Walt Disney World’s flagship pageant is now underway with the beginning of the 2024 EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition. Not solely is that this the yr’s largest occasion, nevertheless it’s the primary since 2019 with a wall-less EPCOT due to the completion of the overhaul. Given all of that and the completion of CommuniCore Corridor and World Celebration, expectations had been excessive for the 2024 foodie fest.
Earlier than we get going, it’s value noting that this can be a evaluation of the 2024 EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition as an entire. It looks like the World Marketplaces suck up the entire oxygen in terms of protection of this occasion. We consider this can be a mistake. We’ll even be updating our meals sales space evaluations and posting new ones over the course of the approaching days, however the World Marketplaces will not be the totality of the occasion. Or a minimum of, they shouldn’t be.
Each single EPCOT pageant of the yr has meals cubicles. All the different ones additionally provide one thing else. Protection of these different occasions additionally focuses on the opposite highlights, and for good motive–it may be loads of enjoyable and compelling! Loads of Walt Disney World followers and out-of-state Annual Passholders e-book journeys throughout these festivals simply to expertise what they’ve to supply.
Anyway, in case you’re solely involved with the World Marketplaces and don’t care about what else these occasions usually provide, this evaluation isn’t for you. You must as a substitute look forward to the person meals sales space evaluations and better of record. Spoiler alert: the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition is definitely fairly good whenever you’re singularly targeted on the snacks and drinks!
The truth is, the lineup of meals cubicles and menus on the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition addresses one in every of our largest points with the occasion in the previous couple of years–that it was skewing too far within the course of crowd-pleasing, consolation delicacies. I’m a agency believer that you could meet friends the place they’re, however on the similar time, this can be a meals pageant. The brand new additions from the previous couple of years would’ve been the equal of Cannes Movie Competition solely screening motion pictures from the Boss Child franchise.
The World Marketplaces on the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition thread the needle significantly better. Sure, there are nonetheless the essential cubicles with boring menus, however there are additionally attention-grabbing and impressive ones. (Sadly, given the lengthy strains on the former, it’s comprehensible why Disney goes this route–giving the individuals what they need.) In any case, it’s not the delicacies on the occasion that’s the problem. It’s every thing else.
For the 2024 EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition, the iconography, in-park picture ops, decorations, and logos are all just about unchanged from final yr…which had been unchanged from the yr earlier than…and yr earlier than…and so forth. The truth is, this very same visible model has been used yearly for the reason that 2020 Style of EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition. Therefore these being re-microwaved leftovers as a substitute of microwaved leftovers. (Technically, they’re re-re-remicrowaved leftovers!)
Shows, logos, graphics, and many others., all used to vary each single yr of the EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition. The recent look was one thing we all the time appreciated, particularly as a distinction to Food plan EPCOT. 5 years of principally equivalent stuff for Walt Disney World’s longest seasonal occasion feels extremely drained at this level.
They didn’t precisely nail these visuals so nicely in 2020 within the first place. It’s not as if the staff can’t prime what was accomplished again then and is selecting to not mess with perfection. The graphics are superb, however nothing particular. Worse but, there aren’t a lot of them on show all through the park.
The 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition was presupposed to be the park’s popping out get together. For the primary time since 2019, the middle of EPCOT is lastly with out development partitions (nicely, minus those round Check Monitor, however these are completely different). World Celebration has changed the Big EPCOT Grime Pit, CommuniCore Corridor & Plaza are open, and the overhaul is “completed.”
A part of the promise, a minimum of so I assumed, concerning the reimagined central backbone of the park is that it might change into a canvas for seasonal occasions. Our World Celebration & CommuniCore at EPCOT Evaluation: Higher Than a Grime Pit & Partitions, I Guess? lamented simply how boring the World Celebration Gardens and CommuniCore Corridor regarded.
One little bit of solace to that was that bland planters and clean areas might simply be remodeled for festivals. We simply had but to see that as a result of the overhaul wrapped up through the summer time, which was “Food plan EPCOT” season this yr. This made a point of sense, and positively defined all of the uninteresting and drab areas all through World Celebration.
Sadly, now the flagship 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition is right here and the park doesn’t look all that a lot completely different than it did throughout Food plan EPCOT this summer time. I’m really pretty assured that it had extra decor again through the 2020 Style of EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition.
There’s no show behind Spaceship Earth, nothing in that bizarre planter (above is the way it appears proper now), no Chef Figment topiary (or any topiary, for that matter), and there are not any installations in anyway previous the planter proper on the entrance entrance. And that one is precisely the identical because it’s been for the previous couple of years. I might actually share a photograph from final yr and also you wouldn’t know the distinction.
I’m not anticipating Flower & Backyard Competition 2.0 right here, nevertheless it’s wild to me that nothing has been accomplished with any of those planters. Most of them are simply easy inexperienced areas, and whereas they’re higher than concrete and Nineties datedness, they’re nonetheless bland and begging for extra ornamentation and installations. As a substitute, you possibly can stroll from Spaceship Earth to the entrance of World Showcase with out understanding {that a} pageant is even occurring.
Then there’s CommuniCore Corridor. Oof.
Some followers implored the skeptics to “wait and see” how this flex area would look as soon as a pageant rolled round. From our perspective, this was all the time ludicrous. The inside appears like a hospital cafeteria or conference middle flex area or airport terminal, and no quantity of dressing it up adjustments the underwhelming inside design.
However perhaps these followers had been on to one thing and CommuniCore could be put to such nice use that we’d overlook that? In any case, the idea artwork (above) regarded very completely different and rather more formidable than the completed product that opened in June.
In some way and in opposition to all odds, CommuniCore Corridor is worse through the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition than it was throughout Food plan EPCOT.
As anticipated, CommuniCore Corridor is dwelling to the Macatizers sales space, together with a large overflow queue and seating for this market. That’s superb, I suppose. Not supreme, however no matter.
The issue is that the opposite half of CommuniCore has been taken over as a brief merchandise location, promoting EPCOT Meals and Wine Competition objects. This very a lot appears short-term, on par with the makeshift merchandise facilities for runDisney occasions. Nothing right here is purpose-built for the situation. It appears like racks you’d see at Walmart or Kmart or wherever.
By itself, that’s a foul look. It’s downright pathetic as in comparison with idea artwork exhibiting installations and reveals for festivals. Then once more, I feel most affordable followers had way back given up on such lofty ambitions for this flex area.
What provides insult to harm is the abject greed in pondering there was adequate area in right here for (yet one more!) merchandise spot. This area could possibly be all seating for Macatizers, and it nonetheless wouldn’t be sufficient. The tables listed below are all the time full, and that might be true even when there have been twice as many.
What’s actually wonderful to me is that CommuniCore Corridor is objectively worse than any pageant area used at EPCOT within the final decade. That’s proper, the brand new purpose-built pageant venue that took 5 years and untold tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to convey to life, is inferior to previous makeshift areas even from a pageant perspective.
All the issues it promised have been squandered. There’s the “state-of-the-art present kitchen” that Disney teased “might even entice a number of particular culinary friends.” It’s now getting used to place the ending touches on mac & cheese. There’s the “dynamic area to anchor” EPCOT Festivals and occasion area “restricted solely by the boundaries of creativeness.”
CommuniCore Corridor is as a substitute now getting used for merchandise racks, as yet one more approach to juice memento gross sales and attempt to beat final yr’s numbers. If that is what boundless creativeness appears like, I’m completely superb with the present administration leaving Journey Into Creativeness alone for now.
From a visitor perspective, CommuniCore Corridor shouldn’t be superior to the retrofits accomplished with the Odyssey or Wonders and even the World ShowPlace Pavilion. If something, I desire all of these present venues. The Odyssey has extra home windows and good views. The Wonders pavilion is way bigger and has a bunch of quirky area that, up to now, was used for enjoyable and random functions.
World ShowPlace is totally huge, and when utilized in 2020, it had much more to supply–a number of cubicles, tons of seating, areas to decompress, and indoor leisure. Walt Disney World bought inventive and put all three to make use of brilliantly for occasions.
CommuniCore isn’t inventive on any degree–the one wonderful factor about it’s {that a} venue created particularly for festivals is worse at internet hosting them than those above. By no means thoughts the truth that it’s not likely even functioning as a pageant middle, however slightly, a glorified meals & merchandise sales space.
When it comes to different stuff, none of it has returned for the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition. This consists of culinary seminars, demonstrations, meals with movie star cooks, and different particular occasions. These have been on hiatus since 2019–the final regular yr of the occasion–and we had hoped that they’d return now that CommuniCore Corridor is open.
It’s unhappy to see that none of that is again. As defined in EPCOT’s Meals & Wine Competition Is Stale. Right here’s What We Need Disney to Change, the occasion actually wants a shot within the arm. That is presupposed to be EPCOT’s flagship pageant, however has change into the weakest occasion of the yr with the least substance.
As a substitute, the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition is mainly simply the World Marketplaces, Eat to the Beat live shows, a scavenger hunt, and merchandise. Once more, although, all of that is current at different occasions. There’s nothing to differentiate this from any of the opposite EPCOT festivals. All the relaxation have “one thing else” that makes them distinct attracts.
Nonetheless, I’m guessing a lot of you’ll not care. That’s completely superb! We all know loads of Walt Disney World followers who love EPCOT’s Meals & Wine Competition. It’s their favourite occasion of the yr as a result of they get pleasure from revisiting acquainted favorites and have a sure sentimentality concerning the longest-running pageant.
Accordingly, chances are you’ll wish to take my perspective on the 2024 EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition with a grain of salt in case you’re an enormous fan of this occasion. Particularly in case you solely care concerning the delicacies and are fairly happy with this yr’s menus. (And once more, we’re! That is in all probability the perfect yr for meals since a minimum of 2021. My largest grievance on that entrance is that a number of of the menus are smaller.)
Meals & Wine has been my least favourite of the EPCOT festivals for some time, which is generally as a result of every thing except for the meals & drinks. For years, I’ve felt this occasion has been substantively missing and much too reliant on individuals spending cash on meals and alcohol, slowly eliminating the “edutainment” elements of the pageant that make it enjoyable and spherical out the occasion.
Nonetheless, it boggles my thoughts that Walt Disney World fully phoned in every thing besides the World Marketplaces on the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition. Once more, in case you merely don’t care, that’s superb. For a lot of followers, EPCOT’s Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition is all concerning the…meals & wine.
The factor is, simply as I can acknowledge that not each fan has the identical issues or priorities as me, those that don’t care ought to have the ability to admire the identical. Again after we had been out-of-state Annual Passholders residing within the Midwest, we could possibly be enticed to e-book lengthy weekend journeys for particular occasions like this.
We did that commonly for EPCOT festivals, Star Wars Weekends, and different themed occasions. I can say with full certainty that, however for this weblog, I might not be drawn to the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition. It could be safely skippable. Whereas I received’t fake that everybody is like us, I do know there are a not-insignificant variety of out-of-state followers who do assume equally.
By Disney’s personal admission, the parks are seeing a slowdown and the corporate’s ahead steering suggests decrease attendance and resort bookings into 2025. And that is after final summer time and fall had been already slower than the prior-year. On condition that, I’d assume that Walt Disney World would possibly wish to put the nominal quantity of effort into making the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition an even bigger draw.
It’s not like new banners, a Chef Figment topiary, huge shows, and different visuals would break the financial institution. It’s actually baffling how an organization that routinely wastes huge quantities of cash may also be so low-cost and penny-pinching, even in downright counterproductive methods! If Walt Disney World someway doesn’t have the money to spend on decorations, perhaps they may accomplice with a type of sponsors they’re all the time touting and produce again interactive experiences (RIP Cranberry Bathroom) and different attention-grabbing elements of the occasion.
To finish on a optimistic notice, I’ll say that it’s good having the entrance of the park free from development partitions. Though a bunch of the lighting results within the World Celebration Gardens are busted, it’s pleasurable to spend time on the entrance of the park within the night. The dwell music in CommuniCore Plaza provides an ideal power. The sunshine exhibits on Spaceship Earth are wonderful, as all the time. As I’ve mentioned earlier than, the completed product is nicer than a mud pit.
Total, what’s nonetheless lacking from the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition firmly cements this as our least favourite occasion of the yr at EPCOT, and by a reasonably huge margin. Regardless of that, Meals & Wine nonetheless generates much more protection than any of the opposite occasions at EPCOT and appears to have extra diehard followers. I’m nonetheless not completely certain why that’s, however Walt Disney World hype constructed over time normally takes years to undo (for instance, Le Cellier remained well-liked for a number of years after the Disney Eating Plan eroded its worth).
My honest hope is that somebody at Walt Disney World acknowledges this earlier than it’s too late, and stops attempting to exploit Meals & Wine to the purpose that it turns into passe and unpopular. This pageant could possibly be a lot extra, and has been up to now. With EPCOT’s overhaul now completed, there’s completely no excuse for the occasion to proceed being a shadow of its former self.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for the 2024 EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition? Dissatisfied that the look of the occasion is just about equivalent to the previous two years? What do you consider the lineup of World Marketplaces? Upset that there’s nothing by way of “edutainment” or something particular to separate this from any of the opposite EPCOT occasions? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
