MickeyBlog is LIVE From the 2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
Welcome to all MickeyBlog fans! It’s finally that time of year to visit EPCOT’s 2023 Food & Wine Festival. We’re ready to brave the Florida heat to try all kinds of eats and drinks.
2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
This post will be updated throughout the day, so make sure you keep checking back with MickeyBlog for more details. Let’s jump right in!
Festival Dates
The 2023 Food & Wine Festival lasts from July 27th to November 18th, 2023. This year, there are almost 30 new and returning booths, although some of them do not open until later in the fall.
2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
With so many old favorites and new dishes, we had a hard time deciding what to get!
EPCOT Hours
EPCOT opens at 9AM today, but guests staying in Disney World hotels can take advantage of Early Theme Park Entry to get inside EPCOT at 8:30AM.
Admission to the festival is included in a regular Disney World ticket, although you also need a park reservation for EPCOT to enter the park before 2PM.
2023 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
The World Showcase and therefore also the booths typically open around 11AM ET, but let’s get started on our festival day!
Crowds
Higher crowds are fairly typical for the first day of an EPCOT festival, and there were quite a few people in line for Early Theme Park Entry. When we got inside the park and headed to Creations Shop to do some shopping, this is what we saw.
Update from opening day of Food & Wine festival! Here’s a look at the line to get the festival merchandise in creations!👀🌐✨#DisneyParks #WaltDisneyWorld pic.twitter.com/AGL8VQSg4b
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 27, 2023
Since booths don’t open for a few more hours, we’re stopping by Creations Shop first to check out all the new festival merchandise.
Merchandise
There are TONS of new merchandise available at Creations Shop, and we’ll be taking a look at everything throughout the day!
We’re here at Creations Shop checking out the BRAND NEW Food and Wine Festival merch 🍽️🍷#foodandwine #epcot pic.twitter.com/pdoOmKyZx5
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 27, 2023
You can get a glimpse of the three new collections below, featuring Figment, Encanto, and Chef Mickey & Minnie!
Here’s a look at Creations shop decked out with all the new Food & Wine merchandise!🌐✨ pic.twitter.com/BY5Rk4k11E
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 27, 2023
Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak Scavenger Hunt
If you want to do more than just eat during the festival, you can purchase a gameboard for Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak scavenger hunt for just $9.99!
Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak
Find Remy statues all over EPCOT and place the stickers in the correct spots to earn a prize (note that technically you do not need to finish your gameboard to redeem your prize).
Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak
Without spoiling the location, here’s what one Remy statue looks like!
Remy Statue
The prize this year is a soft lunchbox. You can choose one design out of four, with your options including Encanto, Remy, Figment, and Chef Mickey.
Lunchbox Prizes
Festival Passport
A key element of an EPCOT festival is the Festival Passport, which is a free guide to all the food, entertainment, and more happening during the event.
Festival Passport
You can find Festival Passports in various locations around EPCOT, including at food booths.
Inside you’ll find information about the Global Marketplaces (aka the booths), the Eat to the Beat concert series, festival merchandise, and Emile’s Fromage Montage (more on that later).
Festival Passport
Best of all, the Festival Passports are entirely FREE!
Click here to see more photos of the Festival Passport!
Food & Drinks
Of course, the food and drinks are basically the most important part of the Food & Wine Festival! We’ve been making our way around the festival to try all kinds of different items, like the now-famous Pickle Milkshake from the Brew-Wing Lab at the Odyssey.
We have the Pickle Milkshake 🥒
Would you try this?#epcot #picklemilkshake #foodandwine pic.twitter.com/C7pCznxMpd— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 27, 2023
The Mexico booth was a huge hit where we enjoyed pretty much everything we tried there, including the Taco de Costilla, Tostada de Carnitas, Pastel Imposible, Trouble in Paradise Margarita, and the Fly Away Margarita.
Mexico Spread
Other winners so far have included the Impossible Slider from Flavors From Fire…
Impossible Burger Slider
…the Feijoada and Pão de Queijo from Brazil…
Brazil Booth
…the spicy Fire Taiko Roll from Japan…
Fire Taiko Roll
…Pickle Fries from The Fry Basket…
Pickle Fries
…and Freshly Baked Carrot Cake from Flavors of America.
Freshly Baked Carrot Cake
Emile’s Fromage Montage
Emile’s Fromage Montage is a cheese scavenger hunt (yes, really!) with a prize! All you have to do is get at least five stamps in your Festival Passport — by eating certain designated cheese dishes.
Emile’s Fromage Montage
Once you eat five qualifying dishes, you get to redeem your five stamps for a special treat at Shimmering Sips! This year, the treat is Strawberry Cheesecake Soft Serve. And trust us when we say — it’s delicious.
Emile’s Fromage Montage Prize
Eat to the Beat Concert Series
We began our evening with the first Eat to the Beat concert! This series includes different live entertainment at the America Gardens Theatre on weekend evenings throughout the Food & Wine Festival.
Funkafied is performing tonight!
It’s also opening day of the “Eat to the Beat” over at Food & Wine Festival! Stop by this venue and enjoy some great concert series!🎸✨ pic.twitter.com/FoBePPq1Kp
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) July 27, 2023
EPCOT Beacon of Magic
And finally, we waited until dusk to watch Spaceship Earth light up with a special theme for Food & Wine Festival! This year, it’s a repeat of last year’s “Be Our Guest” Beauty and the Beast-themed sequence. You can watch it below!
View this post on Instagram
So pretty.
Spaceship Earth
Watch our full video of the 2023 Food & Wine Festival below!
Keep following MickeyBlog for more Disney news!
