2017 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival: August 31, 2017 - November 13, 2017

[samara]

You receive a plated breakfast delivered to you at your table and sample sizes of the items the chef prepares near the end of each of his demos. They used to have a good buffet breakfast, but no longer. I've had issues with the plated breakfast not being very warm.

I am there during Robert Irvine's "What's Cooking With......." and have experienced his events before. I do really enjoy him but sure wish he was doing one or two of the regular deminars as I feel the "What's Cooking With" is overpriced for what you get. Plus the dates and times are when I really want to do other things I have scheduled at WDW, including the Cali Grill brunch.

Thank you so much for the info! I can't decide if I want to try for the October 8th with Geoffrey Zakarian or not. I enjoy him, but not sure it's worth shelling out so much for a plated breakfast. No early booking for me, so I have until Thursday to come up with a decision!

There don't seem to be many demos done by "celebrity" chefs this time around...

 

[SarahInMN]

Thank you so much for the info! I can't decide if I want to try for the October 8th with Geoffrey Zakarian or not. I enjoy him, but not sure it's worth shelling out so much for a plated breakfast. No early booking for me, so I have until Thursday to come up with a decision!

FWIW - we have done fantastic What's Cooking Withs in the past with Robert Irvine/Jamie Deen/Duskie Estes/Voltaggio brothers BUT we did the one last year with Geoffrey Zakarian. He's kind of an arrogant and condescending person - it was highly disappointing. There's no way we'll ever attend a demo/event with Zakarian or Cat Cora ever again. EVER. Just my 2 cents

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

This is my hope... I've had good luck doing things online. Even if the website crashes messing with it for 10-15 minutes is preferable to a much longer hold on the phone. Plus, you have the phone line as a backup. No backup to the phones...

Does anyone "know" if the Parisian Breakfast will be bookable online..? I'm off from work anyway so if i have to call in so be it. Still wish I had known about Sam's being on Wednesdays...

DVC booking was down for 24 hours recently due to upgrade. if this IT shop fixed problems in 10-15 minutes it would be great, but

Only in Fantasyland would Disney invest in the IT to do this right! They would just try to do a cheap "patch" which would bomb!

 

[NoMoneyThanks2Disney]

Anyone able to book Trader Sam's on 9/27?

Yes! I got that this morning. I actually called at 8:57am with no wait, and got a fabulous CM Jose. He told me, well it's not opening for 3 minutes so lets get all your stuff pulled and confirmed then it should be time to book! He got my trader sam's, pfts for 9/23, and parisian afternoon for 9/30. He was going over the dress code and no return blah blah blah when the phone suddenly went silent. I hung on for a few minutes hoping he'd come back b/c my phone was still connected, but it ended up taking me straight to the survey. I immediately called back, waited maybe 2-3 minutes, and got another CM who was able to find all my stuff and book it! Then about 10 minutes later I got a call from Jose! He wanted to confirm that I was able to call back and get my events. What a fabulous CM!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I had a terrible booking experience. We are DVC, TIW & AP. I elected to go thru DVC/Member Services. Called at 9 AM per my cel & was told it was closed. Called at 9:01 & got in line. One hour and 43 minutes later, no one answered my call.
After one hour, I came on this board & saw that people were getting thru on WDW Fest. So I stayed on DVC on my landline & went to FEST # on my cell. Said 25 minute wait time, 43 minutes later, my DH spoke with DINE & I hung up on DVC. He got a loser. Had trouble finding Italian Regional luncheon & finally said it "wasn't available". Since it was almost 11, we accepted that. Over 40 cel minutes wasted. (Don't have an unlimited plan) But as we talked it over later & thought about getting on phone on 7/20 at 7AM, we realized that he never asked for DVC/AP/TIW info.
Called back at noon. Got right thru on FEST # and CM immediately asked for all our DVC info before looking for our request. Then she booked our request. We have the luncheon for 10/4.
I tried calling DVC to vent about my first call & see if they could do something for us, but it was a 35 minute wait. Since we got the luncheon, all I can expect from them is canned replies : "High volume" "Apologize for any inconvenience" etc.
Every year, I swear I'm not going thru this booking angst. But the luncheon is the high point of every F&W trip & I want to make sure we get it, especially since it was been cut back from 3 times a week to twice a week.

I wrote DVC a scathing email several years ago after being in the "black hole" when trying to book the member cruise. Someone called me back with a bunch of lies. I cut him off by pointing out that I had one phone that I started on at 8 AM (or whenever they opened) a second I started at 10. I got through on the 2nd line first. I then left the first line on "hold" until 1 PM........

I told them we should get a dues reduction if they can't run the phones since we pay for them.

Do they hold some spots for regular booking for events or are the total number of seats available for pre-booking?

I ask because I'm hoping to get Parisian Breakfast on 9/23 but I don't qualify for pre-booking. My fingers are crossed that there's a chance this will still be available when I go to book on the 20th!

Most seats are still out there. The rumor is somewhere between 10 and 20 percent are available for pre booking and with Chase gone it could be less this year.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

DVC booking was down for 24 hours recently due to upgrade. if this IT shop fixed problems in 10-15 minutes it would be great, but

Only in Fantasyland would Disney invest in the IT to do this right! They would just try to do a cheap "patch" which would bomb!

That was due to an upgrade -- not at all the same as just opening some ADR's!

You're wrong re: online booking destined to "bomb". It didn't for F&W regular booking last year.

Did you book demos online last year? Any issues? Flawless when I did it right at 7am last year.

Any issue with your ADRs generally?

No one is saying it will be perfect. But it is WAY BETTER than it used to be, and WAY PREFERABLE to me vs. not getting though on the phone for an hour, having to call in dozens of times before connecting, waiting so long in a call queue, and finally getting a CM who is not even clear on what to do.

I really think your opinion is based on mostly out of date info now. Thankfully, they've gotten a lot better.

 

[sueg]

I almost didn't post my experience, but I'm glad I did. Hearing about other "black hole" experiences validated my feeling that I was a "lost call" never to be answered. On top of failing to value my time, the failure to answer such calls surely is dues $$$ poorly spent.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

That was due to an upgrade -- not at all the same as just opening some ADR's!

You're wrong re: online booking destined to "bomb". It didn't for F&W regular booking last year.

Did you book demos online last year? Any issues? Flawless when I did it right at 7am last year.

Any issue with your ADRs generally?

No one is saying it will be perfect. But it is WAY BETTER than it used to be, and WAY PREFERABLE to me vs. not getting though on the phone for an hour, having to call in dozens of times before connecting, waiting so long in a call queue, and finally getting a CM who is not even clear on what to do.

I really think your opinion is based on mostly out of date info now. Thankfully, they've gotten a lot better.

This is too funny. I promise I did not make this up, but "a lot better"?


I just tried to book a dining reservation on Disney.com

I got a cartoon of Stitch saying "someone at the page" LOL!

So apparently yes I have problems with ADRs.

Not impressed!

 

[hippiechicken]

I called about 5 min before, and after asking my CM to hold the events without fixing my address and entering an AP number, was able to get everything I wanted for 10/5-9, including PftS, Parisian Breakfast, Italian Wine Lunch, Geoffrey Zakarian, Mix It Make It Tiramisu, and the Skywalker Beverage Seminar.
It helped that I knew more than the CM, including exact names of the events, locations, and times. She struggled to find things and tried to say they were unavailable, but she finally found them all. In the end, she didn't need the AP number.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

This is too funny. I promise I did not make this up, but "a lot better"?


I just tried to book a dining reservation on Disney.com

I got a cartoon of Stitch saying "someone at the page" LOL!

So apparently yes I have problems with ADRs.

Not impressed!

Glad I gave you chuckle. Perhaps you have "bad ADR Karma"... I haven't had an issue in ages.

 

[loves to dive]

I called around 1, only had a 7 min. wait and the CM had no problems booking what I wanted. She said she had been booking F&W all day long. Of course, I'm only doing 1 special lunch and 2 deminars so that might have made it easier. I'll probably pick up a couple of deminars while I'm there, I've never had problems in the past doing that, but I only have 3 full days and 2 half days so I didn't want to be over booked. I'm kicking myself for not booking my trip for longer to at least include a Saturday since a lot of the special events seem to be taking place then, but I just got downsized from full time to about 1/4 time so I'm trying not to spend money.

 

[karrit2000]

Anybody have a review of the Italian food wine Vs beer? I found a review of when they did it with just beer, and my brother did the one with just beer a few years ago and really loved it. But I'm wondering if they changed it when they added wine.

I do not like beer, but my husband is a beer drinker. He doesn't drink wine. I'm also not a wine fan but I'll drink it. He'd probably drink all the beer and I'd probably drink all the wine. But maybe we'd each take a sip of the other to test the pairing. Add to that I don't eat red meat, bacon, duck, so I'm not sure. I know I could tell them what I don't eat and they could give me a substitute.

We're already booked for a tequila lunch (we've done twice before and loved) and what's cooking with Robert Irvine (which we did 2 years ago with him, my husband is a huge fan). But we're there for 2 weeks so this definitely wouldn't be too many things.

I'd just really love to read a review or get someone's perspective on this event.

I found this great review about a week or so ago.

http://mealtrip.com/italian-food-wine-vs-beer-pairing-at-via-napoli.asp

The picture of the table set with all the empty glasses prior to the tasting is quite impressive. I'm booked for this event twice this year during 2 different trips. We didn't go the first year they offered it and weren't able to attend the festival at all last year. But having attended the original Wine Pairing & Beer Pairing events @ Via Napoli I have no doubt these will be wonderful. It's also 5 courses rather than the 4 that the old events had.

 

[marsh0013]

I found this great review about a week or so ago.

http://mealtrip.com/italian-food-wine-vs-beer-pairing-at-via-napoli.asp

The picture of the table set with all the empty glasses prior to the tasting is quite impressive. I'm booked for this event twice this year during 2 different trips. We didn't go the first year they offered it and weren't able to attend the festival at all last year. But having attended the original Wine Pairing & Beer Pairing events @ Via Napoli I have no doubt these will be wonderful. It's also 5 courses rather than the 4 that the old events had.

That's awesome thank you so much for sharing! I'll have to show this to my husband and decide if we should add this to our schedule.

 

[samsteele]

Re hostess, @OrangeCountyCommuter called it straight. Nothing mean spirited about it. I've watched the same thing unfold for at least the past 5 years. Everyone is now free to make up their own mind and attend one of the culinary demonstrations/deminars.

 

[AquaDame]

This is too funny. I promise I did not make this up, but "a lot better"?


I just tried to book a dining reservation on Disney.com

I got a cartoon of Stitch saying "someone at the page" LOL!

So apparently yes I have problems with ADRs.

Not impressed!

Glad I gave you chuckle. Perhaps you have "bad ADR Karma"... I haven't had an issue in ages.

But thats not a 24 hour incident... I've had error messages come up frequently (still too frequently) but usually just trying a second time resolves it. In the past, I would fight it for 10-15 min before it would work on a launch day, but honestly recently I only get the error sometimes and again, one refresh and I'm good to go. Way better than the phones IMO.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Club Level guests with confirmed reservations can book today through DSS!!! Someone reported this on the CL thread and I called DSS, 15 min wait and then a very helpful CM booked PFTS Reserved Seating, culinary and beverage demos for us all on my Disney gift cards! I'm so happy to not be getting up at 3:30am on Thurs for booking.

 

[cdtommie]

I found this great review about a week or so ago.

http://mealtrip.com/italian-food-wine-vs-beer-pairing-at-via-napoli.asp

The picture of the table set with all the empty glasses prior to the tasting is quite impressive. I'm booked for this event twice this year during 2 different trips. We didn't go the first year they offered it and weren't able to attend the festival at all last year. But having attended the original Wine Pairing & Beer Pairing events @ Via Napoli I have no doubt these will be wonderful. It's also 5 courses rather than the 4 that the old events had.

This is a great event and really good value Disney wise...we do this every year. I'm a real beer guy and they have some very interesting choices, all craft, except for the occasional Moretti offering. One of the breweries featured frequently was bought out by the dreaded INBEV recently which is always bad news.

 

[marsh0013]

This is a great event and really good value Disney wise...we do this every year. I'm a real beer guy and they have some very interesting choices, all craft, except for the occasional Moretti offering. One of the breweries featured frequently was bought out by the dreaded INBEV recently which is always bad news.

Thanks for this. Pushing me toward booking! I don't know what the dreaded INBEV means, but happy to read that you have enjoyed it in the past.

 

[AquaDame]

Club Level guests with confirmed reservations can book today through DSS!!! Someone reported this on the CL thread and I called DSS, 15 min wait and then a very helpful CM booked PFTS Reserved Seating, culinary and beverage demos for us all on my Disney gift cards! I'm so happy to not be getting up at 3:30am on Thurs for booking.

Thats very interesting...! Did they advertise this possibility anywhere?

 

[cdtommie]

Marsh, INBEV is the largest beer conglomerate in the world and owns such brands as the dreaded Budweiser along with many more extremely bad products. They specialize in buying up breweries, laying off their employees and reducing the quality of their products all for the sake of profits and market share.