Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival is back so meet up with your favorite foodie friends and take a tour around the park savoring the flavors of California. This was my first time participating in one of the food festivals at Disney, it had it's parts that I loved and one part that I didn't love so much.
The Good
Having attended the food events at other theme parks I figured the Disney one would be the same, you look through the event map, map out where the food items you want are, make your way toward them, stand in a line, place your order, wait for your food.
Well Disney's system is like this too, but what they do differently is that you can place your entire order at one stand whether they carry that item or not and then with your receipt just pick up the food at the designated location. I loved that! It really cut down on line waiting time and let me enjoy both my food and time at the park more.
The bad
As a newbie to Disney Food Events I didn't realize that unlike the other theme park food fests, you can not use those tabs for alcoholic beverages. Normally I wouldn't mind because the cocktails are not that great at theme parks and I'm really all about those savory dishes, but California Adventure has an impressive list of cocktails on the event menu that I was actually really looking forward to trying. Why put them on the menu if they are not an eligible tasting item? Plus the event is called Food and Wine Festival so you would expect it to include at least a glass of wine or a mini flight, right? If cocktails are on your try list know that you will have to pay for those and you'll have to shell out about $15+ a pop. I had other things I wanted to try instead so I stuck to the qualifying tastings.
So here's how it works
The pass is $57 ($52 for Magic Key holders)
When you arrive you're given your Sip and Savor lanyard. It comes with 8 tabs which you snap off every time you order a food or non-alcoholic beverage tastings.
(You must snap off the tab in front of the cashier)
Behind the passes is the sip & savor menu and where it's available to make things easier.
If that's not enough info for you, there's also a festival guide, a guide map, and the tasting passport. The Festival Guide includes seminar and demonstration schedules and If you choose to add a little fun to the event you can collect stamps of the meals you had for your passport.
My tip for the event:
As you can see in the receipt below, the value of each tasting is not the same.
If you plan on trying more than the 8 tastings included with your sip and savor pass pass. I would recommend choosing the most expensive ones to cash in the tabs and pay for the cheaper tastings out of pocket.
the pass is $57 that comes out to $7.13 a tasting
use the tabs for items valued at more than $7.13 to really get the best bang for your buck, most likely the dessert options will be the cheaper ones definitely under $7.00
Here they are The eats I tried and where they are located in the park.
Chile Relleno Empanada located at Peppers Cali Ente ($8.50 Value)
IPA Dog located at California Craft Brews
Ranch Wings from Cluck A Doodle Moo (Value 8.50)
Black and Tan Beef Potato Puffs - Located at D Lish
Mushroom Bao - Located at Lucky Fortune Cookery
Snickers caramel peanut milk chocolate Mickey Macaron - located at Nuts About Cheese Cart ($6.50) Value
Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch - located at Uncork California
Peanut Butter & Jelly Mac - located at Nuts About Cheese
Grilled Top Sirloin with roasted garlic gruyere smashed potatoes and Chimichurri - located at Garlic Kissed. (value one of the higher price points)
The California Adventure Food & Wine Festival is going on March 4 - April 26, 2022. A reservation is required and ticket price is in addition to park admission cost.
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