2020 Epcot International Festival of the Arts

Date of Visit: January 17, 2020

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts has become probably our favorite festival, although  the only reason we like it slightly more than the Flower and Garden is that we have managed to attend most years by lucking out that it ends up at least partially during our annual family trip. This year we only managed to catch the first day of the festival as our last park day of our trip.

We started our trip through the festival with a stop at Joffrey's near Canada as it was open before the rest of World Showcase and I wanted to end up trying all the Latte and Donut pairings. In the end, this one (Impression Pairing - Blackberry Iced Latte with Blueberry donut) was my favorite mainly because of the donut.

In order to get as much in as possible, we were in line for the France booth when it opened at 11am. The Creme de Brie en Petit Pain ended up being our favorite. Mik also enjoyed the Tomato stuffed with ribs and we shared the molten chocolate cake. The macarons were a good snack for later that we picked up for others in our group, especially considering in the evening when we came back to Epcot for dinner we discovered many booths ran out of things by 6pm.

Next Mik had the Sushi Donut in Japan. He enjoyed it, but didn't feel like it was anything special other than the presentation, which actually made it harder for him to eat than normal sushi.

Mik enjoyed the Musical Float from the Fife & Drum Tavern in The American Adventure Pavilion.

He also enjoyed the red velvet donut that was part of my second latte and donut pairing (Baroque Pairing - white mocha latte and red velvet donut). At this point we were full and also had fastpasses to get to in Magic Kingdom.

After our fastpasses in Magic Kingdom, we returned to Epcot and started with my third latte & donut pairing (mocha latte and glazed donut).

For dinner, Mik didn't end up with any more festival food because what Mik wanted to try was sold out. I did, however, get my final latte and donut pairing (Modern Pairing - coconut iced latte and chocolate donut) and picked up our annual pass magnets.

Destination Info:
Epcot International Festival of the Arts
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Fourth & Final Visit

Date of Visit: May 6, 2019

On our last visit to Epcot together this trip (I went on my own on the 7th to do rides Mik doesn't typically do), we finally got over to the penguin sculpture near Living with the Land.

We started at Taste Track with the Violet Blueberry Vanilla Croissant Doughnut, which was tasty, but makes us miss the savory croissant doughnuts we've had at the Epcot International Art Festival.

Next we enjoyed the Sugar Cane Shrimp Shewer from La Isla Fresca.

One of our favorites was the Crab and Cheese Wontons from the Lotus House in China.

In China, we also enjoyed walking around to the Zodiac Garden to see all topiaries representing the 12 zodiac signs.

Mik finished with the Toasted Pretzel Bread at the Bauernmarkt in Germany, which was another of his favorites.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Third Visit

Date of Visit: May 5, 2019

As we got to Epcot before the food booths opened at 11am this day, we started by going through the gardens in the United Kingdom while the World Showcase was still pretty much entirely empty. The English Tea Garden is interesting in that it has the different plants that are used in different Twinnings teas growing in teacup shaped pots.

What we found most interesting, though, was the Shakespeare Garden. This area had signs with lines from different Shakespeare plays along with the plants mentioned in the lines.

For food on this visit, we started at the Northern Bloom in Canada. Mik had the Seared Scallops, which he thought were okay. He liked my Maple Popcorn Shake more.

Next at the Flavor Full Kitchen, Mik enjoyed the Cookie Butter Worms and Dirt, which ended up being his favorite beverage this year, while I had the Citrus-poached salmon.

We tried the Smoked Salmon Stack at Arbor next, which neither of us liked much mainly because it seemed too salty.

Mik enjoyed the Grilled Sweet Corn on the Cob from Trowel & Trellis as our final stop this visit. We ended up with two cobs because the guy serving them said they were small.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Second Visit

Date of Visit: May 4, 2019

For our second visit to the 2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, we focused on the areas at the beginning of the World Showcase. Our first stop was the Citrus Bloom, where we tried the lobster tail, which we liked the taste of, but found hard to get off the shell as tends to be the norm for lobster...

Next we stopped at the Honey Bee-stro. Mik enjoyed the honey-peach cobbler freeze and the chicken flatbread.

Nearby we checked out the Goodness Garden Butterfly House. There's lots of butterflies to see, but not that interesting to us because it just seemed like they were mostly flying by the netting trying to get out.

Next we stopped by the Gardeners Terrace where Minnie's Garden Party is going this weekend only. Here we picked up the button they were giving out and also tried the fried green tomatoes at Arbor, which Mik didn't like, but I got them mainly for me and I liked them except the paprika oil does make them spicy.

Our last stop was dessert from Pineapple Promenade. Mik had the pineapple soft-serve ice cream and I had the desert violet lemonade (sadly my flower blew away as I was carrying the items back to Mik).

On the way out of Epcot to park hop over to Magic Kingdom, we stopped for a photo because Mik wanted one with his Darth Vader socks for Star Wars Day. We were going to do a photo in Hollywood Studios earlier in the day, but we were just done with the park after discovering that we couldn't use our Toy Story Mania fastpass because the wheelchair accessible vehicle was down.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

Date of Visit: May 2, 2019

Every year we talk about wanting to go to the Flower & Garden Festival again. We'll go next year turned into five years since the last time we went mainly because we started doing an annual extended family trip every January (once it was February) and then it just seemed too soon to go again for the Flower & Garden (or we were doing Destination D for our just us WDW trip for the year).

As we started our day in Hollywood Studios with Toy Story Mania fastpasses, we entered Epcot between the UK and France pavilions. After hanging out in the gift shop by the entrance for the rain to let up, we decided to start in France where Mik had one of his favorites from before - the duck confit. We also enjoyed the chilled cucumber soup.

Next we enjoyed a key lime tart and a watermelon cucumber slush (my favorite thing we had today) at Florida Fresh between France and Morocco.

Next Mik had the shredded beef brisket with smoked potato from The Smokehouse in American Adventure. He didn't particularly enjoy it, but we did like the sunflower topiaries with Mickey and Minnie.

After the brisket, Mik was full so we just strolled through the rest of World Showcase making note of what we might want to try later this week. Of course, we also strolled through Mik's favorite part of Epcot - the Romantic Road in Germany.

We also enjoyed checking out the various topiaries with my favorite being Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2018

Date of Visit: November 12, 2018

We actually planned to go to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival last year, but had to cancel our trip due to a hurricane. This year we didn't plan to go and ended up catching the last day of it as it seems like it ran much longer this year than normal.

We started at The Cheese Studio with Braised Beef 'Stroganoff' for Mik and Cheese Trio for me. The stroganoff ended up being Mik's favorite.

Mik also really like the seating area by The Cheese Studio as he could actually use it, unlike the high tables they mainly have available around the festival.

Next Mik had the Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle and I had the Twining's Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea and Chocolate Shake from The Art of Pairing.

At the Austrlia booth, we shared the Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp, which was my favorite of what we tried.

Finally, we tried the Warm Indian Bread with three dipping sauces. Mik mainly liked it for the bread, but did also like the coriander pesto dip.

Before leaving we made sure to stop at the Festival Center to get our passholder magnet and check out the chocolate sculptures (and get our free Ghiradelli square because not like we didn't still have leftovers from the Disney Cruise last month...).

Overall glad we at least got to experience the festival a little this year. Really wish we could've come four days during it, though, and got the passholder cutting board!

Destination Info:
Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Epcot International Festival of the Arts

Date of Visit: February 5, 2017

When we planned our trip the Epcot International Festival of the Arts hadn't been announced. Finding out we would be able to enjoy it when it was announced was exciting, but we were kind of disappointed it's only a weekend thing because we had already booked our two dining reservations for our week trip 2 of the 3 days we could've enjoyed eating at the festival. We did fit in trying a few things on Sunday for lunch before our early dinner at Be Our Guest, but Mik was disappointed we didn't instead eat at the festival booths on Monday, especially since it was the park we were in for our lunch and it turned out to be our worst Disney dining experience ever (not actually bad, but disappointing...will try to remember to do review later).

On Sunday, Mik and I park hopped by boat from Hollywood Studios and were planning to grab some lunch with my Starbucks gift card on the way over to meet up in Magic Kingdom for dinner. We had forgotten about the festival until we spotted the booth in Canada and then we picked up the little booklet that lists what all the booths have. Mik quickly spotted a picture of doughnuts and when I found the description we knew what we had to have for lunch.

On the way to get the doughnuts, we stopped at the E = AT^2 booth for some cold drinks. Mik enjoyed the Deconstructed Breakfast (non-alcoholic version), which is a spiced apple chai tea shake with maple syrup, a waffle crisp, and candied bacon. It reminded me of the pumpkin one they had at the Food & Wine, which was my favorite last time.

The Trio of Savory Croissant Doughnuts at the Painter's Palate did not disappoint. Mik enjoyed the chicken mousse one and I enjoyed the herb cream cheese with sea salt one. We split the tuna one. Mik's favorite was the tuna and mine was the herb cream cheese.

We also enjoyed the exhibits in the Showcase Plaza where Painter's Palate was located. In particular, we enjoyed seeing the Mary Blair art. However, they were rather small and left us wanting more of a real exhibit to experience.

Overall we enjoyed our little taste of the Epcot Festival of the Arts and hope to enjoy a lot more of it on Friday. In particular, it would be fun to get a photo in one of be part of the paintings displays.

Destination Info:

Epcot International Festival of the Arts
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2014 - Day 2

Date of Visit: September 26, 2014

On our second and last day at Disney World this trip, we headed back to the Food & Wine Festival and went around to the left insides of the right like the first day.

Our fist stop was for Roasted Verlasso salmon with quinoa salad and arugula chimichurri at the Patagonia booth.

At the Australia marketplace we tried the Garlic shrimp with roasted tomatoes, lemon myrtle and rapini.

Next Dad got a Lamb meatball with spicy tomato chutney from New Zealand, which Mik ended up mostly eating because he loved it when he tried it.

From Poland we got the Kielbasa and potato pierogi with caramelized onions and sour cream. Good pierogis, but they did seem odd to me so mini.

Mik most looked forward to trying the waffles in Belgium, which he had skipped the day before because we had waffles from Sleepy Hollow in the Magic Kingdom for breakfast that day. He had the chocolate one and like the Belgium style waffles. He tried my berry one, but didn't particularly like it because it was mostly blueberry.

Lastly we had Brazilian cheese bread, which Mik didn't really like, but was my favorite thing we tried.

Destination Info:

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL