Hello fellow Nebraskan!
I think if your priority for this trip is visiting Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, you may enjoy the proximity of either the
Boardwalk Inn or the
Beach Club since you can walk right to Epcot and enter at the World Showcase. Because of the AMAZING pool at the Beach Club, I'm partial to staying there (we also like its sister resort the
Yacht Club). One of the tricky things, however, about these resorts is that they sometimes get convention crowds, which may increase the crowds. Also you may want to keep in mind that the weekend the Festival begins and closes are often quite busy, so the resorts may be more crowded then.
However, staying at one of the Magic Kingdom resorts on the monorail, you'll also find that it is still easy to get to Epcot. We like all of the Magic Kingdom resorts, but I think we are partial to the
Polynesian. First, it doesn't get the convention crowd that the Contemporary and Grand Floridian can have. We also find that the transportation is also the convenient with the boat/monorail to the Magic Kingdom. To get to Epcot, we just walk over to the Ticket and Transportation Center to take the monorail to Epcot. The other two parks do require a bus ride, but the ride is pleasant & we've found the bus crowd is never too large.
Finally, have you visited www.disneyfoodblog.com? Great articles on the Food/Wine Festival including an e-book on it!
Thank you for visiting the Moms Panel; if we can help again, please let us know!