It’s time again for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, the annual Walt Disney World showcase of smallish plates and sips.

The format remains much the same this year, with marketplaces surrounding the lagoon and up into the area formerly known as Future World. There are scavenger hunts, cheese-based challenges and the nightly Eat to the Beat concert series.

We made a loop and at least looked at everything. Some items will be more suited for cooler weather, so mental notes were made. But here are some first impressions from the 2024 event.

New view

A brand-new space that opened at Epcot this year is CommuniCore Hall, a flexible-use building. During festivals, it will serve food inside and from a counter outside. The interior of Food & Wine features the new Macatizers marketplace with four varieties of mac and cheese. (There are nine adult beverages for sale here, too, but we’re not seeing macaroni there.)

Nearly half the inside of the hall is devoted to merchandise, including a cap with a logo representing Spaceship Earth. Are those slabs of cheese as legs? (I also overheard a woman talking smack about Figment on the merch: “This isn’t his festival!”)

Also, the air conditioning is strong in the hall, and there are several tables.

CommuniCore features Festival Favorites year-round at the outside counter. Right now, there are kielbasa and potato pierogies alongside key lime tart, together at last.

Quite a pickle

AC was also strong at Odyssey, home of the Brew-Wing Lab, and at midafternoon on opening day, there were very few unoccupied seats and tables.

It could be the Muppet theming or the return of the pickle milkshake, which my sidekick claimed had a “more forward pickle taste” than last year’s more subtle variety. To each their own.

Use the downtime to memorize this Brew-Wing Lab menu item: Unnecessarily Spicy Yet Extremely Tasty Carolina Reaper Pepper Curry Wings (with Creamy Cucumber Raita). Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious.

Fresh samples

We focused on new items during a circle of the marketplaces. Among the winners: the flauta de barbacoa ($8) sold at Mexico and the chocolate Amarula mousse ($6.25), which was surprisingly sizable, from Refreshment Outpost (between the park’s China and Germany pavilions). We’d split the latter but save the former for ourselves in the future.

The jury remains out on the Italian style “nachos” ($9.25 and from Italy pavilion, naturally), which had characteristics of ravioli, but so fried that it was almost crackers over the beefy dipping area with dried ricotta cheese. It’s very shareable, a key F&W trait.

Table talk

We have no statistical evidence, but again, it feels like more tables are set up for diners. For years, that was a dream, though we still spotted folks eating atop trash cans. It’s practically a tradition they’ll turn into a T-shirt at this point.

Now, there’s a variety of seating attached to the park area at World Celebration Gardens, where you also might hear music from the CommuniCore Hall stage, and you don’t feel like you’re impeding the flow of foot traffic. That’s all good.

However, some of the extra tables around World Showcase and elsewhere stood empty in the harsh sun as folks improvised in shady spots. Yes, we’re back to the heat like Florida first-timers, but that brings us to two revelations: (1) Maybe this event is a better nighttime idea right now, and (2) We’re happy Epcot broke away from the festival’s July start date of recent years.

Franks discussion

We’re not against a one-food-themed marketplace. Hooray for the success of Fry Basket and the introduction of Macatizers this year.

And a menu of hotdogs is accessible and perhaps even patriotic. But to take over the American food offerings for the fest entirely and call it Flavors of America? Some will cry baloney.

Sure, the old Hops & Barley name didn’t trickle off the tongue, and no one likes a weiner whiner, but this station was once known for serving lobster rolls.

The festival runs daily through Nov. 23. The fest, including concerts, is included with Epcot admission, although visitors pay for food and wine.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Threads account: @dbevil. X account:

@themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.