Notes about the Rivers Cruise since we haven't talked about it much...
The layout of the land pretty much point you towards it.. an sine there's no big signage identifying which ride is which.. I could see a lot of people going there first. The queue is like a woven hut thingy with some switchbacks and some decor pieces of navii stuff but nothing that screamed out to be photographed (especially since i thought I'd go back to it.) They have no qualms about packing 4 adults into a row.
The boats seem to just free-float and they pile up at the end like all the other rides out there, but they the belt system seems to work pretty efficiently so you don't get bumped around too much at the end. Why this doesn't have a wheelchair boat I have no clue.
Other than that it's some glowing scenery with the occasional screen - and the screens look like screens - and some animated figures before the big finale with the shaman.
If we weren't getting Flight of Passage along with the boat ride I'd be like "WTF?" but since it's just an add-on to the land it's not bad. I think we're so used to them not building new lands or areas and everything must be an "e-ticket" that this sort of ride could never have existed on its own.. and i'm not sure we would have wanted it all alone. I guess in a "i went to a crazy alien planet and saw some stuff" sort of way, it works.. but.. since we rode it first it was sort of the baseline for my whole group's impressions of Pandora. Very much "Eh.. that was a thing."
So we went through all of Flight of Passage's FP queue and preshows with this preparedness to be vastly underwhelmed.
Cut to just outside FOP and we're bouncing around excitedly talking about the scenes and "omg, you screamed so loud when...!" type convos, and we rushed back to walk the full standby queue and of course, took all kinds of photos.
So i can definitely see the land being successful with a certain demographic. I'd say folks who are into theme park rides, but who aren't big into thrills. Some folks are definitely come off going "that was it? I was told this was a mini tower of terror!" whereas others will come off really hating it if Soarin is as thrilling as they can handle. The people who cling to the handlebars on Soarin each time the gondola gently tilts is not the target audience for this ride.
Some other points we havent touched on.. The 3D is really good and looks great. No out of focus or afterimage or ghosting or anything like that. The style of glasses works really well, even over prescription glasses. I did get my usual 3D-driven temple headache but it wasnt so severe that I'd avoid the ride, and was gone within minutes of getting off it. In the future i'll just take some preemptive advil and probably be fine. I think at one point I could barely tell where the edge or top of the screen was and that was only when I was looking to see the other vehicles on the V. Otherwise the screen is so much there, seamless (like, not a trace, unlike Soarin), and your vision so much directed forward into it that you don't tend to notice the ride system or the other vehicles (or even the people right next to you) unless you make an effort to turn your head and look for them.
The opening effect is very impressive. The seat tries to distract you and the strobes flash and there may of even been some fog, but the image with the 3D of some floating lights (i guess the avatar sync) is like right there and "oo.. aah.." for a second. It struck me because of how with most 3D films it's a flat image and then suddenly something jumps outs. With this, they're in your face and around you right away. Then BAM you pop into Pandora on your banshee and your critter takes a flying leap off a cliff (or something, i just know it involves falling which caught everyone off guard.)