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Pandora: World of Avatar General Discussion

There's music in the land, but it's restricted. The left side of the land only has music whenever the drums are being used (it's pretty cool to be walking through when it happens, actually), and there's constant music over by the restaurant, but I'd say a solid third of the land has no music at all. I personally don't mind it; to me, the absence of music on the whole makes its presence stand out more when it appears, but it's a definite, noticeable departure from the rest of the park.

On Flight of Passage, opinions are opinions, but I'll say that for me it's an attraction that captures my attention from start to finish in the best way. It's how I feel riding Big Thunder Mountain, Spider-Man, Revenge of the Mummy, and Tower of Terror (along with others). For those four and a half minutes, I don't care about anything else except that I'm having the time of my life, ride system, budget, and all the other real-world factors be damned. It's the kind of experience that reminds me why I love theme parks.
 
They don’t have music like this playing... at all?



Pongu Pongu plays a happier variation of the film theme in the courtyard between the store, foodstand, and outdoor eating area in front of Satu'li. Satu'li Canteen plays the actual film score mixed with the Shaman of Songs song from River Journey.

No actual music plays in the entire left side of the land. Quiet music plays in River Journey shaded queue area.

The courtyard in front of Pongu feels so much more lively and that music really helps. The music during drum circle show is one thing, but the other outdoor areas could use subtle deconstructed music mixed with the animal sounds here and there. Could help set a more adventure explorer atmosphere.
 
There's music in the land, but it's restricted. The left side of the land only has music whenever the drums are being used (it's pretty cool to be walking through when it happens, actually), and there's constant music over by the restaurant, but I'd say a solid third of the land has no music at all. I personally don't mind it; to me, the absence of music on the whole makes its presence stand out more when it appears, but it's a definite, noticeable departure from the rest of the park.

On Flight of Passage, opinions are opinions, but I'll say that for me it's an attraction that captures my attention from start to finish in the best way. It's how I feel riding Big Thunder Mountain, Spider-Man, Revenge of the Mummy, and Tower of Terror (along with others). For those four and a half minutes, I don't care about anything else except that I'm having the time of my life, ride system, budget, and all the other real-world factors be damned. It's the kind of experience that reminds me why I love theme parks.
I think a lot of it also has to do with how much of the world of Avatar you absorbed from the movie. I found the movie so hypnotically beautiful that when I ride FOP I actually had mist in my eyes from how beautiful it was. (I was also not expecting that first drop to be.... that sudden of a drop).
 
I think a lot of it also has to do with how much of the world of Avatar you absorbed from the movie. I found the movie so hypnotically beautiful that when I ride FOP I actually had mist in my eyes from how beautiful it was. (I was also not expecting that first drop to be.... that sudden of a drop).
I don't necessarily agree, because I've never liked the movie, and I didn't really remember the visuals outside of "there were floating mountains" going in. However, the land and the ride both sold the world to me.

I just really enjoy it, and I find myself justifying more trips to Animal Kingdom as a result.
 
Went to Animal Kingdom on Saturday. They had extra magic hours from 8-9 am. We got there around 8:30 am and made it into Pandora around 8:45 am. At this point the line for FOP was already 3 hours and the River Journey was an hour. My wife has never seen the movie and didn't know anything about the land so we didn't end up waiting for either ride. The land itself is quite impressive, but it does feel like it's missing something. However, I'm going to wait until I get to experience both rides before I finally judge the land as a whole though. We could not believe how long the wait times were. At one point FOP was at 240 minutes.
 
Went to Animal Kingdom on Saturday. They had extra magic hours from 8-9 am. We got there around 8:30 am and made it into Pandora around 8:45 am. At this point the line for FOP was already 3 hours and the River Journey was an hour. My wife has never seen the movie and didn't know anything about the land so we didn't end up waiting for either ride. The land itself is quite impressive, but it does feel like it's missing something. However, I'm going to wait until I get to experience both rides before I finally judge the land as a whole though. We could not believe how long the wait times were. At one point FOP was at 240 minutes.

You made the right decision not waiting 3 hours. It's not worth it.
 
Went to Animal Kingdom on Saturday. They had extra magic hours from 8-9 am. We got there around 8:30 am and made it into Pandora around 8:45 am. At this point the line for FOP was already 3 hours and the River Journey was an hour. My wife has never seen the movie and didn't know anything about the land so we didn't end up waiting for either ride. The land itself is quite impressive, but it does feel like it's missing something. However, I'm going to wait until I get to experience both rides before I finally judge the land as a whole though. We could not believe how long the wait times were. At one point FOP was at 240 minutes.

eww gross. I've heard that going on "extra magic hour" days just means the park will be more crowded. You probably needed to be there at 7:00am to get a decent spot in line, and then you are really just waiting the extra time "before" the park opens. So what's the difference?

I really hope this isn't the case when I go in January. I don't think any ride is worth that long of a wait. I think 90 mins is my top wait time.
 
I just can't justify spending 3 hours of my day waiting in a line to ride 1 ride. We had Fastpass reservations for Dinosaur and Everest which we would've missed if we decided to wait. We also walked right onto the Safari after leaving Pandora.
I can do it if it’s my first time. We waited in a three (?) hour queue for Gringotts, and even though I’m not a huge fan of the ride, there’s just something about new things that extends my patience infinitely.

I totally get why people don’t, though; time is money at somewhere as expensive as Disney.
 
... You probably needed to be there at 7:00am to get a decent spot in line, and then you are really just waiting the extra time "before" the park opens. So what's the difference?...

While i completely understand not wanting to wait 1 hr+ for a ride (hell, my limit is usually 20 mins), there is an advantage to waiting, say, 60 mins before park open as opposed to 60 mins during the day. That time in the morning is not being spent on actual touring hours.

You may be able to get on Everest a couple more times if you can slot your FoP wait time before park opens.
 
I think the longest I've waited has been with Epcot rides - both during preview periods. Longest I think was Seas with Nemo. The ride broke down and delayed opening during AP preview. At first they let everyone wait outside the building.. then the line started to reach SSE and they were like "Umm.. maybe we should put this inside the building..." and we proceeded to wait another hour or two underneath the butt/boat while they got the ride to work.

Another long wait was for Soarin. Random guest previews during testing, and noticed it was snagging people and bringing them in between the two pavilions. Was one of like 12 people brought in for that batch, and just as we reached the merge point in the blue neon room the ride broke. They let us sit on the floor there until it got going again, but that was at least an hour or so. Because it died right after we got into the building they didnt bring anyone else in, but let us hang out inside the empty queue until it got back up and running.

Oo, come to think of it - I spent forever and a day in line for Reign of Kong. The AC died during the TM preview and it was awful. I was blocking it out because of how miserable of an experience it was.

Last time I rode Flight of Pasage I did the two hour wait with a friend who hadnt been on the ride. There was enough to do to allow me to not be bored out of my mind - taking photos, looking at stuff, chatting, etc... If it had just been switchbacks I dont think I'd have made it.
 
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