We all know it: having the Disney Dining Plan while visiting the Epcot Food and Wine Festival can be pretty awesome.
Because, after all, in the past, you could save up your snack credits and use them to Eat Your Way Around the World. And the only thing better than the Food and Wine Festival is enjoying it for the price of your already-purchased Disney Dining Plan!
But if you can believe it, using your Disney Dining Plan at the Food and Wine Festival just got even better. Recent changes in how Disney Dining Plan credits can be spent will make enjoying all that the Food and Wine Marketplace Booths have to offer even more fun than before.
Want to know more about how to use your Disney Dining Plan at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival? Read on!
Turn Your Quick Service Meals Into Food and Wine Booth Eats!
This is probably the most exciting change to the Disney Dining Plan: you can now use your Quick Service Meal Credits to purchase up to three different snacks, and call it a meal!
Swap your Counter Service Credit for Snack Credits and get more of these.
There are rules about the way this works, however. In order to swap your Quick Service Meal Credit for snacks, you have to do it all in one transaction. So unfortunately, that means you can’t go to the Hawai’i Booth and order something, then mosey over to the Belgium Booth for something else.
Belgian Waffle with Warm Chocolate Ganache and Whipped Cream
But if you think about it in terms of your group or family pooling credits, it’s just a matter of logistics. After all, you can use Dad’s credits at the Canada Booth so that everyone can have their own Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup. Then use Mom’s for three different items at another booth. And really — that’s pretty awesome. Because that soup has been known to incite family spoon feuds.
Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup
Start Your Planning Today! The DFB Guide to the 2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival e-Book is now available!
Want even more great tips? This 200+-page guide to the Festival offers insider tips and advice as well as all of the details you need to know to plan your best Festival visit ever. Order your 2015 edition today!
Your purchase includes several bonus items as well — including a full daily schedule of events at the Festival and a printable World Showcase Booth Menu Checklist to carry with you as you Eat around the World!
Use code Chefs at check-out for a $3 discount!
Be sure to check our main Epcot Food and Wine Festival Page frequently for updates, and also check out Epcot Food and Wine Festival 101 for even more information about the festival!
Want More Epcot Food and Wine Festival Info?
We’ll have all the coverage and information you need right here on Disney Food Blog! Here’s what we know so far…
2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Index
2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Booth and Menu Index
2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Special Events
2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Low-Cost Seminars and Demonstrations
2015 Eat to the Beat Concert Schedule
Epcot Food and Wine Festival Fans Facebook Page
2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Wine and Dine Half Marathon
2015 Swan and Dolphin Food and Wine Classic
Food and Wine Festival 101
2014 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Menus and FOOD PHOTOS
2014 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Gluten Free Items
How to Book Epcot Food & Wine Festival Events
To book all special events and demonstrations, call 407-WDW-FEST (939-3378) (join the Disney Food Blog Newsletter to find out as soon as we do about all the details!). Culinary Demonstrations, Beverage Seminars, Mixology Seminars, and general admission for some special events will be bookable online at www.epcotfoodfestival.com as well as by phone.
Tables in Wonderland members, Annual Passholders, Disney Vacation Club Members, and Golden Oak Residents will be eligible for a discount (per person, per event) for beverage and mixology seminars and culinary demos taking place Mon-Thurs during the festival. Discounts are by phone only at 407-WDW-FEST (939-3378). Stay tuned to DisneyFoodBlog.com and the Disney Food Blog Newsletter for details.
And now we’d love to hear from all of you — are you excited to use your Disney Dining Plan in this new flexible way at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival? Leave a comment and tell us what you think about the changes!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
WOW! That’s great news! If I had this confirmed prior to my trip, I would have considered using the DDP this time around. Good news for all those getting free dining too!! yay! Hope it continues as this will be something that would get me to purchase next time around (we’re DVC members so don’t get free dining. sad face).
Yay, this is great news! For the first time this year, we are travelling with my sister and my son (it is usually just the two of us), and we always have counter-service credits left over at the end of our trip. They normally just go to waste, but now we can definitely take advantage of this super change by using one of them to pick up 3 items to share from the F&WF! Absolutely great news.
(Sorry SynA, but we get free dining at the moment as UK offers are usually spectacular enough to try and tempt us back happy face!)
I hope this works! I am here now using the DDP and I’ll have tons on QS credits to use on Friday. However, I tried doing this at Animal Kingdom yesterday at a kiosk type booth (the one with the quinoa salad) and they could not do it. They computer only showed them my snack credits. Also, the other changes announced this year have been very inconsistently applied. For example, at La Hacienda, our server knew nothing about subbing soup or salad for dessert. She asked her manager & it worked fine. At Kona Cafe, same issue but the manager did not agree. Only option was a fruit plate. Also, QS spots will swap dessert for side with no issue, but not the drink.
Trying to decide whether to add for my upcoming trip. Just me and my Disney Bestie to enjoy the parks and Food & Wine Fest. Looking at the DFB guide, are items listed in the Checklist under a header (i.e. Brazil) all available so we can select 3 of those items for a QS?
We go Wednesday and have the free DDP really appreciate the tip!
I’m doing so much math right now my head is spinning. I’ve tried (for the last 3 trips) to make the ddp work for us and it just doesn’t add up. That being said, there’s a possibility that it could benefit us this year at F&WF by trading in a QS meals for 3 snacks at the booths. (I know it would have to be all at the same booth. No biggie.) My question is this–can I use a snack credit for wine or beer? I was under the impression that alcohol was excluded from all dining plans, but when I called Disney tonight, the CM I spoke to said that there were no such restrictions at the booths. Any thoughts? If it IS allowed, are there any exclusions (please not the beer flights!!)?
Bear in mind that if you have paid for the dining plan (instead of a free offer) you may be losing money by doing this conversion.
Quick service dining plan is $42. Average snack is around $5.50, so each of the two quick service meals has a value of around $18. Therefore if the snacks you convert to are worth less than $6 each, you have lost money by using the dining plan.
Re: Pamela H.
The substitutions on table service meals has not been officially confirmed by Disney, so there is no guarantee it will work.
The brochure for the dining plan does state that at quick service dessert and/or drink can be switched with any snack offered at that quick service location (so getting onion rings instead of dessert at Flame Tree).
Re: MeLissa
wine and beer are never snacks. Check for the purple DDP logos.
Jon,
That’s what I thought but I just got off the phone with the second cm (Janine this time) who put me on hold, chatted with someone else, then came back and told me yes. Yes you can use a snack credit for alcoholic beverages at the booths. Whether or not it’ll actually happen at F&WF still remains to be seen.
I always do meticulous math before our trips to see whether or not the dining plan will benefit us. It never does, but this time, we have breakfast bog reservations, which I think is a very good use of a qs credit. So I figured the total cost of the plan, subtracted out that breakfast, and divided it up between the remaining snack credits that we would have and its around $5.20/snack for us. Throw in a few caramel apples, a lamb chop, little filet in Canada, a few drinks, and I can definitely see some savings adding up. Not to mention, I’d have two automatic souvenirs for my kids in the refillable mugs.
There has been speculation about this for months. I’ll believe it when people actually report that they’ve been able to do this at F&W boths.
Cliff — The proof is always in the pudding, to be sure! 🙂 But we did confirm with this information with Disney before we published the post.
sadly, this is not working. I’m at Epcot now & two different booths have been unable to make it work, even with the assistance of the coordinator. Will keep trying but it adds a lot of time to the already busy lines to keep asking.
Went today and you cannot swap out a meal credit for the 3 snacks at the festival booths. First booth said it was an IT issue. Guest Relations said the booths are purchase only, that they can’t transfer credits. Also no luck with Guest Relations or Front Desk at Pop Century to convert the meals to snack credits for us.
this is fabu news, and tipped the scales on buying the QS plan for the hubs and i (we booked our 14 night stay at coronado a week before free dining was offered, and were off by a few days of its being available. saddest face). can you tell me: when you swap for 3 snacks, do you still have a dessert and drink included? i’m assuming that’s not the case, but want to know everything before we start throwing our snacks and meal credits around. thanks!
We were there Friday. There are still a lot of bugs to work out still I was successful in trading 1 quickservice for 3 snacks. Tried it about 8 times throughout the park, only Patagonia got it correct. Made for a frustrating day, thank God I saved a ton of snacks for the last day of my vacation…
It seems that Disney employees aren’t as well trained as they used to be anymore. We were there on Saturday and the people working the booths were largely CLUELESS. For example, we went to the new booths on the Future World side and I ordered a Vanilla Panna Cotta with Fig and Pistachio. The girl who was handing out the food took my receipt, yelled out “Panna Cotta” and then I stood there. And stood there. She handed out many, many other people’s food, and she kept looking at me like “can I help you?” And I would say, “I’m still waiting for my Panna Cotta”. She never made any attempt to get it. I was perplexed. Then I looked in the window and I saw it sitting there. I waited, thinking – she’ll get to it. But no, she kept pushing other people’s orders out. Finally, I butt in and pointed to it and said, “Is that my panna cotta?” She picked it up and asked the people in the booth – “Is this a panna cotta?”!!! I mean really? There are THREE items in that booth. You don’t know what three items you’re handling at the booth you’re working at? The chef in the booth said “YES” and she finally turned and gave it to me. But I seriously waited almost 10 minutes for it, 5 of which it was sitting there the whole time but she didn’t know what it was. And made ZERO attempt to ask, even though she saw me standing there FOREVER. Terrible.
You would think that the first thing they would do with a new person walking into a booth to work would be to familiarize them with the items they are working with. SMH.
I forgot to mention – the panna cotta was just ok. 😀 It wasn’t gross, but it wasn’t great. Definitely not worth the wait and hassle to get it…..
Disney’s Food & Wine Money Grab.
We just returned from WDW’s Food & Wine Festival and are very impressed on how WDW attempts to extract as much money from visitors to the festival as possible. This is Disneyworld and not Las Vegas.
Dining: There are many “Special Offers” that are provided at additional cost such as Food & Wine Pairing Lunches (Italy $83/pp), Eat to the Beat Concert packages (Le Chefs de France $76/pp), and Illuminations Dessert Parties ($49/pp). Had we decided to select just three special event offerings of the dozens offered, our cost for a one day visit to the Food & Wine Festival would have cost $628 for the two of us if we didn’t possess annual passes. This is BEFORE we have even sampled any of the food & wine offered in the World Showcase kiosks.
Beer & Wine: We visited Epcot on Wednesday night, the night before the “soft opening” of the Festival. All the festival kiosks were covered, but cast members were working in and around them preparing for the opening. We stopped at the Refreshment Post for a Yuengling Beer; at $7.50 a bit pricey for a domestic draft beer. On Friday night, the official opening of Food & Wine, we stopped at the same Refreshment Post and were served a plastic cup of Yuengling; only to find that the size of the plastic cup was much smaller than Wednesday. The cast member informed us that WDW does this during Food & Wine.
Free Wine Glass for Annual Pass Holders: Other than the AP magnets they keep sending and the Disney calendar at Animal Kingdom, I can’t remember any free offerings from Disney, so we decided to take them up on the free port wine glass offering at the Food & Wine Festival. As instructed, we had our photo ID, Festival Passport, and our Magic Band which proves that we are annual passholders. We found our way thru the crowd to the Innoventions Pavilion to stand in line. We arrived at the final destination to get our book stamped and were told that we needed valid proof we were Passholders. I explained that our Magic Bands are proof and Disney’s vast electronic capabilities to track and verify magic bands would prove that were are who we are. This Cast Member refused to do that and told us to go to Guest Relations for verification that we were pass holders and then come back with verification. No thanks. So beware, if you have a Magic Band, this does not meet verification requirements for the free offering.
In conclusion, Food & Wine left a bad taste on this recent trip.
Was able to use a quick service credit for 3 items at booths on Sunday, Yesterday staff at the China booth flat out refused saying they never heard of it and had no button for it. Then at the DR booth the “zone manager” came over and told us we wouldn’t be able to use a quick service credit because the system was down and there was no way around. Disney sure screwed up this one!
Molly, when you swap a meal credit you are exchanging the whole thing for three snacks, so no, you don’t get the beverage and dessert (unless you count two of those as part of the three snacks).
Wow, hclabrock, sounds like not everything went well for you. I am not an annual passholder, so I can’t comment on that kerfuffle. The $7.50 for a beer though is a standard Disney draft price, found in lots of locations. Coming from near D.C. where it is not unusual for people to pay $20 and more for a cocktail, $7.50 for a beer may be higher than what you’d pay at home, but I’ve paid that much in local restaurants. I agree that switching to a smaller glass but leaving the price higher is a bit sneaky.
Like everywhere else in life, F&W means making choices–and F&W is fun because it offers lots of choices for those with and without deep pockets. No one is required to buy expensive meals or even beer/wine to enjoy the festival. The food booths with inexpensive snacks, the music, the various free events all provide me with lots to do. Special offerings are just that: special, and usually for a limited number of people. Just as I choose not to spend to dine at Signature places or hire a private guide, I don’t sign up for the extra cost events. I don’t think it’s gouging to offer an experience or service for a price. It just means some of us cannot or will not pay for it. I am sorry you had such a disappointing time, but I am looking forward to hitting up the festival when we arrive in early November. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Would love to hear updates on this.
Ok, F & W is fun. Lots of additional choices from my first fest 15 years ago.
I tried to swap QS Neal for 3 snacks, it’s 11/7, no go. Didn’t work. And it’s not really worth that as a previous poster noted. I just had a turkey dinner with cornbread, succotash, rice & beans, a 20 oz bottled drink & a cupcake (that I cannot eat) as a full meal.
And a heads up to the poster , sorry tough to scroll back on cell, your MB will only ID you San an AP @ guest relations. When they send you a MB there’s an orange -ish card in the box that you’re supposed to carry with you w/ a valid photo ID to show other cast members that you are, in fact an AP holder. TOTALLY a hassle, yes, but maybe for guests protection. I couldn’t get my discounts this AM after my 5K b/c I forgot that & my DVC card. And thanks! I didn’t know about the FREE wine glass! I’ll grab whatever free stuff they want to toss my way!
We tried using our QS credit for three snacks at Flower & Garden Festival booths on April 10th and no good. 🙁
Kathleen — Oh no! There seems to be so much inconsistency around those snack credits. :-/
Leaving in three weeks for FWF hate to hear all this negativity about DDP so we won’t get it this time I’ll just pay $300 extra for the debit card they offer to wear on my wrist and eat till I drop.
Has anyone confirmed that you can still use a Quick Service Meal for 3 snacks at 1 booth in 2016?
Has anyone confirmed that you can still use QS credits for 2017? What about table service credits?