EPCOT Festival of the Holidays

[WanderlustNZ]

Hi everyone,

My family of 3 are at WDW the week before Xmas and our 180 window is less than a week away. I’m currently trying to decide what to do on our EPCOT day.

At the moment I’m not even sure I want to book anything as we are considering snacking from the Xmas food booths.
On the flip side, when it comes to dining, there is an advantage to having an actual table and chair rather than perching on steps etc.

Does anyone have any experience with the food booths at that time of year and an opinion either way?

Also, do any of the TS restaurants get into the festive spirit and have any special decor or menu items? We aren’t interested in fine dining or the Candlelight Procession package, just something that feels a bit fun and festive.

Thanks in advance

P.S. If any MK restaurants get into the Xmas spirit, I’m keen to hear about them also.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I’d go ahead and make a reservation to be safe. Then when your trip is closer you can look at the booth menus and see if anything is appealing. In general the serving sizes are larger than at Food & Wine and definitely possible to make a meal of. The other variable that would prompt me to make a reservation is weather. We’ve been able to swim some years and have been wearing hats and gloves others. You can always cancel it if you decide to do the booths or counter service.

I don’t think the restaurants have any different menu options other than perhaps on Christmas Day itself. As far as decor goes, I know Chefs de France has put up garlands - if you google “Chefs de France and Christmas” there are a couple pictures- and you could be seated with window view out into the walkway or pavilion with more decor. The interior of the Mexico pavilion, where San Angel Inn is, is decorated and very festive.

 

[Nancyg56]

I would book a meal in Epcot. The booths are nice however there are not quite as many as ther are for F&W, so I woudl make sure I had dinner planned. You can cancel if once the menus are shared you see enough to ensure your satisfied with the offerings. We liked the booths and had lunch by strolling and buying from the different kiosks, however we did crave the conventional TS meal by dinnertime.

The eweather is crazy in DEcember, I have had warm trips and some that needed hats and gloves. The weather changes day to day.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Thank you so much for both of your answers.
It does make sense to book something and then cancel if we change our mind. Now to hurry up and decide where that is going to be.

 

[sapphirerose915]

We are planning on eating an early lunch and then snacking around the world for the festival of the Holidays! I was going to make a reservation at Via Napoli.. but after reading we cant share then we decided it wasnt worth it!! From tacos to poutine and egg rolls there is sooooo mich.. plus all the desserts... hope epcot is ready for these snack credits!!!!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We are planning on eating an early lunch and then snacking around the world for the festival of the Holidays! I was going to make a reservation at Via Napoli.. but after reading we cant share then we decided it wasnt worth it!! From tacos to poutine and egg rolls there is sooooo mich.. plus all the desserts... hope epcot is ready for these snack credits!!!!

Awesome - great way to spend your snack credits.

Unfortunately we don’t have the dining plan as we have rented points to be able to afford Wilderness Lodge. So whatever we will buy, will be out of pocket.

To be honest, I’ve been researching restaurants a lot the last few nights and having a bit of sticker shock. I was last at WDW about 5 years ago and at the time I remember thinking that prices were pretty good (the more favourable exchange rate helped).

However, I’m thinking EPCOT might be our chance to save a few dollars and have counter service for lunch and some booth snacks for dinner. For dessert, I really want to try the patisserie in France which I never got to last trip.

So with that in mind, I’m also keen to hear people’s best counter service options.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Also, year round food venues like the Refreshment Port have added Canada's Poutine, Beer Cheese Soup and a wonderful loaded Bloody Mary! Rather than take everything away after F&W and F&G, some of these snacking options rather than sit down meals are keeping Epcot goers well fed. I really enjoy the variety!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Also, year round food venues like the Refreshment Port have added Canada's Poutine, Beer Cheese Soup and a wonderful loaded Bloody Mary! Rather than take everything away after F&W and F&G, some of these snacking options rather than sit down meals are keeping Epcot goers well fed. I really enjoy the variety!

Per the Disney Food Blog this weekend, the soup on its own is no longer on the Refreshment Port menu... but they suggest since it is ostensibly on-hand for poutine, one might be able to request a cup. I’m wondering if this is in prep for Food &Wine where the soup is a standard offering at the Canadian kiosk.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Per the Disney Food Blog this weekend, the soup on its own is no longer on the Refreshment Port menu...

Boy I tell you, in prior years to get Disney to make changes took an act of congress, now it's like a daily change of underwear. I just had the Beer cheese soup on June 10th and it's already gone...... as you said, F&W starts in August, maybe that's why they removed it. I hope the Bloody Mary is still there!

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

I would definitely make reservations, and you can always change/move them. I did check out the booths last year and nothing really impressed me. I ended up not eating dinner because I didn't see anything I wanted, which caused me issues later in the night.

 

[Moliphino]

So with that in mind, I’m also keen to hear people’s best counter service options.

Tangierine Cafe in Morocco is my favorite Epcot QS. La Cantina de San Angel would be second for meals. Les Halles in France or Kringla in Norway for good snacks.

We did find a lot of tasty snacks at the holiday food booths last year, too.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

So the booths are very solid, but I will warn that they're nothing like the other festivals. There are a few snack-sized portions, but last year they were entree-sized.

We do normally save one day for just snacking. We'll get up later in the day, head to Epcot, and just pick at food. We'll split something at the booths, we'll sit down in Mexico and eat, someone will eat a snack they've been waiting to try...

I'd recommend booking an ADR just to be safe, then check out the menus when they're made available and see if you'd be interested. Or... make an ADR for a place like Beaches and Cream. If you don't eat enough, you can grab a burger; if you eat enough, then just grab some ice cream.

 

[Moliphino]

So the booths are very solid, but I will warn that they're nothing like the other festivals. There are a few snack-sized portions, but last year they were entree-sized.

Last year they were mostly snack sized (and snack credits). The year before they were larger and didn't count as snack credits.

 

[Texans_loyal]

Awesome - great way to spend your snack credits.

Unfortunately we don’t have the dining plan as we have rented points to be able to afford Wilderness Lodge. So whatever we will buy, will be out of pocket.

To be honest, I’ve been researching restaurants a lot the last few nights and having a bit of sticker shock. I was last at WDW about 5 years ago and at the time I remember thinking that prices were pretty good (the more favourable exchange rate helped).

However, I’m thinking EPCOT might be our chance to save a few dollars and have counter service for lunch and some booth snacks for dinner. For dessert, I really want to try the patisserie in France which I never got to last trip.

So with that in mind, I’m also keen to hear people’s best counter service options.

The booths can be pricey, Epcot is a money pit.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

We are planning on eating at the booths for lunch and then having a TS for dinner. I booked Ale and Compass this morning, but I'll probably change it when the CP dining packages come out. We love F&W, so I'm sure we will love snacking at the Festival of the Holiday booths. I realize there aren't as many booths, but that's fine since we are going only one day.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Thanks so much everyone for your contributions - very helpful.

Remind me please: Is there a penalty for cancelling reservations on the day of the booking? My memory is saying there is, in which case, I think I’ll not book anything and go with QS and snacks. At this stage, the only way I think we’ll really wish we had the TS is if it was really cold or raining, and I perhaps won’t know that until the day.

I watched a couple of You Tube videos last night of people ‘dining around the world’ and eating a snack or small meal at every country. It looked like more food than you could ever hope to eat, but it also looked like a lot of fun.

The small meals and guacamole at the Mexico counter service particularly appealed (avocadoes are very expensive at present in NZ, but are my favourite, and my son loves Mexican). Plus, the desserts in France still look great.

With that in mind, I think we will have a small lunch at Sunshine Seasons and then snack around the world (or part of the world) in the evening. It also takes my worry about having to rush around the world to be at a certain point at a certain time.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[caribbeandream]

If I could hijack this thread, how do the booths work? Do you pay for the individual snacks as you go around the WS? Do you buy tickets?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

If I could hijack this thread, how do the booths work? Do you pay for the individual snacks as you go around the WS? Do you buy tickets?

Someone will correct me if I’m wrong as I’m stretching my brain back to the F&W festival of about 5 years ago, but you just pay at each individual booth.
You can also use DIning Plan snack credits.

I am interested to know, however, if you can scan them to your Magic band and settle the bill at your hotel?

 

[Franrose]

Hi WanderlustNZ! I am a fellow Kiwi (though currently living in Aus) who will also be at WDW when you are... I'm looking forward to checking out the Holiday fare too. We have done the Christmas season before... but I'll be darned if I can remember themeing in the restaurants we visited

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Hi WanderlustNZ! I am a fellow Kiwi (though currently living in Aus) who will also be at WDW when you are... I'm looking forward to checking out the Holiday fare too. We have done the Christmas season before... but I'll be darned if I can remember themeing in the restaurants we visited

Hi Franrose,

I remember you from back in the day when there was a lot of posting on the Australian part of the DIS. It’s a shame it’s become so quiet over there.

How wonderful that you will be there at Xmas also. How long are you going for?

We have only 3 WDW days this trip and I’m really strugglng to decide how to best distribute our short time. 2 days until I can make ADRs and I haven’t even yet decided where to spend the third day. Epcot, then MK, then