Consorting with the Mouse

Just back from a long weekend at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival at Walt Disney World. A few tips, if I may:

1. If you are averse to crowds--and who isn't averse to crowds?--avoid holiday weekends at Disney World.

2. If you are thinking of checking out the EIFWF, make event reservations as far in advance as possible by calling 407-WDW-FEST. This goes double if you're attending over the aforementioned holiday weekend.

3. Consider renting a car. Even if you are staying at one of the Disney resorts, those shuttle buses can take ages to arrive and get you to where you're going. If you are a Disney resort guest, showing your hotel parking pass gets you free parking at the parks. Some of the events take place at the various resorts' restaurants, and the only way to get between most of them without first taking a bus to one of the parks is to take a cab whose meter clicks another $.25 every 1/8 mile. The dollars add up quickly.

4. Pawn some of your most valuable possessions before you leave so that you can afford admission to the parks. Did you know that a one-day, one-park adult ticket costs $71 plus tax? It's enough to make you want to never leave home. Yes, the savings mount the more days you're going to be spending there, but that's little solace when you only have a long weekend.

I should tell you, though, that just as Nick and I were signing the papers to mortgage our first-born child in order to each get a one-day ParkHopper pass, the cast-member behind the window (Claire from St. Louis, MO, bless her) informed us that each day, they are supposed to conduct at least one transaction that comes under the heading "from the heart," and proceeded to give us $240 worth of admission for free. No kidding. It was the most unexpectedly nice thing anyone has done for me in a very, very long time. So Disney's not all soulless corporation...just most of it.

And with that, we skipped off to Epcot and proceeded to have what was certainly the most enjoyable (and cheapest, thanks to Claire!) evening of the weekend. We strolled around the International Marketplace, which consisted of a bajillion little stands around the World Showcase, featuring foods from various countries. This is a fun way to stretch out a meal at Epcot even when it's not festival time and it's only the usual dozen or so countries around the lagoon, but this setup was made for sampling. If I can remember it all, here's what we had:

• Morocco: bastilla, sangria (is that really Moroccan?), iced mint tea
• China: pork potstickers
• India: samosas
  
• Poland: kielbasa with pierogies (they used the plural, although only the singular was on the plate), raspberry wine
• Turkey: meze (which included cucumber and tomato salad, olives, and eggplant puree), spicy beef ravioli with yogurt sauce, pistachio baklava
• France: escargot
• Ireland: cold potato leek soup, potato pancake with bacon, garlic, and herb butter
  
• Spain: papas (potatoes) con chorizo
• Germany: Beck's Oktoberfest, apple strudel
• Mexico: mango margarita
• Argentina: spicy beef empanada
• United States: lobster roll, barbecued pork ribs
• Dominican Republic: mofongo

Such fun! We spent less per person than we do on most decent dinners we have here in New York, and you can't go anywhere else and get that kind of variety, much of it at a very high level of quality. The kicker was that the food was definitely better than it had been the night before at the reserve-ahead Party for the Senses, which cost more and required that you pay for admission to Epcot. The Party was a good time, though. We both enjoy small foods--who doesn't?--and our ticket also got us priority seating to see The Original Family Stone, who played a short concert as part of the Eat to the Beat Concert Series. I think we'd go back to the festival in the future, making note of our own suggestions above.