Disney Quietly Makes Festival Food More Expensive
While prepping for the first day of Flower and Garden tomorrow, I noticed some small print on the menu boards I snapped this morning in EPCOT.
All of the Flower and Garden menu boards now say “Cashless Location” and “Sales Tax Not Included” as well as suggestions on how to pay.
Two things. This was new for Festival of the Arts and I missed it. Second, I wrote a post about returning dishes for Festival of the Arts here where I did not calculate the tax because this has never been a thing and I didn’t think to look for fine print. This is only the second festival in our records where Disney isn’t posting the prices with tax included. That means every single dish is going to cost more.
Additionally, this is only the second EPCOT Festival where you cannot pay for your food and drinks with cash. Disney does offer gift cards in many locations but there is a minimum load. More on that in a minute.
The Trio of Dips and Chips was $6.50 in 2025 and will now cost $6.91 after tax.
Avocado Toast from Brunchcot was $6.25 last year and is now going to be $6.91. As much as I love this dish – read the linked article, I basically wrote a sonnet dedicated to the beauty of this toast – there is no way in Mickey’s universe that I’m going to say this is worth nearly $7.00. Not unless they give me a butterfly in a terrarium to take home when I get this tomorrow.
The Honey Bee-stro Chicken and Waffles was $7.00 last year and will now be $7.45.
The Seafood Bake from Beach Grub was $8.50 last year and is now $9.04 after tax. You get the idea here. Posting the prices without tax was a good way for Disney to slide in price increases without a ruckus. I apologize for not causing said ruckus during Festival of the Arts when this change was first made.
Festival of the Holidays was the most recent before Festival of the Arts and tax was still included in the posted prices at that time. Kitchens were also still accepting cash.
Disney gift cards can be purchased at every merch location that isn’t country specific. You can also find them at every single kitchen at the festival. You can purchase new cards and reload existing cards at the kitchens, too. Please note that there is a $15 minimum load for each card.
We will be at Flower and Garden tomorrow trying all of the new dishes and checking out prior favorites to see if they’re worth the price. We will be looking for things that taste good and remain a good value. Check back here for our Best $50 You Can Spend at Flower and Garden. In light of this change to pricing, I will also compile the Best $30 With Tax You Can Spend at Flower and Garden. I kid. I kid.
What say you? Does this change have any impact on your Flower and Garden Festival budget? We will report back on the total dollar amount we spent just in taxes, so stick around if you’re into that sort of thing.
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Hi Janamelia- thanks for your note! I like your take on the budget / value scale. Makes perfect sense. After trying everything at the festival today, I have to say there is another reason to pause before spending lots of money at Flower and Garden. I had several things today that I’ve had many, many times in the past and something is off. I’m guessing that something changed with the food prep – lots of things tasted like they had been prepped, fried, or baked way in advance. Crackers were stale, fried chips were chewy, and many things I always like were basically Chilis / school lunch quality. It wasn’t just an off day for me – our whole group said the same things over and over. There were a few standout items that I’ll write about, but I’m overall feeling like something is amiss in festival land. Anyway, thanks for your insight and thank you for reading! -Chrissy
Your update, while a little disappointing if I’d been inclined to snack my way around the World Showcase, is actually reassuring to me that Dear Hubby and I were planning more restaurant meals than kiosk stops in our May trip. I’m looking forward to full reviews of the standouts!
And I agree, it’s very sneaky of Disney to make so many fine-print changes. Not a big of underhanded tactics.
It’s so interesting that you mentioned planning more restaurant meals, because our team noticed more people doing the exact same thing on the first two days of the festival. We break up into smaller groups all day and then meet at the end of the night for notes, and everyone said they were surprised at the number of people at La Cantina in Mexico, Katsura Grill, and Spice Road Table as we made our rounds. We’ve been doing this for many years and I can’t remember seeing so many folks skipping festival kitchens for the standard spots. If you’re looking for an absolute hit, make sure you try Nectar! The whole booth is bright and delicious. Even if you don’t like Tuna Poke, the veg version is so good! Wishing you a fab trip! -Chrissy
“Does this change have any impact on your Flower and Garden Festival budget”
No
From what I’ve seen in person the food offerings are kinda large. They’re almost not snack size. The Avocado toast – is that two bites? Three? The seafood looks substantial unless the bread is bite size.
Lately I’ve been trying to retrain my brain regarding costs. If I can start an entry level job at $15/hour, half an hour’s work buys me an avocado toast. Or – how much prep went into that toast. I couldn’t do much food booth grazing without a gang of at least 3 more.
Definitely Disney is underhanded sneaky. Both in the fine print and not including tax in the posted price and well, I can kinda see no more cash. Maybe when you’re eating around the World tomorrow, stick a gift card in the frame for scale.