Magic Kingdom vs Food and Wine on a Saturday

Hi all,
I am having a planning dilemma and I would love some feedback! I haven’t been to Disney World in about 8 years, and this is my first time planning. We will be there Thursday-Sunday for Food and Wine (full days each day, traveling late Wednesday and early Monday). On Thursday we’ll be doing MNSSHP starting at 4. Originally, I had us slated to do Friday at Epcot, Saturday at MK, and Sunday at HS/AK. I checked out the Touring Plans calendar and saw that Friday is supposed to be a level 4 day at MK and a Level 6 at Epcot. For Saturday, MK is a 7 and Epcot is a 5, however, the Epcot rating does not take Food and Wine into account.

So my question, would it be worth it to swap those days? Or would Friday be better to experience Food and Wine? I know we would have to leave MK by 7 on that Friday becasue of MNSSHP, but we would be going over to Epcot for dinner anyways. Regardless, we will spend a full day at Food and Wine and a dinner there as well, for the day we would be at MK. We will have a park hopper pass and be doing to express transportation. Please let me know, and I am sorry for the rambling!

I once did a food & wine on a Saturday and it was packed!!! The locals come in on the weekends and it is wall to wall.

If I remember correctly the crowd ratings are based on attraction wait times. So the crowds of Food & Wine do not come into play with the crowd level.

I would certainly do Epcot on a Friday vs a Sat with Food & Wine going on.

The CLs DO NOT take F&W crowds into account and really, either evening in the WS is going to be pretty packed, and all day Saturday will be very busy. The lines for kiosks get kind of long (and though most of them move pretty quickly, they will occasionally just stop for a few minutes when they’ve run through everything they have ready) but the main issue we’ve had on weekends is lines for restrooms.

Since you have 8 hours of mostly minimal waits at MK on Thursday, I’d say taking the higher CL on the chin for Saturday at MK is a good idea, because keeping Epcot on Friday gives you Friday afternoon (before locals get out of work) for lower crowds in the WS. You also have the option of staying later at MK on the Saturday if you don’t finish everything.

My personal strategy would likely be:
Thursday: MNSSHP 4-12
Friday: RD Future World, then WS/F&W until 3:00ish. Break (it’s a marathon, not a sprint when you’re tasting around the world), either at the resort or in FW, return to WS around 6:00-close
Saturday: RD MK until finished, or 4:00, then hop to Epcot for finish up WS/F&W.
Sunday: AK/HS

I second @Nikkipoooo

I really want to re-iterate how terrible Epcot is during F&W on Saturdays. I hesitate to recommend you hopping there even in the afternoon. We rope dropped Epcot on a Saturday and were in France around 10:30am eating breakfast while my son napped. We were moving on around 11am through the rear of World Showcase and the crowds were just POURING in. I cannot even describe it. Every group had some kind of matching, drinking t-shirt on and it was wall to wall in Japan/America/Italy minutes after WS even opened. We had planned to stay longer, but just pushed that stroller as fast as we could possibly get towards the exit. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like in the afternoon or evening.

Definitely go to Epcot on Friday or even Sunday evening rather than Saturday.

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Thank you, all! I will keep Food and Wine on Friday.