DVC Guide to 2018 Food and Wine Festival

Disney Vacation Club members always love a Walt Disney World visit. Some seasons are better than others, though. To a lot of DVC owners, autumn leaves are an odd reminder of the Most Magical Place on Earth. That’s the time when an annual tradition returns, and it’s also the reason why Disney’s BoardWalk Villas and Disney’s Beach Club Villas are always booked. Yes, fall is when DVC members get festival fever. Here’s a guide to the 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.
The Beginner’s Guide to Food & Wine
Back in 1995, some enterprising Disney executive got a bright idea. They took note of the popular Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado, which was still a new event back then, having starting in 1992. This Epcot official appreciated that the premise of a food-based festival meshed perfectly with Walt Disney’s vision for the World Showcase.
Uncle Walt had wanted something similar to the 1964 New York World’s Fair, a cultural touchstone event that centralized countless international lifestyles in a single place. The Food & Wine Classic mimicked this behavior, and Epcot park planners believe that the idea would translate at Walt Disney World. Time has proven them to be geniuses.
Disney’s version of the exhibition is the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. It’s become such a staple of the World Showcase that park planners have gradually expanded the idea. Epcot now hosts four annual festivals, leading the park to a point where it now has more days with festival events than without. Yes, when you visit Epcot on a given day, there’s a better than 50/50 chance that an exhibition is taking place.
The popularity of the premise is unquestionable, and the Food & Wine Festival is the linchpin product. Each year, hundreds of thousands of guests flock to the event. Many of them are DVC members, since we’re the ones who deduced that two of our favorite resorts, BoardWalk and Beach Club, have a back door into the World Showcase. The existence of the International Gateway and a favorable September/October points chart has turned Food & Wine Festival into a DVC tradition.
The Basics of Food & Wine
Many of you have tremendous familiarity with the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. This section is written for those who don’t, so feel free to skip it if you’re a grizzled veteran of the World Showcase bar crawl.
The most important aspect of the Food & Wine Festival is right there in the name. It’s a celebration of international cuisine and potent potables. During the event, Disney opens special food kiosks across the World Showcase. Each one provides a special menu of cutting edge cuisine and classic international staples.
Epcot’s promised a record-setting number of Global Marketplaces this year, with over 30 places to sample the flavors. They’ve even extended the range of the festival this year. It’s no longer exclusive to the World Showcase. Taste Track has re-opened with a special festival menu. You’re going to want to eat there, too. The magic words on the menu are “gourmet donuts.”
Let’s Talk Food Kiosk Menus!
You may wonder what Global Marketplaces and food kiosks mean. Imagine a child in your neighborhood setting up a lemonade stand. Now, imagine that child using some of the tastiest recipes in the world to serve you food and drinks. Also, imagine that the child is an entrepreneur who charges Disney prices for said food and drinks. You’ve got the gist.
At the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, you’ll never go hungry. You’re never more than a few steps away from another food kiosk, and this place serves 6-8 dishes that will all blow your mind. They’ll also have wines and beers on tap that will make you feel like you’re either at Napa Valley or cheering on your favorite soccer team at the local pub.
Due to the sheer volume of kiosks, you’ll have more meal options at the festival than you will anywhere else on the planet. Shanghai, Paris, New York City, and Las Vegas cannot compete with Disney when it comes to the number of foods available in a condensed area.
Also, pros at the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) know a secret. Many of the foods on sale at the food Global Marketplaces count as Snack (!) credits. You can eat two very large entrees at the Food & Wine Festival without using any of your regular Quick/Table Service entitlements. Since Disney fans can book the DDP, this is one of those situations where you can maximize the value of the plan.
The event is so beloved that some Disney sites compile full lists of Global Marketplace menus. Disney Food Blog is a go-to resource for this information. You’ll notice menu items like Belgium’s Beer-braised Beef served with Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes, France’s snooty-sounding Crème Brûlée à la Confiture de Framboises: Crème Brûlée with House-made Raspberry Jam, and Spain’s Spanish-style Paella with Chorizo and Roasted Chicken.
At this point, you may have realized that Spain doesn’t have a pavilion at the World Showcase. This is another important aspect of the experience. Many of the Global Marketplaces highlight concepts rather than countries. One of the annual favorites is the Chocolate Studio, which produces dishes like Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey-Caramel. I don’t know what that is, but if I’m ever on Death Row, I’m pretty sure I want it for my last meal.
Some of the locations specialize in adult beverages, too. Craft Drafts sells something called Florida Beer Company Passport Triple Chocolate Milk Stout, Cape Canaveral, FL (Flight 1), which sounds better than any part of Mission: Space. The Shimmering Sips Mimosa Bar sells Frozen Apple Pie, a frosty variation of the beverage made famous in an episode of Justified. This one is not alcoholic and presumably not poisoned, either. Each year, Disney’s added dozens of new dishes and beverages to perfect the festival experience for guests. In 2018, they seem closer than ever.
What Else Is There to Do?
Let’s be honest that the name Epcot International Food & Wine Festival paints a picture. It’s an apt description of the key parts of the event. You’ll eat and drink more than anything else, sampling the goods as you casually stroll through the World Showcase. Still, Disney’s built up the exhibition over the years since there’s seemingly no limit to the demand for the festival. It has a few special features that may interest you.
The best known one is the Eat to the Beat concert series. It’s the event where fans of various bands from the 1960s through early 2000s realize just how poorly their favorite musicians have aged. I’m mostly joking, although I’ve seen Rick Springfield lately, and that time he played a television vampire may not have been fiction.
Seriously, the Eat to the Beat concert series is terrific, presuming that you can line up the schedule right. Every few evenings, Disney cycles through music artists, each of whom plays three shows nightly. So, if you’re wondering what Tiffany’s been doing since 1989, you can show up at Eat to the Beat and ask her.
While I’m joking about this a lot, the reality is that Eat to the Beat is extremely popular. The three nightly shows can and do sell out. The explanation is simple. They’re free concerts featuring your favorite music artists from way back when.
Recently, Disney’s even added Eat to the Beat Dining Packages so that park guests can guarantee themselves a seat for the show. Yes, it’s another upcharge event, but if you want to prove to Sheila E that you’re her number one fan now that Prince is gone, you’ll gladly pay the money. It’s cheaper than fighting the restraining order in court, right?
Here’s the complete Eat to the Beat lineup for all of you would-be stalkers super-fans:
• August 30 to 31: Blue October
• September 1 to 3: Tiffany
• September 4 to 5: NEW! MercyMe
• September 6 to 7: NEW! Glass Tiger
• September 8 to 9: NEW! Tauren Wells
• September 10 to 11: Postmodern Jukebox
• September 12 to 13: NEW! Vertical Horizon
• September 14 to 16: Baha Men
• September 17 to 19: Plain White T’s
• September 20 to 21: Living Colour
• September 22 to 23: NEW! Sheila E
• September 24 to 26: Sugar Ray
• September 27 to 28: David Cook
• September 29 to 30: Jeffrey Osborne
• October 1 to 2: NEW! Jim Belushi & The Sacred Hearts
• October 3 to 4: Everclear
• October 5 to 7: Mark Wills
• October 8 to 10: Air Supply
• October 11 to 12: NEW! Anderson East
• October 13 to 14: Smash Mouth
• October 15 to 16: NEW! 98 Degrees
• October 17 to 18: 38 Special
• October 19 to 21: The Devon Allman Project
• October 22 to 23: Kenny G
• October 24 to 25: Billy Ocean
• October 26 to 28: Starship featuring Mickey Thomas
• October 29 to 31: Hanson
• November 1 to 2: NEW! High Valley
• November 3 to 4: Taylor Dayne
• November 5 to 7: Boyz II Men
• November 8 to 9: The Hooters
• November 10 to 12: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
I’m Sold. When Is the Event?
Here’s the remarkable part of the event. It was historically a brief affair, but Disney has steadily expanded it over the years. In 2018, the Food & Wine Festival lasts from August 30th through November 12th, which is 75 days if my math is correct. You have two and a half months to visit Epcot to enjoy all of the event’s highlights.
Florida residents in particular love this fact, as they eat great all fall. DVC members are kind of in the same boat. Our rooms are already designed for extended hotel stays, and most of the Food & Wine days occur during Adventure Season and Choice Season. Those are the most favorable times on the DVC calendar in terms of hotel points cost.
BoardWalk owners have deduced that they can spend Sunday through Thursday at Walt Disney World for a minimal cost of 50 (!) points. And the whole time they’re in Orlando, they’re only a few steps away from the World Showcase’s rear entrance. For Beach Club members and those lucky enough to book there during the seven-month window, the cost is 50 percent higher, but that’s still only 75 points for five nights right by Epcot!
This explains why DVC membership has always gone hand-in-hand with the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. It’s a tremendous use of points that comes with glorious fringe benefits. Of course, in the era of ride-sharing, any DVC resort at Walt Disney World is almost as good. The Food & Wine festival is reason enough to justify adding a few more DVC points.