Food and Wine Festival 2019

[WDWRLD]

Most seemed new to a park F&W event because I think much of the slow downs at the registers were employees explaining the entire process of punch cards, booths, how to pay and pick up ect to guests. Fwiw WCUSA seemed extra packed yesterday too. Ill blame it on the full moon.

 

[Jahrules]

Most seemed new to a park F&W event because I think much of the slow downs at the registers were employees explaining the entire process of punch cards, booths, how to pay and pick up ect to guests. Fwiw WCUSA seemed extra packed yesterday too. Ill blame it on the full moon.

I'm with you on this. I also experienced a lot of people asking questions like "where do I get my free item voucher" etc.

Well we do know that SeaWorld has been making huge strategic pushes in getting people on memberships and such.

Obviously, one day doesn't set a pattern; but it seems like their strategy may be paying off. Honestly it makes sense.. with a ton of new people on membership and the alluring offer of a free item daily likely results in what we saw yesterday.

The park made a killing yesterday. If this keeps up it bodes very well for Seas 2q earnings.

The downside of memberships is it might be more difficult for the park to forecast crowd levels. They can still work with hotels and such, but many members may not be staying locally and so there's no way to know how many are coming.

 

[belsaas]

For $6.25 the serving size of the Tuna Poke is a joke right?

I will say we got much more poke yesterday with our order. Enough to split between the 6 of us and all get a couple pieces of fish.

So it seems like serving size consistency may not be 100%.

 

[Nicole]

The only consistent thing I have observed over the years is the pervasive lack of consistency across the entire event.

 

[belsaas]

Despite saying 10 AM on the website, I have confirmed food booths don't open until 11.

 

[BGWnut]

I've been going to the opening weekend of Food & Wine for years now—almost certainly every year since the event started.

I have never seen a F&W opening weekend as crowded as this one. Not only was the park slammed, but people seemed highly engaged with the event as well. I don't know where all of these Food & Wine attendees came from, but I hope they keep coming back.

I'm with you on this. I also experienced a lot of people asking questions like "where do I get my free item voucher" etc.

Well we do know that SeaWorld has been making huge strategic pushes in getting people on memberships and such.

Obviously, one day doesn't set a pattern; but it seems like their strategy may be paying off. Honestly it makes sense.. with a ton of new people on membership and the alluring offer of a free item daily likely results in what we saw yesterday.

The park made a killing yesterday. If this keeps up it bodes very well for Seas 2q earnings.

The downside of memberships is it might be more difficult for the park to forecast crowd levels. They can still work with hotels and such, but many members may not be staying locally and so there's no way to know how many are coming.

I have observed the same things as well and I hope it's a good sign that their strategy is working. Also it's great to see a larger turnout for the festival at it will only increase the investment and commitment from the park for the event.

I just wanted to add in the note that when the park estimates attendance they don't look at rooms booked in hotels in the areas. As far as I know they don't have access to them. They look at things like the number of tickets presold and prior years attendance to estimate what they think attendance will be for a certain day. There are some other factors but those are the big ones.

Edit: as far as I know the amount of members in tot is not a big factor when looking at expected attendance. They might look at how many members were there the prior years not not how many memberships there are in total

 

[Mr. Mastodon Farm]

For me, the Churrasco in Brazil wins Best In Show for the food category. I almost didn't get it, because it's not that exciting on paper, but I went for it after a lady in the Mexico line raved about it to me. I'm so glad I did. The churrasco was perfectly cooked (a beautiful ruby red medium rare), tender, moist, and flavorful. Better than anything I have had at a fancy Brazilian steakhouse. I ended up going back twice more over the course of the day to get it again. There was some of the trademark FWF inconsistency: the second time I went, they told me they were out of the chimichurri sauce that goes on it. I said that was fine, and when I got my order it had chimichurri sauce on it anyway. And one of the times I had it, it was more cooked (like a medium rather than medium rare), but I think it was even better that way--more tender and it picked up more smoke flavor from the grill.

My Epic Fail award goes to the Mamon in Philippines. It's supposed to be a butter cake with cheese and raspberry sauce on top. I thought salty cheese on a sweet cake sounded interesting, and it was one of the few dishes on the whole FWF slate that I wasn't already familiar with, so I ordered one. When it came out, there was no cheese on top. I asked the staff at the kiosk, and they just shrugged and said nobody gave them cheese or told them to put it on there. Complete waste of $4.25. They should at least be telling people when they order that they're not going to get the dish as advertised.

 

[Jahrules]

I have observed the same things as well and I hope it's a good sign that their strategy is working. Also it's great to see a larger turnout for the festival at it will only increase the investment and commitment from the park for the event.

I just wanted to add in the note that when the park estimates attendance they don't look at rooms booked in hotels in the areas. As far as I know they don't have access to them. They look at things like the number of tickets presold and prior years attendance to estimate what they think attendance will be for a certain day. There are some other factors but those are the big ones.

Edit: as far as I know the amount of members in tot is not a big factor when looking at expected attendance. They might look at how many members were there the prior years not not how many memberships there are in total

I've definitely heard somewhere (I don't recall the source) that Busch gardens definitely works with area hotels. I, for one, think it makes perfect sense. A smart hotelier knows that part of guest satisfaction includes their experience at their tourist destination. Despite it being largely out of their control, a guest who has a bad experience at Busch gardens will return to the hotel grumpy and might negativity review the hotel as a side effect.

So the point is I think there's mutual interest in the hotels sharing data with Busch gardens.

 

[Nicole]

For me, the Churrasco in Brazil wins Best In Show for the food category. I almost didn't get it, because it's not that exciting on paper, but I went for it after a lady in the Mexico line raved about it to me. I'm so glad I did. The churrasco was perfectly cooked (a beautiful ruby red medium rare), tender, moist, and flavorful. Better than anything I have had at a fancy Brazilian steakhouse. I ended up going back twice more over the course of the day to get it again. There was some of the trademark FWF inconsistency: the second time I went, they told me they were out of the chimichurri sauce that goes on it. I said that was fine, and when I got my order it had chimichurri sauce on it anyway. And one of the times I had it, it was more cooked (like a medium rather than medium rare), but I think it was even better that way--more tender and it picked up more smoke flavor from the grill.

My Epic Fail award goes to the Mamon in Philippines. It's supposed to be a butter cake with cheese and raspberry sauce on top. I thought salty cheese on a sweet cake sounded interesting, and it was one of the few dishes on the whole FWF slate that I wasn't already familiar with, so I ordered one. When it came out, there was no cheese on top. I asked the staff at the kiosk, and they just shrugged and said nobody gave them cheese or told them to put it on there. Complete waste of $4.25. They should at least be telling people when they order that they're not going to get the dish as advertised.

So, you've tried everything, and can say definitively what is "Best in Show?"

 

[BGWScream]

With the increase in prices of the 10 and 15 sampler its getting to the point that if you don't drink alcohol they are not really worth it. Of the 42 dishes I counted only 9 are more than 5.50. All 9 are within $1 of the break even price of the 10 item sampler after discounts. I think they could sell a food only sampler at a cheaper price to appeal to that demographic.

I agree. I got 5 foods, 4 lemonades and 1 beer with my sampler. I saved a little bit on money.

Saturday was super crowded. I got there at 2pm and had to go to overflow parking. I haven't done that in years. I knew it was crowded then. I was able to get the free food item voucher this time. Every booth I went by had a line, the complete opposite from Friday.
I tried a few more things on Saturday.
Fried Shrimp Taco (Mexico) - Very good but seemed small for $5.
Banana Foster Cheesecake (French Quarter) - My favorite every year. Never disappoint.
Lavender Lemonade (Herbal Infusion) - It was good but nothing special.
Huli Huli Chicken (Hawaii) - Becoming another favorite. Enjoyed it and the potato salad
Hisbiscus Lemonade (Hawaii) - My favorite out of the 4 lemonades I tried. It tasted like Hawaiian Punch.

My folks had planned a Williamsburg trip for this weekend. This was a good time to come up for Food and Wine Festival.

 

[BGWnut]

I've definitely heard somewhere (I don't recall the source) that Busch gardens definitely works with area hotels. I, for one, think it makes perfect sense. A smart hotelier knows that part of guest satisfaction includes their experience at their tourist destination. Despite it being largely out of their control, a guest who has a bad experience at Busch gardens will return to the hotel grumpy and might negativity review the hotel as a side effect.

So the point is I think there's mutual interest in the hotels sharing data with Busch gardens.

I can tell you with certainty that BGW does work with the hotels on selling ticket packages. Those would be included in the presold tickets. However they have no knowledge of the people staying at those hotels unless they purchased a ticket package. Also beyond allowing certain partner hotels to sell a ticket package that includes a room and park tickets BGW doesn't provide any information to the hotels or work with the hotels beyond partnering with some to sell tickets.

Edit: but this is very off topic. If you me to clarify it further I'd be happy to just send me a message.

 

[Jahrules]

You're very right @BGWnut

To get the thread back on track, I would like to bring up the following point.

So, I went on a random weekday in the spring. Yes, spring breakers were there; yes, the park was busy; but the overflow lots didn't have to be touched on the day I went.

On Saturday the Scotland overflow filled up and people started parking in Bavaria.

I know there's a difference in operation modes from spring to peak; but on Saturday my group didn't wait for more than 30 minutes for any attraction. Many were practically walk-on. In the spring we waited 90 minutes just for verbolten. We literally rode all 8 coasters plus Finnegan's plus Pompeii and we spent time in the kids areas and also left for a couple hours for the kids to nap.

We never would have been able to do all that in the spring.

My point in all this is; operation modes notwithstanding, there were less people riding rides on Saturday vs the spring weekday. I want to be very careful to not imply causation; but there appears to be a correlation between the lack of people riding rides and the amount of people eating f&w.

 

[Jahrules]

And I get that. But I really don't think that accounts for the full time difference. Yes, the day in the spring, verbolten was running single station, but they were running three cars. Saturday they were running 4 cars with dual stations. There's no way that equals a 200% efficiency gain though. Probably not even a 100% efficiency gain as they can only have so many cars on track at any given time.

 

[Unagi]

My Epic Fail award goes to the Mamon in Philippines. It's supposed to be a butter cake with cheese and raspberry sauce on top. I thought salty cheese on a sweet cake sounded interesting, and it was one of the few dishes on the whole FWF slate that I wasn't already familiar with, so I ordered one. When it came out, there was no cheese on top. I asked the staff at the kiosk, and they just shrugged and said nobody gave them cheese or told them to put it on there

That is such a bizarre combination.

Cheese is common in many Filipino pastries but that raspberry sauce is out of the blue. Maybe the park is trying some kind of culinary fusion because raspberry isn’t used much in baking there.

As far as mamon goes it’s nothing but a basic sponge cake. I find it ok at best. Now the park should be selling “ensaymada” instead. That’s a brioche style pastry covered with butter, dusted with granulated sugar and topped with cheese. It’s way better than mamon.

 

[belsaas]

As far as mamon goes it’s nothing but a basic sponge cake. I find it ok at best. Now the park should be selling “ensaymada” instead. That’s a brioche style pastry covered with butter, dusted with granulated sugar and topped with cheese. It’s way better than mamon.

This sounds a lot better than... anything in the Philippines booth.

 

[Mr. Mastodon Farm]

So, you've tried everything, and can say definitively what is "Best in Show?"

I can definitively say what is Best in Show for me. Oscars voters don't have to watch all the movies to vote for Best Picture.

 

[WDWRLD]

I feel like best of show changes from hour to hour and even minute to minute based on what you get in your order. The only thing consistant with this festival over the years is how inconsistant it is. With that said, I think I will pick one dish and get it every visit to compare taste and presentation throughout this years event.
If anyone has suggestions on which dish would be a good canidate for this let me know. I have a couple ideas.

 

[Zachary]

If anyone has suggestions on which dish would be a good canidate for this let me know. I have a couple ideas.

I think the Lamb Burger Slider could be a good candidate for an experiment like this.

Whatever you pick, make sure you take pictures of each one! It would be facinating to see all the ways they can screw it up over the course of the event. ?

 

[belsaas]

If anyone has suggestions on which dish would be a good canidate for this let me know. I have a couple ideas.

I think the Lamb Burger Slider could be a good candidate for an experiment like this.

I agree, the lamb slider could be a good choice because of its relative complexity (and it wouldn't be bad to eat a few times ?).

Other good candidates could be jerk chicken slider in Jamaica and lettuce wrap in Japan for similar reasons.

Just don't do the fried shrimp taco. I can't live in a world where the quality of that is anything less than perfect in my memory.

 

[Jahrules]

So, I neglected to post about this yesterday; but after spending the day at wcusa we decided to stop at BGW because we figured why not use our free vouchers.. my wife stayed in the car while I took her pass, printed both our vouchers and made a mad dash around d the park collecting the items the missus requested.

While waiting in line at Brazil, there was a problem in the front. Apparently someone had ordered the cocktail but the booth had run out. The bartender was under 21 so she could serve premixed cocktail, but is legally disallowed from mixing more. The customer up front was demanding a refund but there was no manager around to approve one. The cashier literally left their station to go find a supervisor. The register was left completely unattended and unlocked. Pretty sure this violates numerous operating procedures.
After a while the cashier came back with a super in tow. Somewhere in the middle of this, someone had mixed a new batch of cocktail. Meanwhile, the guy infront of me was only buying a soda (who buys a soda at a F&W booth?) He asks the guy in front if he can go first. Guy in front looks at him like he's crazy. The cashier is still working with the cocktail issue at this point so the guy ducked the rope and walked off with the soda.

The rest of the booths were operating mostly smoothly; but it was around 330 pm at this point, so not a typical food crush time.

At Ireland, my cashier appeared to be a super as he was directing people around etc... So I made a comment about the popularity of F&W this year. He tapped on the computer and said "yeah, this baby is ready for a break..."