Robert Niles
Editor
Robert Niles

Tournament quarterfinals: Food & Wine Festival vs. Star Wars Weekends

March 24, 2011, 8:37 AM · Today we start the quarterfinals of the 2011 Theme Park Insider Tournament: America's Best Theme Park Event, so we're down to eight really neat theme park events that have proven their popularity, both with the public and that subset of Theme Park Insider voters.

Today, we are matching up two Walt Disney World events for the right to go on to the semifinals.

It's Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival

At the Food & Wine Festival

vs. Star Wars Weekends at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Get your Jedi on at Star Wars Weekends

Which is your favorite event, or, if you haven't been to either, the one you'd most want to visit? Spending the day wandering the nations of Epcot, noshing on food and drink and watching chef demonstrations, or celebrating Star Wars at the Studios, with special shows and character and actor meet and greets?


The voting will be open until noon Friday, Eastern time, when we'll open the next vote in the tournament: Universal Studios Florida's Halloween Horror Nights vs. Universal Studios Florida's Mardi Gras.

Until then, feel free to campaign by telling us about these events, in the comments.

Replies (5)

buckzilla
Mark Hollamon
March 24, 2011 at 9:07 AM · Kind of voting apples against oranges, but the F&WF is an outstanding event that has really evolved from when I first attended in 2000.
robert
Editor
Robert Niles
March 24, 2011 at 9:48 AM · A reminder for Walt Disney World fans, we're looking for Team TPI members to write about their experiences at the Walt Disney World Resort. Follow that link for details.
coasterdude
Writer
Anthony Murphy
March 24, 2011 at 4:53 PM · The Food and Wine Festival is the greatest theme park special event....period!

The food is great, the wine is flowing, and you really get a one on one with the special guests. Its like Food Network Fantasy Camp. LOTS of fun!


Star Wars weekends is ok, but its only for the Weekends.

TonyAtTheShore
Tony Duda
March 24, 2011 at 5:06 PM · As of this year, F&W has it over SWW. If you asked about SWW as it was 5 years ago when real Star Wars stars attended as special guests, I would have picked SWW. But then again, F&W was a lot better 5 years ago, too. Even though F&W has stagnated the last 2 to 3 years and the costs have skyrocketed, it is still better than the Clone Wars advertisement that SWW has become. As it is, both events are on a downward track but F&W is just sinking slower. I hope this year everything gets better at SWW with the new version of Star Tours opening on the first day of SWW, and rumors of George Lucas attending are true.
Russtinator
Writer
Russell Meyer
March 26, 2011 at 8:22 AM · I'm surprised the vote was as close as it was. I'm as big of a Star Wars fan as there is, but the F&W Festival is by far the best annual event at any theme park that I've visited. We deliberately plan our Orlando vacations around the F&W Festival now because it's such an amazing and diverse event. HHN would be the only other event I could legitimately beating the F&W Festival.

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