Tink In The Parks: Soft Opening of the 2015 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival (PART 1)

Good afternoon, Tinkers!

     Man, am I BEAT! This morning, The Hubs, K and I decided to head over to Epcot for a sneak peek at the 2015 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival! The event officially starts tomorrow, but today was a "soft opening". That means that nothing is guaranteed to be in stock, nor are all of the booths guaranteed to be open on time, or at all. We did find that by the time we left at 2pm, most stuff was up and running. I would have stayed and done another lap with all of the booths open, but we had to get D from school and it was also getting unbearably hot. It was supposed to be cloudy and even possibly rainy today, but being Florida, the weather changed its mind and the sun came out to heat us up. Whew!

     Due to it being a slower time of year, and the fact that the festival wasn't officially open yet, the crowd was extremely light. In fact, most Guests that were there seemed to be media or fellow bloggers. For those of you who live for this event every year, you will be excited to hear that it appears as though this year, the 20th year of the festival, is going to be the best so far! There are more booths, more special events, more demonstrations, and even more days to enjoy it than ever before! (This year the event runs for a record 53 days this year!) For the first time, the festival has spilled over into Future World, and there are new booths and new displays. Plus this year, the ABC talk show The Chew will be filming some episodes in Epcot.

     We got to the park at about 10:00am and checked out the entry display. It was a nice homage to the 20th anniversary of the festival, though I am uncertain what the little characters are supposed to be. Flavors? Tastebuds? Not quite sure.

     Anyway, since World Showcase wasn't open yet, we checked out some of this year's merchandise in Mouse Gear. Cute stuff. I might have to buy the trash can salt and pepper shakers. We have some of the Magic Kingdom ones, but these would make a nice addition.

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I also love that they made a special plastic plate that you can purchase and carry around with you. It even has a cup holder!

 

We did purchase the map and sticker set for Remy's Hide and Squeak Challenge. In order to qualify for a prize in the scavenger hunt, Guests must have purchased the $8 map, which comes with stickers to place when you locate the Remy the Rat statues in each country of World Showcase. When you complete the map, you turn it in at one of the designated locations to receive a prize. Though we did buy the map, we decided to put it away and bring it back another day, when we have D with us.



     The Master of the Roast coffee section looks pretty interesting, though it was not open for touring yet. The Festival Center wasn't up and running yet, either.

                    

We did see two gentlemen working in the cranberry bog, which is always super cool to see. K enjoyed the free samples of Craisins. He took three packs for himself and hopped back into the stroller. Ready to relax and snack.

The newest booths, Chew Lab and Sustainable Chew, were not open while we were there, but I'm excited to go back and try them out.

There were timelines place all along the walkway toward World Showcase, showing the festival highlights and changes over the years.

This year's center topiary is Chef Mickey, grilling on a barbecue. Cute, but not really the "wow" factor I was expecting. And there were more of those weird flavor/tastebud character thingies too.

     Are you excited yet???? Well, join me in PART 2, for Booth Menus, reviews of the foods we sampled, and more!!!!!!