Our first stop at the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts is none other than Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey pavilion. This Walt Disney World dining review features photos of everything on the menu at this Food Studio plus our thoughts on each dish.
This is our first food booth review for this year’s Festival of the Arts, and hopefully not the last. Admittedly, we’ve been pretty laid back about covering the Food Studios, which is for a couple of reasons. It’s the shortest EPCOT festival of the year, meaning that the turnaround time between eating the food and reviewing the food before the event ends has been challenging for me the last couple of years.
The Boss says that if I want to have an excuse to keep buying and eating EPCOT snacks, I need to start justifying it. Apparently, it doesn’t count as “research” when I keep the results to myself and don’t publish them. Who knew?! So consider the upcoming wave of EPCOT food booth reviews my series of “contractual obligation” posts. For those of you in California, don’t be surprised to see the same thing for Lunar New Year…
The other reason I’ve hesitated to review the Food Studios for the last couple of years is because the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts is about so much more than food. While the cuisine is artfully done and often delicious, it’s not the highlight of the event.
The problem is that I don’t really know what else to cover from the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts that’s fresh. There isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said. So if I review the booths, that reinforces the misconception that this is (basically) the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival: Winter Edition. That’s not true–at all–but focusing on that and not the other stuff certainly creates that impression.
Anyway, let that serve as a reminder that the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts is (still) awesome. It does seem a tad scaled back for 2024, but I nevertheless have nothing but effusive praise for the event. Although that’s partially due to a great showing by the culinary arts, it’d be my favorite event of the year even if I did all of my meals at Sunshine Seasons or table service restaurants in World Showcase.
With that out of the way, let’s turn to a review of Figment’s Inspiration Station…
Figment’s Inspiration Station Food Items:
- Blueberry-filled Pastry Tart with purple icing (The Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine Item)
- Rainbow Cake with freeze dried SKITTLES bite sized candies
- Figment Premium Popcorn Bucket with Rainbow Popcorn (Limit two per person, per transaction; available while supplies last.)
Figment’s Inspiration Station Beverages:
- Grape Smoothie with freeze dried SKITTLES bite sized candies (Non-alcoholic beverage)
- 3 Daughters Brewing Black Cherry Hard Cider
- 3 Daughters Brewing Blood Orange Hard Cider
- 3 Daughters Brewing Passion Fruit Hard Cider
- Rainbow Hard Cider Flight
- 81Bay Brewing Co. Green with Envy Blonde Ale
- 81Bay Brewing Co. Blue Butterfly Lager
- Urban Artifact The Gadget Raspberry & Blackberry Midwest Fruit Tart
- Rainbow Beer Flight
Now let’s take a look at our photos and reviews of each food item at Craftsman’s Courtyard Food Studio…
Blueberry-filled Pastry Tart with purple icing – Walt Disney World has really gotten into the ‘gourmet’ Pop Tarts in recent years in Toy Story Land at Woody’s Lunch Box and Festival of the Arts at the Pop Eats booth, and now here.
I know some fans love these, and I would agree that there have been some superlative ones at Woody’s Lunch Box that are far better than they have had any right to be. This isn’t one of them. It’s still an ‘elevated’ Pop Tart in that you can taste a quality difference, but there just isn’t enough daylight between this and the Kellogg’s breakfast treat. Both are sugary messes of artificial ingredients and flavors, which taste more like a color than they do an actual flavor.
Rainbow Cake with freeze dried SKITTLES bite sized candies – This cake also is quite sugary, but at least it tastes delicious. I couldn’t tell you what flavors, exactly, are present here–so “it tastes like a rainbow” will have to do. And like a rainbow, it’s moist and delightful, with just the right amount of density and, I dunno, happiness.
Seriously, the Rainbow Cake is good. Not in a conventional sense of the term, but it’s a fun dessert that will give you the requisite sugar rush while also leaving you satisfied. It’s reasonably high quality–reminding me a lot of a wedding cake. The colors and presentation are the proverbial icing on the literal cake, taking this tasty dessert and also making it photogenic.
Grape Smoothie with freeze dried SKITTLES bite sized candies – For those of you wanting a sugar rush and brain freeze via the most efficient means possible, this Grape Smoothie is for you! It’s not that this drink is bad. Somehow, the sugary concoction is addictively good, to the point that I found myself questioning: is this even legal?!
(Side note: I highly recommend sharing whatever you order here. I ate all three of these dishes by myself and, since I don’t waste food, finished them all. This led to a massive sugar rush and equally massive crash. Who knows what came in between–it’s all a blur. I’m just saying, if you find yourself climbing the Mexico pavilion after eating all this junk, don’t say you weren’t warned!)
Finally, there’s the fan-favorite Figment Premium Popcorn Bucket with Rainbow Popcorn.
This limited-edition bucket features Figment inside on a rainbow diving into rainbow colored popcorn. It follows up on two consecutive years of the Figment Premium Popcorn Bucket, which last year had a EPCOT 40th Anniversary strap.
The important thing you need to know is that this Imagination Popcorn Bucket is available via Mobile Order or via walk-up purchase. For the opening weekend, it was Mobile Order only, but demand has since died down, and it’s readily available on a walk-up or preorder basis. I encountered zero line whatsoever at Figment’s Inspiration Station–and this was on a weekend when EPCOT was really busy and all other booths had long lines.
For whatever it’s worth, I like this more than the previous Figment Premium Popcorn Bucket. What pushes this over the top for me is that it leans into being a popcorn bucket, rather than just being a plastic thing that happens to hold popcorn (if that makes sense).
Everything about the design is really clever, from using the clear glass pyramids to showcase the rainbow popcorn inside to Figment diving into the popcorn like it’s a ball pit at McDonald’s (they don’t still have those–but they did in my day!). This is just top-notch through and through, with creativity truly befitting Figment. Huge kudos to the Disney Design team on this!
Overall, it pains me to say this, but Figment’s Inspiration Station is one of the worst booths at the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. Despite that ringing endorsement, you should still do it and probably order at least the cake and shake. It’s a bit of a paradox, but hear me out.
While almost all of the other Food Studios at the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts excel at nuanced cuisine that tastes great and offers ambition exceeding expectations for this type of event, Figment’s Inspiration Station is the fun counterprogramming to that. The place you go not for envelope-pushing or artfully done cuisine, but to kick back and have a week’s worth of your recommended sugar intake and enough artificial flavors and colors to turn a flamingo purple.
The desserts at Figment’s Inspiration Station are neither good nor bad…fun is really the best word to describe them. Personally, I wish they were more imaginative and unique–or actually inspired–but that isn’t the case. Regardless, after making a lap of World Showcase and challenging your taste buds with the exemplary cuisine at L’Art de la Cuisine Française, Gourmet Landscape, etc., stop here to get your sugar rush and have a bit of old school EPCOT Center fun.
As this event isn’t just about the cuisine, you’ll also want to read our full Guide to the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts for info about the non-culinary side of the festivities. That covers the Disney on Broadway concert series, visual arts, performing arts, participatory arts, and much more!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey Food Studio at the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts? Wish it were a booth of more inspired and imaginative dishes, or are you satisfied with sugar and vibrant colors? Have you tried any of the food items at this booth? What did you think of them? Do you agree or disagree with our item reviews? Questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
