Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2017

I LOVE food and got to try a lot of good stuff from the Food and Wine Festival, so I thought I'd share my experiences! Mostly through photos. 

Okay, these Greek Nachos were one of my all time FAVORITE Food and Wine Festival eats. Great value (that's a lot of food for $4.50 in Disney!) and it holds you over well enough to be considered a lunch option. So good. So flavorful.

Spanikopita - not my favorite, but Martia enjoyed hers!

This sundae was surprisingly good. Simple but refreshing.

My friend Kasia was OBSESSED with the tomato hummus, but I'm more of a plain hummus gal myself, and the crackers were too thin for me ;) But she LOVED this snack.

The frozen mojito was good, nothing spectacular though.

The beer cheese soup is SO GOOD. One of my favorite dishes for SURE. Crazy flavorful, you'll definitely not want to share.

The filet mignon was also really good. Perhaps a tad overdone for me, but the flavor is phenomenal.

The ice wine was good!! Nothing you wouldn't expect from an apple ice wine.

This stew was good but kind of weird. Apparently neeps and tatties are basically rutabaga and potato. I had to google that. But the dish itself had an interesting texture/sweetness to it reminiscent of applesauce, an odd accompaniment for stew. I don't know if that's from the rutabaga as I've never had that before, but it was a little odd.

The salmon pancake was good! I'm a self-proclaimed salmon snob so it wasn't quite up to my standard but it'll do ;)

The pudding was SO flavorful, but I definitely had to share because it is also very very rich. You can definitely taste the whiskey in the sauce!

The cheese dip was REALLY GOOD. I think the thickness of it threw some people off, you can just taste the fat hahaha, but the flavor was delicious. We ended up eating ours like soup (they give you two tiny bread chunks).

Probably one of my favorite drinks was this pumpkin caramel chai milkshake (nonalcoholic). Screams fall flavors.

The slush was good, but still can't compare to the amazing rose slush in France from Flower and Garden! YUM!

I got the beef twice and was a little disappointed both times. Not quite the tenderness and flavor I was hoping for.

I've heard so much about this cheese bread!! My friend Alex LOVES it and I thought it was good but the texture is very doughy. That threw for a loop. Good flavor though!

THIS beef was really good. The gouda mashed potatoes were ESPECIALLY delicious. Would definitely get again!! I was bummed to see they took the savory potato leek waffle off the menu though!

The hummus fries were a let down for both of us. The flavor wasn't even remotely spicy, and the texture was too weird. Like biting into a giant hummus block.

My favorite alcoholic drink from food and wine was this pom pineapple sake! SO fruity and refreshing and delicious.

The ginger pork had awesome flavor, but I think pork is a little too fatty for me. Fat chunks really throw me off.

By far the most disappointing food from food and wine. You can even tell from the picture that it wasn't very good. Cold and bland.

Another good deal with a big portion size, this stew with polenta was good and hearty!

The bratwurst itself was good, however, it comes with mustard and I HATE mustard so that kind of ruined it for me hahaha oops should have asked for no mustard!

The only beer I've ever liked. The pomegranate beer! Fruity and light!

The mango lassi was good but SO fluffy (weird way to describe a drink but it's so true) that it was hard to drink and easier to eat with a spoon.

My sister LOVED the korma chicken. I only had a little bite as it's not really my thing, but my family loved it!

The bread service was fun, all three accompaniments were pretty good, but my favorite was the garlic!

These potstickers were exactly what you'd expect from China, delicious.

I got the lychee punch drink which was good but STRONG.

The garlic noodle and shrimp were good but a wee bit spicy for me.

The mango bubble tea was REALLY good but probably also way overpriced when you can get a LARGER peach bubble tea for CHEAPER right next door at the China drink booth thing that's always there.

The tequila shrimp was yummy and flavorful, but I think I preferred the Mexican dish I had during flower & garden. This was still good though!! Maybe a tad spicy, but not so much that it overpowered the dish.

We were all pretty disappointed with the fried chicken because we'd heard such good things about it, but we all loved the cornbread!

BOOTHS I FORGOT TO TAKE MENU PHOTOS OF:

Hawaii

I don't like spam, but my roommates loved this spam hash!

The passionfruit cheesecake was REALLY GOOD but was also super light on the passionfruit flavor, which was a bummer.

Honestly how can you go wrong with kahlua pork sliders. Yum yum yum. 

Thailand

MY FAVORITE DISH FROM THE ENTIRE FESTIVAL!!!!! This chicken with peanut sauce may not look pretty, but it's hands down the most flavorful and delicious thing I tried. And I tried A LOT. 

Coastal Eats

The shrimp scampi was good and cheesy, but as a Northwesterner, I'm a bit picky about my seafood ;)

Active Eats

This avocado crema was a bit weird, layered with white cake and strawberries, but pretty good!!

The Light Lab

This drink was my favorite of the three Light Lab drinks I tried. This one was a citrus-apple freeze. Like a fruity slushy!

I just got this Bleu Spectrum for the boba balls, but it's basically bubbly with boba. I don't really like champagne/sparkling wine, so not my thing. 

I also tried the fun drink that was vanilla tonic water poured over cotton candy, but tonic water is nasty and bitter so I thought it was awful.

The Chocolate Studio

This is the nitro-chocolate pudding thing with caramel. It was good and weird. Good flavor, but where I was expecting more of an ice cream I got a thick almost frosting kind of texture. Odd but I didn't hate it. 

Wine and Dine Studio

I love cheese and this board was pretty good, but the bread tasted very chewy/stale. There was a soft brie-esque cheese, blue cheese with apricot jam, and a toma cheese with honey. You're probably better off saving cheese for restaurants/at home, and saving food and wine for the meal stuff that's harder to come by!

Africa

Here's another dish I was really excited for, the Ethiopian lentil stew, but it wasn't my favorite. A little too spicy and not super balanced. I know a lot of people loved it though. 

Overall I had an awesome time trying all this delicious food over the course of three months!! My favorite were the Thai peanut chicken, the Greek nachos, the beer cheese soup, and the Belgian beef and potatoes. In comparison to the Flower & Garden Festival, I preferred the Flower & Garden drinks and desserts (as I'm more of a fruity person rather than decadent), but preferred the Food & Wine savory foods. I love love love Food & Wine Festival and would totally recommend it!!! 

Week Forty-Nine: MERRY CHRISTMAS + Last Mine Train Shift Ever!!

December 25th (Monday): Merry Christmas!! I worked a closing shift from 4:30pm - 1:15am and felt pretty awful. I had this nasty cold and cough that hit me HARD in the middle of the night. So I got horrible sleep since I couldn't breathe, then went to work as a sicky. It was an insane day, we hit capacity and had to close the park entrance from like 10am - noon or something, but I was lucky enough to pull good positions. ALSO I GOT A GUEST LETTER!! So exciting :) I think I wrote about this a couple weeks back, but I had a family that had been evacuated off Peter Pan's Flight and got paper FastPasses as a form of guest recovery. The FP's excluded the Mine Train, but they told me that nowhere else would accept them since it was during a Christmas party, so I accommodated them. Well that family wrote an email to guest relations saying that this cast member (me!!) was really kind and helpful and turned a negative experience into a positive one. So my leaders printed off the email, wrote me a four keys card, and let me keep them! Super awesome. Also I got to close tower for the first time ever, which was very exciting because I got to sit for the last two hours of my shift. And according to my notes (I keep notes throughout the week on my phone so I remember what I did for these blog posts) I "didn't die, so that's good". Hahaha it was a crazy day so glad I came out on top ;)

December 26th (Tuesday): I worked from 1:15pm - 11:45pm and it was a WEIRD day. I pulled FastPass twice, which I hate, but clearly I survived so it's okay. I did have one guest call the guest in front of him an a**hole in front of the guy's little daughter. So that was awful. Luckily my coordinator was there so she could help fix the situation. Also this wack job of a woman HOPPED out of the train when we were dispatching it. She had a row to herself, so we think she slid over into the empty seat, then got up and jumped off THE MOVING TRAIN. I mean it was the very beginning so it had only moved a foot or so, but imagine if I hadn't been paying attention and stopped the train?! Like seriously WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! On a more positive note, we had one of the Dance Moms girls ride and I got to check her family's lap bars. So that's fun!! It wasn't a main girl, it was Sarah Hunt who pops up every once in awhile on that show.

December 27th (Wednesday): I was scheduled 11:45am - 8:15pm but was just so exhausted from being sick and working seven days in a row (this was my eighth) that I called in late and slept an extra two hours. I didn't pull great positions, but I had a really good day and good guests so that's good!! Bob Chapek (chairman, right under Bob Iger) was in the park and so was Chris Evans! He rode Mine Train while I was in tower so I didn't get to see him in person. But yeah, that was my day!

December 28th (Thursday): Off! FINALLY! I went to Animal Kingdom with Martia in the morning because I had a Flight of Passage rider switch that expired December 31st. We had FP for Everest and Primeval Whirl, and of course went and saw our roomie Jani at Festival of the Lion King. Then we did FoP and got to ride it 1.5 times because the first time it stopped halfway through!! We think it was because a kid threw up in another room. But yeah we got to ride 1.5 times so that's cool! Such an amazing ride. Then Marty went to work so I did Gorilla Falls and Maharj Jungle Trek with my camera, and rode Kilimanjaro Safari! They had a 125-minute wait, so I'm very glad I had a FP.

December 29th (Friday): I worked from 4:45pm - 1:15am and went into my shift thinking I had four mine train shifts left: today, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Well my Sunday and Monday shift were super long so I traded with a circus/mine coworker for the circus, and when I went to check out my schedule again, my Tuesday shift disappeared. SO IT WAS MY LAST MINE TRAIN SHIFT EVER!!!!! Insane right?!!? Overall it was a good day. Even though I was merge FOUR times, no one yelled at me, so it was a good day. I also got to be tower at one point, and end the night at grouper, my favorite position. I got to be the last one on the train and take gem pics, so shoutout to my coordinator Emily for letting that happen. So proud to be a miner :')

December 30th (Saturday): I WAS OFF BLESS. It was insane at MK with park hours until 3am, so I was VERY glad to be off. I went to Epcot during the day and rode Living with the Land, Soarin', and Spaceship Earth. I also got food in the World Showcase, and did a little bit of late Christmas shopping for the fam ;)

Then I went to the Polynesian to watch the New Years Eve fireworks (yes, they do them the 30th as well as the 31st) and they were AMAZING. I sat on the beach and watched the sunset, then watched them set off the 6:30 fireworks. I wasn't about to stay out until 11:50pm, I had to be up at 6:30am for work!

December 31at (Sunday): I traded my 17-hour mine train shift for a nice 8am - 4:30pm circus shift. It was pretty crazy. We were at capacity and closed the park off for a couple hours in the afternoon, and the Barnstormer was an 80-minute wait. The line went through the whole queue and extended BEYOND that. I have never seen that ride so busy. Insane. Some guest told me that Haunted Mansion was 300 minutes or something wild like that, so yep, crazy day. It was a pretty easy day for me, I was bummed not to get Barn grouper at all, but I had an easy day so it's okay ;) We did have a lady push a cast member though so when I left for the day we had a coordinator, leader, and security all down with this aggressive family. They pushed the CM at FastPass because she wouldn't let them up with a fake FP. Honestly people suck sometimes.

That's it for my CRAZY Christmas week!! My last full week of work. Wow. Going out with a bang, am I right? ;)