We attended the Food and Wine Festival in October 2012 and started out our whirlwind trip way too early in the morning.  Why does it always sound like a good idea to get an early flight so you can start enjoying your trip early?  It always sounds better at the time of the reservation than the morning of the flight. But only being at Disney Fri – Sun, I wanted to make sure we got as much time as possible (even though it meant we weren’t wide awake enough to know what was happening).

Since we only had 1 ½ days to enjoy the Epcot Wine and Food Festival, we hit the ground running as soon as we checked into the resort. Our room was ready by 11:00. We had a great 1 bedroom at the Boardwalk overlooking the pool with views of Hollywood Studios.

We have been to Disney World 25+ times, but since this was the first time Tom and Nick attended the Food and Wine Festival, we learned a few things:

1. Our first lesson learned was to not go to the festival at night (especially on a weekend).  The lines were CRAZY long and the number of people who had enjoyed their wine and beer all day were running rampant. But we still had a great time.
2. The second lesson learned was getting the Meal Plan was ridiculous. Why I thought it was a good idea to make sure we had 2 meals a day after eating all day long still makes me shake my head.
3. Eating gluten free was definitely more of a challenge than I expected.  We had 2 sit-down meals, Le Celier and Via Napoli.  Le Celier was very easy and accommodating and the chef didn’t have to come to the table.  The waitress just needed to have it approved before leaving the kitchen.  Via Napoli on the other hand was different.  The manager had to come over and go through what I could eat.  To say that she seemed putout by having to come over is an understatement.  The waiter was fabulous about it.  I had the Mezze Rigatoni alla Creme con Pollo. This was absolutely fabulous (and worth the attitude from the manager).

Since we aren’t adventurous eaters, I love that you can get tapa size bites so you can try a variety of foods without having to get an entire meal. And I was so surprised how many different things Nick tried. Yes, he threw some away after tasting it, but we were proud of him for at least trying. The cost of each tapa ranges from $4-$8. This is a list of the different countries and menu items 

It would not have been a trip to Disney World without a visit to the other parks.  We went to Magic Kingdom to see the updates on the new Fantasyland.

Nick would have also been crushed if he didn’t have a chance to get to Hollywood Studios and ride Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. I wisely sat this out while the guys had their fun.

So Tom didn’t think it was as much fun as Nick and I did, so next year, Nick and I might make it a mom and son weekend and leave Tom to attend to the dogs. We will definitely hit the festival as soon as it opens and then spend the latter part of the day at another park or enjoying the resort.