Comments on: Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2009 – Not so epic

By: New Grapes in the New Year - Carmenere and Albarino — A Good Time With Wine

New Grapes in the New Year - Carmenere and Albarino — A Good Time With Wine — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:59:47 +0000

[...] grape I try, I may mention them, such as the Greek wine made from the Assyrtiko grape I had at the Epcot Food & Wine festival. I hope you come with me on the journey, and discover new and fun wines with [...]

By: teamevil

teamevil — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:48:13 +0000

Food & Wine has, unfortunately, gotten more pedestrian as time go as on. And that’s coming from someone who knows nothing about wines. I really went for the food part.

By: Bill from Wine For Newbies

Bill from Wine For Newbies — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:26:50 +0000

I’m stunned to hear about the treatment at Citricos. I’ve only had top notch experiences there.

I would definitely call the Grand Floridian and talk to someone in Guest Services. I’ve occasionally run into a less-than-stellar Cast Member, and when it’s brought to management’s attention, they usually jump on it. Those problems at the restaurant are correctable, and Disney needs to know about it.

I’ve found the wine seminars are becoming less interesting, although we did plan on hitting at least one of them this year. In past years I’ve met Tom Rinaldi, the winemaker at Provenance, and he was kind enough to agree to do a phone interview with me for the podcast. Lately the seminars seem to be more reps and fewer winemakers.

Still, I enjoy being able to walk around, try different wines at the kiosks (even if I’ve had them before), and try to see how many wines I can sample or drink during the trip. I’ve done more than 100 the last couple of years. Attending the Party for the Senses helps the tally.

Matt, you definitely need to contact the Grand Floridian and let them know. Please do follow up on that.

By: Philip Woodrow

Philip Woodrow — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:45:44 +0000

Wow Matt. How terribly disappointing on virtually all fronts. What’s interesting to me is that Disney has always been fiercely protective of their brand and in particular delivering the highest standard of care and service. At least that has always been my perception of what Disney stands for. After reading this review and the comments that corroborate your experience it seems that the standards have dropped considerably at the happiest place on earth. Thank you for bringing this to the attention of your followers. Hopefully this will help to right the ship or at least to prevent others from enduring such a painful experience.

By: Jen @ One Moms World

Jen @ One Moms World — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:55:12 +0000

You know, I was bummed out we did not get to go to this as we had planned the first of this month. After reading this post, I am glad it didn’t work out. As much as Disney pushes this event, I just thought it would be better organized and my goodness… I didn’t realize you had to pay all the extras over a 1 day ticket to get in.

Thank you for doing this review!

By: lurkingtweeter

lurkingtweeter — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:05:26 +0000

I’ve always liked the F&W festival, but the more years I go (and the more experience I have with wine) the more I notice that the wines on the Int’l Marketplace are rather pedestrian. Basically, they’ve opted for the cheapest wines they can get so that the 2oz. pour does not get (outrageously) marked up to more than $10.

We’ve found better quality wines in the tastings (now paid) and some F&W pairings (skip Morocco, grocery store wines). I realize it’s about who’s invited, what vendors will bring, bad economy and all but still, sad they don’t showcase a few value priced gems. They shifted for quantity vs. quality a while back, trying to be the biggest Festival (and now quantity is cut back, while prices are up).

We’ve stopped going on the weekend all together, save for Party for the Senses. Weekday crowds are smaller, just a much better experience. We save room for food and snacking by not doing a big breakfast or lunch.

Sorry you had a bad night at Citricos (which was okay my only visit) and I hope you complained to management, as bad service is a correctible issue but only if TPTB know about it.

Very fair review of your F&W weekend, thanks for sharing.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:41:44 +0000

Great post and very accurate. I love going just for the atmosphere.

By: Matt.mmwine

Matt.mmwine — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:31:10 +0000

Thanks Sandi! We were sorely disappointed in the food at Cat Cora’s, the Food & Wine Festival overall, and could not believe that Citricos could be SO bad. Thankfully I have good friends that made the good fun outshine the bad food and wine!

By: Tweets that mention Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2009 – Not so epic «A Good Time With Wine -- Topsy.com

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:23:31 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeff Houck, Matthew S Horbund and Robin & Matt, Robin & Matt. Robin & Matt said: RT @tweetmeme Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2009 – Not so epic http://ow.ly/1mAZoK [...]

By: sandra mckenna

sandra mckenna — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:31:34 +0000

Wow … Glad you blazed this trail for me … Knowing you, this is a spot on review!