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Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2008 Schedule
By Bill | August 22, 2008 | Email This Post
Hi everyone… the Epcot Food and Wine Festival schedule for 2008 is out as of today (August 22.) Reservations start on Monday the 25th at 7AM Eastern time, and can be had by calling 407-WDW-FEST.
Disney’s official Festival web site has the basic information, and if you’re lucky you might even get a printed brochure in the mail sometime before the Festival starts… but it will be far too late to actually be of any use in making reservations. Of course, if you’re like me, none of that’s quite what you want anyway… what you’d really like to see is a quick guide to what will be going on during the dates you’re in the World. Or maybe you pick one main event you want to travel to attend, and want to see everything else that’s going on that weekend. So here you go:
A downloadable Excel spreadsheet of everything, sorted by date and color coded by event type. Let me know if you like it… I’d get a kick out of knowing someone else found it useful.
One disclaimer: I tried to make the spreadsheet accurate, but it is in no way official or sponsored by Disney. Please, please, please, confirm the times/locations/prices with official sources before you make any plans based on what you see here.
Other F&W thoughts: My overall impression is of a much less attractive schedule than last year:
- Not to be too negative, but the Signature Dining series has been gutted. Too bad; that was one of the highlights of the Festival for me, and I had looked forward to attending several events this year. Doesn’t look like it now. This is a real disappointment.
- Exquisite Evenings are gone, too. Another bummer.
- Regional Feasts are history as well. I suppose the City Tastes are supposed to be a replacement, but they don’t look quite as nice to me.
- Major kudos to Epcot for getting the Bocuse d’Or. This is a big deal.
- Fewer Wine classes/seminars… vertical tastings down from 7 to 3 over last year, Epcot wine schools down from 7 to 4.
- A big comedown on the food and wine pairings, too, with them only being held in Japan, Italy, and Morocco (last year was Japan, Morocco, Living Seas, Canada, France, Italy, and a Scotch pairing at the Rose & Crown)
- The French Regional Lunch series is potentially interesting.
- Much more concentration in Epcot and less use of other WDW properties… you might argue that it’s more convenient this way, but I sort of liked the impression that at any given moment there were lots of things happening all over the World.
- The schedule is coming out later and later every year. Thanks Big D.
The one aspect I’d say has held it’s own is the Eat to the Beat lineup. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a fantastic addition, and there are several other worthy newcomers.
Get your dialing fingers ready if there’s anything you just have to do… the good stuff always fills up fast. Despite my complaints, I’m looking forward to this year’s Festival. See you there!
Topics: Disney |
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I found your color coded spreadsheet very helpful. Thanks for doing it and for sharing it - I found a link to your site from the DIS.
This will be our second time to the F&W. We’re going to do the Food & Wine Pairing in Morocco. (Would like to do the one in Japan, but DH will not go - doesn’t eat even cooked fish, LOL).
Disappointed about the signature dinners and regional feasts, too. We were hoping to attend one this year.
Thanks again -
Carol
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Thanks Carol. Good luck in Morocco… I haven’t done the F&W stuff there, but Restaurant Marrakesh is one of my favorite park restaurants.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Bill,
My wife and I had been attending the F&W Festivals for years. We did the Exquisite Evenings before they were called that, attended a lot of wine education classes, did some food and wine pairings, some verticals, The Cook the Book and the Bottle, and just really lived it up and enjoyed ourselves. It was “our time” and the only time we’d leave the kids at home and go. The Sweet Sundays turned into a great way to “sum-up” the visit.
We looked forward to it every year. We’d get up extra early, get the home phone, each of our cellular phones, and the kids’ cell phones, and “start dialing” 30 seconds early.
It was a tradition.
Then they moved the Exquisite Evenings from the Wonders of Life pavillion into the “Millenium Village” and I spent an evening trying to get comforable from a “head of the table” spot where the fold-out legs and my knees were battling for position. That evening was not-nice from any perspective. We couldn’t hear what the head table was saying, the place was a barn and felt empty… what a mess.
Then they moved to the Odyssey where a large number of the participants have their backs to the center table.
One year the air conditioning wasn’t on in the “waiting room” at Epcot and everyone nearly passed-out as they took us back stage, four at a time, to get to the Odyssey which would have been a pleasant walk across the park. Instead we spent half and hour sweltering.
And all the while the visiting Chefs were becoming more and more scarce and the prices were going up, up, and away!
My last vertical cost something like $175/person and was… well, questionable.
Like you, I don’t want to be negative. I *want* to look forward to these events and it is a special, and necessary, time for us to “get away.”
In 2007, we were very fortunate to get to go twice, despite the difficulties with one Exquisite Evening at the Odyssey the particular night we went, the trip was still great.
When we saw last year’s offerings, our hearts sank. We must have spent six or seven hours straight trying to find a week, or weekend, that offered enough to interest us. There were a couple of things, but one would be on a Wednesday and the next would be ten days later, and we really didn’t want to spend as much money as Disney was asking for the other; plus airfare and lodging… to have a $400 dinner at Jiko?
We didn’t go. At all.
Again, I do not want to be seen as being negative or a whiner. We’ve gladly spent the money when we felt we wanted to attend events. But if I remember correctly, Party for the Senses started-out its life at $65 or $75. It was, for me, a bargain at that price. That must have been 2001? Then they let more people in and the price went up. What is it now? $125 or $150 and you need park admission and you’re lucky if you have enough room to turn around, much less be able to walk across the floor or be able to hear your fellow-Partiers speak?
My wife and I can have an awfully nice dinner for two for less than $300 and don’t have to eat standing-up balancing a wine glass being jostled.
I know the point is being able to sample, not elegance. If they sell too many tickets the “sampling” becomes a problem, the vineyards willing to come seem to decrease in number and what they are pouring becomes less and less special.
I also noticed that we were missing a lot of “visiting Chefs” and were beginning to get a lot of Disney hotel chefs, and sous chefs “stepping out.”
I also noticed that they weren’t enforcing the dress code for anything. Okay, so let’s not wear tuxes, but souvenir T-shirts and flip-flops? Exquisite Evenings pretending to be elegant with a bunch of polo shirts and jeans at the tables?
Now, don’t get me wrong; most of the chefs are extremely talented and I had some unbelievable food, I am not complaining about that, nor am I a snob…, but it wasn’t the same as having a Chef from a restaurant I may never be able to visit explain what he was handing me, or having a wine maker pour something for me that he was obviously proud-of.
I’m taking a leap of faith this year. I’ve chosen a weekend, and I’ll make the travel arrangements tomorrow.
Let’s pray that Disney got enough feedback last year that they’ve decided to either give us all new offerings, or they’ve decided to put it back the way it was.
Although some of the “samples” you can buy while strolling around the lagoon are good, and interesting, it isn’t enough to lure me 800 miles.
For less money and no more hassle, I can go visit the Chefs that stopped visiting me.
Bret