What a nice event for Orlando. We went on the last day of the 2020 event and arrived around 2p…read more We were lucky enough to find a close parking spot so we started off great. We had free tix courtesy of a local radio station contest. I can still hear the busy signals in my ear from dialing in. This year, the event was "cashless", which doesn't mean you can't bring cash, but it means you pre-load your bracelet with money that you can use to purchase items from various vendors. It sounds like a good idea, but you have to guess as to how much to load, then do math all day and remember how much you have. When you purchase something, you can ask the person what your balance is. It's nice to not have to get out your wallet every time, but also a pain if you want something that's $7 and you have $6 left. You can't combine "bracelets" either so if someone had $1 left, they'd either have to reload or lose it. There was also a $1 service charge for the privilege of using the bracelet. As far as food options, there were plenty. Various restaurants from around town were there serving up some of their favorites. Gringos Locos, Dixie Dharma, Kaizen Something or other, American Social, Jeremiahs Italian Ice, Jimmy Hula's, and many others were there. It's a great way to try things without driving all over. Many places also had vegan and vegetarian options. There were plenty of wine vendors as well, and those lines were the shortest (or non existent). There was something you could buy that was a sampling of wines for $20. I think they punched or scanned something with each vendor. Most wineries were charging $7 for a glass (plastic cup) of wine. I would think if you want people to try your wines, you'd have it at a lower price point. Are they there to make money or get people to love their wine? (Gringos Locos got it with their $2 Double Decker Tacos, the line was nuts). The event ran till 7 but around 4p, some vendors were already closing up shop. That would be disappointing to me if I was arriving later in the day. There was also Mixed Drinks, Bloody Mary Bars, Beer, Hard Seltzer, and water/soda if you weren't there to get Lit. Prices were good for these options. There were plenty of porta-johns and hand washing stations which is nice. There was a stage with rotating bands. Lots of security as well. I'd recommend going as a nice day out. I wish they'd improve the cashless payment method though. At least let people combine. I'd give it 4 stars if it wasn't for that.

An A OK event that has some ups and downs. This is an annual event that takes place in the heart of…read moredowntown. There are tons of parking garages and lots in the local area that are within walking distance, most are around $5-7 dollars, so it's not too bad. It's about $20 for entry into the event, which seems a bit steep to me, since you have to pay for tickets for the food and drinks on top of that. Each ticket is $2 and most drinks and food are between 3-4 tickets ($6-8). It's a pretty expensive event overall once you tally up parking, entry and tickets. There are a lot of vendors, especially local vendors, which is great, cause I love to support local. There were about 40 tents, about half drinks and half food. There is a menu of options when you arrive, so you can know what to expect. Overall: B- A good locals event, but a pretty steep price tag on it once you add it all up.

I've been volunteering for this for over 20 years. This is…read morea great event. Almost 100 vendors of food and drink. Great Entertainment and lots of friendly people.

An excellent event for a good cause…read more I will say that it's a wee-bit awkward on one's conscience to be stuffing yourself to end hunger. However, everyone involved is doing a lot and going a long way for a good cause. I suppose that wealthier folks than myself are more used to that sort of arrangement. This was my 3rd time attending and my wife's 1st. The other two times I'd gone as a relative's +1, but this time we both got to go together. We were both dressed accordingly and many others were as well, but there were a lot of people in jeans or very casual clothing. As Brent pointed out, there are many of Central Florida's movers and shakers at this event. As well as many local culinary stars! Chit-chatting with the Petrakis' isn't something you just regularly do, but you can do it here. My wife was raving to them about the shrimp cup they had and they insisted she have a couple more. We love their locations (still looking to try the Polite Pig in Disney Springs) and they are very sweet people. Come hungry because you will leave stuffed. Come early! We had the full 6pm tickets, so we got a bit of a jump on things. We tried food by: (I'm sure I'll miss a few, but this is looking at the list) 4Rivers, The Coop, Benihana, Cala Bella @ Shingle Creek, Ace Café, Canvas, Capital Grille, Chroma, Cress, Eddie V's, 11 @ Reunion, Florida Nitro, FreshPoint, H&H, Marlow's Tavern, Marriott, Paddlefish, Plancha, Primo, Raglan Road, Ravenous Pig, Savor, Seasons 52, STK, Tommy Bahama, W, and Yak & Yeti Highlights were the shrimp mentioned above, the 4R sample, the Capital tenderloin, and Marlow's pork belly. That last one surprised me because I'm not a Marlow's fan, but that pork belly was GOLD. We tried every single drink station. Some were better than others. Some were much more generous than others. Cooper's Hawk (we are wine club members) won the night for generous pours. They flat gave you a full glass of wine. Everywhere else was a sample. Not Cooper's Hawk. There were full bottles of Acqua Panna and S. Pellegrino waters (still or sparkling respectively) and that was very nice. The hit and longest line of the entire night, food or beverage, was Tito's Handmade Vodka. That place was 100+ people deep for 3+ hours. No joke. It was tasty and everyone we ran into that we knew was holding a Tito's cup. It was packed and they were hustling all night. My personal favorite of the entire night was NOT an adult beverage. I loved Natalie's Orchid Island Juice Company. They had a blood orange juice that was insanely good. Like off the charts delicious. We had beer, we had wine, we had milk, we had root beer, we had hard cider, we had coffee/tea, we had it all. That juice was the best. They have a few events to raise extra money for the charities. They have a silent auction (WAY WAY WAY out of my league $$-wise), a giving tree (you pay $50 to pull down a leaf with a gift card in it which is $25-$300 in value... ours was a wimpy $25 for Subway, but it's for charity!), a wine toss (3 rings for $15 like at a fair, but if your ring lands on a wine bottle, you win that bottle), and wine cellar key. The wine cellar key is insane. It's a raffle of like 150 bottles of wine. If you have the winning key, you get $2,500+ worth of wine bottles. We didn't win that, either. It's a great time and a good cause. If you ever have a chance to come, you SHOULD!

It was another fun night at Harbor Nights. I haven't been to one in about two years as it was…read moretrending downward per my last review. I had gone numerous times over the past 10 years. This time, I noticed a significant change in how the food was served. In the past, you went to individual stands to sample a taste from various restaurants. Now, there are several buffet style setups where you can get a complete meal at one time. There was an antipasto station with meats, cheeses, fruits, etc. A carving station included carved New York strips of beef, Yukon gold mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley. It was very good! At the end of this station was a soup consisting of chicken, baby kale and artichokes. That was my favorite of the night. I also sampled the Pasta station which had fresh-made pasta that could be combined with beef short rib bolognese. Quite tasty! This station also included Florida Gulf Snapper and a Shrimp cannelloni. Along with a dessert table, there were several wine stations to try (the Cherry Pie Pinot Noir was quite good). Bottled water, soft drinks and a beer selection were also available. The band was fantastic and got the majority of people dancing and having a great time. Line dances were even encouraged! One complaint I still have is the lack of available cocktail tables for those of us who do not purchase the VIP packages. They are few and far between and more than three or four people in your party make it difficult to keep all the plates, wine glasses and water bottles on this small space. Of course, chairs are not provided for these cocktail tables. Finally, once you finish with your plates, service people are few and far between to clear the cocktail tables. Luckily, there was a dirty dishes table about 20 feet away. I was required to take the dishes there to allow my party to have comfortable room at our table. I probably will not be back for a while given the price for regular admission (with taxes and service charges) is well over $100. However, it can be fun for an occasional night out.

Attended Harbor Nights Romantico and it was absolutely amazing! The ambiance is incredible and the…read morestaff is awesome, I really enjoy this event and try to attend every year, the food was a 10/10 the braised short ribs were indescribably good, the Florida Grouper 10/10 and the Fresh Made Pasta Chef's Kiss. The Antipasto Display was perfectly crafted. The wine selection was great also. Always enjoy Harbor Nights, this is definitely an event that everyone should attend, it is especially great for a romantic couples evening.

We returned to SeaWorld for the Seven Seas Food Festival. We had bought sampler lanyards and still…read morehad punches left after our first visit this year. My favorite foods this visit were the Tuna Poke Bowl and the Bourbon Caramel Glazed Peach Cobbler. The poke bowl was flavorful and delicious. I had the cobbler later at home. I reheated the cobbler before taking a bite. It was so good. The cobbler was filled with a generous amount of sliced peaches and had a crumble on top. The lines and wait times were minimal. The staff was courteous. I hope to return to next year's SeaWorld Seven Seas Food Festival!

Apparently SeaWorld has been doing this food & drink festival for years now. 2024 marks their 7th…read moreyear doing the SeaWorld Seven Seas Food Festival. But how have I never known about this before? We've been to SeaWorld Orlando and San Diego locations several times over the years, but I never knew. Ha. They're smart to jump on the Epcot Food & Wine Festival bandwagon but making it their own. The SeaWorld Seven Seas Food Festival is LEGIT!!! Walking around the park, there are so many food booths or "markets" to choose from. They range from many different cuisines and drink booths. We hit up the Asian Market first and ordered the Tempura Battered Sushi, Deep Fried Dumplings and Elderflower Mule. Total came out to $41. Hubby scoped out the Food Festival pass where you pay $85 and get 15 samples at any of the food booths. That made way more sense since our 3 items cost $41. So we opted for the lanyard pass. This pass is good for any food or drink item at the food booths. SCORE!!!! So happy we did the lanyard pass, it was worth every penny. The food and drink items alone can range in pricing from $4.99 up to $15.99 each. It was common sense to get the $85 lanyard pass for 15 samples!!! So happy we did that and were able to get a sampling of so many different foods. You can also do a $70 lanyard for 10 samples. You can purchase the lanyards online, at the Seven Seas Festival Welcome Center or at any of the food market locations. All food items are the same portion size, via a la carte or via lanyard. Another bonus is that the lanyard gets you 15 samplers but if you're an annual SeaWorld Pass Holder, you get 3 bonus samples. The festival runs Feb 2nd to May 19th 2024. Lanyards don't have to be used on same day, you can return another day and continue to use the lanyard until all options are used but it has to be used during the same year. All food festival booths are only available on Thursdays-Sundays each week during festival dates. They open 11:00am until park closing time. How to use your lanyard pass, go to any of the food festival market booths, order the food or drink items you want, they will scan the back of the lanyard, punch the amount of items purchased, you get a receipt where you give that to the food pick up area and they give you your items. Done and done. Here's a quick list of everything we ate or drank: * Asian: Tempura Fried Sushi * Asian: Deep Fried Dumplings * Asian: Elderflower Mule * Indian: Chicken Tikki Masala * Indian: Garlic Naan with Chickpea Curry * Mediterranean: Moroccan Grilled Lamb Chops * Mediterranean: Walking Gyros * Irish: St. Patrick's Day Nachos * North Atlantic: Fish & Chips * Polynesian: Smoked Lamb Ribs * Polynesian: Ahi Tuna Poké Nachos * French: Duck Confit We will return and do the lanyard pass again so we can try all the food or drinks we didn't get to try the first time around. Love this concept!

Anything and everything Hawaiian is my favorite so when I stumbled upon this event, I had to go. I…read morewish I was able to go the whole weekend. There's one more day tomorrow. I was able to see some of the Hawaiian hula performances. Tomorrow is going to be Polynesian and Tahitian Dance and Fire Dancers which they may have had tonight but maybe not because of the rain. If you want to find about about the culture of Hawaii, this is a great time to go. It was interesting to see the performances. Not only the dancers l, but the singers, and the back up music like the ukeleles. They had a good number of vendors as well there too. I had to leave because the hotel's a/c was lacking so the temperature wasn't the most comfortable. But when I was there I enjoyed it. It was a $10 fee to get in which I don't think is bad at all. It's a way for them to raise money for these events. I would definitely want to be back for future events.

Authentic Polynesian Adult and Children dance Competition. There's a luau on Saturday night as…read morewell. MUST SEE!!!

So awesome! I have been waiting forever for this event to happen here in Orlando. Some other NBA…read moreteams were doing it and it looked awesome. I did help brainstorm this event 2 years back with the Magic so to see it come to fruition and attend, it was a great treat. It was a fabulous price for a pregame event in addition to lower level tickets to the game. We arrived at 4:30pm and headed to an event room near Jernigan's. We received a goodie back upon arrival along with a drink ticket. There was a bar inside the room along with a nice little food spread from Levy restaurants. I really enjoyed the chicken parm sliders. While we were waiting for the presentation part of the event, we were able to score photos with some Magic dancers, Community Ambassador Bo Outlaw and Magic MC Megan Clementi. Everyone was super nice. When the presentation part arrived we learned verbiage, rules, regulations, and all types of fun things about basketball and the NBA. While I knew a ton of the info, it was really nice to hear it from industry professionals including a female sports reporter. The highlight was hearing from an NBA ref and getting some one on one time and hearing their side of things, it was a cool insight into their life. Of course then Big Baby (Glen Davis) strutted in and he was so pleasantly awesome. He was fun, charming and super nice. Everything was interactive and we could ask questions at any time. After wards we were able to go enjoy the game with everyone and at the end of the game, we scored a photo on the court. =) Overall I had a fabulous time and can't wait for the next one. The only thing I really didn't appreciate was that some females brought their boyfriends/husbands/kids. I don't understand why they couldn't meet them after and just enjoy this female specific event. So that was a bit off setting but what can ya do?

This was a great program! I had thought I knew everything about basketball, but I was definitely…read morewrong since I left the event with more knowledge than I showed up with. We received a goodie bag when we checked in which was really nice, along with our drink and raffle ticket. We were able to mingle with other attendees of the event and get our picture taken with Bo Outlaw. They had some great food items set out for us and a small bar in the corner. The event was very casual, so you felt free to laugh, ask questions, get up to use the restroom, grab another drink, etc. rather than feeling like you needed to stay seated the whole time during the presentation. The speakers were wonderful! They all had great personalities and some good jokes to throw into their presentation. Everything was very informative and well put together. I learned a lot. Not to mention Big Baby Glen Davis showed up as a surprise guest speaker where we got to ask him questions. It's always nice to hear from a player's perspective and get to know more about them. We paid $45 for the event which included the drink , food and raffle ticket, the presentation and a lower level ticket to the game. It's was a great price and the seats for the game were great! I had a fabulous time and would definitely attend another one of these events.

Pretty good event. Lots of food, lots of drinks, lots of…read morepeople, lots of entertainment, and lots of fun. The best part was to try a restaurants I've not been to yet, because it is yet to open. Soon, LaFayette's will be serving up Southern and NOLA cuisine. They were sampling FGTBLTSs (fried green tomato BLT sliders) that were amazing! I know we had at least 3 of them and their staff was incredibly nice. I can't wait to see this Memphis based restaurant open this summer on I-Drive. We ended up staying to past 1am at the different bars and restaurants throughout the property. Met some amazing fun locals and became quick friends. The parking was a bear and the place was otter-ly packed with out of town visitors for GayDays. But the energy of the resort was putting a twink-le in everyone's eyes. Fun time all around.

This was something new for us to check out this year and I have to say we had a very nice time…read more There were more liquor options than food vendors. I wish there were more of a variety to choose from as well as more 'local' places to try and not so many tourist places to try. One vendor that was there I had such a horrible time at, i would not even sample their food. The fried green tomato sliders were great but for me, that was the hit of the show. I also found the Jack Daniels vendor to be the best! They were working their butts off to make sure everyone was having a great time. I did not see that with any of the other vendors. The show they had going on the stage was confusing. I was not sure what we were watching. Most of the Vendors were giving away samples or free stuff and we both left with gift bags filled with discount cards, glassware and such. All in all, we had a fun time and it was worth the money we paid but again, I just wish they had more food vendors to sample from as well as more local vendors (not chains). We will try it again next year if they offer it and see if it gets any better. Enjoy! OH and PS... trying to find the ball room this event was located at was horrible. there was no signage until you actually found building and got inside. I had to ask about 3 employees were this even was located at even after asking its location at the front desk.

I know I signed up for the food truck event but instead ended up coming to the Festival of the…read moreMasters because a friend of a friend was competing in the sidewalk chalk art event. All of the entries were amazing and we were talking about how it's amazing to think that there are so many people out there who have true artistic talent. There were a couple that stood out for me such as: "Steam Punk" and "The Thai Mermaid" They were just really different and made you think about what drove them to do these artworks. I wish the artists had stuck around towards the end though. The weather was perfect and the smell of food coming from all directions combined to make it quite the enjoyable (and hungry) evening. If you enjoy art and photography, this is a fun little event to go to.

Another late review!…read more Festival of the Masters is an event that is held at Downtown Disney where art from various locations are displayed around the West Side and Marketplace. There are chalk artists drawing in front of World of Disney as well as along the marina at West Side. There are also art and crafts kiosks set up around West Side displaying different types of art. This passed year in 2013 there was also food trucks scattered around for the event which was a pretty festive touch! If you're into art I would highly suggest popping by for this event!