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

[prettypatchesmsu]

How long does it typically take to experience FOP with a fastpass? Like how long from entering the FP line to exiting off the ride? Trying to figure out our touring strategy before ROL FP. Thanks!

 

[tomlinson]

2. Flight of Passage. This one is tough to talk about. For those of you who haven't done it yet, you don't understand. For those of you who have... you do. All I'll say is that the feeling of this ride is something I had never experienced. It transcended a theme park and put me somewhere else. I got off and I felt different... in a good way. It's so unlike anything I've ever done. It's tough to put down in words just what it is that you experience when you're riding that banshee. It sounds so simple, so not-that-impressive. But just wait until you actually do it... because then you'll get it. Now for people saying it's the best attraction Disney (or anyone) has ever done... ehh... that I don't agree with. Even though the feelings and sensations you will experience on this one are things you've never felt before, I still prefer the simplicity of floating in a log singing Laughin' Place on Splash, or the pure thrills of Everest. Both of these attractions seem simple and almost quaint compared to Flight of Passage, and I understand thinking FoP is the better experience, but nothing will ever touch my love for Splash Mountain, and Everest is a close second. But FoP sits comfortably in my top 3 attractions at Disney World.

3. Navi River Journey. I loved this one... but I love all Disney boat rides. Yeah it's not the "experience" of FoP, but this is old-school Disney with cutting edge technology. The depth perception of what you see around you looks like it goes back forever. Every single inch of the attraction is bursting with detail and color. Don't forget to look up, because this thing is immersion in the truest sense of the word. The Navi audio-animatronic at the end? What needs to be said? Perfect. And I NEED an official release of the song for this ride, because it's an instant classic and the best piece of original music Disney has done in a long time. Overall this is a perfect Disney dark ride.

Thank you for this. I'll be finally experiencing Pandora in October, and this just got me even more excited.

 

[hmcfall711]

I am sorry if this has been answered somewhere, I have searched and have not seen the answer, so maybe not?

My DH is 6'3" and when we were there opening weekend the restraints for the legs on FoP would not fit because he has muscular calves. The CM said that they were going to be getting seats that would accommodate "larger/taller" people before October. We are going for fall break early October. Has anyone heard if they have made this change yet? He REALLY wants to ride FoP, I'd love to tell him that we can give it a second chance.

 

[ThistleMae]

This is kind of how we felt about the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We didn't actually pay for an animal view room, but ended up able to see lots of animals at once. We liked the spread out buildings at Port Orleans a lot more than the one giant building at AKL. I agree about the food court, too. The food court at AKL was pretty small and the options were limited. I like the idea of walking over to Art of Animation while we stay at POP, as well. I've heard their food court is really good.

I absolutely love the food court at AOA....so you have two choices staying at POP, it's great! I would love to stay at AK, just because it's so pretty there at night, but not worth the extra $ unless some extra money comes my way...LOL! Are you on the DISNEY'S POP CENTURY RESORT, information and questions thread? It rivals this thread with over 8000 posts. Lots of good information. Lots of Pop enthusiasts.

 

[ThistleMae]

I am sorry if this has been answered somewhere, I have searched and have not seen the answer, so maybe not?

My DH is 6'3" and when we were there opening weekend the restraints for the legs on FoP would not fit because he has muscular calves. The CM said that they were going to be getting seats that would accommodate "larger/taller" people before October. We are going for fall break early October. Has anyone heard if they have made this change yet? He REALLY wants to ride FoP, I'd love to tell him that we can give it a second chance.

Oh no, so sorry, what a disappointment for him. Did you guys ride? Haven't heard anything about a change in the seats.

 

[LMO429]

Does anyone think they will extend the Ultimate Adventure VIP tour to days other than thur sat sun? I already had my ak days planned but i would love to do the tour. Has anyone heard of them extending dates. I feel like it would be worth it for a 1 time 1st visit to Pandora. I think once I go then the tour would not be worth the $

 

[hmcfall711]

Oh no, so sorry, what a disappointment for him. Did you guys ride? Haven't heard anything about a change in the seats.

No, unfortunately not. They said the leg restraint would not have locked for him.

 

[Haley R]

I absolutely love the food court at AOA....so you have two choices staying at POP, it's great! I would love to stay at AK, just because it's so pretty there at night, but not worth the extra $ unless some extra money comes my way...LOL! Are you on the DISNEY'S POP CENTURY RESORT, information and questions thread? It rivals this thread with over 8000 posts. Lots of good information. Lots of Pop enthusiasts.

We actually got our AK hotel from Undercover Tourist because it was VERY reasonably priced. We only did 3 nights there, though and did 4 at Riverside. I've heard such good things about AOA's food court so I'm excited about that! Their rooms just seem overpriced to me for a value resort so I'm glad we can still walk our niece over there to look around.

I didn't know there was a Pop Century thread, but I'll be on it now!

 

[BigRed98]

How long does it typically take to experience FOP with a fastpass? Like how long from entering the FP line to exiting off the ride? Trying to figure out our touring strategy before ROL FP. Thanks!

About 25-40 min.

 

[barbliny]

How long does it typically take to experience FOP with a fastpass? Like how long from entering the FP line to exiting off the ride? Trying to figure out our touring strategy before ROL FP. Thanks!

This past Saturday we had a FP+ that started at 10:55 - we entered at 10:50. I did not look at the time when we got off the ride, but we were out in front of Nomad Lounge at 11:23 grumbling that it wasn't open yet

That was probably just about best case scenario for a FP though. The group in front of us was 13 people, so we got to jump past them all since the CMs were looking to fill a room. I would add some time ...

 

[fernoppi]

Not within my 60 days to book FP+ yet, but wanted some help with ideas of plan of attack. It will be me, DH, DD5 and DD2.5. What is the best plan?


- Plan to get FP+ for FOP
- RD for NRJ
- use FP+ for DH and get RS pass, use FP+ for me and get RS pass.

I don't think we would really feel the need to ride again. But I'm thinking if we have to take turns riding, then might as well get a RS pass? Is there a better sequence of events?

 

[Lesley Wake]

Just got back from my first visit to the World. AK was probably my favorite park and Pandora was a big part of it. My experience:

-Flight of Passage-loved it! We ended up doing it 4x. Ride 1 was day before Irma hit and FoP had only a 70 min wait time so we decided to do it standby. Wait ended up being closer to 45 minutes, which was the perfect time to fully experience the queue without being rushed or getting bored. Ride 2 was originally supposed to happen with a FP booked for the Monday the park closed. Guest services though agreed to give us an anytime FP for FoP the day we actually visited, which was much appreciated! Rides 3&4 were with regular prebooked FPs.
We were lucky to be able to sit in different areas each time so got a slightly different experience. If you get a chance make sure to ask and the CMs are more than happy to oblige (like directing us to the top row line even though all FPs were going to bottom row).
We found the hidden Mickey in the FoP queue bioluminescent room-pretty cool. My sister swears there was a hidden mickey on the lower left corner of the screen within the cave, but I wasn't paying attention to that area.

Navi River Journey: really liked this ride. I was able to get 2 different day-of FPs for it (the Friday after the hurricane). It's definitely a refresh-refresh-refresh strategy but is definitely possible. Love how beautiful the ride is! We were a party of 2 and always sat in same row as another party of 2. I knew ahead of time so always positioned myself on the outer edge-sister wasn't amused about that!

Satuli Canteen-had hoped to try breakfast one of the last days before it stopped but we didn't get to the parks in time. Did have lunch our last day, both of us got beef which was a lot of meat and very tender! A tip if you have multiple people, order the sauces on the side so you can try multiple varieties.

Bioluminescence-I was actually disappointed in this. It wasn't as bright as I was hoping, but that could have also been a result of earlier Sept hour closures so it couldn't get too dark before we had to leave to get to RoL. I did like all the different footprints near NRJ though.

Loved the whole land and ended up getting a bunch of souvenirs from it-a banshee (named Irma), pin, 2 shirts, navi flute cup, and jelly beans.

 

[Flynnismine]

For anyone that's been there recently on a 9am opening, do CM's hold the crowds in a particular spot, once through the front gate, and what time are they allowing crowds over the bridge to line up outside of Pandora?

We were there for the AP preview back in the spring so we didn't have to contend with crowds at that time but are heading back down again next week . We have FOP FP's for the 3 days we are planning to be at AK but, one of those 3 days, we have a PPO 8am ressie at TH (we eat there for the food and skip all the character interactions so we'll be finished eating and out by 8:30). Just wondering where we should expect the mass of crowds heading straight to Pandora to be at 8:30.

 

[housemartin71]

We did rope drop on 9/1. They let us in through the tapstiles at 815 and held us at the Tiffins end of the bridge to Pandora a. At that point, they held us for about 10-15 minutes before slow walking the crowd to the FoP entrance. My picture time stamp says 829 as we walked past the large plant that spits out water. That being said, once you're at the bridge, it's a pretty easy to keep your place because they do slow walk the masses.

One note - the CMs try to swing the entire line for FoP around so that it goes up towards the FoTLK theater. Imagine the entrance to FoP being at 12 o'clock and you're approaching from 9 o'clock where the bridge is. They want the line extending past 3 o'clock so try to swing the line around. Most people follow the CM around but some people (there's always some people) ignore them and use it as an opportunity to dash into the queue and essentially cut the line. It's annoying although it doesn't really affect the wait.

If you are out of Tusker House at 830 a.m. and the above procedure is still in place, you'll probably be at the end of a rather long standby line. I'm not sure whether the path from FoTLK to Pandora is open at that time.

 

[DisTXMom]

We were not successful in getting FOP for day 63 (not surprising)but did get it for day 66 (yey!). We still want to go to AK on day 63 because it's headed into thanksgiving so will be very busy on day 66 (11/21) and we'd love to check out pandora when it's a little more manageable crowd-wise. What I'm looking for is fastpass advice. I'll be at EPCOT day 63 in the morning and at AK in the afternoon. I am currently holding some AK fastpasses so that I can watch availability to see if FoP pops up. If I'm unable to get FoP, then I'd much prefer to have morning EPCOT fastpasses and just see what I can get in AK in the afternoon, knowing we won't get FoP. If FoP is <120 minutes, we would just wait. The other AK fastpasses we have are just fillers/ not favorite attractions. Unless FoP pops up, I'll pull the plug and get morning EPCOT fastpasses. My question is when do I do that? If I wait too long, EPCOT morning fastpasses won't be available. We would get test track, SE and Mission Space at EPCOT. If I switch to EPCOT fastpasses now, I won't be able to watch for FoP fastpasses. I appreciate the group's input.

 

[wdwnut61]

We are going Thanksgiving week for 10 days and were able to book FOP on day 6, 7 and 9. Can not wait to experience the ride for ourselves come on November

 

[BigB0882]

I am so nervous! AK is Day 65 for me and that seems to be right on the cusp of too early. The good thing is I am coming in for Christmas and I am coming in on Thursday the 21st. I am hoping we are a day ahead of the mad rush when people start coming in on Friday and Saturday since most kids have school that entire week before. Maybe that one extra day will be enough to allow me to snag one on Day 65, plus I imagine a lot of people who are there the week before Christmas are getting out of there by Christmas Day.

 

[shannonstar]

Is there really a single rider line? How long is that line vs. FP and Stand-by? Just curious.

 

[AngiTN]

Is there really a single rider line? How long is that line vs. FP and Stand-by? Just curious.

Unless something has changed very recently no. They built one originally but covered the entrance and have said it will not be utilized. The way it's designed it doesn't make sense. There are other, more productive ways to pull single riders from the existing lines, much the way they do at Tower of Terror. That's how they've been pulling them since the ride opened.

 

[shannonstar]

Unless something has changed very recently no. They built one originally but covered the entrance and have said it will not be utilized. The way it's designed it doesn't make sense. There are other, more productive ways to pull single riders from the existing lines, much the way they do at Tower of Terror. That's how they've been pulling them since the ride opened.

Thanks. It says on the front page of this thread that there is one, but I was thinking there might not be. Trying to figure out how to manage a 4 year old and 14 years olds simultaneous expectation at Animal Kingdom.