Food and Wine Festival

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Magic Days's picture
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Food and Wine Festival

mickey Hello WDWFGU, We are headed to WDW mostly for the Food and Wine Festival. We are going to stay at POP and will arrive the final week in Oct. We are wondering if anyone has suggestions for any of the seminars or favorites at the food and wine. Any thoughts on MNSSHP are appreciated as well. We really enjoyed the Christmas party so were hopeful it would have a similar feel.

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MrHub's picture
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Welcome Magic Days! If you liked the Christmas party you should love MNSSHP. I think it is the best holiday party. The Headless Horseman is awesome.

WDWfanatic's picture
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I can't help you with the seminars. MNSSHP is great. I concur, the Headless Horseman is awesome!

Depending on how much eating you plan to do at F&W, you may not want to have dinner plans that night. We have run into people at Biergarten who were sorry that they booked dinner after a day of eating around the world.

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I've gone to two seminars (wine and whiskey) and a food & wine pairing. I thought the seminars were very imformative, plus they were inexpensive ($12). The pairing was $65 and well worth it.

On the days I had lunch at the festival I also had dinner ADRs. I had a list of booths I wanted to try and divided them up between the days. My dinner ADRs were later in the evening so I wasn't too full for dinner after sampling at the festival.

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Have no insight into the F&W Festival but just wanted to say Hello Magic Days and Welcome! stars

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Magic Days's picture
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We are very excited to see the Headless Horseman. Just wondering how many people dress up for the event?

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Magic Days's picture
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Hi Twilight Sparrow. yay

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Magic Days's picture
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Thank you JoAnn. Great idea

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I've never been for Food and Wine Festival either but I just wanted to say welcome Magic Days! This is a great forum and I'm sure you'll get plenty of tips! muchlove

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Hi Magic Days!

This is one of my very favorite times of year to visit WDW. The food is amazing, and MNSSHP is my favorite special event!

I gathered up a couple of past articles for you.

F&W Seminars
http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/articles/low-cost-wine-seminars-epcot-international-food-and-wine-festival

http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2012/08/18/best-values-at-the-epcot-food-and-wine-festival-seminars-and-demonstrations/

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/category/tags/mnsshp

The Colonel's picture
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MNSSHP- the ticket will say seven, but you can get in much earlier. Wear a costume and join the fun. Don't miss the parade or Hallowishes. It's awesome

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A lot of people dress up for MNSSHP!! My husband and I went last October and the costumes were amazing. Some people went all out with what they were wearing. I couldn't believe how many adults were in costume. BTW the trick or treating is for everyone no matter your age!!! We ended up bringing home our candy and giving it to our grown up son. We also were able to ride all the rides we wanted to. We enjoyed the parade and fireworks. In fact there is an interesting view of the fireworks while on the Dumbo ride! We can hardly wait for our grandchildren to be old enough to take them.

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Welcome Magic Days. We are planning on doing MNSSHP, dressing up and doing the trick or treating yay when we are there in October. I am bouncing waiting for the days to be announced but can't wait for the October hours in general to be listed. Not long now

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We've never done MNSSHP, but we love the Food and Wine Festival. We always spend at least two full days eating nothing but festival booth offerings, sometimes more than two full days, and even with sharing some things so we can try more items, we never get to everything on our list. There's something good at pretty much every booth.

Past favorites of ours include the tuna poke at the Hawaiian booth, chipotle chicken sausage at the Canadian booth, kir and creme brulee at the French booth, mussels at the Belgian booth, sausage at the German booth, any kind of sushi at the Japanese booth, shrimp tacos at the Mexican booth, and jerk chicken at the Caribbean booth. There's lots more that we loved, but I'm working from memory and that's what came to mind at the moment.

Magic Days's picture
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We love this forum. Your right Kat everyone is so happy to share a love of all things Disney. Thank you Kristen those are great resources. I appreciate you sharing them. We aren't much as candy eaters but hasn't really thought to far on that. We could always donate the candy to those less fortunate. Thanks for the idea Nikamel. We are working on costume ideas now Colonel. I know what ya mean Sally-Ann I like to plan our ADR based on park hours so really am waiting for the extra hours this season. We are excited to experience our first food and wine festival. Does Animal Kingdom or Hollywood do anything special for Halloween.

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Welcome, MagicDays!! You're in the right spot for all things Disney Planning!!

Both F&W and MNSSHP are both WONDERFUL events, and I think it's so cool when the two coincide and you're able to experience both in one vacation!!

Halloween Party is SO much fun...the trick or treating lines are too long to bother with, in my opinion, so you won't be missing out on anything in that respect. Best. Fireworks. EVER. Parade = Fabulous. Headless Horseman = Fabulous.

My only bit of advice about food and wine is, unless you're planning on drinking your way around the world, too, then you may want to get the heck outta dodge before the sun goes down. F&W tends to bring out the sloppy in a lot of drinkers. (We were with our kids during our last trip, so it was overly uncomfortable.) But, holy mackerel (pun intended), the food ROCKS!! There's no such thing as a bad F&W kiosk, IMO!! Smile

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I will be there when both the MNSSHP and F&W Festival is going on. I will try to get a ressie to BOG the night of the Halloween party. Can't wait!

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I agree that the lines for trick or treating are really long. That is also the best part. Lines for rides are even shorter because of it. That is one bonus that we like about MNSSHP over MVMCP.

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Hi and welcome! I LOVE WDW in October, best time of year to go IMO! F&WF is fantastic, though I have no advice on seminars as DH and I just preferred grazing the booths. I will suggest that you go on weekdays if at all possible as the weekends get kind of crazy with the locals. MNSSHP was a last minute addition to our plans and I'm SO glad we did it! It was probably our favorite night in the World. DH and I both dressed up and saw tons of people (kids and adults alike) in costumes. I don't remember AK or DHS having anything special for Halloween, though.

Magic Days's picture
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We are still working on costume ideas that are neutral enough for children and still fun for us. My parents have decided to join us again so that may be a consideration. May not trick or treat but playing in the Magic Kingdom in costume sounds perfect. I know that on Chrisas day many of the mvmcp events happen with out the ticket. Since we are going to be there on the day I wonder if anyone knows if the fireworks will be hallow wishes? Or maybe we should think about another closing show.

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Hallowishes will be on party nights. Wishes on all other nights, if I am remembering correctly. They usually start letting you into the parks at 4pm for MNSSHP, but that is not guaranteed.

The closer you get to Christmas, they do start doing that Christmas parade during the day too, but I have not been to MNSSHP at the end of Oct, just early - mid, so I am not too sure if they do the same thing with that parade.

MNSSHP parade is my very favorite!!! Aside from the Headless Horseman, the gravediggers are my next favorite.

One thing that we do, since we like to take advantage of fireworks time, is try to head over to the Poly one night during MNSSHP (not the night we go to the party) and watch Hallowishes from the beach there. That way, we can take advantage of rides during the fireworks on our party night.

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Tammi

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Attended my first F&W last year solo and had a great time. Some of my favorites around the showcase were the pork sliders in Hawaii, both tacos in Mexico, the Le Cellier filet in Canada, the chocolate lava cake with Bailey'sganache in Ireland, both vegan items at Terra, the Lambington in New Zealand, and the ravioli in Italy, along with the mini cannoli and strudel in Germany. It was so much fun and the beers and wines looked great although I'm not much of a drinker(did enjoy a Gran Marnier Slushie OMG). Having a gift card to pay at the various booths is convenient and eliminates the multiple charges on a credit card. It also helps with budgeting because all the small things add up quickly. Didn't do any seminars or tastings but I am going back with friends this year and hope to do at least one. Made almost no adr's and spent dinners sampling instead.

Almost forgot about the music, Eat to the Beat concerts, lots of fun. I was able to enjoy Boyz 2 Men one night, and I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement for this years acts.

The Halloween party was a lot of fun, but I went on arrival day and departed soon after the parade. Just was too tired to enjoy thoroughly. I will go mid trip this time planning for a late night. There are lots of adults in costumes but just as many or more simply in regular clothing or a Halloween t shirt.

Hope you have a blast!

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Nancy D's picture
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PirateGirl wrote:
I will be there when both the MNSSHP and F&W Festival is going on. I will try to get a ressie to BOG the night of the Halloween party. Can't wait!

Fingers crossed for you, PirateGirl, because that would be double the awesomeness!!