6 Ways to Eat, Drink, and Survive the 2026 Epcot Food & Wine Festival

The 2026 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival at Disney World is a foodie’s paradise, where you will find more than enough to quench your appetite and thirst.

So much so that it could get a bit overwhelming. After all, you don’t want to leave with the regret of never trying the Crab and Corn Macaroni and Cheese, Roasted Lamb Chop, Teriyaki Chicken Bun, or the regret of trying too much food and feeling like you could sink to the bottom of the World Showcase Lagoon.

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So here are a few tips for taking in the Food & Wine Festival, which starts Aug. 27, and runs through Nov. 21, without either missing anything crucial or overindulging.

1. Plan ahead: Yes, you already made dining reservations for other parts of your trip and booked your Lightning Lanes. Do you really need to plan to eat at a festival? The short answer is yes.

Sure, you can show up and just walk around and head to one of the 43 festival locations, including 26 booths, and graze. But you have over 130 choices of food and drink items to try this year.

Look at the menus here and start thinking about what sounds good. Now, be careful, not all of the booths open today. One of my favorite food items is the Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese at The Alps kiosk, but that won’t open until Oct. 2. 

The biggest challenge for all is going to be the weather. You might think summer is over with the end of August. But the next month – what many call September, but I call second August in Florida – keeps the summer heat and afternoon thunderstorm pattern. So if you have a problem eating hot foods in 90-plus-degree heat, be prepared.

2. Don’t make other dining reservations at EPCOT: If you’re heading to another park, sure make those dining reservations. If you’re heading to EPCOT, don’t bother. The entire park is your restaurant. You don’t need a sit-down dinner at the end of the day.

That being said, if you’re going for a week, you will want to make a couple of reservations toward the end. A full week of juggling your plate and drink, and fighting for a table or one of the new fence-mounted shelves will become tiresome.

3. Go for lunch or early afternoon, avoid the weekends (unless you love crowds): The crowds swell up after 4 p.m. In addition, those who come to the resorts for conferences are likely to head to the festival as well on special passes. Weekends grow as well since you have people leaving the resort and coming to the resort planning on staying during the weekends, and locals are off from work and come to enjoy the atmosphere. It may sound overwhelming, and it can be.

And let’s be real. There is alcohol served every few hundred feet at this event. People are on vacation and letting loose. It can get a bit rowdy.

4. Share: You will want to try a bit of everything, so your best strategy may be to split everything with a friend. These are not huge dishes to begin with, but all are shareable. This allows you to get a taste of everything. And if you plan on going several times, you’ll know which full portion you might look like later.

5. Stick to a budget: This is probably the most difficult thing to do, especially since it is so easy to tap your MagicBand, credit card, or wearable device now and choke down the bill later. One way to force yourself to stick to a budget is to buy a festival gift card and use that — and only that — to pay for your food and drinks. Once it’s gone, that’s it.

6. Enjoy all the entertainment: The one thing EPCOT has going for it is entertainment with bands scheduled throughout the day and the Eat to the Beat concert series. The concert series is a delightful combination of local Orlando bands and nationally-known entertainers. The entire schedule can be found here. 

In addition, here are a few other things to do:

• Cheers to Cheese Exhibit – Visit CommuniCore Hall from Sept. 18 to Nov. 8 for an interactive dairy-themed exhibit. 
• Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak – A scavenger hunt in the World Showcase area, find statuettes of Remy
• JAMMitors – Tap your feet to the syncopated sounds of the funkiest percussionists who turn pots, pans and other unlikely kitchen tools into instruments, serving up irresistible kitchen sink-o-pation.