***Official*** Pandora: The World of Avatar Information Thread

[rteetz]

Boat rides tend to be people-eaters.

Yes but this is in the 4-5 minute range and only seats 8 per boat. That's similar to Frozen but Frozen seats 10-12 per boat.

 

[ckelly14]

The more I think on it the more I think we'll want to stand by each ride at least once. The the bigger strategy may be what is going to be the best time to do this? Opening, EMH, something else? Likely to be awful anytime, I guess.

I always assume that the best option is going at rope drop, whether EMH or regular hours. Lots of people don't want to get up early.

 

[ashleymrush]

No idea why they said that but it will be ALL Disney resorts. Remember, these are written by bloggers, not official announcements. They just added a word that shouldn't be there. Disney does not distinguish benefits by resort. All resorts get the same park benefits in regards to EMH and FP

Thanks! That's what I was thinking would be the case. I didn't even notice it at first until someone else had pointed it out to me.

I did not see where it said select resorts. Where did it say that?

It was in the wdwinfo article:

"For a limited time, May 27 – July 4, 2017, guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels can explore Pandora – The World of Avatar beyond regular Park hours."

 

[HydroGuy]

so basically two tiers
Avatar rides

everything else

Yah, I wish I had bet some money on this post from Tuesday LOL!

I am not a close observer of WDW like many of you, but it would seem to me if they were to introduce tiers, it would be something like this (because of the unfairness I referenced):

Tier 1 (select one)
FoP
NRJ

Tier 2 (select two)
Everything else

 

[HydroGuy]

It is 60 days for Swan/Dolphin. The only benefits you loose staying there are ME, MB and room charging. I had to go check since it was October when we stayed there and I couldn't remember for certain myself

Yep! From personal experience:

 

[maryj11]

Thanks! That's what I was thinking would be the case. I didn't even notice it at first until someone else had pointed it out to me.



It was in the wdwinfo article:

"For a limited time, May 27 – July 4, 2017, guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels can explore Pandora – The World of Avatar beyond regular Park hours."

Hmmm I wonder what that means. That might be a good idea. Only have certain resorts for one night then have other resorts the next night and so on. Like split them up to keep crowds down lol.

 

[BrownHP800]

Maybe I am missing something, but if you can start booking fastpasses tomorrow 3/24, that is more than 60 days until May 27th. I have a reservation for the Dolphin that weekend and as of today I can only book up to May 22 which is 60 days.

 

[ashleymrush]

Hmmm I wonder what that means. That might be a good idea. Only have certain resorts for one night then have other resorts the next night and so on. Like split them up to keep crowds down lol.

That's an idea but I don't think they'll do it. It wouldn't be fair for people doing split stays or only staying a couple nights, etc. I think it will be really busy in the first week but then I really think it won't be too bad.

1. Families with kids will not be likely to be out that late. I'm going with a group of 6 family members but it would likely just be 2-3 of us that stay while others go back with the kids.
2. If it is EVERY night, then people won't be packed in each evening. They'll do it once, maybe twice and be done with it.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Maybe I am missing something, but if you can start booking fastpasses tomorrow 3/24, that is more than 60 days until May 27th. I have a reservation for the Dolphin that weekend and as of today I can only book up to May 22 which is 60 days.

It's more than 60 days out, but you can book for 60 + 10 when staying onsite (similar to dining).

 

[PrincessV]

I won't dispute Walter's thinking, but I'll add that we can also throw in the (presumably) higher capacity of the boat ride to possibly offset the "families" effect.

Since I've heard from another DISer that "Flight" apparently has a fantastic queue, my first gut instinct will be to ride that one standby the first time. This addresses a point made above by @McKelly We may find out that everyone gets to see the queue, even if just walking through it, but that will factor as well.

Fortunately, I don't need to make my FP reservations until late July, so there's plenty of time to find out what the strategy is.

ETA - I suspect both rides will have good queues, and doing multiple AK visits this Fall I expect to go through both more than once.

Flight is supposed to have a good queue. You will also have the "creating your avatar" aspect of the queue.

Good info - thanks! Yes, my family is willing to wait if the queue is really exceptional... I'm not sure we're willing to wait more than 2 hours, though, so having a FP in pocket may be the way we go. I'm semi-local, so it won't be the end of the world if we miss one or the other, or miss the queue, the first time.

 

[megs1313]

I'm behind, but I just heard a rumor that disney released information about passholder previews of pandora beginning in april...can anyone confirm this?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

So it will look like this?
Tier One (pick one attraction)
Flight of Passage
Na'vi River Jounrey

Tier Two (pick 2 attractions)
everything else

That's what it sounds like to me. I can live with this, but as I've said, I'd REALLY hate more extensive tiering of AK...

 

[hiroMYhero]

Maybe I am missing something, but if you can start booking fastpasses tomorrow 3/24, that is more than 60 days until May 27th. I have a reservation for the Dolphin that weekend and as of today I can only book up to May 22 which is 60 days.

Your Dolphin window will only be open through May 23rd tomorrow. You would have to add on nights to the front end of your stay to open the window to book FPs for your weekend trip.

 

[ArielSRL]

I posted pages and pages back in this thread that I think the smarter choice would be to FP the boat ride. Being that the boat ride doesn't have a height requirement so all families can go on it, thus possibly leading to longer standby lines.

The Banshee ride has a height requirement of 44 inches so a lot of small ones won't be able to ride. So both will have long waits, but I think the boat ride will gather more people

I had originally figured on doing Nav'i at RD and FP Flights....I was trying to keep AK to 1 day. But that kind of messes up my safari at RD schedule, so now I am thinking I will just have to bite the bullet and do 1.5 days, booking FPs for both days in AK. It takes away 1/2 a day from MK, but we have 3 days planned...so I suppose I can give that up. I don't know why I am doing it so grudgingly though....just love me some MK, I suppose. AK really should be great at night, though, so I need to get over it, I think.

 

[HydroGuy]

Thank you all for this awesome thread to keep the Disney geeks here in the loop on FPs!

 

[freediverdude]

Thanks! That's what I was thinking would be the case. I didn't even notice it at first until someone else had pointed it out to me.



It was in the wdwinfo article:

"For a limited time, May 27 – July 4, 2017, guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels can explore Pandora – The World of Avatar beyond regular Park hours."

Disney uses that word "select" all the time, but it really means mostly the Disney owned resorts. They have to say that because technically the Disney Springs hotels and the Swan and Dolphin are considered official Walt Disney World resorts, even though they don't get all the perks of the Disney owned ones. It will be all the resorts that get extra magic hours.

 

[FireflyTrance]

OK so I am not used to FP+ booking being critical. I live in California, so do I absolutely have to be up at 4am tomorrow to get a Pandora FP for May 27th? I don't want to do it, but I can, I suppose

Also I already booked some EPCOT fastpasses for that day. I don't want to cancel them if I can't get the Avatar ones. But it seems like if I don't cancel now that might put a delay in booking. Are all of them likely to go in like 60 seconds?

 

[rteetz]

OK so I am not used to FP+ booking being critical. I live in California, so do I absolutely have to be up at 4am tomorrow to get a Pandora FP for May 27th? I don't want to do it, but I can, I suppose

Also I already booked some EPCOT fastpasses for that day. I don't want to cancel them if I can't get the Avatar ones. But it seems like if I don't cancel now that might put a delay in booking. Are all of them likely to go in like 60 seconds?

For May 27th, you likely will have to be up at 4AM. Those are likely going to go fast. However they might hold some and release later for AP and such. No guarantees though.

 

[KalamityJane]

With all the new FP and EMH news...

We will be there beginning of May and May 29-31 at AKV. Planned long before all this hooplah LOL Anyway, probably not going to be able to get FPs due to the tickets we have (we will be upgrading to APs at that first visit, but can't make FPs for the second due to blackouts and not having APs when the FP windows open for Pandora).

Do we count on late EMH (young kids BUT we will be on Europe time) or try to go as early as possible and hope for the best?

 

[KStash]

I'm glad that Rivers of Light isn't included with the Pandora rides! Now I can fast pass ROL plus Navi one day, and Flight of Passage on my second AK day.