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Pandora: World of Avatar Photos, Videos, & Reviews

For the Monday where a lot of counties started school, I don't quite think that's it. I'm guessing theaters down?
I would guess so. Orange county started school today, but some surrounding counties don't go back until next week.

The waits have been oddly high lately, I will say. I do wonder if one or even two of the theatres are down for an extended period of time. Either way, this is why DAK needs to be expanded and not just see a lazy overlay. The park needs more rides for times when FoP may be having theatre issues and with an increase of people in the park, they need more to do as well.
 
Lots of guests from oversees in the parks today. Seems to be compensating for all the locals that have gone to school already.
 
Yup UK kids are still on holiday for another 2 weeks, and plenty of them came over on Sunday so that probably isn't helping.
 
Nice photo idea. Very interesting......Kind of contrary to most comments, I prefer the night version of this area. The daylight version just looks way too over the top gaudy & plastic.
Haven't seen it at night, but you are 100 percent correct on the day version. It's just plastic fake plants.
 
But that's with camera exposure - the day is a little less "bright" in the colors, and at night it's just dark. Hella hella dark.

This is very true, I have a very vibrant editing style. So it might not be completely true to life. Plus the long exposure does make the night shots look better too. But I still think the area looks fantastic once your eyes get adjusted. I just think its because they are going for that Bio Luminescence look rather than making things look "lit up". Just my thoughts :D
 
But that's with camera exposure - the day is a little less "bright" in the colors, and at night it's just dark. Hella hella dark.
Haven't been there so I can give a true judgement. Just commenting on what Pandora looks like in that comparison shot....And yes, it seems like most reviews complain it's way too dark in the evening. ...Disney kind of did the same with New Fantasy Land. It's so dark that very few people walk through, or linger there, in the night.....Don't know why they keep doing that. It's really not very inviting.
 
Haven't been there so I can give a true judgement. Just commenting on what Pandora looks like in that comparison shot....And yes, it seems like most reviews complain it's way too dark in the evening. ...Disney kind of did the same with New Fantasy Land. It's so dark that very few people walk through, or linger there, in the night.....Don't know why they keep doing that. It's really not very inviting.

I think Pandora's lighting sets the mood of the place very well. Even if it is a little dark, I think if it was any brighter, the black lights would not work as well to light up the pathways. But I will say that it does feel darker than the river journey, but then again. The outside areas of Pandora are themed to a different area than the river journey is. Anyways, I like the way its lit, and I wouldn't change it honestly.

I know you said you haven't been, so i'm not speaking to you directly, just speaking my thoughts :D
 
I went on Flight of Passage yesterday, and it's honestly a Top 3 ride in Orlando. It's an incredible experience from start to finish (I didn't even do standby!) and feels so realistic. Disney and Jimbo knocked it out of the park on this one.

The land itself is cool. I didn't spend much time walking around and didn't go over to the River Journey's area, but the land kind of lacks kinetic energy. Maybe it's a different story at night :shrug:
 
Finally got to experience Pandora on Saturday. We stayed at a WDW Resort so we got extra magic hours from 8-9 am. We got to the entrance at 8:30 and found that our tickets had not been linked to our Magic Bands (even though we were told they were when we checked in :rolleyes:) so they sent us over to Guest Relations where we waited for about 20 minutes before somebody helped us. Walked into the park at 8:55 and just as we got up to the Tree of Life they let the rest of the guests in so the extra hour was pretty much wasted. We couldn't believe it but people were literally sprinting past us to get into Pandora. It reminded me of those videos on Black Friday of people rushing into stores when they first open. We finally got to Pandora and the line for FOP was already at 180 minutes and the Na'vi River Journey posted a 60 minute wait. No chance we were going to wait 3 hours for FOP (especially since my wife was pregnant and couldn't even ride) so we decided to wait it out for the River Journey.

Na'vi River Journey
Made the right call because it was only a 15 minute wait instead of the 60 minutes they posted at the front of the attraction. The ride was okay and I pretty much knew what to expect after following this thread. At the end of the ride my wife goes "that's it?" which pretty much summed it up. The AA at the end is VERY impressive, but wish they had something else like it earlier in the ride instead of just screens. It's not a bad ride, but it's nothing to write home about. Definitely wouldn't wait any longer than 20 minutes in the future.

Satu'li Canteen
We were already done with Pandora before they opened so we didn't get to try anything on the menu. However, while we were in the land you could smell them cooking the chicken and beef on the grill and it smelt amazing. Will definitely plan on having a meal here next time!!

Overall
The land itself is visually stunning and we got some pretty cool pictures in front of the floating mountains. I know I didn't ride FOP, and I think that's important to judge the land as a whole, but it certainly feels like the land is missing something.

Miscellaneous
Was trying to figure out how the wait time for FOP was so long even though the park only opened an hour before we got there. A couple in front of us in line for Na'vi River Journey overheard us talking about it and told us that they got to the park at 7:30 am and were allowed into Pandora and actually got in line before the park even opened for extra magic hours at 8 am. Even then they said they still waited an hour to ride.
 
the ride gets massive waits for a good reason. It's an amazing attraction. Sorry you couldn't "wait it out".

Hopefully once SWL and the other new attractions open across Orlando, the demand for FOP will go down and become much more manageable.

No one should have to wait almost 3 hours for any ride. i don't care how great it is.
 
Just got back yesterday. Spent Thursday at AK and had a FP to Flight of Passage. I then obtained commitment from my wife to wait the 75 minute wait for River Journey.

Land and Immersive Qualities: Like many have stated. The rockwork is fairly amazing but not mind-blowing. Much better at night for us. Did enjoy the flowing water and setting but kind of felt like they missed with it. Our preference would actually have been a beautiful tropical or island setting and not have committed to Avatar. Just us.

River Journey: So, we went to the restroom beforehand and then got in line. Waited forever in one spot, moved then feet and resumed waiting forever. I hadn't really watched the videos of the queue and was shocked that, once we went into the "cave", we were ready to board. It was a long 75 minutes, though. We boarded and moved into the ride. From our perspective, it all felt fake and not immersive. The screens didn't draw us in. Some parts were cool, like the six-legged frogs jumping fronds, but it mostly, "meh". We disembarked with the same, "That's it?" I didn't think that story mattered much until that point. Nothing existed to draw us in emotionally.

Flight of Passage: 2 1/2 hour waits. All day. So, I was happy that I had committed to logging on 64 days ago nice and early and obtaining Fastpasses. Get there for our window and start walking the exterior queue and then into the building through the concrete bunker. Here, my wife and I disagreed. She was really questioning things while I was assuring that the lack of theming was the theme (since it was a military bunker after all). Then, we hit the pre-load shows. Two things. First, not going through the queue and seeing the indoor setting with plants really stole some of the experience. I had watched Youtube videos of the regular queue and looked forward to going inside. Second, the pre-shows are boring and way too long. Oy. As far as the ride, it was very good but not overwhelmingly so. I was on the very last "banshee" of the row at the far end. For some reason, I could see the other riders and also around the edge of the glasses. My wife enjoyed herself, which was good. No way is it worth that wait, though. It was over about a minute too soon. While some may disagree, I think that Spiderman does a much better job at putting you into the ride.

Overall: Nice land but overrated. While I don't know the final cost (some estimated it between $500m - $1.0B), it was a missed opportunity. It definitely needed a third ride, higher capacity rides, and more story line on the River Journey. As we left the park, my wife asked me how long before it becomes less popular. I responded early 2020, once SWL opens, and then hard to say what impact it will have. It just didn't have that staying power that one thinks of with Disney. More like something that could be easily reskinned into something else if they don't want to keep paying for the licence.
 
Just got back yesterday. Spent Thursday at AK and had a FP to Flight of Passage. I then obtained commitment from my wife to wait the 75 minute wait for River Journey.

Land and Immersive Qualities: Like many have stated. The rockwork is fairly amazing but not mind-blowing. Much better at night for us. Did enjoy the flowing water and setting but kind of felt like they missed with it. Our preference would actually have been a beautiful tropical or island setting and not have committed to Avatar. Just us.

River Journey: So, we went to the restroom beforehand and then got in line. Waited forever in one spot, moved then feet and resumed waiting forever. I hadn't really watched the videos of the queue and was shocked that, once we went into the "cave", we were ready to board. It was a long 75 minutes, though. We boarded and moved into the ride. From our perspective, it all felt fake and not immersive. The screens didn't draw us in. Some parts were cool, like the six-legged frogs jumping fronds, but it mostly, "meh". We disembarked with the same, "That's it?" I didn't think that story mattered much until that point. Nothing existed to draw us in emotionally.

Flight of Passage: 2 1/2 hour waits. All day. So, I was happy that I had committed to logging on 64 days ago nice and early and obtaining Fastpasses. Get there for our window and start walking the exterior queue and then into the building through the concrete bunker. Here, my wife and I disagreed. She was really questioning things while I was assuring that the lack of theming was the theme (since it was a military bunker after all). Then, we hit the pre-load shows. Two things. First, not going through the queue and seeing the indoor setting with plants really stole some of the experience. I had watched Youtube videos of the regular queue and looked forward to going inside. Second, the pre-shows are boring and way too long. Oy. As far as the ride, it was very good but not overwhelmingly so. I was on the very last "banshee" of the row at the far end. For some reason, I could see the other riders and also around the edge of the glasses. My wife enjoyed herself, which was good. No way is it worth that wait, though. It was over about a minute too soon. While some may disagree, I think that Spiderman does a much better job at putting you into the ride.

Overall: Nice land but overrated. While I don't know the final cost (some estimated it between $500m - $1.0B), it was a missed opportunity. It definitely needed a third ride, higher capacity rides, and more story line on the River Journey. As we left the park, my wife asked me how long before it becomes less popular. I responded early 2020, once SWL opens, and then hard to say what impact it will have. It just didn't have that staying power that one thinks of with Disney. More like something that could be easily reskinned into something else if they don't want to keep paying for the licence.
Sorry you got the dreaded side seats for FoP, but glad you guys liked it still. You’re right though, you gotta see the full queue at least once all the way through.
 
Sorry you got the dreaded side seats for FoP, but glad you guys liked it still. You’re right though, you gotta see the full queue at least once all the way through.

Dang, I wondered if the side seat was my problem. Tragically, I also got the very last side-seat on Soarin as well but that only made the Eiffel Tower very curvy. Despite my little rant, we did enjoy ourselves on FoP. River Journey was a little boring, well, more than a little. The land itself just didn't quite sell itself for us. Sadly, I did not take advantage of the DVC Rental in order to get three more FP's.
 
Just got back yesterday. Spent Thursday at AK and had a FP to Flight of Passage. I then obtained commitment from my wife to wait the 75 minute wait for River Journey.

Land and Immersive Qualities: Like many have stated. The rockwork is fairly amazing but not mind-blowing. Much better at night for us. Did enjoy the flowing water and setting but kind of felt like they missed with it. Our preference would actually have been a beautiful tropical or island setting and not have committed to Avatar. Just us.

River Journey: So, we went to the restroom beforehand and then got in line. Waited forever in one spot, moved then feet and resumed waiting forever. I hadn't really watched the videos of the queue and was shocked that, once we went into the "cave", we were ready to board. It was a long 75 minutes, though. We boarded and moved into the ride. From our perspective, it all felt fake and not immersive. The screens didn't draw us in. Some parts were cool, like the six-legged frogs jumping fronds, but it mostly, "meh". We disembarked with the same, "That's it?" I didn't think that story mattered much until that point. Nothing existed to draw us in emotionally.

Flight of Passage: 2 1/2 hour waits. All day. So, I was happy that I had committed to logging on 64 days ago nice and early and obtaining Fastpasses. Get there for our window and start walking the exterior queue and then into the building through the concrete bunker. Here, my wife and I disagreed. She was really questioning things while I was assuring that the lack of theming was the theme (since it was a military bunker after all). Then, we hit the pre-load shows. Two things. First, not going through the queue and seeing the indoor setting with plants really stole some of the experience. I had watched Youtube videos of the regular queue and looked forward to going inside. Second, the pre-shows are boring and way too long. Oy. As far as the ride, it was very good but not overwhelmingly so. I was on the very last "banshee" of the row at the far end. For some reason, I could see the other riders and also around the edge of the glasses. My wife enjoyed herself, which was good. No way is it worth that wait, though. It was over about a minute too soon. While some may disagree, I think that Spiderman does a much better job at putting you into the ride.

Overall: Nice land but overrated. While I don't know the final cost (some estimated it between $500m - $1.0B), it was a missed opportunity. It definitely needed a third ride, higher capacity rides, and more story line on the River Journey. As we left the park, my wife asked me how long before it becomes less popular. I responded early 2020, once SWL opens, and then hard to say what impact it will have. It just didn't have that staying power that one thinks of with Disney. More like something that could be easily reskinned into something else if they don't want to keep paying for the licence.
The 2 times I rode FoP I had center seats and still felt the same as you. A great ride, but not a game changer in the realm of SIM rides. It just felt like a step up from BttF/Simpson's.
 
I went to Animal Kingdom with an non-theme park, Avatar fan, who has been dying to finally check out the land. We couldn't do FoP but intend to this week. Some comments from him:

Land looks beautiful but nothing to really do after the initial awe of the first viewing. The nighttime was great, but "too damn dark".

The store sucked other than a few cool pieces of merch.

He did River Journey. He liked it but did say the FP helped his positive review. "If I had waited 2 hours for that, I would've asked for my money back."
 
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