It’s my job to eat my way around Disney World, and I recently tackled the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival!

Here at DFB, we’re serious about Disney World snacks and restaurants (it’s in our name, after all). Each year, we send a whole team of reporters (including yours truly!) to the first day of each EPCOT festival to try all the new eats, as well as some familiar favorites. I was there for the opening day of Food & Wine this year, and I’ve got some hot tips to share.

The first thing you need to know about kicking off a festival is that our day starts at the crack of DAWN. (Maybe not literally, but pretty darn close.) Our team arrives before Early Theme Park Entry even starts for hotel guests, and then as soon as we walk through those tapstiles, BAM — it’s time to start filming, snapping pics, and reporting our findings to the writing and editing team.

From there, things go into a bit of a lull. The food booths typically open at 11AM, so we use the first few hours of the day to check out the merchandise and secure some of the non-booth festival items. For me, I started with a milkshake for breakfast (YUM). I snagged the Remy Milkshake at Sunshine Seasons, and though I was concerned at first about the flavor (it’s cheesecake flavored and I am NOT a fan), it was surprisingly fine…and very cute!

But that reminds me — as a reporter, sometimes we have to do things we don’t wanna do…and eat things we would never personally order. This will either pay off tremendously, or you’ll hate the item and then never order it again. All in a day’s work, my friends.

Once the day is underway, things can get chaotic. We’re hopping from booth to booth and trying to cram in as much as possible. We’re assigned a list of booths ahead of time, but that schedule can be pretty fluid if we need to pivot day-of. For instance, I wasn’t originally supposed to go to Mexico according to our day’s game plan, but I lucked out and got assigned to it at the last second. (I…REALLY like the Mexico booths.)

Food & Wine is an absolutely wild time to be a part of this team (think of it like the Disney World food Olympics). The beginning of the day has a lot of pent-up excitement, especially as our whole team meets at the entrance and starts getting hyped, and the end of the day is fun as we feel the accomplishment of a job well done. But the middle? Well, it can be BRUTAL. My phone overheated THREE separate times while trying to cover the Brazil booth. (Thankfully, the cheesy bread was worth the pain.)

So yes, festival opening days can be absolute anarchy here at DFB, but they’re worth it to bring you guys the best coverage of all the eats, entertainment, merchandise, attractions, and more. And thanks to our amazing team of writers, editors, social media managers, and festival specialists at home, we can get those reviews and photos to you SAME DAY.

We love the chaos here at DFB, and it’s all thanks to you guys that we get to do what we do. So thank you for following along, and of course, stay tuned for all the EPCOT festival coverage!

Click Here for the FULL List of Food Booths & Menus for This Year’s Festival!

Are you going to the festival this year? Tell us in the comments!

The post Meet the Disney Expert Who Ate Around EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival in One Day first appeared on the disney food blog.