Are you ready to upgrade your EPCOT festival experience?
2023 Flower & Garden Festival is right around the corner
The 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival is on its way and if you’re planning on enjoying the festivities, we have a few tricks up our sleeves we want to share with you!
This year’s festival will take place from March 1st through July 5th and will be filled with fun activities, tasty food booths, and plenty of entertainment to enjoy. When it comes to festivals we’re old hats, so we’ve learned a few things over the years that can help you have a better experience in the park! These are two things we never go without when headed into EPCOT for a festival, and if you’re big foodies like us you’ll want to bring them too.
2022 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival
The first item we highly recommend bringing with you is a tray. You may feel silly walking into the parks with one, but trust us, you’ll not only be grateful for it but you’ll also be the envy of all the other guests. If you’ve been to an EPCOT festival before you may have noticed there is pretty limited seating around the park. Most of the food booths are outside, and with so many guests eager to try out the offerings the few tables and seats get claimed fairly quickly.
You may be able to snag a table if you’re lucky, buy it’s better to come prepared
A tray not only gives you a surface to eat from, but it also makes it much easier to carry all of your purchases! You may want to grab a few dishes and drinks from more than one booth and eat them at once, and a tray makes it so much easier to tote each item. This also helps if you are willing to walk a bit further to see if you can find a free seat.
Don’t miss out on any tasty dishes!
You don’t have to spend a fortune either. You can get a single cafeteria tray on Amazon for just $4.99! Carry it in to the parks or slip it into your backpack for easy toting. The washable plastic makes for easy clean-up too!
Plastic Cafeteria Tray
Click here to buy this Plastic Cafeteria Tray!
Our second food-related item comes in handy when your day is done. With the wide variety of booths you might want to try more than you can reasonably enjoy in a single day, and if you only have one day to spend in EPCOT it can be hard to decide which dishes to enjoy and which to pass by.
Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs
Also, sometimes you order more than you can handle and just have to put the fork down (no matter how delicious it is!). Instead of throwing it away, save your food by bringing plastic food storage containers! These are perfectly fine to bring in to the parks as long as they aren’t made of glass. Once you’ve had your fill, just store your leftovers in the containers you brought. Just keep in mind that you won’t have any refrigeration options inside the park, so either wait until the end of the day to take food back to your hotel or make sure you bring an insulated bag and some ice packs to keep food fresh.
Sweet, sweet frushi
We like this set from Ziploc that comes with 12 containers of varying sizes, including small ones perfect for sauces! They’re also microwave safe so you can reheat your food. Now you’ve got a snack for later! That can come in handy for midnight snacking if you’re staying in a Disney resort, where most dining locations only stay open until 11PM at the latest. This set of containers and lids is available for $11.02.
Ziploc Plastic Food Storage Containers
Click here to buy these Ziploc Plastic Food Storage Containers!
By using these two tricks you can have an easier time while you visit the Flower & Garden Festival. You will be able to sample the fare as you walk around appreciating the amazing topiaries, then enjoy your leftovers as a midnight snack once you’re relaxing back at your hotel!
BONUS TIP: If you’re headed to the Flower & Garden Festival this year, you’re going to want to download our festival guide!
Get our DFB Guide to the festival!
The DFB Guide to the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival has all the tips and advice you need to dive right into all the treats, blooms, and experiences you can only get during the Flower & Garden Festival. It’s easy to download to your phone and tablet to take right into EPCOT with you! Use code WDW2023 to save 25% off the cover price!
Order your 2023 Festival Guide Here!
Be sure to stay tuned to our site for more tips and tricks you can use on your next Disney vacation.
Just can’t wait? Watch our video from last year’s festival for a taste of what’s to come!
MAKE THE MOST
OF YOUR FESTIVAL DAYS
DFB's Guide to the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival details everything you need to know to maximize your time, budget, and stomach space! Know what's worth it and what to skip with our full-photo menus of each booth, complete with DFB's Best of the Fest.
It includes all the must-have information for navigating this one of the most BEAUTIFUL festivals at Disney World, including:
- 🌸 Booth & food photos, maps, and crawls with DFB's exclusive recommendations!
- 🐝 The COMPLETE schedule of events (so you don't have to go hunting for all the dates!)
- 🌳 All the details on special events, topiaries, festival exclusive merchandise, and more!
What are some of your tips for braving EPCOT festivals? Share them in the comment section below!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
So your two recommendations are a temporary sealed container and a tray. I have an Epcot tray from a few years back that also has a cup holder area, but I never felt there was any need to have leftovers…
Bringing one tray per person is everything! It makes carrying the food so much easier, even from the booth to the table.
The same brand in your link also sells a 10×14 tray. It holds less items than the 12 X 16 , but it fits nicely into larger backpacks. Compostable bamboo trays work well too and they can be reused multiple times. (Tip: Place a moistened napkin underneath the drinks to keep them from sliding around on the trays.)
I bring collapsible food containers but we never use them because we eat everything.