Disney's Festival of the Arts at Epcot

 The Festival of the Arts at Epcot is one of the shortest festivals at Disney. It runs from January 13 to February 20. In the past, we've always visited in January for Marathon weekend ( which is before January 13) and then again for Princess Half Marathon weekend ( which is after February 20).  Fortunately, we were finally able to make one of our visits work during this time frame.  This was our first visit to Festival of the Arts and I know why people love it so much. It just might be my favorite festival.  

Come along with us as we share how we spent our time at Disney's Festival of the Arts.

We entered through the International Gateway and the first thing we did was grab a Festival Passport. You can get these in the same area as the park maps. We found ours in front of the World Traveler store.  

Immediately after grabbing our festival passport we were greeted by Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck so of course we had to take a photo so we could check "character interaction" off our list!

Next, we started on the " Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine".  For every festival, there is a list of featured food items.  For each item you purchase, you will get a stamp in your passport book. For this festival there were 7 featured items and you had to buy at least 5 of them to get all the stamps.  After filling up the passport with the stamps, you got a complimentary treat at one of the booths.   

Here is what we got! ( Some of the items we purchase did not qualify for the stamp towards the "Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine" but we wanted to try them anyway!)  Disclaimer : We did not eat all this food at once. It was spread out over two visits to Epcot.

The Food

At Gourmet Landscapes in Canada

Blood Orange- Braised Beet Tartar with mustard vinaigrette, pickled clamshell mushrooms, and golden beets. 

Wild Mushroom Risotto with aged parmesan, truffle shavings, and zinfandel reduction.

 The Deconstructed Dish near Port of Entry

Deconstructed Key Lime Pie: Flexible Key Lime curd, "Key Lime" mousse, graham cracker cake, and meringues.

Deconstructed French Onion Soup: Beef broth ravioli, gruyere cream, onion bread pudding, and onion textures.

Deconstructed Apple Pie A La Mode ( Beverage):  Apple cinnamon  gelato, cinnamon apple cider, apple pie filling, and streusel.

Pop Eats: Near Port of Entry

Tomato Soup with pimento cheese, bacon, and fried green tomato grilled cheese! We will claim this dish as "Best of the Fest".  This grilled cheese was amazing! 

Tangerine Cafe : Flavors of the Medina in Morocco

Chai Tea Mint Sparkler: Twinings Chai tea with Sprite. This wasn't anything I would suggest getting. It was nothing more than tea and Sprite and it didn't even taste good together. 

The Artist's Table: in the American Adventure

 

Sipping Chocolate Flight: White, Milk, and Dark chocolates.

We've heard such great reviews of these "sipping" chocolates but my sister and I both thought they were way too thick and way too sweet. They were more like "dipping" chocolates and thought they needed to come with some type of food to dip in it. 

We took only a few sips and knew this wasn't something we wanted to try to finish. In the trash it went. 

Moderne : Near Test Track

Angry Crab: Whole crispy soft shell crab with green papaya salad, Mango-Sriracha fluid gel, coconut-lime foam with pomegranate and mango crush pearls. Was better than expected for soft shell crab.

Pan Seared Scallops with vanilla butternut squash puree, brown butter cauliflower puree and lime foam.  The scallops were good but  the crushed mangos were hard and added nothing to the taste and the puree was just not enough.

We earned a complimentary treat and were pleasantly surprised when we saw we got two treats!

This cookie was not only visually pleasing but it also tasted really good which is not always the case with Disney cookies! 

The smoothie was a berry smoothie and it came in a souvenir cup. It looks like a small portion but it was very filling!

Be a part of the Art.

There are plenty of ways to immerse yourself in the art here at the festival.  A few of our favorites were:

The Expression Section: 

This is a paint by number mural. This is located on the bridge to World Showcase. A cast member will provide you with a brush and small container of paint. This is only available to guests from  11:00 am - 5:00 pm.

Check out the Chalk Art Galleries. 

 The interactive pieces were not there during our visit but we enjoyed looking at the "flat" pieces.

Kids Chalk Art: 

Okay, you don't necessarily have to be a kid to draw here.  However, I think my version of cartoon Sybie looks like a kid drew it! I'll have to practice so I can draw something better next time! This is only open from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm

Artful Photo Ops: Here you can "step inside" the art work.  

These are located on the bridge to world showcase and around world showcase.

Other activities that we didn't participate in included The Animation Academy, Chalk full of Character scavenger hunt, and the Figment's brush with the masters scavenger hunt.

Entertainment

There is a variety of entertainment throughout Epcot, but during the festival the Disney on Broadway concert series is the main show. Performances will take place each evening at the America Gardens Theatre  at 5:30pm, 6:45pm and 8:00pm.

On the night of our visit the performers were  Patti Murin (played Anna in Frozen) and Robert Creighton ( The Little Mermaid) 

We watched the 8:00pm showing and were pleasantly surprised to find that we could also see Magic Kingdom Fireworks from where we were sitting! 

We didn't do a lot of rides during this visit but we did wait the 45 minutes to ride Soarin (even though later in the day the wait time was a lot less). Spaceship Earth was a walk on, as well as Journey into Imagination.  We passed on Living with the Land because after seeing it all lit up during Festival of the holidays, every other ride would just be boring..lol

We took advantage of our Disney Visa perks and got the private meet and greet with Minnie in her 50th attire. 

We visited the  meet and greet several times during the 50th celebration and had never seen Minnie, so we were excited to see her all dressed up.  In the past there had always been 2 characters at the meet and greet. This time Minnie was by herself.  That's okay though, we were happy to give her all the attention!

Not part of the festival, but later that night we had dinner at the Yorkshire County Fish Shop in the UK. We had eaten here before and remembered it being good and quick.

With all the other offerings at Epcot, this probably wasn't the best choice, but it was close to the entrance ( at the International Gatewway) and we wanted to get something quick before we became "hangry". 

 We got a table right on the patio. It would have been a great place to stay and watch the fireworks if we planned to stay, but we did not.  We had already seen the show from our Epcot Fireworks cruise, so we used that time to finish up at Epcot and then head back to the Beach Club to enjoy the resort!

And that was our time at Disney's Festival of the Arts at Epcot. 

See you next time - M & L