garden is by far our favorite. We've fone F&W many times, but the garden fest just kicked so much butt! The park was BEAUTIFUL. The food offerings were more interesting too.

I'd put the Holiday festival at number 2.

 

[Farro]

Thank you everybody!!!

Flower and Garden it is! May 2020 is back on! (Hopefully, had to use our vacation fund to pay a ton for dental work, but we started saving again )

 

[Axel]

I am a hardcore F&W junkie (soooo bummed I've missed it the last 2 years because my new job doesn't include vacation time), but I also genuinely LOVE F&G. The topiaries are so cool to look at, the food is on par with F&W, and the crowds tend to be a bit more manageable.

That said, I'm dying to experience Festival of the Arts. My 73-year-old dad loves it, and I even got selfies of him at some of the photo spots from last year!

 

[Jasperann]

Flower and Garden is our favorite!! The weather in April is amazing for swimming and park going. We don't like May because the one time we went it was high 90s most of the trip and SO humid. We did not enjoy that, it just sapped our energy. April is a sweet spot though. We've never had bad weather in April.

 

[loves to dive]

We love both but I prefer F&W. Yes, the flowers are pretty at F&G but we've noticed that they tend to have just about the same topiaries every year. One of the reasons we enjoy F&W more is that there is more happening at the Festival Center, it is also open 7 days a week as opposed to just weekends during F&G. We also like the special food and wine pairing meals that happen during F&W. There just seems to be more to do during F&W then F&G. We (or at least I) have been going to both the past 4 or 5 years. My adult son went with me to his first F&W this year and said he prefers it over F&G as well. We do spend more time at Epcot during F&W then we do during F&G and 80% of our non breakfast meals come from either the booths or the special pairing lunches.

 

[Searc]

I've done all three and Flower and Garden is by far my favorite. The weather can't be beat and the theming is beautiful. There isn't the influx of locals with Flower and Garden like there is with Food and Wine and the topiaries alone are worth it. Festival of the Arts has the potential to be cold/cool and Food and Wine is downright HOT.

 

[kaetra]

I went to both F&G and F&W this year and F&G was a much MUCH better experience for me. Prettier, tastier and more magical.

 

[dachsie]

I ha e done F&G several times and did F&W this year for the first time. Will do Holiday festival in Dec and Festival of the Arts in Feb. I really liked F&G the best. It is so pretty at that time of year and the topiaries are really neat. I also really like some of the food offerings more than the F&W ones. I did enjoy F&W, but I think it was a one and done for me - too danged hot

 

[armerida]

Flower & Garden was our first festival and my favorite - still lots of food booths like F&W but agree with others that the topiaries and flowers really make is special and give another element besides eating/drinking. And there is a concert series like "eat to the beat"...Garden rocks!