Just how much will a trip to Food & Wine REALLY cost?

The EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival has become a must-do event for thousands of EPCOT guests each year, with many organizing whole trips around the festival’s run. The question faced by many of these travelers: “Just how much money do I need to set aside for this?” 

While pricing and menu information for the 2024 Food & Wine Festival (scheduled to run from August 29th through November 23rd) has yet to be revealed, working with last year’s prices and taking inflation into account, we can come up with a pretty solid estimate how of much a trip to this year’s festival will cost. 

Park Tickets

The first major expense for anyone attending Food & Wine will be tickets to EPCOT for their desired day. 

A single day ticket to EPCOT starts at $109, and increases dynamically based on the days of the week and time of the year. Currently, most September weekdays sits within the $109 range, while weekends climb between $140 and $150.

In October and November, weekdays jump to between $149 and $159, while weekends sit between $159 and $166 for a single day EPCOT ticket. 

Food & Drinks

The Food & Wine in the title is obvious the major draw for the festival, and also likely the area where most visitors will want to budget toward. 

In 2023, food items at festival booths tended to cost between $4.50 and $12 and drinks ranged from $5 to $9 (with some outlier items on both sides). Taking into account the roughly 4% inflation on food and drink products over the last year, we can roughly assume 2024 prices to be between $5.00 and $12.50 for food items and roughly $5.25 and $9.40 for drinks. 

Now, it’s important to remember that the food items at the Festival are small portions, so no single one will likely serve as full meal. Therefore, we would say it’s best to budget for between 4-8 food items (including desserts) and 4-5 drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) per person (though of course those numbers can be skewed by parties sharing items with each other). Still, we’d estimate a food and drink budget of somewhere in the neighborhood of $125 per person. Here’s your secret weapon for budgeting for food and drink: Pick up our DFB Guide to the Food & Wine Festival! This ebook has descriptions, reviews and photos of every item available, so you can decide what you want to try (and how much it will cost) in advance! 

Grab the DFB Guide here!

Merchandise

As with any Disney trip, there’s also likely to be a merchandise budget involved. Disney’s general merchandise prices ($30 to $40 for a tee shirt, $70-$80 for a sport jersey, etc.) will be higher for special edition or limited Festival merchandise. In addition, there are often special cooking-related items, glassware, and etc. on sale each year at Food & Wine. 

While the merchandise budget may vary wildly between visitors, especially those who collect limited merchandise and/or cook themselves, we’d go out on a limb and say that most general Food & Wine guests would be able to set a merchandise budget of about $75 and still come away with a couple of really nice souvenirs. 

So , a general day at Food & Wine, including theme park ticket, food, drinks, and merchandise, should be budgeted for roughly $350: $140 for an EPCOT ticket) and $200 for food and merchandise. Obviously however, these numbers are very general, as some guests may go light on food and drink and skip merchandise while others may splurge on food, drinks, merchandise, or all three.

The EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival is one of the most beloved events on the Disney calendar, but it can quickly become one of the most expensive. One tip we’d advise: Set whatever food/drink/merchandise budget you’re comfortable with, and then purchase a Disney gift card in that amount to ensure you don’t go over budget. Stay tuned to DFB for more 2024 Food & Wine news! 

FIRST LOOK at New SOUVENIRS Coming to the EPCOT 2024 Food and Wine Festival

What’s your budget for a day at the Food & Wine Festival? Let us know in the comments below. 

The post How Much Will a Day at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival REALLY Cost in 2024? first appeared on the disney food blog.