Holidays Around the World began today at Epcot, offering a number of marketplaces selling food and drink, very similar to the 37 other festivals that occupy Epcot throughout the year. OK, there isn’t 37 festivals, but the announcement of a new festival, the extension of the Food and Wine Festival in 2017, and these additions are starting to leave very little of the year without such offerings in the park.

We stopped by the American Holiday Table booth at the American Adventure first, and while we will review more of the booths from the event, the sheer size of the food is making it really hard to try quite as much at one time as we do for the Food & Wine and Flower & Garden Festivals.

Shipyard Eggnog White Porter Aged on Bourbon ($8.75)

I enjoyed this strange seasonal beverage, but 16oz of a beer with eggnog flavoring is too much. 8oz of eggnog flavoring would have been quite enough, but especially with the flavor settling at the bottom, this became very hard to finish (but rest assured, I did finish it). If you enjoy beer and eggnog, this is at least worth a try, but maybe find someone to share it with.

Firenog ($9.50)

The firenog was good, albeit a little small for $9.50. We would have liked a little more fireball whiskey in here, but maybe it just depends who pours you the drink.

Slow-Roasted Turkey ($11.25)

If you think the meals are a little expensive at Holidays Around the World, let me refer you to the size of the plates… they are full size meals. They are not small plates like at the other Epcot Festivals, they are in-fact larger than many counter service meals around Walt Disney World. I’m not sure why this decision was made, but be prepared should you order one of these meals that you will probably not be eating again for a while.

This was really, really good. The turkey was cooked very nicely, the stuffing patties above and below the turkey were quite tasty, and the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce blended perfectly with it. The unadvertised stringbeans were a nice touch too, marking the only time I think I have ever enjoyed this side. Rather than blow an ungodly amount on similar food at the Liberty Tree Tavern at the Magic Kingdom, you should just come here and spend $11.25 on this more-than-filling meal.

Holiday Cookie

The gingerbread cookies are apparently decorated in-house. Yes, it is all messed up and poorly decorated and no, we didn’t do that, that is how it came. Unless the kids really want one, you can probably do without this treat.

More Holiday Fun to Come

We will be visiting more of these booths over the next few days, but please allow us a little time to digest…

Tom Corless