The 2018 Epcot Food and Wine Festival is the event that Disney World Food Lovers — us included! — wait for all year long! And it will be here before you know it!
Summer is a busy time here at DFB, as we’re on the lookout for all of the latest festival news. And this year promises to be as massive and grand as ever, spanning 75 days, and even reaching into August. We can’t wait!
And I know you can’t either. But we gotta. 😉 So in the meantime, we’ve set out to offer you some super helpful tips as you gear up for another memorable Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.
They come from the DFB Guide to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival e-book. This year’s guide is available for pre-order ahead of the festival. And when you pre-order your 2018 guide, you’ll receive the first cut of the 2018 guide as an immediate download, so you can get started with your planning right away, even as we continue to gather the final details for this year’s Festival!
Today’s handy tips come courtesy of the guide’s helpful Frequently Asked Questions section.
Should I Bring My Kids to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival?
Want to know the short answer? We say: Yes!
But why? Well… lots of reasons!
There’s still morning in Future World! Don’t forget — first and foremost, Epcot is still a theme park. Listen, I know that they’ve gone a little bonkers with the whole festival thing (not that we mind at all), but at the end of the day — or rather, at the beginning — Epcot is still a park with cool rides and educational attractions.
Mission Space
Don’t forget to spend some time exploring and reacquainting yourself with Soarin’, Test Track, Mission Space, and more! (We, for one, are constantly amazed by how many kiddos love Living With the Land, too!)
New Kid-Centric Options. Disney promises that there will be more for the kiddos at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival than ever before. Announced kid-centric events for 2018 include a Character Dance Party, a complimentary Junior Chef Kitchen, and a Playground (similar to the Imagination Play Garden that was added for Flower and Garden this year!)! We’re expecting even more kid friendly dishes, and we can’t wait to hear more about culinary demos that promise to involve the whole family, inviting everyone to get involved in learning about flavors and fun in the kitchen.
Imagination Play Garden during Flower and Garden!
Remy’s Ratatouille Hide and Seek — and more. During the festival, kids (and kids at heart) can participate in a fun scavenger hunt throughout World Showcase, as they help Remy find all of the ingredients for his world famous ratatouille! Similar to the Eggstravaganza Hunt that takes place each spring, guests can return their completed sticker sheet for a prize.
Remy Scavenger Hunt Maps
Been there, done that? Spend the day collecting stamps at Kidcot locations throughout World Showcase and chatting with cultural ambassadors from countries around the world.
We think kids always benefit from exploring Epcot, learning about new countries (and chatting with people FROM those countries), flying high on Soarin’, and diving into the worlds of space, the sea, and more. And the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival is just one more opportunity for them to get new experiences, find new tastes, and have fun. 😀
Ready to Plan for Your 2018 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Trip?
Pre-Order the DFB Guide to the 2018 Epcot Food & Wine Festival e-Book today! This 250+-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.
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!
Pre-Order your 2018 edition today! Don’t miss a moment of the fun!
Use code Chefs at check-out for a 20% off the cover price!
What are your favorite tips for making the Epcot Food and Wine Festival fun for kids of all ages? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
Longtime reader, first-time commenter…if you’re bringing kids, encourage them to try some new dishes. My kid is 14 and he can’t wait for our first time at the Festival this fall. He enjoys cooking shows and is much more of an adventurous eater than I was at his age.
Kelly — Thanks for reading, and thanks for joining the community of commenters! 😀 We love hearing from our readers, especially when it comes to tips and tricks. Disney promises that there will be kid-friendly additions to the line up this year, and we can’t wait to see what they have in store. Let us know what your budding chef loves at this year’s festival!
We have been bringing our daughters (now 13 and 10) for 4 years. They love it and look forward to it every year. They like that they can taste a lot of different things (most portion sizes are just right for this). They have a few favorite “must haves” each year and like to experiment with one or two new things each year as well. My little one even tried the escargot when she was only 7! My main advice would just be to consider the age and how long you plan on attending. Some little ones might be a tad too young to enjoy it if you are planning on eating/drinking all day long. The older they are, the longer you’ll be able to stay.
Don’t bring kids. It is best enjoyed as a couple or with a group of friends. Unless your child is really into food, it will detrack from your enjoyment. Also, there are slot of drunk people especially on weekends
The increasing issue regarding kids at the festival over the past several years has been the amount of “pub crawls/drinking around the world” etc at Epcot that is only exacerbated during the festival. I have been attending the festival every year, with children, for well over a decade. I will say it is an issue. Sometimes a big one. There are some ways to avoid this and the biggest I have found is simply not attending on Fridays and Saturdays. These are the peak times for the “drunker bell” locals to come out in droves with friends and decent on the park. Sometimes the groups are great, but increasingly they are dropping f-bombs and by the time they get more than half way around the world they are losing their stomachs. I enjoy drinking as well, very much, but the mob mentality sometimes brings out the worst in people.
All that said- my kids love it, I take them every year and it has played a huge role in expanding their willingness to eat different foods. My 21 year old who now lives in Japan is now at a point where he will try anything. And I mean anything 🙂
Yes. Bring the kids. We first brought our 6 & 8 year olds. They loved it and ask us to bring them back to F&W every year since.
I vote yes as well, we’ve gone to the festival kids (now 17 and 14) since we moved o FL 10 years ago. They look forward to it and love to try to the new food every year. The kids also really enjoy the concerts. Over the years they have become HUGE Starship fans, and we make an effort to see them every year.
I totally agree it is a great way to get kids to try some different foods with a low investment. We used snack credits to try things at the kiosks and I got my kids to try scallops, and some of the more adventurous desserts, they ended up loving everything we got. They also liked the different “themes” of the kiosks. Training them to be foodies. LOL
Absolutely bring the kids! There’s so much to learn in Epcot. I’ve been going to F & W since 2001 with my daughter – we’re up to 17 times!!! She was 14 that first year and loved it. She’s always been a ‘foodie’ so trying different foods was exciting for her. She loved meeting cast members from around the world and actually prepared questions to ask them.
As a pp said, I would avoid taking the children later on Friday and Saturday – those gangs can be obnoxious. They’ seem to stay around the pavilions and booths that serve beer. But the park is generally crazy crowded. Earlier in the week is usually pretty good as far as the crowds go.