You don’t have to have an “attack plan” when checking out the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, but it certainly helps.
Archive for Walt Disney World
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’S TREN-D CONCEPT ART
While the main draw at “Tren-D” may be its stylish women’s fashions, this Disney Springs store’s uniquely funky take on Disney decoration is worth a look for any fan of the Mouse.
20 Things at Walt Disney World You Haven’t Tried Yet
Just when you think you have discovered it all, there is something different to explore. Approximately 48 million people visit Walt Disney World Resorts annually. That being said, many of these individuals have experienced the basics – they feel that they have had a complete and successful trip because they rode on the most popular rides and took a photo with Mickey Mouse. However, the truth is that there is so much more to do and even more to explore.
ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES OF LA NOUBA BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL NOW AVAILABLE
La Nouba™ by Cirque du Soleil® at Walt Disney World® Resort artfully blends vibrant music and whimsical characters with daring acrobatics and dazzling choreography.
This is a great chance to catch the newest acts including aerial bamboo artists and break dancers. Plus, for a limited time, you can enjoy half-price savings off a kids’ ticket when they purchase an adult ticket for shows through Dec. 16, 2016. Kids-priced tickets start as low as $24 for Category 4 seats.
Video – Top 5 Reasons to go to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
From cooking demos and live music to delicious food and wine, there are lots of reasons you won’t want to miss this year’s Epcot International Food & Wine Festival!
DISCOVER TOP REASONS TO VISIT EPCOT INTERNATIONAL FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL – INCLUDING ROCKIN’ BURGER BLOCK PARTY
From cooking demos and live music to delicious food and wine, there are so many reasons for you to experience this year’s Epcot® International Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World® Resort! Today, we’re taking a closer look at one of those tempting opportunities – the Rockin’ Burger Block Party.
When you think of burgers, they usually start with beef and a bun – but the rules are different at this event. You might find the beginnings of a traditional sandwich, and then the chefs take the flavor to a whole new level with patties like an Indian-inspired Malai Chicken Mushroom Burger or a pork slider with aji amarillo chile slaw and avocado on brioche.
The Sept. 30 event features celebrity Chef Maneet Chauhan with that Malai Chicken Mushroom Burger. Here’s some other tasty competitors:
- STK – their famous “lil BRGs” with Wagyu beef, special sauce and a sesame seed bun
- Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant – a beer-battered burger topped with garlic aioli, tomato chutney and greens.
- Disney’s Beaches and Cream – the Sunrise Burger with chorizo, candied Canadian bacon, avocado spread topped with a quail egg and sriracha mayo on an English muffin.
- D-Luxe Burger – the classic Southern style: a beef burger topped with a friend green tomato, pimento cheese and Applewood-smoked bacon on a soft, sweet Parkerhouse roll.
Chef Alex Seidel, a James Beard finalist (with a Colorado blended lamb burger) plus six other local restaurant competitors will participate on Oct. 14. And Nov. 11 stars celebrity Chef Jehangir Mehta (doing a mushroom-blended “Graffiti” burger) along with six others.
All three parties take place from 7-9 p.m. and the cost is $99-$199 plus tax and gratuity.
21st Epcot International Food & Wine Festival by the numbers
Walt Disney World Resort guests are invited to join the fun when the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival presented by Chase turns 21 from Sept. 14-Nov. 14, 2016. The longer-than-ever party will feature global and specialty cuisine, refreshing new beverages and three live concerts nightly.
The 62-day festival at Disney’s Epcot theme park will showcase 30 global marketplaces including four new Future World marketplaces featuring fresh culinary concepts to pair with select wines, beers, cocktails and other beverages. ABC’s Emmy Award-winning lifestyle series, “The Chew,” will broadcast from the festival for the second year and will participate in one of the new Future World festival marketplaces, The Chew Collective. The festival is believed to be the largest food and wine event of its kind in the world.
Here are some fun facts about the 21st festival celebration:
- Now 62 days long, the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival began in 1996 with a first run of 30 days
- At the 2016 festival, 30 global marketplaces will include new offerings like The Chew Collective in Future World’s Next Eats festival area and Islands of the Caribbean along the World Showcase Promenade
- Producers of ABC’s “The Chew” will tape 5 episodes of the show before 5 festival guest audiences numbering in the hundreds for each show
- The 21st festival will feature 32 new marketplace dishes and 49 (as of right now) new cocktails, beers, wines and ciders
- In 1998, 200 domestic and international wines were poured at the festival. This year, at marketplaces and premium events, more than 300 domestic and international wines will be offered
- More than 50 wineries and more than 35 breweries from around the world, including local craft beer operations, will be represented at festival marketplaces
- The new “The Best of Epcot Festivals 2016” cookbook by Pam Brandon and the Disney Chefs features 75 recipes from the global marketplaces.
- 3 Rockin’ Burger Block Parties and 6 Party for the Senses grand tastings will take place at World Showplace during the festival run. In all, the festival will feature 204 premium events ranging from Signature Dinners and Food & Wine Pairings to Beverage Boot Camps and Festival Events in World Showcase pavilions
- Guest chefs and Disney chefs numbering 250 will present culinary demonstrations and will cook for festival events
- Celebrity chefs and visiting culinarians from 10 countries and 26 U.S. states will participate in the festival at culinary demos, book signings, and special tasting events and dinners.
- Nearly 400 culinary demos, beverage and interactive seminars will take place during the 62-day festival
- During Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak festival scavenger hunt, guests can help Remy scour the park for the ingredients to make his signature dish, ratatouille. Along the way, they’ll find 12 Remy statuettes hidden in each of 11 countries of the World Showcase and at the African Outpost location. Guests can redeem the 12 stickers they’ve collected for one of 6 special pins at Select merchandise locations
- More than 375 hours of scheduled seminars will take place at the Festival Center for the 62 days of the festival. These include culinary demos and beverage seminars, the new Mix It, Make It, Celebrate It! interactive events, plus more
- 186 Eat to the Beat concerts will be performed; 8 musical acts will appear for the first time at this year’s festival featuring entertainment ranging from rock and soul to funk and blues
- The Festival Passport (previously called the Marketplace Discovery Passport) was introduced in 2010 for the 15th annual festival; today, the free passport will feature pages with all 30 festival marketplaces
- More than 1,200 fireworks will explode each night over World Showcase Lagoon in IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth nightime spectacular
- Chase is the festival’s presenting sponsor for the 5th year; its Chase Lounge at the American Adventure Pavilion is open exclusively to Chase cardholders and offers an inviting place to relax and recharge
- More than 225,000,000 festival dishes were served during last year’s 53-day festival
- 100,000-plus desserts, including the Hard Soda Floats at Desserts & Champagne Marketplace, are expected to be served
- In 1997, during the festival’s second year, festival planners introduced the first Grand Tasting culinary extravaganza; in 2002, the event was renamed and moved to World Showplace as Party for the Senses, now featuring up to 50 food and beverage stations and, in 2016, new and different themed entertainment for each event
Disney World: Secrets of the Skipper Canteen
The Jungle Cruise is among the most popular and beloved Disney park attractions. Now, visitors at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom can augment their whimsical river journeys by grabbing a table at the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen restaurant.
Walt Disney World Refurbishments – Fall 2016
| Magic Kingdom® Park | |
| Monorail The Walt Disney World® Resort Monorail System is undergoing refurbishment and may be on modified service and/or routes. If Guests plan to use this form of transportation during their visit they should check to be sure of the best option available on their day of travel, as alternative transportation options will be available. |
Through Summer 2016 |
| Swiss Family Treehouse Big Thunder Mountain Railroad “it’s a small world” |
Jul. 6 – Sep. 29, 2016 Aug. 8 – Nov. 18, 2016 Aug. 22 – Sep. 15, 2016 |
| Epcot® | |
| None | |
| Disney’s Hollywood Studios® | |
| Pizza Planet | Jan. 19 – Late 2016 |
| Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park | |
| DINOSAUR Dino Institute Shop |
Jul. 25 – Oct. 16, 2016 Jul. 25 – Oct. 16, 2016 |
| Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park | |
| Annual Refurbishment | Dec. 25, 2016 – Mar. 11, 2017 |
| Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park | |
| Annual Refurbishment | Oct. 23 – Dec. 24, 2016 |
| Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort | |
| Soft Goods Refurbishment | Apr. 2 – Sep. 24, 2016 |
| Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort | |
| Grand Slam Pool During this time Guests may use the Surfboard Bay Pool, located near the main lobby. |
Oct. 10 – Dec. 2, 2016 |
| Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village | |
| Soft Goods Refurbishment This work will be conducted between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. During this time, Guests may see or hear work in progress and certain pathways may be unavailable. |
Jul. 15, 2016 – January 2017 |
| Disney’s BoardWalk Villas | |
| Room Refurbishments Guests may see or hear work in progress. Additionally, Guests may have an interruption to water service during the overnight hours. |
May 16 – Oct. 31, 2016 |
| Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort | |
| Beach Renourishment Project | May 1 – Fall 2016 |
| Disney’s Pop Century Resort | |
| Computer Pool During this time Guests may use the Hippy Dippy Pool or Bowling Pool. |
Oct. 31, 2016 – Jan. 3, 2017 |
| Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter | |
| Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory Refurbishment | Jul. 11 – Late Fall 2016 |
| Disney’s Vero Beach Resort | |
| General Resort Refurbishments Due to several refurbishment projects, Guests will very likely see and hear construction work throughout the villas, spa and dining areas. We will attempt to limit any work most likely to cause a noise impact to the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Sonya’s restaurant and Bleachers Bar & Grill have permanently closed to make way for exciting new experiences. In the meantime, the table-service restaurant, Shutters, will be temporarily relocated to the nearby SeaGrape Room. |
Now through Oct. 2016 |
| Disney’s Wilderness Lodge & Villas | |
| General Resort Refurbishments Due to extensive refurbishment projects, Guests will very likely see and hear construction work in various areas throughout their stay. To minimize disruptions, we will attempt to limit work until after 9:00 a.m. At this time, many popular areas will remained closed – including the Hidden Springs Pool (the leisure pool at The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge), beach, marina, playground and more. In addition, certain pathways, like our nature trail, will be unavailable, and surrounding views may be altered. However, the recently renovated Silver Creek Springs Pool will remain open and boat transportation to Magic Kingdom park will continue to be offered. |
Through 2017 |
| Cub’s Den (Children’s Activity Center) – unavailable | Through 2017 |
| Disney’s Yacht Club Resort | |
| Room Refurbishments During this time, Guests may see or hear work in progress and certain pathways may be unavailable. To minimize any disruptions, we will attempt to limit work to 9:00 a.m – 5:00 p.m. |
Oct. 29, 2016 – Jun. 23, 2017 |
| Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Convention Center | |
| Expansion Work During this time, Guests may see or hear work in progress and certain pathways may be unavailable. To minimize any disruptions, we will attempt to limit work to 9:00 a.m – 9:00 p.m. |
Aug. 4, 2016 – Feb. 1, 2018 |
| Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel | |
| Guest Room Renovations Renovation work is scheduled to take place between 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. daily. No guests will be accommodated in the renovation area as to minimize impact on the guest experience. |
June – September 2016 |
| Disney Springs™ | |
| Planet Hollywood | Jan. 6 – Fall 2016 |
| Fulton’s Crab House – reopening as Paddlefish | Apr. 4 – Fall 2016 |
| Golf Courses/Miniature Golf | |
| None | |
Information and dates subject to change without notice.
NEW BUS SERVICE OFFERS DIRECT ACCESS TO DISNEY SPRINGS FROM THEME PARKS AFTER 4 P.M
To make it even easier for you to shop, dine and play at Disney Springs™, buses are now available to transport Guests to Disney Springs from Magic Kingdom® Park, Epcot®, Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios® starting at 4 p.m. daily. With a drop-off location in the heart of the property, the new service puts you in the middle of Town Center, the newest neighborhood filled with world-class brands, one-of-a-kind eateries and high-quality entertainment.
You can ride attractions through the afternoon, then indulge in one of Disney Springs’ 30+ food and beverage options by night. Or, catch an early fireworks show, then savor some sips at one of the vibrant lounges. Whether you want to end their evening with La Nouba™ by Cirque du Soleil®, a movie at AMC Dine-In Theatres, bowling at Splitstville Luxury Lanes or shopping at the wide-array of retailers (there are over 50 new stores!), they’ll find there’s plenty to enjoy once they’ve had their fill of theme park fun.
While the service from the Parks is intended to be one-way, Disney transportation will continue to be available from Disney Springs back to Disney Resort hotels. And for Guests with their own vehicles, the arrival experience is more convenient than ever with complimentary self-parking, which includes two new parking garages that utilize “smart technology,” making finding a spot a breeze.
