Epcot Food and Wine Festival Guide

A few years ago when my grandmother finished chemo, my family took a 3 generation girls trip to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival to celebrate. We made it a tradition and now go every year (except now that I have a daughter, it’s a 4 generation girls trip!). In this Epcot Food and Wine Festival Guide, we’ll be sharing all of the tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the past few years for making the most out of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.

Kayla, her mom, and grandmother on their first visit to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival

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What is the food and wine festival?

Epcot is a Disney World Theme Park that has educational attractions and rides about the sea, land, and space. It is most renowned though for its celebration of various cultures around the world.

Year round, Epcot has 11 world showcases that represent the food, culture, and traditions of 11 countries around the world. Each world showcase is themed in intricate detail, making you momentarily feel like you’ve left Florida and are really in that country.

During the food and wine festival, Epcot kicks the celebration into high gear. In 2024, there are over 30 global marketplace booths featuring food and drinks inspired from places around the world. This isn’t typical gross theme park food. I have had some absolutely delicious food and drinks there throughout the years!

In 2024, the food and wine festival runs from August 29th through November 23rd. That’s a huge window of time to visit!

How much does it cost?

The Epcot Food and Wine Festival is not a separately ticketed event. Access to the festival booths is included in the price of a normal park admission ticket. You do have to pay for your food and drinks though. The average price of food ranged from $5.50-$8.50 a serving, and alcoholic drinks cost anywhere between $5.00 and $12.00 depending on the complexity of the beverage.

Outside of every booth are signs detailing what is being sold and for how much. This pic is from 2019, so prices have gone up slightly since.

There are also some special packages you can pay to add on to your experience such as culinary demonstrations from famed chefs and educational seminars covering various food and beverage topics. You can read more about package upgrade options HERE.

The Food and Wine Festival also includes a concert series that occurs almost nightly for the run of the festival. It’s included in your park admission! You can read more about this year’s schedule HERE.

Don’t forget to check out the specialty Epcot Food and Wine Festival Merch! It’s always super cute and ranges from clothing to specialty ears to household items (lots of kitchenware – it is a food and wine festival after all!).

2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Merchandise

With so many food and drink options, how do you choose?

Start thinking about which foods you want to try before your visit. In 2024, the menu was announced in mid-August. The Disney Food Blog is an excellent place to see the full menu lists, pictures of every menu item, as well as the nutritional and allergen info. You won’t feel as overwhelmed if you know what food items to be on the lookout for going into it.

Kayla and her daughter on their most recent visit to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival

I like to make a list in the notes on my phone so that while I’m at the festival, I can make sure to eat the things I’m most interested in. This will also help you budget how much money you anticipate spending at the Food and Wine Festival. In 2024, I spent $55.50 on my food and drinks for the day.

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Once you arrive at Epcot, there will be stands set up right at the entrance with food passports on them. Get one of these passports! They are super cute and have the full menus listed as well as the booth locations. There are even stamps in the passport so you can mark off which booths you try as you go! If you miss the stand at the entrance, don’t worry. They are available throughout the park and at all the food booths.

Lines at the booths move surprisingly quickly, and the food has always tasted fresh at every booth. The only negative thing about Epcot is that unlike Disney, you will be hard pressed to find indoor seating. There are lots of outdoor seating options, but shade is scarce at Epcot so they are mostly in the sweltering sun. With that said, Disney has added more indoor seating options over the past few years, with a fantastic one being by the Finding Nemo area. The World Showcase still doesn’t have much though.

Are you a foodie? Check out our post on The Best Places to Eat in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Planning Out Your Day

Epcot is in the shape of a circle, so no matter what end you start at, you won’t run into the problem of missing out on any of the booths. Keep in mind though, most booths don’t start serving food until around 11am. That just means you can knock out a lot of the rides early on in the day!

I like to stay at a Disney World Resort to take advantage of the early entry into the parks. Riding Ratatouille, Frozen, and Guardians of the Galaxy are top priority due to them usually having the longest wait times in the park. So, I will try to knock out a couple of those first, then head to the sea and land areas, and finish out the day in the world showcase area since that is where most of the food and drink options are.

2024 Food Reviews

Having visited the Food and Wine Festival several years in a row, I thought the 2024 menu was the best one in a while! My family sampled several things and loved all of them except for one. Below is a recap so you can get an idea of the sorts of things you can try at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.

After riding Frozen and Ratatouille, my family headed to the opposite side of the park to ride the rides outside of the World Showcase area. Along the way, we stopped at the Festival Favorites booth to kick off our Food and Wine Festival journey. We were pleasantly surprised by how good the pork rinds with pimento cheese were. The pimento cheese had an unexpected spicy kick. It was a fabulous start to our eating journey, especially since an outdoor Encanto show started up right next to the Festival Favorite Booth while we were eating.

On our way to ride the Finding Nemo ride, my daughter decided she needed something to eat too, so we stopped by the Macatizer Booth. This was housed inside a building called CommuniCore Hall, one of the few places where you can eat inside.

CommuniCore Hall is a fantastic place to rest your legs in the air conditioning, charge up your ECV scooters, and grab a bite to eat (though you don’t have to if you just want to relax). They even had a Food and Wine Festival merch booth inside.

My daughter loved the mac and cheese, but she wasn’t wild about the breadcrumbs on top. I thought it was pretty good, but if I didn’t have a child, I would have skipped it. I can have mac and cheese any day and prefer the more exciting flavor options at the festival.

After riding Finding Nemo, we headed toward the building that houses Soaring and Living with the Land. Right outside, was the Earth Eats booth which ended up being my absolute favorite booth. We had the beef short ribs, lemon poppyseed cake, and the blood orange agua fresca. All of the items were 5 stars. They were absolutely bursting with flavor. I seriously debated going back to this booth at the end of the day to get more of the lemon poppyseed cake, but my legs were too tired after walking 26,000 steps!

As we made our way back to the World Showcase, we stopped by the Milled and Mulled booth and Forest and Field. I’m a weirdo and can’t pass up the opportunity to eat brussel sprouts, so I had to get the brussel sprout plate from Milled and Mulled. They were cooked with root vegetables and pecans and were absolutely delicious.

At Forest and Field, I got the pumpkin mascarpone ravioli with hazelnut praline – WOW. So good. Whoever the team is that comes up with the flavor combinations for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival really knocked it out of the park with the non-world showcase options this year. I was truly blown away.

Because we ate so much before the world showcase, we ended up bypassing a few countries once we reached it. The escargot from the France booth was on our list, but I was too stuffed from all the other delicious food I’d had so far to get it.

Once we got to Brazil and Belgium though, we were ready to try some more food. The pork belly with rice and beans was a huge hit with my family – even my 3 year old loved it. It was the most flavorful rice and beans I’ve ever had!

Needing a little pick-me-up, I got the chilled coffee from the Belgium booth. It wasn’t really anything to write home about, but it was cold and it had caffeine, which is exactly what I needed in the moment!

I was still feeling quite stuffed by the time we got to Italy, but for some reason I really wanted to try the Italian style nachos. These weren’t authentic by any means, but I was intrigued. I shouldn’t have tempted fate though when I’d had so many other good things to eat. They just had a super odd flavor profile. I’ve had other things I’ve really loved from the Italy booth in the past, but this one just did not do it for me. That’s part of the fun of the Food and Wine Festival though – you never know until you try it!

If you’re a Disney adult, you’ll enjoy our post on Disneyland Paris! It tells about some of the differences and similarities between the park in Paris and Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.

Epcot Packing Essentials

Florida is HOT, and Epcot does not have a lot of places to get cooled off. These neck fans came in handy for our trip. I like them, because you just put them on like a necklace and they are designed to blow the air upward toward your face without you having to aim it. If you have a child in a stroller, the Amacool stroller fan is essential. You might also consider taking cooling towels like these Frog Togs.

Don’t forget your sunscreen! I like Neutrogena sunscreen, because it is fast drying and not greasy.

Scattered showers are common in Florida. Skip the rain jackets and buy ponchos instead. They are light weight and don’t take up much space.

Keep your phone charged throughout the day with an external power bank. If you have one of the newer magsafe phones, we highly recommend getting a magnetic portable charger so you don’t have to worry about fooling with cords while you’re on the go!

Is the Epcot Food and Wine Festival Worth It?

Absolutely. I love going every year and trying all the fun flavor combinations. It’s a chance to try new things you might not otherwise eat or drink. Adults will probably enjoy it more than kids (especially smaller ones), but there are still food options for kids to enjoy. Plus, the regular restaurants remain open during the festival if your little one wants to eat something that isn’t too adventurous.

Have you visited the Epcot Food and Wine Festival before? Let us know your experience in the comments below!