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

[nas1861]

I have a dessert party at MK and want to then hop to AK for EMH. It's in a few weeks and both parks close at 10:00 with HEA at 9:00. My first option is the express bus but in case that won't work, what is the next best option? Is there a bus that goes from MK to AK that late or do I need to go to a resort and catch a AK bus?

 

[AngiTN]

I have a dessert party at MK and want to then hop to AK for EMH. It's in a few weeks and both parks close at 10:00 with HEA at 9:00. My first option is the express bus but in case that won't work, what is the next best option? Is there a bus that goes from MK to AK that late or do I need to go to a resort and catch a AK bus?

If you go straight to the express bus stop following HEA it will work, no problem. We did it just after memorial day, from the dessert party

There are regular park to park buses also, if you didn't want the express bus for some reason

 

[TDSAXX]

We will be in AK on Friday, July 21. Wondering what is the best strategy for riding FOP during EMH?

I thought I read that they close off the line early, so that most offsite guests are through the line by the start of EMH. Do people "line up" to get in line for the start of EMH? If so how far in advance? What is the line like by the end of EMH?

 

[tinkerbella16]

I did all of our FP's yesterday at our 60 day mark. I am so happy that we got FOP fps for the day/time we hoped for (9/5). We are going to AK on the afternoon of our 4th day of our trip and there was plenty of times available through the day to choose from. So excited!!!

 

[rteetz]

Reminder that AK hours change today

http://blogmickey.com/2017/07/adjusted-animal-kingdom-park-hours-go-effect-today/

 

[DisTXMom]

We were planning on doing DAK on day 3 and day 5 of our trip. Reading everyone's experience, I'm wondering if We should rearrange our plans to do DAK later in our trip- maybe day 5 and 6. It's not one of our favorite parks, so we'd mostly be going to see Pandora. It will be 11/16-11/21 so leading up to thanksgiving. We are a party of 4.

 

[AngiTN]

We were planning on doing DAK on day 3 and day 5 of our trip. Reading everyone's experience, I'm wondering if We should rearrange our plans to do DAK later in our trip- maybe day 5 and 6. It's not one of our favorite parks, so we'd mostly be going to see Pandora. It will be 11/16-11/21 so leading up to thanksgiving. We are a party of 4.

If it's not too much trouble. It is going to be hit or miss (miss for us) to find FP for FoP on day 3. Best we got was afternoon on Day 4, and all day on day 5. We had nothing available, for 2, on day 3.

 

[DisTXMom]

If it's not too much trouble. It is going to be hit or miss (miss for us) to find FP for FoP on day 3. Best we got was afternoon on Day 4, and all day on day 5. We had nothing available, for 2, on day 3.

Thank you! It will be easier to move dining now than it will be 60 days out- that's for sure!

 

[DaniMoon]

Wow....this was great for you! We can't do gate drop, so what do you think about trying for late afternoon or evening like other folks have said, did you notice the wait times while you were there?

I didn't notice a dip in the wait times during the day, but honestly wasn't looking. My brother and niece went to 11pm-1am EMH and waited almost 2 hours to ride.
Sorry, not much help.

 

[wareagle57]

I know it's been open a while but we just got back and I wanted to give my mini review/opinion on Pandora.

First, the operating procedure I had prepared for and read about is not what took place the morning we went. I was excited for this so we did it our first morning instead of MK, which is ALWAYS our first stop. AK had 7AM EMH (7/1) and we drove from AoA and arrived just before 6am to an unopened bag check line. No big deal. We were 2nd in line at our station. There was obviously something up with security and some of the guards were not happy. For some reason bag check didn't open until a little after 6:30, at which point there was a huge crowd behind us and the guests without bags that got there long after us flooded in ahead and we were about 10 people deep at the entrance. Despite all that, we were still led to FoP by about 6:55 and off the ride by 7:20. We sat on our bikes for a long time before the ride started because one of the rooms had a problem with the seats.

We all loved FoP, and I was smiling the entire time. But I don't think it's the greatest ride ever like it's been hyped by some. At the end of the day it was just a simulator ride. A very good simulator ride, but just a simulator ride. We rode it twice, and both times we were on the bottom row and on the end. I'd like to ride it in the middle row to see if it's more immersive that way. It was a slight letdown personally but I think that's my fault for getting my expectations up.

NRJ was next. My expectations were already low for it, and after FoP, I lowered them even more. I ended up loving it. I'm not calling it a better ride. But it is a better C/D ticket than FoP is an E ticket imo. I would have liked it to be longer I guess, but I didn't feel like it was over before I blinked. The lights were amazing and there was so much attention to detail. I'm a sucker for pretty lights I guess. I loved the 3D moving projections. There were several things that I initially really had to study to determine if it was real or not. It could have been longer I guess, but I didn't feel like it was over before you could blink like some other rides.

Pandora at night was my biggest letdown. It was so dark and you couldn't tell where to go. Nothing was as bright as I expected, even after reading how dark it was. On top of that, it was so crowded you could barely move. I don't like crowds, but am always able to push that phobia out when at WDW because I love it so much. I could hardly stand to be in Pandora during EMH at night, while I had no issues there during the day. We found a few hidden areas to get away and I did enjoy it. I wish they still cleared the line for EMH. I think there must have been some sort of issue because the line for FoP backed up into the entire land. I don't know why they didn't send the line out towards Lion King like I've read they had been. Instead it stretched almost over to NRJ, right smack dab in the middle of the land, making it feel even more crowded. My favorite part was the lights on the ground. I would love to learn how they did that and replicate it. It was also a lot of fun watching the drum performers.

Overall, I give Pandora a 7.5/10, with WWoHP being the gold standard, if such a thing exists. It was very good, but it didn't blow me away like the first time I rode FJ, the first time I stepped into Diagon Alley, or the first time I saw the rockwork for Carsland. But I can't wait to go back and do it again.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Pandora at night was my biggest letdown. It was so dark and you couldn't tell where to go. Nothing was as bright as I expected, even after reading how dark it was. On top of that, it was so crowded you could barely move.

I've been reading this a lot across various sites/platforms. Bummer.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Wow....this was great for you! We can't do gate drop, so what do you think about trying for late afternoon or evening like other folks have said, did you notice the wait times while you were there?

I noticed a big dip in wait times between 8 and 10 at night. Once at 75 minutes around nine. That was after big afternoon storms. That's the lowest I saw FOP.

EMH are packed because people from the other three parks come over. Posted wait times during EMH were 120 to 260 minutes. However, sometimes that is inflated. I got in line for FOP during EMH with a posted wait of 120 and I waited 65 minutes (something I've never done for any ride, but I had already ridden FOP with a fastpass and I thought it was worth it- also wanted to see the queue. It is outstanding).

NRJ had a posted wait time of 50 minutes and I waited 30.

 

[AngiTN]

On top of that, it was so crowded you could barely move. I don't like crowds, but am always able to push that phobia out when at WDW because I love it so much. I could hardly stand to be in Pandora during EMH at night, while I had no issues there during the day. We found a few hidden areas to get away and I did enjoy it. I wish they still cleared the line for EMH. I think there must have been some sort of issue because the line for FoP backed up into the entire land. I don't know why they didn't send the line out towards Lion King like I've read they had been. Instead it stretched almost over to NRJ, right smack dab in the middle of the land, making it feel even more crowded. My favorite part was the lights on the ground. I would love to learn how they did that and replicate it. It was also a lot of fun watching the drum performers.

Overall, I give Pandora a 7.5/10, with WWoHP being the gold standard, if such a thing exists. It was very good, but it didn't blow me away like the first time I rode FJ, the first time I stepped into Diagon Alley, or the first time I saw the rockwork for Carsland. But I can't wait to go back and do it again.

This is something I'm seeing more and more comments on and something that is a significant change from opening week.
They were keeping the crowds low opening week by controlling access. We had no one in most of our photos. Granted, this means there were lines to get in so there were trade offs
I guess now there are no lines to get in but there are also lots more people in the land.
Will be interesting to see how it is different when we are back at the end of August

 

[PK Disney Dork]

I've been reading this a lot across various sites/platforms. Bummer.

We just returned ourselves I couldn't disagree more!

We found Pandora at night to be amazing! It truly felt as though you were on another planet and the ambient light given off through the bioluminescence of the plant life was outstanding. We truly felt transported!

We rode FoP twice on our trip only using the standby lines. The first time was after midnight and the posted wait time was over two hours and we only waited maybe an hour. Our second ride was the evening of the 4th of July around 9:00. The posted wait time was 95 minutes so my wife timed it. We were only in line for 36 minutes!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

We just returned ourselves I couldn't disagree more!

We found Pandora at night to be amazing! It truly felt as though you were on another planet and the ambient light given off through the bioluminescence of the plant life was outstanding. We truly felt transported!

We rode FoP twice on our trip only using the standby lines. The first time was after midnight and the posted wait time was over two hours and we only waited maybe an hour. Our second ride was the evening of the 4th of July around 9:00. The posted wait time was 95 minutes so my wife timed it. We were only in line for 36 minutes!

Good to hear - thanks for sharing! I've just been seeing the opposite a lot recently... which was disappointing because we're really looking forward to seeing Pandora in Aug.

Also sounds like there's been variability in terms of how BRIGHT everything is... whether everything is working as intended... wonder how much of that is leading to the varied reports?

 

[AngiTN]

Good to hear - thanks for sharing! I've just been seeing the opposite a lot recently... which was disappointing because we're really looking forward to seeing Pandora in Aug.

Also sounds like there's been variability in terms of how BRIGHT everything is... whether everything is working as intended... wonder how much of that is leading to the varied reports?

That and I'm sure everyone has a varying level of how they perceive things in the dark. Some people just see things better at night than others.
Still, after being there 2 different nights we did see it differently each night
So it does change/fluctuate to some degree

 

[preemiemama]

Pandora at night was my biggest letdown. It was so dark and you couldn't tell where to go. Nothing was as bright as I expected, even after reading how dark it was. On top of that, it was so crowded you could barely move. I don't like crowds, but am always able to push that phobia out when at WDW because I love it so much. I could hardly stand to be in Pandora during EMH at night, while I had no issues there during the day. We found a few hidden areas to get away and I did enjoy it.

This is something I'm seeing more and more comments on and something that is a significant change from opening week.
They were keeping the crowds low opening week by controlling access. We had no one in most of our photos. Granted, this means there were lines to get in so there were trade offs
I guess now there are no lines to get in but there are also lots more people in the land.
Will be interesting to see how it is different when we are back at the end of August

That and I'm sure everyone has a varying level of how they perceive things in the dark. Some people just see things better at night than others.
Still, after being there 2 different nights we did see it differently each night
So it does change/fluctuate to some degree

We were there on 6/30 around 8 pm for a FOP FP. There had been some pretty bad storms earlier that evening, but it did not seem to do much for the wait times/crowding. Even the photopass photographers had lines that were about an hour long. I will echo the darkness aspect. It was OK for me at twilight, heading into the ride. However, once it was truly dark I had a lot of trouble seeing things and knowing where to go. The crowding did not help. That area seems small to me, and there were people everywhere. If it helps for perspective, I always seem to find AK in general hot and crowded when we go in June/July. I felt borderline claustrophobic trying to get to Everest as ROL was letting out as well, so it was not just Pandora. I did feel it was darker and more crowded than it needed to be in Pandora, though!

 

[PolyRob]

How have the PM EMH hours been with the reduced hours after July 4th? Is there still a long line for FoP that gets cut before entering upon 10pm, or do you think it would be ok to head there after a 10:30 - 10:45pm RoL and attempt stand-by?

 

[Amy Hammack]

Has pandora been all that is open during EMH in the evening still? I have heard occasionally Everest or Dinoland has been open? Will MDE reflect this? Thanks!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Booked FP+ for our trip in Sept yesterday at 11am Eastern. Had no problems getting FP+ for FoP on all 3 of our AK days for a party of 6.