Hi Scott!
Welcome to the Disney Parks Moms Panel! Thank you so much for asking your Walt Disney World Resort vacation planning question to us hEAR.
One of my EPCOT favorites is taking in everything that the World Showcase has to offer 365 days a year, from art displays to shopping for nifty gifts that originated in that country, to watching the various
"streetmosphere" entertainment and snacking 'Around the World'. During the
EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, the latter is cranked up to the max. The festival adds dozens of additional a la carte Global Marketplace food booths to bring in flavors that represent countries and regions that don't have their own permanent cultural pavilions, like India or The Alps. Some kitchens are dedicated to one similar ingredient like cheese or pineapple. Last year one booth food prepared and presented many kinds of donuts in different ways. But my personal favorites are the food booths that offer up a sampling of other famous
Disney Dining Locations, like the Canada kitchen that serves up
Le Cellier's famous cheddar soup and a tapas-size version of their filet mignon with truffle-butter sauce. The EPCOT Food & Wine Festival also usually brings more live entertainment acts to the various countries throughout the day, as well as a fun scavenger hunt for the kids and kids-at-heart!
I've attended some food festivals or "Taste Of _fill_in_a_city_name_here_" where all of the food dishes were included in the price of the admission ticket. (Kind of like the samples at a much beloved warehouse club store, wink wink.) However, at Walt Disney World Resort, the cost of your admission ticket to
EPCOT includes all of the attractions and shows and entertainment found inside the park, with the only additional out-of-pocket cost being the food and beverage items you wish to sample.
Given everything that's going on right now as well as what Disney has already done that will allow everyone to safely
return to the world of magic, there will be some changes to 'how things have been done in the past.' And actually, the Disney Parks Blog posted an update recently about the brand new '
A Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.' While we don't yet know any more than the details included in that post, like
which favorite global marketplaces will be returning or how long the festival will last, 'like' and 'follow' the
Disney Parks Blog across all of your social media channels so you'll be sure to get updates about the festival as they are released.
I hope that this helped to plan your upcoming Disney Days, Scott. And if you have any more Walt Disney World Resort vacation planning questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen