The 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival is quickly approaching and, if you’re a parent, you might be wondering if it’s kid-friendly.

The short answer is — yes! We’ve got tons of tips and ideas for making the most out of Food and Wine WITH your kids and all it really takes is some planning!

Planning Your Trip

Research the Menu

Before your trip, it’s a good idea to research the EPCOT Food and Wine menu ahead of time with your kids, ESPECIALLY if you have picky eaters. Our YouTube is a great resource for this!

You can also look at our menu pages, our previous Best of the Fests, and more. Planning your trip as a family is a great way to connect AND generate excitement about trying new foods. But having a plan beforehand will save time and the headache of spending money on something your kiddos don’t want to eat!

Visit the DFBGuide YouTube channel here!

Choose Dishes

It might be fun to let each child choose two (or more!) new dishes that they would like to try as a way to make them feel included in the planning and excited about trying something new.

Have fun with it! Let them plan their meal and decide what new foods they want to try. There are usually lots of exciting options for kiddos like cake pops, funnel cakes, slushies, and so much more. Menus have not been released for this year’s festival, but they should be released soon. The booths have been announced though, so you can start on that research now!

Keep visiting this page as we learn more about the 2021 Food and Wine Menu!

Things to Bring

Wet Wipes

Since your kiddos will be chowing down on some food, so you’ll definitely want to bring a few specific items. For example, food often means messes, and we know how often kids do not finish their food.

Therefore, we suggest bringing some Wet Wipes. These will be a necessity for wiping those sticky hands and for cleaning festival tables.

Click here to grab some Wet Wipes!

Takeout Containers

The food at Food and Wine comes in little cardboard boats, which is great for easy access but not great for putting in your park bag when you and your kids are so full you can’t finish it.

You may want to pack takeout containers to store all of your extra food! Then you have snacks for later when you get hungry back at your hotel and you saved all those delicious extras.

Click here to grab some takeout containers!

Entertainment

You may also want to consider bringing entertainment for the kids as lines for booths and rides can sometimes be very long. We love coloring books as an easy thing to pack in your park bag, like these mess-free activity books.

While you’re waiting in a long food line, your kids can even color with the marker on their clothes and leave no mark! Everyone wins.

Click here to get your own Imagine Ink books!

Stay Cool

Some of those long booth lines are in direct sunlight, and if you’re planning to visit the Food and Wine Festival in July or August, you would benefit from some kind of cooling device, like this rechargeable handheld fan.

Either you or your kids can hold onto this fan for some quick cooling action when the Florida heat is a bit much. At the end of the day, charge your fan for your next park visit! You can also get fans that attach to your kiddo’s strollers.

Get your own rechargeable travel fan here!

During Your Visit

Gift Cards

A great way to let your child feel included is to use gift cards! We’ve recommended gift cards for adults at Food and Wine as a way to budget, and giving a gift card to your kids lets them “pay” for their own meals.

Sometimes you can even find a promotion for Disney gift cards, such as receiving 5% off a Disney gift card at Target when you use your Target Red Card. When you’re on a budget and every penny counts, those savings really add up!

Check out our top budgeting tips for EPCOT Food and Wine here!

Festival Passport

If your child is able to read, you could put them in charge of the (free!) Food & Wine festival passport, and allow them to check off every food your family tries!

The Food and Wine festival passport lists all the food booths and menu items so that you know exactly where you want to eat and can serve as a fun souvenir and reminder of your visit and all the new foods your kids enjoyed.

Click here to read more about the festival passport!

Scavenger Hunt

Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak scavenger hunt has been around for a few years now and Disney recently confirmed that it will be back for 2021! Your family will love searching for tiny Remy statuettes hidden all over EPCOT.

During the Food and Wine Festival, you can buy the map and stickers from several locations in EPCOT for $7.99. If you finish the scavenger hunt, you can return to select stores for a special prize! Stay tuned to DFB for updates on the 2021 scavenger hunt.

Read more about Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak here!

Kidcot Fun Stops

A MUST DO for families in EPCOT is to visit the Kidcot Fun Stops located in every World Showcase Pavilion. And it’s free! There are 11 cards to collect around the World Showcase and if you collect them all, you get a prize.

At each station, a Cast Member will give every child a little card and stickers in a “luggage” Ziploc bag. Kids can use markers to decorate their cards, and Cast Members will write or stamp the card just like a passport. This is a great way for kids to learn about other countries and just enjoy some coloring.

Click here to read more about the Kidcot Fun Stop!

Cheese Crawl

Now that we know the cheese crawl will also be returning to the 2021 Food and Wine Festival, you might want to consider participating if you are a family that loves cheese.

Emile’s Fromage Montage is a free passport with 5 different cheese menu items that allow you to receive a stamp for each purchase. If you complete your passport, you get a prize! Lots of cheese and a prize — everyone is winning here.

Click here to learn more about the cheese crawl!

Other Ideas

There are a lot of other possible activities your can build into your day, such as pin trading in every country or searching for hidden Mickeys around EPCOT,

We also have a list of unique things to do in EPCOT that would be perfect for many families out there, especially if you decide to take a break from the Food and Wine Festival.

Don’t leave EPCOT before you do this!

DFB Festival Guide

Our DFB Guide to the 2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is the ultimate EPCOT Food and Wine companion with 250+ pages of tips, food reviews, and a map of all the festival booths.

This guide is currently available for pre-order, and you can save 20% off the cover price by using the code CHEFS at checkout.

And with it, you should be able to tackle the Food and Wine Festival with kiddos with ease!!

Click Here to Pre-Order the DFB Guide to the 2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival!

So those are our tips and ideas for bringing kids to the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival! Stay tuned to DFB for all your Food and Wine news and updates!

Will you be bringing kids to EPCOT Food and Wine Festival? Let us know in the comments!

The post How to Tackle EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival with Kids first appeared on the disney food blog.