2017 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Review: Part 3

Thanks for joining me for Part Three of my 2017 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Review! You can catch up on Part One here and Part Two here where I talk about my food and drink highlights from last year's festival. In this post I want to talk about the Tasting Sampler!

The Tasting Sampler was something I found out about pretty last minute while reading a couple of Disney bloggers' reviews of the festival last year. I've been to Food and Wine three times but it wasn't until reading those reviews that I discovered the Tasting Sampler. It was a little tricky for me to find all the information that I needed, so I've decided to share my knowledge in this review to make it easier for others looking into this option.

It appears the Tasting Sampler changes slightly from year to year, so this is how it worked in 2017 and that could change for this year's festival. Still, the general concept will stay the same so hopefully this information will be helpful to you.

The Tasting Sampler is a card with 8 tokens that can be redeemed for one food or drink item at any of the Food & Wine Festival booths. Of course there are some restrictions, and that's what I was most interested in before purchasing this in order to calculate if this was worth it. All of the terms and conditions are on the back of the card, but then of course you don't know any of that until you're at the festival trying to purchase it.

(Photo Credit: WDWNT)

In short, the only thing you can't use these tokens on are: flights, name brand champagne, and wine and cheese plates. It does say that pours over 6 ounces are excluded, but I didn't find any beers or glasses of wine that size at the booths. They were all 4 oz or 6 oz so that meant they were included.

In 2017, the Tasting Sampler also included an exclusive and super cute Remy pin that I adore! That seemed to be a special thing for 2017, the Tasting Sampler doesn't usually include a pin. So what about the price? The price is what seemed to vary the most from year to year. In 2017, the price of the Tasting Sampler was $65 plus tax, which brought the grand total to $69.23, making each tab cost $8.65.

I am very Type A and had a spreadsheet of my must-haves from the festival ahead of time. Looking at the prices, I knew I could save some money by purchasing the Tasting Sampler, so that's what I did. I used my tokens on the following items:

1. Crispy Calamari (Italy) - $8.00
2. New England Lobster Roll (Hops & Barley) - $8.00
3. Chilled Coffee with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur (Belgium) - $10.00
4. La Passion Martini Slush (France) - $10.75
5. Citrus Thistle (Scotland) - $10.00
6. Mai Tai (Hawaii) - $9.00
7. Mimosa Royale (Morocco) - $8.00
8. Citrus Thistle (Scotland) - $10.00

(Yes I did get the Citrus Thistle twice, it was incredible!)

Remy pin

I think it's much easier to get your money's worth by using the tokens for drinks instead of food, but it really depends of course on the value of the items. If you're interested in the $4 beers and the $8 food items, you're better off using the sampler on food. As you can see from my list, I used my tokens on both food and drinks.

I do not regret buying the Tasting Sampler because it definitely saved me a little money, but here's where I got caught out. I thought that tax would be added on top of the price of the items at the booths, but they weren't. If a drink was $10.00, you paid $10.00, whereas when I purchased the Tasting Sampler, I paid tax on top of the $65 price. So I thought I would be saving almost $10.00 overall by getting the Tasting Sampler and redeeming the tokens, however, in reality I only saved $4.52.

Like I said, I don't regret buying the Sampler because I didn't lose out. $4.52 isn't a huge saving, but did that did mean I pretty much got another F&W item for free, and I got an adorable Remy pin souvenir. Would I do it again? Maybe, maybe not. It's not a must-do because it doesn't save me enough money, and you have to be super careful about what you're redeeming the tokens on if you're going to get your money back or better yet, save money. They were so convenient to use that hubby was tempted to turn them over for everything he bought which would have been a disaster!

Maybe in the future the Tasting Sampler will work out to be even more cost effective and I will jump at the chance to buy one again. I hope you've enjoyed my 2017 Food and Wine Festival Review and thanks for reading!