I'll definitely put together a full trip report. Now off to DHS I go!
There was a Guest Relations CM under an umbrella right before the wall entrance to Pandora. I let the other CMs know of my concern and they directed me to him to get it corrected. No other CM could do it - I checked with several others in other parks. But if you have your email, you are going to be fine.
Maybe they had too many people riding multiple times so the wait times were going up too high?
Should be. We've seen previews of them.
I'm off today, so I don't know what's going on. I'm thinking it's as you posted because it was working fine as of 8pm last night. But there were some longish waits because of repeat riders that were still there from previous sessions and repeat riders from the current session. They also had an occasional short stoppage. I liked the idea of using FPs even though they weren't really needed. I was surprised that they weren't using them yesterday.
AFAIK, they identified the mechanical problem and fixed each theater one by one. Unofficial 2nd hand reports are that all 4 theaters were operational as of yesterday.
The dedication event is next Wed night, I believe they'll have the lighting event at that time for the attendees and press.
It was one or the other. When they were using the FPs, the FP Que was used. When they stopped using the FPs, they used the Standby Que. But even when they were using just the FP Que, the Standby Que was open for anyone wanting to experience it.
Yeah, I was surprised when I heard they stopped doing FPs, especially because it's not like they had less people in each session! And if I was there and they weren't limiting FoP to FPs, I would probably end up riding it a bunch and staying way after my window was done. That way I wouldn't have to feel like I needed to ride it once the land actually opened. If I could only ride with a FP I would do my one time, ride NRJ a couple times, get some food, and wander around the land, but that sounds like it could be done in a few hours.
I don't think so. One of the prime objectives, if not the prime objective during the previews was to operate and debug the two attractions. Making sure that guests rode the rides probably wasn't even on the list. There was no hesitation to shut down either ride when they needed to. Sorry folks, no one will ride FoP this entire session. They weren't trying to get as many people to ride it as possible. No promises were made regarding what guests would experience.
I enjoyed the gelatine balls on top too.
Yes, all good practice, but anything gained from these previews will be in addition to the weeks of CM training, operating the rides and restaurant for various select groups and even some unsuspecting day guests. Also, having spent weeks with them and getting to know many of them, the majority of Pandora CMs are not new hires, most have told me that they're transfers from other attractions at WDW, so most already have experience dealing with guests and working attractions, it's just a different attraction.
