When Pantopia opened in Tampa, I kept thinking about what a wonderful replacement it would be for Festa Italia, pretty much for the reasons Nicole just mentioned. I see that becoming less and less likely, though.
Personally, I love Pantopia. The overall idea of kind-hearted people from all over the world coming together in the name of conservation (to me) epitomizes the Busch Gardens brand better than anything else. It is full of so much detail, as well as intriguing stories about every person that landed upon the island.
If I have to compare it to Oktoberfest, though, I would say Pantopia tells a better story, but Oktoberfest feels more like what it represents. As much as I love Pantopia; I have a hard time believing that I am on a utopian island that people recently came upon by chance. It looks far too established in a human sense to be a place that previously was only inhabited by animals. If I didn’t take the time to listen to the creative directors, and do my own research on the story; very little of Pantopia would make sense to me. I wish they would do a better job of explaining the story to the masses. Oktoberfest is pretty self-explanatory. It hardly needs an introduction to understand what it is.
