It’s a new year, and that means it’s time for new foods, merchandise, and entertainment from the EPCOT’s International Festival of the Arts! We’ve been eating and drinking our way around EPCOT and checking out all the best (and worst) foods this year!

The 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts has officially begun, and it has a LOT to offer. There are plenty of food studios with tasty items, shows and artistic performances to watch, souvenirs to grab (of course), and even an art-inspired food stroll to complete. But don’t let it overwhelm you — we’ve got you covered with everything you need to know. And now we’re heading to one spot in particular — the Connections Cafe & Eatery — to give you the FULL scoop! Is the festival offering here worth a try? Let’s find out!

Connections is split into two entities. Connections Cafe, which is the Starbucks location, serves specialty coffee and pastries. And Connections Eatery, another bank of counters, serves unique and creative, yet approachable and comfortable meals.

Menu

Over at the Connections Eatery, you’ll find a special festival beverage, and we’re gonna grab it! It’s the Orange-Lemonade Cocktail.

Now that we’ve taken a look at the menu, let’s dive into what they have to offer!

Drinks

This is a returning festival cocktail, but they’ve tweaked the name. Last year, it was called Dusk ‘Til Dawn, which was made with Three Olives Blueberry Vodka, lemonade, and orange juice with cotton candy for $14.50.

The 2023 version was tasty. The lemonade and blueberry flavors were quite tart, and the sweetness from the cotton candy balanced it well. We enjoyed it, but the cotton candy could be overwhelming to some. Our reporter couldn’t taste much alcohol, which made it very drinkable — but keep that in mind if you’re looking for something stronger!

For 2024, they’re simply referring to it as Orange-Lemonade Cocktail. It is still made with Three Olives Blueberry Vodka, lemonade, and orange juice with cotton candy for $15.50. Y’all. This drink is incredible. It’s so good that we’re a little worried the kiddos might want it. But this is for Disney adults. The idea is that you melt your cotton candy in the drink when you get it.

It also looks amazing and we literally had people stopping us and asking us where we got it. It’s a lot of fun, but that cotton candy will melt in SECONDS, so you’ve committed once you stick it in the cup. It goes from a yellow lemonade to a bright turquoise. 

The drink itself is well-balanced and you can’t really taste the vodka — but trust us, you’ll know it’s there. It has a nice lemon and orange juice that tempers the blueberry flavor. That cotton candy does sweeten it up a bit, so if you don’t like sweet drinks, you may want to skip this one.

Over at Connections Eatery you’ll find THIS beauty!
Orange-Lemonade Cocktail: Three Olives Blueberry Vodka, lemonade, and orange juice with cotton candy – $15.50 pic.twitter.com/h3AVhFAzcV

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2024

That’s everything at the Connections Cafe & Eatery, so what did we think?

OVERALL

Is Connections a “must do”? Well, it does have the one drink, and if you are in the market for a fruity adult beverage, this one might fit the bill for you. But overall, we have to say we’re a little disappointed that Connections didn’t have more to offer. We loved the adorable (and photogenic) Liege Waffle from past festivals, and the fact that the special beverage isn’t new, but a repeat from last year shows a bit of a lack of creativity. Still, if you’ve just gotten off of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and need a little sugary pop of booze, this option will satisfy you. But let’s just say we wouldn’t make a special trek to Connections just for this.

That’s it for this booth, but there’s a LOT more where that came from!

Click here to see FULL reviews of EVERY. SINGLE. BOOTH. at the Festival of the Arts!

Trying to plan the PERFECT trip to the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts? We’ll be keeping you updated on all of the latest. Click our links below for the information you need to know:

• Learn about the Disney on Broadway Shows and Dining Packages
• Check out ALL of the 2024 Festival of the Arts Food Studio Menus
• Get all the details about the Festival of the Arts here!

And don’t forget to pick up our 2024 DFB Guide to the Festival of the Arts at Disney World! See more details about the book below.

What items from this booth would you most want to try? Tell us in the comments!

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