Hi Everyone.
I don't post here very much, although I did back in the day... I now live just a few miles from the front gate of the World, and spend a bit of time there. As luck would have it we were staying at the Villas at the Grand Floridian for my daughters birthday and were able to visit Pandora for the DVC preview. So I wanted to offer my views and opinions, and hope others will add to this as they visit this new land
First of all I will state that it is beautiful, and in creating the world of AVATAR Disney has done a marvelous job. This is perhaps the best themed area in not only WDW, but all of the theme park industry. Disney was challenged with the wizarding world over at Universal, and they rose to the challenge, in many areas even surpassing them. The main area they succeed in is site lines. I love both Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, but they are relatively small, and in many places the real world intrudes. Not so here, from the moment the visitor crosses the bridge they are completely immersed in Pandora, at no time in the 3 hours we spent there did we see anything, with the exception of Disney price stickers on merchandise, did we see anything that gave away where we were, we were in Pandora. While the scenery fails to convince the mountains are actually floating (an impossible task in the real world) they offer a majesty unseen elsewhere. the use of forced perspective in the mountains, both floating and anchored was very well done, giving the illusion the landscape is much larger than it really is.
Now unto the rides.
Flight of Passage did not disappoint. I admittedly am one of the few people who never watch the movie this place is associated with, yet I felt at home and not lost, yet one of our traveling companions who is well versed in the story was able to identify much of what she saw. The ride itself is located inside a mountain, well really a show building with a mountain range facade, and boasts the longest line perhaps in the world. A cast member told us when the line is full it can contain 4 hours worth of guests. This might actually mean 8 hours, I will get back to that in a minute. That long line is uphill almost all the way, we had a wheel chair with us, and while we only waited minutes it was a very long hall, and very tiring. In the hot Florida sun the outside portions may be very difficult for some people, just a suggestion, but if the line is long, bring water...
The ride itself is a variation of Soaring, but the ride vehicles don't go up in the air, rather guests are queued into three levels before boarding their Banshees. the preview movie the first time seemed almost as if it was being made up as we watched it, which in a way is good themeing for first time visitors, but ended up being a long slow bit upon return visits. There is some cool effects here that I will leave up to you to enjoy unspoiled by me at this time.
The ride itself is very well done, and takes Soaring to new levels. While it was never hard to forget we were watching a computer generated movie it was none the less immersing even for a complete novice. I saw someone say that it was intense, none in are party thought it was any more intense the a lot of other rides although that might be because we were on the bottom level on all our rides. So if fear of heights is a problem ask for the bottom level, this may help.
Now onto the bad about the ride. Indeed Disney has gone the way of Universal and made a ride that many may not be able to ride if they have certain body dimensions, or, based on my observations, unable to transfer out of a wheel chair. On our first trip (when I say this part I mean NO DISRESPECT to anyone) a lady was unable to ride because of the size issue. In my opinion she was not that overly large, perhaps in the 250lbs range. The sad part is in repeated visits that day we saw no test seats for visitors to try before the went up the mountain. Can you imagine waiting HOURS for the ride only to find out you can't go? Disney may get MANY complaints about this. Now on to what I alluded to before. A cast member friend of mine (actually 3rd party friend) who works there said they are having significant problems with the ride. Apparently they have multiple theaters but all of them have a nasty habit of overheating and needing to be shut down for cooling. While we were there something like this must have happened as we had to wait while the people in the theater we were in were escorted out and to another theater, then when it was our turn we also were led to the other theater. If this is true the the real capacity of the ride is half of what they expect and long lines will be the rule for some time.
Na'vi River ride was also well done, but somewhat of a disappointment. I had hoped for something along the lines of Pirates but what we got was a dark (lighting) jungle cruise. This ride is geared for "families", but I feel those between the ages of 8 and old enough to have kids under 8 will not be to interested after their first ride. While this ride boasts the most amazing animatronic I have perhaps ever seen the rest of the sort trip is just floating through a florescent jungle with projections of creatures. They must not be expecting a whole lot of people as the boats hold only 4 adults and maybe 2 more kids. Although the ride itself only lasts about 4 minutes from my recollection it was a pleasant distraction from the heat. The line area is nowhere nearly as themed as Flight, with just a corral of switch back for much of it.
On a side note, a nice touch as we were leaving cast members welcomed us back to earth.
I have left out much here as I think it is best explored and discovered on ones own. A visitor can expect to devote several hours here even if perchance (ha ha) the lines are short. I will add in closing that while the food choices other than the fried wantons similar to what the have at Yak n Yeti did little for us the shopping was good. and there is a lot of little things to explore and discover. This was a fine addition to the AK and may make it an all day park finally.
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