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

[likesdisney]

Do you think they'll have the buses up and running to Animal Kingdom from CBR before 7am?

 

[AngiTN]

Do you think they'll have the buses up and running to Animal Kingdom from CBR before 7am?

Yes, the first buses should be out about 6:30. However, there could be a longer than normal gap between the first and second bus so if you miss the first bus it is likely to be after 7:00 before the next one comes.

 

[FastPasser.]

These are the times as published by WDW Bus Transportation.
Early morning bus service begins at the following times each morning:
Buses to MK – 6:15 a.m.
Buses to DHS – 6:45 a.m.
Buses to Epcot – 7:15 a.m.
Buses to DAK – 7:15 a.m.

 

[Duo Lu]

Can't wait to be there

 

[greg9x]

Does anyone know if Disney will eventually create different videos for FoP like they do for Star Tours?

After 2nd time riding it I had this thought also... The first ride was 'Wow !', the 2nd time was 'Ok.' I won't wait 1.5 hours again to ride it without FP. Sure lines for it will be long for years as it is the 'it' ride for AK. But once you've seen it and the surprise/newness is gone it needs some variety to keep it interesting.

Said in another post, Pandora is cool, but over-hyped. Liked the rides but wasn't desperate to get more FP's for them after did RJ once and FoP twice.

Everyone has their plan, but glad didn't do the rope drop.. it's still 2-2.5 hours of your time (plus getting up early). People talk about saving 'Park time'... but we went later morning with a RJ FP, did 1.5 hour standby for FoP, safari ride, Lion King show, river rapids, etc. THEN my son decided he wanted to do the Wilderness Explorers and we spent another ~3 hours re-circling the park getting all the stations, leaving around 7p.m. pretty worn out. Not sure how much more park time you need. (but of course that doesn't work as well when the wait for Fop is 4 hours)

Think my favorite part is the Canteen... the Slow Roasted Beef salad was my favorite QS meal i've had at Disney (and my son loved the cheeseburger pods...but not the chips). Plus on real plates with real silverware and attentive cast members in a nice air conditioned venue . Ate there 3 times. Wish all QS could be like that.

Pandora at dark is nice... but to keep the glowing effect some areas are pretty dark, that doesn't work so well with hundreds of people transversing the pathways... Surprised there aren't more collisions.

Overall enjoyed Pandora... but as said, the hype was more than the actual experience.

 

[peteykirch]

I implore people to always refresh the fast pass search because you might find this Flight of Passage sitting there for you after using 6 fast passes at Epcot.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I just found some extra footage on my phone from our trip and it had all the pre-flight check information when on the FoP ride so uploaded it. It may be useful to some people who have no reference point for what the ride entails:

As an aside... our whole party thought this actor was... odd. Kind of off-putting. Couldn't help but think they could have gotten a better actor. Perhaps it's just us.

 

[robinb]

As an aside... our whole party thought this actor was... odd. Kind of off-putting. Couldn't help but think they could have gotten a better actor. Perhaps it's just us.

It reminded me of the videos from the Dharma Initiative on the TV show Lost.

 

[flav]

Said in another post, Pandora is cool, but over-hyped. Liked the rides but wasn't desperate to get more FP's for them after did RJ once and FoP twice.

Everyone has their plan, but glad didn't do the rope drop.. it's still 2-2.5 hours of your time (plus getting up early). People talk about saving 'Park time'... but we went later morning with a RJ FP, did 1.5 hour standby for FoP, safari ride, Lion King show, river rapids, etc. ... (but of course that doesn't work as well when the wait for Fop is 4 hours)

Overall enjoyed Pandora... but as said, the hype was more than the actual experience.

I was wondering exactly that. I did not get a FP for FoP and will keep trying.

However, as the day approaches if still without FP, I'll have 3 choices:
1) Rope drop for FoP and cancel 8AM ADR at BOG
2) Go to AK in the afternoon and wait a long while
3) Try entering FoP before park closure thus missing the MK fireworks

And I am wondering if this is all worth it.

 

[AngiTN]

As an aside... our whole party thought this actor was... odd. Kind of off-putting. Couldn't help but think they could have gotten a better actor. Perhaps it's just us.

The way he is acting is intentional. He's supposed to be awkward. Not comfortable in front of a camera.

 

[Smittolis]

As an aside... our whole party thought this actor was... odd. Kind of off-putting. Couldn't help but think they could have gotten a better actor. Perhaps it's just us.

I think that was intentional, Disney doesn't do those things 'by accident'.... It reminded me of all the old style Microsoft infomercials! lol

As for the land itself? I will upload some more random clips as a broader look at the land. I also did a mini walk around and review of the food at the canteen, my wife and kids loved the food there!

The landscaping and gardens are impressive, it's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. The Na'avi River ride was ok, we fast passed it but once was enough, not a great ride and much too short. I threw up after the FoP, I'm sensitive to motion sickness due to medicine so this was a known quantity, but I still wanted to experience it with my family. It was a good experience in that sense and something to say 'I did' but i'll never do it again lol... The rest of the family? they did it about 10 times over the course of the 2 weeks we were there.

A couple of things to think about:
1. Extra Magic Hours when it opens late... only Pandora is open. We didn't know this so planned to do a lot of the other rides like Dino land etc.. only to find that they all closed at 10pm and only Pandora was open... kind of pointless as we had already ridden those 2 rides a few times... lucky i know.
2. Extra Magic Hours early... My wife was there at rope drop for this and I don't know how its possible, but when they got to FoP the line was already to Africa and 3+ hrs!!! They actually had a guy with a sign saying 'line starts here!' lol
3. I guess we were lucky as we booked our fast passes as soon as we were allowed to use them with our stay dates, we got it on the cards a few times, in addition to my daughters DAS they rode it a lot and was their favorite ride.
4. Be careful at night, the lights are really really low and it is really dark, too dark in my opinion, having little kids out late in a park with hardly any lighting is asking for trouble!
5. Being in line for a long time, plan ahead, get water, fluid etc... and sunshade to stay cool, so many people were close to passing out in the midday heat due to standing in line for so long!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I think that was intentional, Disney doesn't do those things 'by accident'.... It reminded me of all the old style Microsoft infomercials! lol

Perhaps so... I still would love to see them switch him out.

ETA: might be intentional, but doesn't mean it isn't a mistake... even Disney has backed out of less-than-optimal decisions...

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

The way he is acting is intentional. He's supposed to be awkward. Not comfortable in front of a camera.

There's a difference between someone being a good actor and effectively acting awkward, and someone just seeming like a bad actor. Seemed like the latter to all of us. Like bad soap opera acting.

 

[ThistleMae]

I guess I didn't really notice or care about the actor in the video...I just wanted to get on the ride!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I guess I didn't really notice or care about the actor in the video...I just wanted to get on the ride!

We still LOVED the ride! Just making an observation about the actor after someone posted the video.

 

[bugs359]

I was just able to grab fastpasses for flight of passage for 9:50am on Nov 12. We have a lunch reservation at beaches and cream at 11 before we have to leave to catch our flight home that afternoon. Do you guys think it's possible to make both the fastpass and lunch reservation? How long do people typically have to wait to get on the ride with a fastpass?

 

[Lee Matthews]

At WDW now and went on flight of Passage a couple of days ago.

Now I hate Avatar but this was probably one of the best rides I have ever gone on. I had a few tears I found it that incredible. Can't wait to go on it again

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Now I hate Avatar but this was probably one of the best rides I have ever gone on.

Same on both counts!

 

[AngiTN]

I was just able to grab fastpasses for flight of passage for 9:50am on Nov 12. We have a lunch reservation at beaches and cream at 11 before we have to leave to catch our flight home that afternoon. Do you guys think it's possible to make both the fastpass and lunch reservation? How long do people typically have to wait to get on the ride with a fastpass?

Yes but.
FP riders really don't wait more than 5 min to get to the merge point. Now, once at the merge point you have to get through to being sorted to rooms and then through 2 videos. So it's about oh, 20 min, start to finish, on avg. Provided nothing goes glitchy while you are riding. A down theater or other type of glitch and who knows how long it will take. We had one ride take about 45 min due to a glitch in the matching room (which I suspect was really just a delay elsewhere and they built it in to appear like a glitch)
Then how will you go from AK to BC? Using Disney buses will be really tough. I'd plan to use Lyft if I wasn't driving.

 

[bugs359]

Oh great, that's just what I was hoping to hear! We can definitely do an Uber/Lyft to get back to BC.