Food and Wine Festival

The Food and Wine Festival is a Disney event that is not to be missed.  If you can escape for an adults-only weekend, this is a perfect time to visit Disney.  But even if you bring the whole family, you'll have fun and enjoy trying new dishes from around the world.

Here was is our game plan for Food and Wine Festival:

Rope drop!
Arrive in Epcot as soon as the park opens and ride rides from 9am-11am.  We started with Test Track, then rode Mission Space several times (none of us struggle with motion sickness during that ride, but we did not want to push it for after we started eating and drinking). Baymax and Joy and Sadness are now in the character meet'n greet areas at Epcot, as well.

Perfect combo?
Buy a Tasting Sampler card and use it for drinks.  Use snack credits for food.  Yes, it is a perfect plan. The tasting sampler card is a lanyard-hanging credential that has 8 tabs on it. As you come up on the kiosks, you can use it for food or drinks (there are a few obvious exclusions such as tasting flights with multiple drinks and one or two pricey champagnes). The price was $59+tax in 2015, so in order to get your money's worth, don't use your tabs for anything that is less than $7.  There were more than 150 menu options in 2015. The tabs can be used over multiple days and can be purchased at one of several locations while you are there.  More information about the Tasting Sampler card. Or you can order it buy calling (939)WDW-FEST.

My friend Samantha with the cute
ears she made and her tasting sampler card.

Get your kids involved!
Last year the Ratatouille Recipe Search was a TON of fun.  It helped get my kids all the way around the World Showcase for the first time. At 4, 6, and 7, they were completely into finding the missing ingredient that was hidden in each country.  

For older kids, Agent P's World Showcase Adventure is a great way for them to enjoy the countries. The $10 passport kits are also fun for older kiddos.  They can have them autographed in each country and make a fun souvenir.  You can buy the passports in the kiosks or gift shops as you enter the World Showcase, but the Agent P challenge is free.

Pace Yourself
Rather than trying to do all of our eating and drinking at once, we started with Mexico at eleven and toured Mexico, Norway, the outpost, Germany, and Italy.  We shared most of our snacks and drinks so that we could try more things.  One or two of us would stand in line and order the food and/or drinks that we wanted from a kiosk while the other parents helped the kids on find their clues, then we would all partake in the sampling.  After we made it through that half of the World Showcase we headed back to Germany and rode the boat back to the Future World side of Epcot.

We headed to our 2pm fastpass for Soarin' and then watched the new Pixar Short Films (super adorable) and rode Figment. We had a 3pm fastpass for Nemo and then enjoyed Turtle Talk with Crush before heading to our 4pm fastpass for Spaceship Earth.  This little break for rides was a nice 

After a relaxing ride on Spaceship Earth, we headed back to the boats and rode over to Germany.  We bypassed Italy since we had toured it earlier and started back up with the American Adventure and slowly toured our way through the rest of the World Showcase through Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada.  We stopped to meet Belle in France and Mary Poppins in the UK and ended near the Epcot dessert party area.  We stayed near that area and enjoyed Illuminations! 

So what were a few of our favorite snacks?
The lobster roll in the American Adventure Pavilion
Belgian Waffle with chocolate ganache
Canadian cheese soup
Kalua Pork Slider from Hawaii
Chicken gyro from Greece 
Beef bourguignon in France
Escargot in France
Beef skewers with chimichuri sauce from Argentina 
Grilled swet and spicy shrimp from Australia (you can smell it before you even get to it)
Spicy Hand Roll from Japan
Korean BBQ Beef with steamed rice and kimchi

Feel free to chime in with some of your favorite foods and beverages from the Festival!

Four Parks in One Day

Pick up a free celebration badge to mark your big day!

Doing all four parks in one day is one of Disney's most thrilling challenges! 

We recommend this challenge for the 10+ crowd.  This would not have been fun with a stroller.  

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

1. You will greatly benefit from using a travel agent's expertise when planning this day.
2. Be flexible, but be sure you have a game plan.  Your plan will likely evolve as you check wait times on the (free) My Disney Experience and deal with unexpected crowds and shorter-than-expected attractions you may pass as the day goes on.
3. Plan to start at the park that opens first and end at the park that closes last - this seems basic, but it's a key part of making the most of your time.  Closing times a tie? If so, pick the park that's closer to your resort - you will be tired by the end of the day!
4. Use your fastpasses for the park that you'll be in during the peak hours of the day (1-5pm) OR Make your fastpasses for the earliest times you can in the first park you visit.  Then add an extra fastpass as you know where (and when) you'll be next.  You can do this at a kiosk or on the My Disney Experience app.
5. Know your maximum wait times.  For our group, we decided not to stand in a line that was over an hour long.  We decided to prioritize our favorite attractions over trying to ride as many rides as possible.  
6. Make sure everyone gets to pick a least one must-do - you may have to be slightly flexible on #4 in order to achieve this, but no one should be disappointed at the end of a big day like this one.
7. Be sure you know how you'll get from one park to the next - Disney transportation is simple, but you'll save time if you know exactly how to get from one park to another. We don't recommend using your own car since you would have to move it from each park to the next or go back for it at the end of the day.  The buses DO run directly from one park to another.
8. Make use of the single rider lines - not sure which attractions offer this feature? Scroll to the bottom for the list...
9. This is a challenge best accepted on a good night's sleep.  You won't want to have to head back to your room for a nap or a pool break on this day. We did our day on less than 4 hours of sleep, but it was tough! 
10. Stay hydrated - yes, this can include adult beverages...but drink plenty of water, too!
11. Have a plan for food - we suggest bringing your own snacks and not trying to stop for any table service meals.  Picking a place to eat while standing in line can be fun, but I recommend picking one quick-service spot at each park that you know everyone would be happy to eat at since you can't be sure of where exactly you'll be at meal time.
12. Have a picture of your family/group taken at every park, then post them together and use the #4parks1day hashtag.

Here are the attractions we enjoyed:

EPCOT

Soarin'

Test Track

Frozen Ever After

Pixar Short Films

Hollywood Studios

Rock'n Roller Coaster

Toy Story Mania

Animal Kingdom

Dinosaur

Everest - we used the single rider line for this attraction, as well.

Magic Kingdom

Haunted Mansion

Wishes

7 Dwarfs Mine Train

Buzz Lightyear

Space Mountain

Which attractions have a single rider line?
Everest
Kali River Rapids (at least for now)
Test Track
Rock'n Roller Coaster