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

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Any reports of child swap being discontinued or maybe stricter on FOP?
A CM at Epcot told my daughter Thursday that child swap was no longer allowed-??
I assume it is allowed since height restrictions so I wondered if she meant with FPs.
We go Tuesday and had hoped to swap with 1/2 of us having FPs (we have a baby)

 

[McFlea]

I'll add my FOP FP experience. My FP day was 6/22 for our trip 8/21 - 8/25. My AK day is planned for 8/23 - no FOP at all for that day, but was able to get NRJ. First availability was for day 5 of our trip, 8/25 after 8 pm. Was not planning to go to AK then, but grabbed them. After talking with the family, decided to let those go and stick with our MK plan for that day. Have been checking pretty much every day since, but resigned ourselves to standby, if we felt like it at the time. Today, I was able to change NRJ to FOP on our AK day, 8/23, party of 5 for 8:25 pm. To those on these boards that say "keep checking" - thank you - and I now can add my voice - don't give up, keep checking!

 

[JuneChickie]

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[JuneChickie]

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[JuneChickie]

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[nas1861]

The photopass photographer in Pandora told me they don't do magic shots there. When did that start? I've see lots of them online. Maybe I need to try again another time?

 

[Jamie77]

The Shaman was also working just fine on the River ride tonight.

It was 110 min. with to get on the flight ride and 60 min wait to get on the river ride.
This was at 9:45 pm. ,, the whole area was very crowded.

I thought it was going to be lit up more than it was. not impressed
at all with just walking around Pandora after dark.
It was pretty dark. I also got lost and had a bit of trouble finding the way to exit
out of it because it was so dark.
Lots of cm's around so just asked and they said they get asked that alot.

I was also in the 110 minute line yesterday. I got in line at 6pm and was glad I was inside when that heavy downpour occurred. I was underwhelmed with the Pandora after dark thing that was hyped up amongst vloggers. The land seems very small to me. I did appreciate all the details in the FoP queue.

 

[AngiTN]

The photopass photographer in Pandora told me they don't do magic shots there. When did that start? I've see lots of them online. Maybe I need to try again another time?

Maybe he(she) meant in that location? The magic shots are only in certain spots

 

[lsbryant]

Trying for that elusive FOP FP+ and looking for advice on how often you check back in MDE. Are there particular times of day? Also, I assume you check by trying to modify the Navi River FP and see if any FOP are listed. Any other tips? We're a group of 6, but I'm checking availability for 1 to see if any are open. We'll be in AK on 8/25 & 26. I saw a bunch of FP opened up on late Fri night but then by Sat they were gone. Does that happen often?

 

[nas1861]

Maybe he(she) meant in that location? The magic shots are only in certain spots

I like that explaination better. I couldn't find a photographer At all for a long time and then I finally found one. It was on the bridge heading to the store. Maybe I need to go to the other side of the mountains by the rides?

 

[AngiTN]

I like that explaination better. I couldn't find a photographer At all for a long time and then I finally found one. It was on the bridge heading to the store. Maybe I need to go to the other side of the mountains by the rides?

I wish I could remember exactly where we found the one we got. I can't. Not that it would mean they would be back there again either. They could well move around. I would just make sure to ask any you find in Pandora if they can do one.

Oh, and the one we got was done at night

 

[horse11]

Just left the park and they had lots of those " banshees" left in all colors.
The lines for them were very long ,, but they had plenty .

Doesn't look like they were going to sell all out tonight.

It was so cute to see the people walking around talking to them , making
them move their heads and of course a few did fly away. lololol ( to the ground ) .

How much do they charge for them?

 

[JuneChickie]

'

 

[horse11]

$50.00 plus tax

WOW!! And Ebay is attempting to sell them on average for $140 and up!! Sure hope they still have them when we go next May!!

 

[ThistleMae]

Trying for that elusive FOP FP+ and looking for advice on how often you check back in MDE. Are there particular times of day? Also, I assume you check by trying to modify the Navi River FP and see if any FOP are listed. Any other tips? We're a group of 6, but I'm checking availability for 1 to see if any are open. We'll be in AK on 8/25 & 26. I saw a bunch of FP opened up on late Fri night but then by Sat they were gone. Does that happen often?

I've been doing the same thing, daily and haven't found any openings. I don't know if there is a better time to check or not, just keep checking. I read in here that someone actually got one....I'm amazed. And yes, you have to replace with a tier one to see if another tier one is opened.

 

[preemiemama]

$50.00 plus tax

Actually, the price has increased to $59.99 plus tax. Still better than eBay...

 

[ThistleMae]

Do they have any stickers with the Banchee? I'd like something for my car.

 

[ucfknight]

Here's my rope drop experience for a 9:00 AM open yesterday (Sunday, July 16) with no morning EMH:

8:00 AM: Went through the parking plaza. Nobody in line in front of us to get through that.

8:05 AM: After parking we walked to bag check where again nobody was in line in front of us. After bag check got into tapstyle line. All lines were just about to the back of the ticket buildings

8:15 AM: Announcement is made advising that we are invited into the Animal Kingdom and we should spend time exploring all of the wonderful animals in the Oasis until the rest of the park opens. Sure... all of these people got up at the crack of dawn so their families could spend an hour studying the habits of the roseate spoonbill. Tapstyles were opened and people started to be let in. It took us about 3 minutes to get through the tapstyles. We walked up through the Oasis and over towards Pandora. Quite a few runners zig-zagging through people as if the alien invasion had started and they were trying to escape.

8:20 AM: Rope was up before the bridge to Pandora (in front of Tiffins). We're maybe 25 feet back from the rope. Crowd builds exponentially behind us as we all wait patiently.

8:35 AM: Rope dropped at Tiffins. Headed across the bridge among stampeding BGT. Everyone excited! Make it across the bridge into Pandora only to be stopped right on the other side of bridge by wall of cast members. False Start penalty.

8:39 AM: Wall of cast members starts moving with crowd in tow. At fork in the road 99.95% of crowd follows the cast member holding the "Flight of Passage Line Starts Here" sign off to the path on the right. Three very strange guests break left at the fork to follow the lonely cast member holding the "Na'Vi River Journey Line Starts Here" sign. She seemed very excited to see them. We continue with all of the normal people towards FOP. The choke point where the path does a 120 degree turn and narrows to almost single file take a bit of time to navigate. Lots of jostling going on. Once through that we can see the queue entrance up ahead and it is posted as a 60 minute wait. The mob starts moving very slowly at this point as those up ahead all stop on the bridge over the waterfall to take a picture. Once past the bridge the pace quickens. We get to the inside portion of the queue at a fast walking pace. Halfway through the cave they have the cutoff open and we are all transferred into the FP+ line. So we skipped 95% of the inside standby queue so they could load the theaters quicker. Still haven't stopped walking since the bridge outside. Walking through the internal FP touch points and assigned to one of the three lines for the 3 levels. We finally stop in the line for seat assignment about 20 people back.

8:55 AM: We are assigned our theater and seat number.

9:10 AM: After both preshows and the ride we are now happy people. After walking the very long exit from theater A we are back out front. The line for the ride has now filled up all of the external queue and is stretched off towards Festival of the Lion King. We head towards Na'Vi River Journey.

9:15 AM: Na'Vi River Journey is posted as a 20 minute wait when we get there. Our actual wait is 10 minutes.

9:25 AM: Get on a boat

9:30 AM: Off NRJ and headed out of Pandora

So we did both rides in exactly 1.5 hours from the time we entered the Animal Kingdom parking plaza including parking, bag check, entering park, walking to Pandora and going on both rides. Not bad. Those who came through the parking plaza an hour later at 9:00 AM (park open time) likely only would have taken 4+ hours to do the same.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Here's my rope drop experience for a 9:00 AM open yesterday (Sunday, July 16) with no morning EMH:

8:00 AM: Went through the parking plaza. Nobody in line in front of us to get through that.

8:05 AM: After parking we walked to bag check where again nobody was in line in front of us. After bag check got into tapstyle line. All lines were just about to the back of the ticket buildings

8:15 AM: Announcement is made advising that we are invited into the Animal Kingdom and we should spend time exploring all of the wonderful animals in the Oasis until the rest of the park opens. Sure... all of these people got up at the crack of dawn so their families could spend an hour studying the habits of the roseate spoonbill. Tapstyles were opened and people started to be let in. It took us about 3 minutes to get through the tapstyles. We walked up through the Oasis and over towards Pandora. Quite a few runners zig-zagging through people as if the alien invasion had started and they were trying to escape.

8:20 AM: Rope was up before the bridge to Pandora (in front of Tiffins). We're maybe 25 feet back from the rope. Crowd builds exponentially behind us as we all wait patiently.

8:35 AM: Rope dropped at Tiffins. Headed across the bridge among stampeding BGT. Everyone excited! Make it across the bridge into Pandora only to be stopped right on the other side of bridge by wall of cast members. False Start penalty.

8:39 AM: Wall of cast members starts moving with crowd in tow. At fork in the road 99.95% of crowd follows the cast member holding the "Flight of Passage Line Starts Here" sign off to the path on the right. Three very strange guests break left at the fork to follow the lonely cast member holding the "Na'Vi River Journey Line Starts Here" sign. She seemed very excited to see them. We continue with all of the normal people towards FOP. The choke point where the path does a 120 degree turn and narrows to almost single file take a bit of time to navigate. Lots of jostling going on. Once through that we can see the queue entrance up ahead and it is posted as a 60 minute wait. The mob starts moving very slowly at this point as those up ahead all stop on the bridge over the waterfall to take a picture. Once past the bridge the pace quickens. We get to the inside portion of the queue at a fast walking pace. Halfway through the cave they have the cutoff open and we are all transferred into the FP+ line. So we skipped 95% of the inside standby queue so they could load the theaters quicker. Still haven't stopped walking since the bridge outside. Walking through the internal FP touch points and assigned to one of the three lines for the 3 levels. We finally stop in the line for seat assignment about 20 people back.

8:55 AM: We are assigned our theater and seat number.

9:10 AM: After both preshows and the ride we are now happy people. After walking the very long exit from theater A we are back out front. The line for the ride has now filled up all of the external queue and is stretched off towards Festival of the Lion King. We head towards Na'Vi River Journey.

9:15 AM: Na'Vi River Journey is posted as a 20 minute wait when we get there. Our actual wait is 10 minutes.

9:25 AM: Get on a boat

9:30 AM: Off NRJ and headed out of Pandora

So we did both rides in exactly 1.5 hours from the time we entered the Animal Kingdom parking plaza including parking, bag check, entering park, walking to Pandora and going on both rides. Not bad. Those who came through the parking plaza an hour later at 9:00 AM (park open time) likely only would have taken 4+ hours to do the same.

Awesome post -- THANK YOU!!

Curious about this, though: "Halfway through the cave they have the cutoff open and we are all transferred into the FP+ line. So we skipped 95% of the inside standby queue so they could load the theaters quicker."

So I guess that defeats the purpose of doing FoP at RD to see the queue? We'd have to wait in a REAL line to see all of that? If so, booooo!

 

[ucfknight]

Awesome post -- THANK YOU!!

Curious about this, though: "Halfway through the cave they have the cutoff open and we are all transferred into the FP+ line. So we skipped 95% of the inside standby queue so they could load the theaters quicker."

So I guess that defeats the purpose of doing FoP at RD to see the queue? We'd have to wait in a REAL line to see all of that? If so, booooo!

If seeing the full queue is a priority for you, I would say just don't be up towards the front of the line. Just hang back a bit. Like I said, they want to get the theaters fully packed those first few minutes to help get that crush of people through as quickly as possible. If everyone is stopping to take pictures in front of the floating avatar that's going to hold up the line quite a bit and cause them to run theaters without all functioning seats filled. Like I said, the line kept stopping outside just from people taking waterfall pictures. I can't imagine how long it would be held up with all of the pictures people would be taking inside.

Obviously a total guess on my part, but I would think that those coming in 5-10 minutes after us probably would have been routed through the normal queue once they got the lines for the theater assignments sufficiently filled.