Why You Shouldn’t Miss the Chase Lounge at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Chase has ended its sponsorship of Food & Wine Festival in 2017 so, unfortunately, there is no Chase Lounge at this year’s festival. I’m keeping this post up in the hopes that it will return at some point.

One of my top tips for visiting Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival is to take advantage of the Chase Lounge!

In this post, I’ll share why you shouldn’t miss the free drinks, air conditioning, and wristbands for preferred seating to the Eat to the Beat Concert series.

If you are planning a visit, check out my post on how to make the most of everything at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.

The Epcot Food & Wine Festival is my favorite event at Disney World, and in 2017 it will run from August 31st through November 13th.

The festival is amazing and therefore attracts tremendous crowds. Combine that with the Florida heat (which is in full effect for most of the festival) and you could potentially have a miserable time despite the fantastic food.

One way to get away from the crowds and heat is to visit the Chase Lounge. In 2016 it was located on the third floor of the American Adventure pavilion, though I have visited it in years past when it was located other places.

To enter the lounge, one member of your party has to have a Chase-issued debit or credit card present (one cardholder can bring up to five guests along). This includes the Chase Disney Visa, though contrary to what you might hear you can have ANY Chase card and get access to the lounge! This includes the Chase cards among my favorite cards for free travel with points and miles.

You get to the lounge via an elevator or stairs, and it is a part of the American Adventure pavilion that is normally off-limits to guests.

The lounge is open from 11 am to park closing every day of the festival. I suggest visiting it as early as possible in your day because there is often a long wait to get into the lounge in the heat of the day when everyone gets tired. When it is at capacity they can only let more people in when folks decide to leave. We went at 11:30 am and there was no wait at all!

I suggest visiting it as early as possible in your day because there is often a long wait to get into the lounge in the heat of the day when everyone gets tired. When it is at capacity they can only let more people in when folks decide to leave. We went at 11:30 am and there was no wait at all!

You’ll find lots of seating, charging stations, TVs, and free non-alcoholic beverages in the lounge.

There were Coke Freestyle machines as well as coffee and tea to choose from.

Here is the other reason to get to the lounge early and the biggest reason to visit the lounge, in my opinion. This nice lady is handing out wristbands for preferred seating to one of that night’s Eat to the Beat Concerts!

Since we were there early, we could choose from any of the three nightly concerts – 5:30. 6:45 or 8:00 pm. We chose the 8 pm concert because it is the most popular, likely because the sun has set and it has cooled down a bit. I can’t remember, but there is a chance that you have to be a Disney Chase cardholder to get this perk.

There is tremendous value in these wristbands since the only other way to get guaranteed seating for a concert is to purchase a pricey dining package that includes seating. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait in line (sometimes for hours, depending on the popularity of the act performing that night) in order to get a seat for the concert!

We arrived about 10 minutes before the concert started and had AMAZING seats in the fourth row! Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was busy rocking out to Starship.

Unrelated to the Chase lounge specifically is another nice perk… any Chase cardholder can get access to the special preferred viewing area for Illuminations, though you’ll have to get there early since once the area is full they close it. It can be found in front of the Italy or Germany pavilion.

I hope this post answered any questions you had about the Chase Lounge at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival! Please leave a comment below if there is anything else you want to know!