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Five Fabulous Facts about EPCOT’s International Food and Wine Festival
1. Try something without commitment
Kiosks along World Showcase’s walkway provide gourmet samples of various foods and drinks native to that country represented. This is a great way to try a new food without having to get a reservation and/or sit down at a table service restaurant and dine on a full serving of that food. At the Germany Kiosk, you can try Spatzle Gratin with Ham and Cheese without having to have a full meal at the Biergarten Restaurant. Here is the Belgian Waffle with a fruity topping.
2. Evenings and Weekends are busy
This festival is VERY popular. You will find that on the weekends, you will have a combinations of guests on vacation and local residents. Evenings will get busy on nights that the Magic Kingdom hosts the Halloween Party due to later park hours at EPCOT. A good strategy during these busy times is to dine on popular items earlier in the day as lines for these will be HUGE later. Sensitive guests should realize that there is a LOT more alcohol being consumed during this time of year. World Showcase may look more like a neighborhood festival beer tent than a theme park area.
3. Use the Wrist band gift card
Gift cards can be purchased and refilled at any of the kiosks around the showcase walkway. If you use a credit card to make purchases, I highly recommend using the gift card option. First of all, it is worn around your wrist for easy access. It will be easier to have it on your arm than digging a card out every time. Also, if you use your credit card, you will find yourself making many charges for medium amounts of money that might send a red flag to your credit card company. You might have your card frozen because your company thinks your card is being used fraudulently. By putting $50 or $100 on a gift card, you can run that card many times at any amount and not cause any issues.
4. Get a FREE passport
There is a festival guide. Every year it’s a little different. It’s available right next to park maps. It’s nice enough. I suggest one of these instead. Its smaller size makes it easier to carry. Each page lists a country and its offerings with room to check items off and make comments. There is also a little box that cast members will stamp – just like a real passport – to show you visited. I used these last year for Katybug and Allygator. They had a lot of fun with it. They were able to practice talking to adults with good manners and in some cases, they learned something. At the Italy kiosk, two cast members taught the girls to say Bon journo and would only give them stamps when they said it. In China, the cast member wrote their names in Chinese on their page. Adults have fun with this as well. My father in law insisted on having something from every kiosk and getting his stamped accordingly!
5. Check out the FREE musical entertainment at the American Gardens Theater
What else goes with amazing food and drinks? Music! EPCOT presents the Eat to the Beat concert series over the six week festival. The lineup changes every couple of days. This year Boys to Men and Blues Traveller are doing a set as well as some great 80s bands like Night Ranger and The Pointer Sisters. The concerts are held three times a day and are FREE once you are inside EPCOT.
There you have it! Five Fabulous Facts presented to you from me!
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