It’s hard to believe but the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival starts soon!!! And although we’re still waiting on Disney World to announce the menus for all the food booths, we have already received news about entertainment and activities that guests can expect this year!

But if you’ve never been to an EPCOT Food and Wine Festival before, you might have some misconceptions about what to expect. And that’s why we’re here — to clear up any myths you might have heard about the festival!

But first, our number one tip is to get your hands on our DFB Guide to the 2021 Epcot Food & Wine Festival. It’s 250+ pages full of all our best insider tips and advice you’ll need in navigating the festival. And you can pre-order it right now to get a jump on your festival planning!

Okay, so let’s get to those myths. Here are the top misconceptions Disney World guests seem to have about the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival. And we’re going to bust them all!

Click here to buy the 2021 DFB Food and Wine Guide!

There Are No Options For Vegetarians

If you are on a vegetarian diet and worried that you won’t have any food options, you’re going to be quite surprised when we tell you that there is a plethora of vegetarian food for you to try at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival. And we’ve been seeing more plant-based options get added every year!

In fact, most booths have at least one vegetarian-based item! And considering there are OVER 30 BOOTHS, that’s a lot of food for you to try! And did we mention that we’ve included a Vegetarian Crawl in our DFB Guide? So you don’t even have to do the work of figuring out what you want to eat — we’ve already done it for you.

Check Out EVERY Vegetarian Item at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

There Are No Gluten-Free Options

Likewise, you’ll be surprised at how many gluten-free menu items you’ll find at the festival! And it’s easy for you to find them because the official EPCOT Food and Wine Passport will have them marked. But we’ve also done the research for you.

We will continue to keep our menus updated, too, so that you’ll know what gluten-free items are available.

Here’s Everything That’s Gluten-Free at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

There Are Too Many Choices And It’s Overwhelming

As we said, there are over 30 food booths with a variety of food and drinks to choose from, and yes, it can be a little overwhelming. However, you can start planning at home with us because we will post all the food booth menus, along with our reviews of EVERYTHING. And if we don’t like something, we’ll let you know that, too!

And if you want something like a guided tour through festival eats, we’ve put together a series of crawls in the DFB Guide for just about everything, including a Carnivore Crawl, a Dessert Crawl, a Beer Crawl, a Seafood Crawl, and more. We’ll tell you where to go and what to eat if you don’t want to plan it all out!

Learn About the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Cheese Crawl!

There’s nothing for kids to do

So many people seem to think that the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival is just for adults, but they are SO wrong. Not only are there menu items that are clearly marked Kid-Approved, but kids can also participate in fun scavenger hunts (that end with real prizes!) and make candy sushi!

Plus there are plenty of other things at EPCOT for kids to do, too, including going country-hopping to collect Kidcot postcards and stickers (and learn about another country in the process). Plus kids will still be able to hop on all their favorite EPCOT attractions.

Learn More About The Remy Scavenger Hunt at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

It’s Too Expensive

Yes, each festival menu item costs money and it can add up over time, especially if you want to eat all the things. But some simple tips can actually save you money at the festival. We will help you plan your budget for the festival, and we will let you know what food and drinks give you the most bang for the buck.

But the easiest tip is to bring someone along with you — then you can double the amount of items you can try for half the cash! This will also ensure that you don’t fill up so quickly that you won’t want to try everything on your list. It’s a win-win!

Here Are Our Top Tips On How To Best Budget For The Festival

There’s Nothing Else To Do But Eat And Drink

Okay, so this myth could not be more wrong. There are cooking seminars, classes, demonstrations, scavenger hunts, live entertainment, etc. We could go on and on with the list of other things to do. PLUS you’ll be at EPCOT where you can travel around the world in a day and visit each country’s pavilion. Oh, and of course, there are rides.

And this year, it looks like the Eat to the Beat concerts might be returning — we’ve seen a few BIG name performers listing Eat to the Beat in their tour schedules. But EPCOT’s other festival performers will also be available, including Voices of Liberty and Mariachi Cobre.

Here’s All The Entertainment Currently Confirmed For the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

You Need Multiple Days At EPCOT To Enjoy It

Okay, so we often recommend spending several days at EPCOT if you want to partake in everything the festival has to offer. There is a LOT to eat, see, and do. But at the same time, you can hit all the highlights in a day, and we’ll help you plan your priorities.

Our DFB Guide will help you budget your time and figure out how to best tackle the festival if you only have a day. And you’ll still feel like you got the most out of the festival that you could!

Here’s What Disney Won’t Tell You About The EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

It’s Always Crowded

If you know when to go to the festival, you won’t have to worry so much about crowds. We’ll be the first to tell you that weekends are the most crowded and when park pass reservations fill up quickly. Weekends and nights are when the locals and Annual Passholders tend to head to EPCOT.

The solution is easy, though — try to avoid the festival on weekends if you’re worried about crowds. Schedule your festival days for earlier in the day during the week. And by going in the morning, you should miss those folks who park hop over to EPCOT after 2PM. And here’s an extra tip — when you get to World Showcase, go right. Most guests go left to start their festival experience in Mexico.

Here Are The BIG Changes We Could See in Disney World As Social Distancing Decreases

It’s The Same Every Year

This is also just simply not true. Not only does each year’s festival bring some new activities and entertainment, but the food booths also get new food (and sometimes even in the middle of festivals, we’ll see new menu additions!). Sure, there are always returning favorites, but there are always plenty of new things to try, too!

We’ll be sure to let you know which items are returning and which are new so that you can make sure you’re not eating the same things as maybe you did in previous years if you’ve been to the festival before. And we’ll also let you know what new items we liked (and didn’t like), so you’ll have our honest reviews to guide you.

Here’s Where You Can Read All Our Food Booth Reviews

So there you have it, everything you might have heard about the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival that is simply not true. We hope these tips will help you plan for the festival and make your trip to EPCOT a little easier. And remember, all of these tips — AND MORE — are included in our DFB Guide to the 2021 Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

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

We’ll see you at the festival — enjoy!

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

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

The post 9 MYTHS About the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival first appeared on the disney food blog.