Epcot Food and Wine Overview

Before we start recapping the individual kiosks at this year's Epcot Food and Wine Festival (and yes, we went to all of them), how about an overview? We mentioned the festival and the 29 kiosks in the previous post but didn't provide that much detail about the festival, so here you go.

Couldn't resist posting a photo full of Chef Duffy bears. They're adorable and he's wearing a commemorative apron for the festival, so it's relevant.
Epcot has been hosting this food and wine festival for 16 years. We first heard about it a few years ago (coincidentally, near the time we started working and could actually take vacations during the "school year"). It's been on our list of things to do since then but we never made it there between wedding planning trips and other vacations. This year was the year! Every year the festival is a little different, as they introduce new kiosks and switch others up. It's a good incentive to keep going to see how things change. It goes from the end of September through the beginning of November, so it's a nice off-peak trip.

In addition to the food and drinks, they have demonstrations, book events and special parties and tastings that you have to pay for. We decided to just go for the regular food and not any of the special pay events. There is also a concert every night. While we were there, Starship featuring Mickey Thomas was playing, but the featured act changes every few days.

Check out our passport stamps!
As you make your way around the lagoon trying the different kiosks, you can get a stamp in your passport showing that you visited that country (or region, or state, as the case may be). Once you have a passport full of stamps, there is a completion stamp you can get on the first page of the passport. You don't get anything special for finishing other than the stamp (and self-satisfaction at visiting all the kiosks), but it still adds to the fun.

There are also groups that come to the festival every year to drink around the world, often with team names and matching shirts. I'm not sure how much they actually eat, but there is plenty of drinking going on. We were "lucky" enough to attend on a Saturday, which seems to be not only the most crowded day when the lines are absolutely insane but unofficial drink around the world day. It was amazing how much better the crowds were on Sunday and Monday. If there is one piece of advice we can leave, it would be to avoid Saturday if you can help it. Epcot was open an hour later on Saturday, which was nice, but we would rather avoid the craziness.

We're going to blog about all the different kiosks (in the order we visited them) and tell you our favorites at each kiosk. At the end, we're going to try to pick out our 10 favorites (perhaps ranking them, perhaps not; we haven't decided yet). There may be some overlap similar to our favorite foods of 2010 lists, but we're keeping them secret until then, so you'll have to stay tuned (and we'll have to try to finish!). First stop, Scandinavia!