It's back! The Food & Wine festival that hasn't been at Disney California Adventure Park since 2010 has returns after DCA's long refurb has (just about) finished! Take a look through our photo gallery at some highlights of the festival and as a bonus, check out the bite-sized podcast episode below!

One of the opportunities the park has to work on is supplying the demand. While the event has been absent for 6 years, public (and AP) interest seems to be at an all-time high with the Sunday crowds we saw. By 1pm, it could just as easily been called the "What's-left-of-the-Food-&-Wine Festival" because so many people were being turned away from lines up to 30 minutes long because an item had sold out (or was still being prepped in the off-site kitchens.)

Still, the cast members were all very pleasant and doing the best they could to handle the crowds. We noticed MANY plain-clothed cast members (likely the higher-ups) surveying the crowd both figuratively and literally for the duration of the day.

Some tips for folks looking to spend a weekend at Food & Wine:

Saturdays are the Celebrity Kitchen/ Culinary demos which have very limited tickets (Guy Fieri's has sold out completely) but you can try to get tickets beforehand for $99 at Disney's Food & Wine site
Sundays are the beverage seminars where for $15, you can see one of many of the wineries, distilleries, or breweries presenting some hand-picked libations for you to enjoy over the course of a 45-minute workshop. Tickets are also VERY limited for these seminars so be sure to check out Disney's Food & Wine site for the latest details
APs have a lounge with phone chargers (BYO cables, though!) that has the "Seasons of the Vine" video playing inside! This was the original attraction at the Blue Sky Cellar before it became the preview center for new park offerings! Be sure to pick up your recipe card and exclusive Food & Wine pin (a new one each weekend)!

APs also have a $45 Tasting Passport which is a lanyard with 6 tabs that can be turned in for food items. We couldn't see the value in this, however, because you still need to stand in the same line as other park guests and with most items being between $3-$5, that falls well below the $7.50 price tag per item for it to pay for itself. It's good if you want a cool souvenir lanyard, though! (also it doesn't work for alcohol)

There are two lifestyle stages with presenters giving free first-come-first-served demonstrations.
Free samples are offered for dressings and olive oils among other things in the Festival Marketplace.

We cannot wait to return next week, try some more of their drink offerings, and report back to you!

With regard to the mini show, we've wanted to do things like this for a while and this is the first attempt at it -- pardon the audio quality.

Enjoy as Robert, Inthia, and David recap (some of) their recent trip to Disney California Adventure's Food and Wine Festival this past weekend. We discuss the food, the AP exclusives, and more food!

Enjoy this truncated edition of Remain Seated Please!

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