EPCOT

2012 Festival

AllEars.Net Reviews

Photos

Rate and Review:

Epcot Food & Wine
Festival Archives

Epcot's
2010 International
Food & Wine Festival

"3D" Disney's Dessert Discovery

by AllEars® Guest Writer Ashley Livingston

During the Festival, select Thursday & Friday evenings become truly delicious with a variety of desserts and samplings of cordials certain to please any sweet tooth. Afterwards enjoy V.I.P. viewing of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.

Where: World ShowPlace Pavilion
When: Select Thursday & Fridays from 7 – 8:30 p.m.
--Friday, October 15
--Thursday, October 21
--Thursday, October 28
--Friday, November 5
--Friday, November 12

Price: $45.00 per person, plus tax, gratuity included – Theme Park admission required.

"3D" Disney's Dessert Discovery was held in the World Showplace, located between the United Kingdom and Canada pavilions in World Showcase (behind the gate near the espresso/coffee stand). Check-in for the event was located across the way at the lagoon. A Cast Member checked your name off and your party was given wristbands. Afterwards, you were directed to the pavilion.

Once inside the pavilion, they held everyone until 7 p.m. An announcement was made that dessert discoveries awaited and the curtain rose to reveal the room for the party. As usual, Disney's theme for the evening was incredible. There was live music that added a wonderful element to the evening.

It was very hectic when the curtain rose and throughout the evening in the pavilion. The attendees seemed intensely focused on getting their money's worth from the party. In all honesty, Disney had enough seats set up for everyone but groups of two sat at tables for 5-6 and it wasn't an approachable atmosphere. We ended up standing at a tall table in the back. Many families/couples were sitting on the floor. We estimated that there were between 500-750 people there. It was a much, much larger scale event than the Wishes Dessert Party at Magic Kingdom.

There were three different dessert stations. Each station was repeated three times for a total of nine stations. For example, there was a chocolate/pastry station and there were a total of three of those around the room. Each of the nine stations had different wines and liqueurs to choose from, including an ice wine at one station. I didn't try the ice wine but my mom said it was excellent. The desserts on the tables were not labeled -- you had to rely on the signs at the beginning of the line.

The stations had a variety of desserts and everything we sampled was great. I was very surprised at the amount of desserts containing nuts given the strides Disney has taken to make everything more nut-allergy friendly. I have to admit, too, I didn't find the desserts kid-friendly and there were a good number of kids there. Granted, it was a Food & Wine event but basics like chocolate chip cookies or plain ice cream were missing for the little ones.

They began allowing us into the IllumiNations viewing area around 8 PM. The viewing area was located between the two stores at the Gateway to the World Showcase (front). We had never seen IllumiNations from there so we were thrilled. At 8:45, they dropped the ropes and allowed the dessert-goers to sit near the railing at the water. They enforced the sitting-only rule, which was nice for the little ones. We stayed back in the standing-area and had an excellent view of the show. We had plenty of room and were very comfortable.

Overall, it was a nice event. However, even with that being said, I preferred the Wishes Dessert Party to this one. We actually felt a little intimidated by the scale of this event.