Magical Monday: Fall Feasting at Disney World! {FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL and MORE!}

Food is an attraction in itself at Disney World, never is that more true than in the Fall!  Epcot's World Showcase is lined with international food booths for the annual Food and Wine Festival.   You'll find everything from exotic eats to frozen drinks, it's a foodie's dream!  Beyond the festival you'll spot all sorts of delicious Fall inspired treats throughout the Parks...

One such treat I'd been desperately wanting to try {& blissfully devour} for a few years now was the Pumpkin Spice Funnel Cake!  Our last Fall trip was apparently too early for this seasonal offering, so when I spotted it this time I could not resist!

Pumpkin Spice Funnel Cake, a seasonal offering at Epcot's American Adventure Funnel Cake kiosk 

It was sooo good!  If you're a funnel cake fan, especially one with a taste for the flavors of this season, I think it's worth the $8 splurge.  It's enough to share among your family/friends so you won't have to feel too guilty about it either. ;)

On to the Food and Wine Festival! 

Our last four WDW trips have fallen during Disney's free  dining plan promotion.  There are pros and cons to mixing this up with Food and Wine Festival.  The pro is that amazingly enough most of the booth's (nonalcoholic) offerings count as a snack credit on the dining plan!  We had 14 days worth of dining plan (that's the max they offer, though we stayed 16 nights), allowing our family of four 56 snack credits!  This made it easy to order pretty much every sweet, savory, and scrumptious thing we'd want to sample! However (notice that word signals the "con" of it all), having the dining plan means that you're already eating a whole LOT of food!  There were times when I passed booths (although I really wanted that yuMmmy Cheddar Cheese Soup in Canada!), because we had a dining reservation coming up.  I didn't want to be too full for the steak I'd soon enjoy compliments of Disney. ;)  Pros and cons, but anyway you slice it, we were eating our way through Disney.  We weren't complaining!

If you're not on the dining plan, they offer very handy gift cards on spiral bracelets that you can easily load with the amount you'd like to spend at the Festival.

(image source)

 These make paying for your eats & drinks easy!  It's also a simple way to say, "Okay, we've hit the hit the max ...for our waistlines and budget!"


Time to share our favorites! 
Warning:  These images may cause tummy grumbles and excessive mouthwatering.  Proceed with caution.

Did you make it to the Food and Wine Festival this Fall, or do you plan to visit between now and November 11th?  If so what was your favorite, or which dish/drink do you most anticipate trying?

Check out the 2013 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Menus HERE.

To those still planning to feast at the fest, don't forget to grab your FREE Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Marketplace Discovery Passport!

Have a cast member at each booth you visit stamp their country, and then mark off what you enjoyed there!  It makes for a fun (and, again, FREE!) souvenir!

If you've got souvenir money burning a hole in your pocket you could always snag some Mickey ears with a foodie flare... 

Culinary Cuteness

Believe it or not, I have one more Festival FREEBIE to share! If you have a Disney Visa Chase card you can use it to gain exclusive access to the Chase Lounge during this year's Food and Wine Festival!

After hours of walking in the heat, this lounge offers a nice retreat for some R&R.  Have your Disney Chase Visa card ready when you pass the American Adventure Pavilion and you'll be welcomed up to the third floor for this exclusive treat.  You'll enjoy complimentary soft drinks, a comfortable place to rest your feet, and cell phone chargers to replenish your battery after all those food pics you've snapped!  You'll spot many of the Disney Parks Authentic games scattered on tables for you and your family to enjoy while recharging yourself with some cool A/C with a nice {free} coca-cola product in hand.  Ahh, Disney and freebies, life doesn't get much better than that!

Fall is such a fantastic time of year to visit the Disney Parks!  Hope you've enjoyed this lit'l taste of our trip!  If so, I'd love to have you visit on Tuesday for my NEW blog series, Trip Report Tuesday!  Each week I'll be sharing details and oodles of photos from one of our 17 days at WDW!  I'll cover Disney attractions, dining, entertainment, & so much more, in and outside of the Parks!  Hope to see ya back each Magical Monday & TOMORROW for my 1st Trip Report Tuesday!!

Visit my DISNEY! page for magical crafts, recipes, and Disney goodness galore!

Make sure you don't miss a bit of Fall fun at 
Chatting Over Chocolate! 

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