Who’s ready for the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival?

We are! We’ve already hit up all the food booths (including the eight NEW booths this year) to get you all the deets AND reviews. And we’ve checked out some of the activities, too, like Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak scavenger hunt and the cheese crawl!

We’re also doing everything we can to help YOU plan for the festival, too, by offering up free downloadable maps and menus!

And don’t forget that if you want to navigate the festival like a pro, you can also purchase our DFB Guide to the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival e-book!

And while we’re at it, we’re going to tell you about the things that everyone tends to get wrong at the festival, so you can avoid making these same mistakes yourselves. Believe us, we’ve been there and we’ve done all these things, too. We’ve learned from our mistakes so you don’t have to!

Not Planning Ahead and Getting Too Full Fast

The reason we’ve provided you with maps and food booth reviews is so you can plan ahead because trust us, there is a LOT of food and it can be overwhelming. If you just start eating at the first booth you see and make your way around, you will get full fast! 

There is little to NO WAY to eat everything at the festival, at least in one go, so look at our reviews, decide what your food priorities are, and hit those booths first. Otherwise, you might miss out on something you really wanted to try because you already ate so much.

See our BEST of the FEST list here!

Not Bringing A Tray or Another Pair of Hands

When you get your food from the food booths, you’ll need to be able to carry it to an empty table, bench, or wherever you plan on ending up to eat. So we recommend bringing a tray, or another pair of hands. This will be especially useful if you’re ordering a LOT of food from one booth.

Of course, our top tip is to bring both — have that second pair of hands scout out a table or spot to eat while you load everything up on the tray and carry it over.

See 5 mistakes you could be making at the Food and Wine Festival here! 

Not Setting A Budget

Before you arrive at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, we suggest setting a Food and Wine budget! All of our reviews have prices, so you can go through and pick and choose what you’re wanting to try! Then you can add up all of those items to see how much you need to save/budget for! Once you start buying those small plates of food and drinks (especially alcoholic drinks) without a plan, you might lose track and end up spending $400 before you even realize it!

We recommend that you put your Food and Wine budget a Disney Gift Card (and special Food and Wine ones are available during the festival that you can wear on your wrist) and have that pre-loaded with your budgeted amount.

Read more about budgeting for the Food and Wine Festival here. 

Arriving Later in the Day or On Weekends

If you’re attending the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, we tend to suggest going earlier in the day, before the booths get super busy. Hopefully, this will give you the opportunity to hit all your priority foods as quickly as possible, and then take it easier later in the day when more crowds show up.

Also, the weekends tend to be the busiest festival times. So if you’re looking to avoid crowds, you may want to visit during the week.

See opening day food and Wine crowds here! 

Booking A Dinner Advance Dining Reservation

Okay, here’s another pro-tip — if you’re planning to try LOTS of booth items, we suggest that you don’t make a dining reservation for that day.

Oftentimes you will be too full after a sit-down lunch or dinner to really be able to enjoy all of the festival offerings. Or maybe make a reservation for breakfast so you can enjoy the festival for lunch and dinner!

Here are 10 unique Disney World breakfast items you NEED on your list! 

Forgetting To Drink Water

The one thing we stress EVERY day at Disney World is to make sure you’re staying hydrated, especially on those hot Florida days. Your body loses a LOT of water when you’re walking around and sweating. And that’s especially true when you’re at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival.

This is even more important if you plan on drinking alcoholic beverages — they will dehydrate you, meaning that drinking water should be even more of a priority for you. So make drinking water a priority!! And don’t forget, you can get free water at Disney World!

Everywhere you can get FREE water in Disney World! 

Not Pacing Yourself

Trust us — we know what it’s like when you FINALLY get to the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival and you just want to start eating and drinking immediately because all the menu items are SO EXCITING! But we suggest that you try to pace yourself, or you’ll be full before you know it! So take it easy, slow down, enjoy each and every bite.

And remember that you should pace yourself with the booze, too — believe it or not, these drinks can pack quite a punch! And just as a general note, Cast Members can only serve 2 drinks per ID at each booth. Oh, and don’t forget to bring your ID! You don’t want to have to turn around to go back for it.

Looking for mimosas at Food and Wine?! Find out where to get them here! 

Forgetting To Pick Up A Festival Passport

Okay, so sometimes we still do this occasionally — we get to the festival, have all our lists handy, but then we forget to pick up the festival passport. It happens to everyone! But Festival Passports are readily available FOR FREE all over EPCOT (you’ll most likely find them in front of shops).

The passport not only lists every booth and menu but also has little checkboxes that you can tick off when you try something. PLUS if you’re participating in the cheese crawl, you’ll get stickers to add to your passport for each cheese you try — if you get all the stickers, you get a special prize! The Festival Passport also makes a nice — and FREE — souvenir when you’re done!

Thinking The Festival Is Only About Wine

Yes, there will be a LOT of wine to try out at the festival, but it’s SO much more than that. You’ll also find a lot of fun cocktails to drink (if you still want to get in on the boozy elements of the festival) as well as some fun non-alcoholic options like  Mango Bubble Milk Tea and Strawberry Smoothies.

Oh, and in case you missed it the word “Food” comes before wine, and that’s because, at its heart, this festival is more about the food than anything else! So you can enjoy yourself without ever needing to drink any wine (but if you want to, go for it!).

See ALL of our Food and Wine reviews here!! 

Missing Out On Fun Activities

With that being said, the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival is also more than just food and wine! There are a ton of fun activities, including one you can enjoy with the kids — Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak scavenger hunt! Basically, you purchase a map for less than $10 and then use stickers to mark the places you spot hidden Remys throughout EPCOT. Finish the map and you get a prize — last year, the prize was a cool prize!

In addition, there is some great live entertainment going on, too, including the Jammitors, Mariachi Cobre, Voices of Liberty, and some local bands playing some of the last few decades’ top hits!

So we hope this list helps you not make some of the mistakes that we’ve made in the past at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, and if you’d like even more great tips and information, you can check out our DFB Guide to the 2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

Click here to see our 2021 BEST of the FEST!!

And if you’re looking for more Food and Wine tips, you need to check out our Food and Wine guide! It is full of food crawls, tips, tricks, a daily schedule of events, and MORE!

Use code CHEFS at checkout for 20% OFF!! CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS! 

Will you be going to the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival this year? Let us know in the comments!

The post 10 Things EVERYONE Gets WRONG at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival first appeared on the disney food blog.