MouseStation 413 – Dining at Epcot with Karen Haynes
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Show run time 0:40:19
On today’s show, Food & Beverage Marketing Manager Karen Haynes talks with Mark about dining at Epcot, we share some listener feedback, and close with a wonderful Magical Moment.
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Feature: Dining at Epcot with Karen Haynes
Karen Haynes, Food & Beverage Marketing Manager for Walt Disney World, recently talked with Mark about food at Epcot, plus a wonderful Magical Moment and listener feedback.
With the addition of Via Napoli and La Hacienda de San Angel, and the expansion of La Cantina de San Angel, approximately 600 seats were added to dining capacity at Epcot. Via Napoli seats 200, while the Hacienda/Cantina combination seats 250 indoors and 150 outdoors. The changes that are being made are in response to what guests are telling Disney that they want.
Guests are doing more and more to incorporate dining into their vacation plans. Guests looking for more signature dining experiences in the park caused the conversion of Le Cellier to 2 table service dining credits.
Chefs have a great deal of flexibility in creating menus at their restaurants. That, combined with chef changes and the changes in availability of ingredients, have resulted in menu changes, and menu choices have decreased to allow more flexibility in the menus. With the advent of Food Network and other avenues, guests have become more aware of a variety of ingredients and this has led to more complexity of dishes, rather than simplified dishes as some have complained.
Those dining at resorts and those dining at the parks have different goals. They have different expectations in how long they’ll spend to dine and how they’ll dress for dinner.
Flex seating is not currently planned for any other dining locations beyond La Cantina/La Hacienda and the upcoming Be Our Guest Restaurant, but it is certainly a possibility if guests appear to want it.
Karen recommends thinking of dining as a part of the vacation experience and making those dining reservations as early as possible. She also recommends thinking a little differently about where to dine and maybe look for something different. Karen also makes some recommendations about dining choices that you may not have considered.
Mark talks a bit about his dining experiences on his most recent trip, as well as some of the people that he got to spend time with (yes, he finally got a chance to meet Dan the Light Man and Nancy the Light Girl!).
Our thanks to Karen Haynes for taking the time to sit with Mark (and for buying lunch!), and to Laura Spencer for setting the interview up.
Listener Feedback
Mike Morizio wrote in to wish us well on our sabbatical and hoped that we would return. (We did!)
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