Pandora "Grand Opening" Strategy?

[Keels]

I have my AP Preview booked for the 22nd, but it looks like I'm going to be able to stay long enough to make Opening Day happen as well.

I've done a search to see what happened for the Grand Opening of "New Fantasyland", but it seems like many people avoided MK on that day ...

Is anyone planning to do AK on Opening Day of Pandora? What is your plan? What should MY plan be?

I've got a hotel room booked to give me the two EMH (7-8 a.m. and 11-1 a.m.) - and I don't much care about doing much since I'm hoping to experience the attractions (and maybe food/beverage) during AP preview - I really just want to be there for the pomp & circumstance and to say I was there.

Thoughts?

 

[CAS239]

If you want to be there to get on the rides then I would get there very early. I wouldn't be surprised if people are there 3 hours before park opening, or earlier

 

[rteetz]

We've got this thread filled with people who are going to the previews and the opening.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/o...d-of-avatar-information-thread.3587311/unread

While I will not be there for the grand opening I would first see if you can get a fastpass for either of the rides. You can only book one of the two not both.

Flight of Passage should have the high capacity and should has a height requirement of 44". I would probably try and FP the Navi River Journey then standby flight of passage.

Whatever you do I want a full Keels report on Pandora!

 

[Keels]

If you want to be there to get on the rides then I would get there very early. I wouldn't be surprised if people are there 3 hours before park opening, or earlier

Yeah, I'm not so much worried about the rides because I'm going to the AP preview on the 22nd. I'll also be there through the end of May, so I will try my luck at getting FP+s if I need to.

AK has EMH from 7-8 a.m. (and again from 11 p.m. - 1 a.m.) on Opening Day. So, I'm guessing I need to figure out when they open the parking lots to be there?

 

[CAS239]

Yeah, I'm not so much worried about the rides because I'm going to the AP preview on the 22nd. I'll also be there through the end of May, so I will try my luck at getting FP+s if I need to.

AK has EMH from 7-8 a.m. (and again from 11 p.m. - 1 a.m.) on Opening Day. So, I'm guessing I need to figure out when they open the parking lots to be there?

The parking lots never technically close. You could get there at 2am if you wanted fo

 

[KimBean]

Unfortunately I was at MK the first Saturday NFL was open. Total fluke had vacay planned for a year and figured we would miss it. What do you want to know?

Also went to BOG that night. I snagged that puppy on the first day it came out and you had to call. I was so proud but with the exception of my husband the other 5 with us didn't get how big a deal it was. It was sort of a that's cool. Lol.

 

[Keels]

Unfortunately I was at MK the first Saturday NFL was open. Total fluke had vacay planned for a year and figured we would miss it. What do you want to know?

Was there a schedule for things like ribbon-cutting or any other "pomp & circumstance" type things?
Was the whole thing a real beating to endure?

 

[KimBean]

Was there a schedule for things like ribbon-cutting or any other "pomp & circumstance" type things?
Was the whole thing a real beating to endure?

They had the ribbon cutting on a separate day and it wasn't really open to public if I remember correctly. This was before FP+ so we had that as an advantage. The day went pretty well until dinner. After dinner it was like an explosion of people. I have never seen so many people in the hub. It happened really quickly and you just couldn't get anywhere. My daughter who was 12 at the time had seen something on Main Street she wanted to get and it was our last day there. I knew by the time Wishes was over we would be heading out and not shopping. So we braved getting through the crowds. Wow that was a mistake. To get from dumbo to MS sort was horrible. People were sitting and standing everywhere. I pushed through with people continuously yelling at me. We made it and then on the way back someone with a Disney stroller took a huge chunk of my daughters ankle - wasn't her fault it was that many people pushing. It was terrifying. I will avoid that experience at all cost. I don't know if Pandora has the same kind of draw to be honest. But what would scare me is how dark animal kingdom can be.

Once I got back through the crowd we just watched the fireworks from the other side of castle and waited for people to clear out.

Are you onsite and are they doing the EMH then? If so I would just go that. Lol.

 

[pat fan]

Yeah, I'm not so much worried about the rides because I'm going to the AP preview on the 22nd. I'll also be there through the end of May, so I will try my luck at getting FP+s if I need to.

AK has EMH from 7-8 a.m. (and again from 11 p.m. - 1 a.m.) on Opening Day. So, I'm guessing I need to figure out when they open the parking lots to be there?

We somehow managed to book our trip smack on Pandora weekend without realizing it Neither of us have any interest in it (thought the movie was awful) but since we'll be there, we may go over on the 28th for the EMH just to walk through and see it. I told my husband it's going to be all @ss's and elbows but this was a sort of surprise/last minute trip and we're all about doing something different and being laid back this trip!

 

[samsteele]

Unfortunately I was at MK the first Saturday NFL was open. Total fluke had vacay planned for a year and figured we would miss it. What do you want to know?

Also went to BOG that night. I snagged that puppy on the first day it came out and you had to call. I was so proud but with the exception of my husband the other 5 with us didn't get how big a deal it was. It was sort of a that's cool. Lol.

I was at MK in the weeks before the official NFL opening and they had a handful of CMs stationed at the entrance encouraging guests to take a walk through. Yes, please! I had a chance to tour BOG before they were serving and spoke with some CMs who were acting as unofficial tour guides. At that time, they were telling guests that there would be no choice in which room you could dine for lunch or dinner. Glad they relaxed that for lunch.

 

[yulilin3]

May 27th will be packed, hopefully controlled chaos. That said I'll be there no later than 6am and plan to stay in Pandora all day (for work reasons) to stream the entire day's atmosphere

 

[KimBean]

I was at MK in the weeks before the official NFL opening and they had a handful of CMs stationed at the entrance encouraging guests to take a walk through. Yes, please! I had a chance to tour BOG before they were serving and spoke with some CMs who were acting as unofficial tour guides. At that time, they were telling guests that there would be no choice in which room you could dine for lunch or dinner. Glad they relaxed that for lunch.

Yeah I was there Tuesday and Thursday that week and was able to preview it as well. I think the ribbon cutting was wed? I think the lesson is don't go the first Saturday. That just happened to be our last day and we always close at MK. It wasn't even NFL that was that bad it was just the park itself. It actually opened kind of unexpectedly maybe the dates were a month before? When we booked the trip we didn't expect it to be done.

We aren't talking crowded here. It was like a mob. I'm pretty sure my bro and sis in law will never go back. I told them we were going during a low crowd time and it is usually is. lol.

That being said I'm not sure the locals are going to cause a mob over pandora. But you never can tell. And MK feels a lot more open than AK.

 

[HydroGuy]

Wow, just noticed on the 27th they changed park opening to 8AM and EMH to 7AM. That is going to be quite a morning!

We will probably Uber over to AK at 6AM. When does Disney start their bus/boat transportation if we were to try that instead? Do you really think queues at the gates will start building 3 hours before at 4AM?

I was originally planning to FP FoP and do NRJ standby at RD. But I am one of the fortunate few who got in on the Pandora FP glitch and have FPs for both NRJ and FoP.

So now instead I am planning to head straight to KS at RD and then do EE and tour the rest of AK before NRJ/FoP FPs at 11AM and Noon. I am thinking the other parts of AK will be fairly quiet in the morning?

Thoughts?

 

[yulilin3]

Wow, just noticed on the 27th they changed park opening to 8AM and EMH to 7AM. That is going to be quite a morning!

We will probably Uber over to AK at 6AM. When does Disney start their bus/boat transportation if we were to try that instead? Do you really think queues at the gates will start building 3 hour before at 4AM?

I was originally planning to FP FoP and do NRJ standby at RD. But I am one of the fortunate few who got in on the Pandora FP glitch and have FPs for both NRJ and FoP.

So now instead I am planning to head straight to KS at RD and then do EE and tour the rest of AK before NRJ/FoP FPs at 11AM and Noon. I am thinking the other parts of AK will be fairly quiet in the morning?

Thoughts?

Disney transportation starts an hour to an hour and a half before park opening, so for a 7am opening I'm assuming they will start around 5:30am.
The rest of the park will be quieter in the morning but once people realize how crazy packed Pandora is they will navigate to other area of the park.
Not knowing how they will control flow and not knowing the capacity of the new land they might even close access to Pandora waiting for people to leave like they did with the HP lands at Universal, but we will have to wait and see about that. I do think they are going to use the regular path (by Tiffins) as an entrance and the tunnel towards FOTLK as an exit which will put FOTLK in a very tight spot when the show is exiting along with hundreds of people from Pandora

 

[LSUfan4444]

Here is my stratgey

May 28 - FP+ River Journey at Night - see Rivers of Light and walk Pandora on the same day
May 29 - FP+ Flight of Passage during the Day - do the rest of AK on this day (rope drop and hit all popular non Pandora attractions) then walk Pandora during the day

In addition to this I have the entire afternoon of May 27 open and may or may not swing by to see the madness.

 

[DisneyDad2015]

Wow, just noticed on the 27th they changed park opening to 8AM and EMH to 7AM. That is going to be quite a morning!

We will probably Uber over to AK at 6AM. When does Disney start their bus/boat transportation if we were to try that instead? Do you really think queues at the gates will start building 3 hours before at 4AM?

I was originally planning to FP FoP and do NRJ standby at RD. But I am one of the fortunate few who got in on the Pandora FP glitch and have FPs for both NRJ and FoP.

So now instead I am planning to head straight to KS at RD and then do EE and tour the rest of AK before NRJ/FoP FPs at 11AM and Noon. I am thinking the other parts of AK will be fairly quiet in the morning?

Thoughts?

I think this is a great plan and exactly what I would do. I'm thinking the other parts of AK will be much emptier that day, and should make for some easy touring.

 

[FastPasser]

I'm thinking the other parts of AK will be much emptier that day, and should make for some easy touring.

I wouldn't bet the farm on that. If you're a farmer that is.

 

[BinaryRun]

The 27th is my last day in WDW, end of my very first trip. Will be flying home in the evening. I briefly considered getting a FP+ for it once that opened, but in reality I don't care for Avatar. So instead I'm going to stick to my original plan. 8:15AM breakfast at 1900 and then stay at MK until I have to leave for my flight.

 

[LSUfan4444]

The 27th is my last day in WDW, end of my very first trip. Will be flying home in the evening. I briefly considered getting a FP+ for it once that opened, but in reality I don't care for Avatar. So instead I'm going to stick to my original plan. 8:15AM breakfast at 1900 and then stay at MK until I have to leave for my flight.

From all reports Pandora isn't necessarily tied with Avatar. Pandora is set like ten years after the movie takes place. Not trying to change your mind but it seems as if Pandora can appeal to hose who have not seen the movie and/or don't care for it.

Much in the same way Splash Mountain does not only appeal to those who have seen or like Song of the South.

 

[rnorwo1]

We also accidentally booked our trip during this week; I typically avoid openings like at all costs. I wonder if it might be slightly less crazy on the 29th or 30th? We will be there 5/24-6/1.