Pandora: World of Avatar Photos, Videos, & Reviews

[Nick]

I got a chance to visit during yesterday's AP previews so here's some of my thoughts in the order I experienced them:

I'll first say that if it seems i've been quiet within the Pandora threads lately, that's not by accident. I've browsed as a mod, but i've been trying to keep as spoiler free as possible for the most part. I went into this with a certain set of expectations (my family seemed to had the more Disney PR slanted expectations).

Entrance:
I know that the mountains aren't really floating, nor do they look much like it, but as you ascend the small incline at the entrance of the land, you are instantly awed by a picturesque scene that is only made better by the depth and layering of the theming. Also not sure why people compare the Pandora and VB water falls, both are good in their own right. If there was a VB sized waterfall in Pandora, everyone would be getting soaked.

Pongu Pongu:
We stopped at Pongu Pongu to grab a Night Blossom and Pongu Lumpia. The Night Blossom was good, while maybe a bit of a glorified apple/pineapple slushie mix. The boba balls seem to be what will sell it as it looks cool. The Lumpia was very good, although it did fall apart very easily and part of the inside fell out on my first bite. As for the quick serve, I stopped in and looked at the menu and the inside theming, but didn't order anything.

Flight of Passage:
We got in line at about exactly 5:30 for our 5:30-5:45 FP. The queue for this thing is huge and if it ever actually fills up all the way, I can't even imagine the wait times this ride will have. The general queue theming for the ride was nice enough, sort of a rip off of Transformers but whatever. I didn't really have too much time to take it all in though as the line was pretty short. The pre-show was... meh. Didn't like the guy, the Ikran doctor thankfully sort of saved it and brought some real acting to the table. Also, the way they gave you an Avatar seemed to be pretty random.

I can already see how this could be a potential capacity nightmare though as once we sat down, it took close to 10 minutes to get the ride going, partially because a man right next to me couldn't fit and they were trying to squeeze him in. This will be a big problem going forward.

As to the actual ride experience - WOW. I think I had my expectations set slightly higher than some here based on what I had been hearing, but as @Brian G. said, this is definitely a top "Screen-Based" ride in Orlando. I knew what was going to happen as far as the wall in front of you moving, but most others around me didn't and they very effectively use the camera on your RV to distract you. It even got me. One minute you're looking at the camera and next thing you know the ride has started. I don't know if this is a point of discussion, but I was perfectly ok with there being no storyline to go along with the ride. If this is a glimpse at the type of thrilling experiences we may see with SWL, i'm all for it.

Windtraders
Most of the merch in here looked like crap I would never buy, but the banshees that CMs had on their shoulders (which are $50 I believe) had about as long of a line as I usually see for the line to make a lightsaber at Star Tours. We'll see if that continues. A lot of the merch looks "cute" and kids will naturally like that type of stuff and ask their parents for it. I know my sister was certainly asking for a lot of the crap in there (she's 9).

Now for the negative...

Nav'i River Journey
What the hell was the point of this ride. Seriously, I don't understand what they were thinking. My already low expectations weren't even met and my whole family came off basically saying "wtf?". Cool AA though. I'll bet this is an extremely popular ride though as it's one of the only family rides in the park aside from Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Overall
I walked in slightly after 5 and was done with everything I listed above in the area around 6:30. The food, mountains and Flight of Passage all were extremely satisfying. Nav'i River Journey kind of left a sour taste in my mouth and really pointed out the need for a third ride in the land. I didn't get to see the land at night lit up because we left early. Will there be live entertainment within the land? I saw that they had a Wilderness Explorers station open, but the land felt a bit dull outside of the rides with no in land entertainment going on. I'm also not sure I can remember hearing any background music being on, but that may have been off as they were filming. Not sure i'd go on opening day now (which I was contemplating) since i've already experienced the land, but i'll be back soon enough.

 

[Alicia]

I got a chance to visit during yesterday's AP previews so here's some of my thoughts in the order I experienced them:

I'll first say that if it seems i've been quiet within the Pandora threads lately, that's not by accident. I've browsed as a mod, but i've been trying to keep as spoiler free as possible for the most part. I went into this with a certain set of expectations (my family seemed to had the more Disney PR slanted expectations).

Entrance:
I know that the mountains aren't really floating, nor do they look much like it, but as you ascend the small incline at the entrance of the land, you are instantly awed by a picturesque scene that is only made better by the depth and layering of the theming. Also not sure why people compare the Pandora and VB water falls, both are good in their own right. If there was a VB sized waterfall in Pandora, everyone would be getting soaked.

Pongu Pongu:
We stopped at Pongu Pongu to grab a Night Blossom and Pongu Lumpia. The Night Blossom was good, while maybe a bit of a glorified apple/pineapple slushie mix. The boba balls seem to be what will sell it as it looks cool. The Lumpia was very good, although it did fall apart very easily and part of the inside fell out on my first bite. As for the quick serve, I stopped in and looked at the menu and the inside theming, but didn't order anything.

Flight of Passage:
We got in line at about exactly 5:30 for our 5:30-5:45 FP. The queue for this thing is huge and if it ever actually fills up all the way, I can't even imagine the wait times this ride will have. The general queue theming for the ride was nice enough, sort of a rip off of Transformers but whatever. I didn't really have too much time to take it all in though as the line was pretty short. The pre-show was... meh. Didn't like the guy, Sigourney Weaver thankfully sort of saved it and brought some real acting to the table. Also, the way they gave you an Avatar seemed to be pretty random.

I can already see how this could be a potential capacity nightmare though as once we sat down, it took close to 10 minutes to get the ride going, partially because a man right next to me couldn't fit and they were trying to squeeze him in. This will be a big problem going forward.

As to the actual right experience - WOW. I think I had my expectations set slightly higher than some here based on what I had been hearing, but as @Brian G. said, this is definitely a top "Screen-Based" ride in Orlando. I knew what was going to happen as far as the wall in front of you moving, but most others around me didn't and they very effectively use the camera on your RV to distract you. It even got me. One minute you're looking at the camera and next thing you know the ride has started. I don't know if this is a point of discussion, but I was perfectly ok with there being no storyline to go along with the ride. If this is a glimpse at the type of thrilling experiences we may see with SWL, i'm all for it.

Windtraders
Most of the merch in here looked like crap I would never buy, but the banshees that CMs had on their shoulders (which are $50 I believe) had about as long of a line as I usually see for the line to make a lightsaber at Star Tours. We'll see if that continues. A lot of the merch looks "cute" and kids will naturally like that type of stuff and ask their parents for it. I know my sister was certainly asking for a lot of the crap in there (she's 9).

Now for the negative...

Nav'i River Journey
What the hell was the point of this ride. Seriously, I don't understand what they were thinking. My already low expectations weren't even met and my whole family came off basically saying "wtf?". Cool AA though. I'll bet this is an extremely popular ride though as it's one of the only family rides in the park aside from Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Overall
I walked in slightly after 5 and was done with everything I listed above in the area around 6:30. The food, mountains and Flight of Passage all were extremely satisfying. Nav'i River Journey kind of left a sour taste in my mouth and really pointed out the need for a third ride in the land. I didn't get to see the land at night lit up because we left early. Will there be live entertainment within the land? I saw that they had a Wilderness Explorers station open, but the land felt a bit dull outside of the rides with no in land entertainment going on. I'm also not sure I can remember hearing any background music being on, but that may have been off as they were filming. Not sure i'd go on opening day now (which I was contemplating) since i've already experienced the land, but i'll be back soon enough.

Great to hear your thoughts! I thought the Lumpia was the best tasting thing I ate. I wonder if yours was overcooked or something if it was falling apart. Mine came out perfect.

Didn't like the guy, Sigourney Weaver thankfully sort of saved it and brought some real acting to the table.

Youuuu know that's not Sigourney Weaver right? She's a new scientist working many decades after Weaver's character "died" in the first film. Just checking.

Will there be live entertainment within the land?

Supposedly there will be drum circle performances of some sort around twice an hour after the land officially opens. There's a big drum that's blocked off at the top of the drum circle area. There will apparently also be ACE staff roaming the land to answer questions and point out interesting Pandoran plants. I hope they walk around with animal cages like the rest of AK too, like the tarantula lady but with fake Pandora animals.

 

[Nick]

Youuuu know that's not Sigourney Weaver right? She's a new scientist working many decades after Weaver's character "died" in the first film. Just checking.

Oh my goodness lol. I thought it looked and sounded just like her and I know she's coming back for the future films so I just assumed lol.

 

[Alicia]

Oh my goodness lol. I thought it looked and sounded just like her and I know she's coming back for the future films so I just assumed lol.

It's like they cast a Sigourney Weaver-type for sure, but yea, totally different lady. Weaver's character studied the connectiveness of plant life on Pandora, whereas this lady is leading the Water Conservation initiative by studying how the apex predator, ikrans, are affected by the loss of environment.

 

[Nick]

Shopping
This is where Pandora misses the boat imo. The most packed place during the ENTIRE preview was Windtraders the lands one and only store. I mean I get it, you can only sell so much Avatar related stuff but imo this land would of greatly benefitted from an additional store and F&B location on the Na'vi River Journey side of the land

I completely agree here and honestly wouldn't be surprised if after a year or two we see an addition of an extra store over there. It just makes sense.

 

[Alicia]

I completely agree here and honestly wouldn't be surprised if after a year or two we see an addition of an extra store over there. It just makes sense.

I noticed only after watching my own video that the face painting location also has a merch cart with toys, tails and ears. That did not stand out to me, but is another merch location on the opposite side of the land as the main store.

 

[epcyclopedia]

So, finally posting the general area pics:



And some of my fave flora... like this purple nodule.



Right next to the blue fuzzy things..



(Edit: Grr.. html generator is glitching.. will fix later..)

These oozing purple seed pods.



The terrible bug creature living inside of the pink flower, and also the "banshee of paradise" near it. Which is funny because they have real bird of paradise in spots, but the froofy ones are fake and from the AVATAR lore (per the field guide.)



The little pink plants - bromeliads? - have been added since the first preview.



This pic just screams "Welcome to FERNGULLY!" to me.



Thought these grape-vine producing blooms were neat - like the hentai squids they're in various life stages through the land.





Hewwo little floofy thing!



Aww.. a sad dead hentai squid...



And at some point I will go back through all these and pull out the pics that showcase the field guide mentioned flora/fauna and give the descriptions for them.

And wow, i was going to give the link to the AVATAR field guide but it's like $2k on amazon apparently.. i guess it' out of print. I'll remind you i found it in a clearance bookstore in Orlando for $1 thi week.

 

[Alicia]

So, finally posting the general area pics:



And some of my fave flora... like this purple nodule.



Right next to the blue fuzzy things..



(Edit: Grr.. html generator is glitching.. will fix later..)

These oozing purple seed pods.



The terrible bug creature living inside of the pink flower, and also the "banshee of paradise" near it. Which is funny because they have real bird of paradise in spots, but the froofy ones are fake and from the AVATAR lore (per the field guide.)



The little pink plants - bromeliads? - have been added since the first preview.



This pic just screams "Welcome to FERNGULLY!" to me.



Thought these grape-vine producing blooms were neat - like the hentai squids they're in various life stages through the land.





Hewwo little floofy thing!



Aww.. a sad dead hentai squid...



And at some point I will go back through all these and pull out the pics that showcase the field guide mentioned flora/fauna and give the descriptions for them.

And wow, i was going to give the link to the AVATAR field guide but it's like $2k on amazon apparently.. i guess it' out of print. I'll remind you i found it in a clearance bookstore in Orlando for $1 thi week.

Great pics. I've barely seen any of those in person, but it started raining so we started running at one point.

Did you get the little pocket fold out field guide they've been giving out during previews? It has some plants listed in it, along with some basic Na'vi language and a bit about Na'vi culture.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Great pics. I've barely seen any of those in person, but it started raining so we started running at one point.

Did you get the little pocket fold out field guide they've been giving out during previews? It has some plants listed in it, along with some basic Na'vi language and a bit about Na'vi culture.

I've got one somewhere. Didn't know it had plants.

 

[Alicia]

I've got one somewhere. Didn't know it had plants.

The little one on the right. The preview guide just listed the attractions, dining and gift shop with a map. The field guide has cool backstory and plants and animals to spot in the land.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Oo, i did not get the little book one - just the map one.

What's it got? I deman interior pics.

 

[Alicia]

Oo, i did not get the little book one - just the map one.

What's it got? I deman interior pics.

You ask and I shall deliver! Behold, scanned images!

I have excluded blank pages, the cover, and copyright info on the back to be able to include everything on my scanner at once. But all the meat of it is below. Click an image to be able to read it better (or download to your machine!)

 

[epcyclopedia]

Interesting - the field guide book has the panopyra, flaska, and puffball, but the flaska and puffball are similar in being extremely dangerous and avoided by the Navi. The flaska bilges out the toxins in a plume from time to time and the puffball randomly explodes.

 

[epcyclopedia]

There's alo this one - it shoots out it's spikey leaves as a defense mechanism. It's right in the middle of the River Journey entry queue where FP and Standby both go past it. Reminded me of Jurassic Park and the comment on having extremely dangerous plants because they look good.

 

[Alicia]

There's alo this one - it shoots out it's spikey leaves as a defense mechanism. It's right in the middle of the River Journey entry queue where FP and Standby both go past it. Reminded me of Jurassic Park and the comment on having extremely dangerous plants because they look good.

Love that Ellie Sattler quote. It's even longer and more dramatic in the book!

 

[Talking Head]

Here's my take as someone who has never seen Avatar and still has no desire to see it after exploring the land.

If you're a skeptic of the claims that Flight is the best ride in Orlando, my advice is to keep your expectations low. I know I was wishing for more, but it’s Soarin’ 2.0, plain and simple. The diehard fans may dispute that, but I guarantee that’s the way average guests will describe it: “It’s like Soarin’ with 3D.”

The Flight queue is well done but overhyped. It’s got elements of the woodsy E.T. queue with additional black light painting. Nice atmosphere, but not much else in this part. This area is quite static; adding animatronics of some sort to the forest area would have given this section more interest.

The lab section is surprisingly compact; there are basically two (maybe three) displays in here. I really expected this to be a more sprawling area. The upper story of the room is hardly themed; this diminishes the feeling of a real work space. UC did such a good job making Diagon feel like a place that had depth (the scene over the ordering area in the Leaky Cauldron, e.g.). I never sensed that spatial depth anywhere in this land., most especially in this room where something like that would have added more mystery.

The preshows are dry and already tiresome by the second ride. If you like rolling your eyes at the fake Avatar language, you're gonna love the preshows. If Disney wants to push the envelope, they should figure out a way to improve on the staging areas in their E-ticket attractions. There's so little effort in these two rooms that it's mindboggling. Think how effectively and creatively Tower sets the mood with the library preshow. There's nothing like that here. Hands down, the two Gringott preshows are more impressive than these.

The loading process is the most tedious of any E-ticket in Orlando. It makes Mission: Space's loading look like poetry in motion. The ride vehicles aren’t terribly comfortable while you wait for the restraints to move into place, and the glasses aren’t a snug fit making it feel like they could fly off during the ride.

The 3D is fine, but to my eyes it doesn’t look better than the 3D in Gringotts. In fact, in motion, the 3D of FoP had noticeable blur. I think the 3D in Star Tours looks as good as (maybe better than) the 3D in FoP.

The ride motion is fun, but it’s not intense. Nothing like the drops on Tower. I get why we don’t see the winged critter's head/neck in front during the film (it would look odd to have a row of those things side by side), but this also takes away from the experience. At least with the hang-gliding conceit, you believe that the glider is above you. They make this big to-do about the creature being important in the ecosystem, connecting with it, blah blah blah, and then you never sense that you're riding the thing.

It would’ve been a maintenance nightmare, but it’s really too bad they couldn’t figure out a way to add the creature to the ride vehicle. The row of vehicles also lack any kind of grandeur. If you're aiming for something cinematic or dramatic, this is just not an ideal way to start an E-ticket.

I guess I’d rate the whole experience a B, maybe lower if I had to wait more than 45 minutes. It’s certainly not worth a 2- or 3-hour wait, which it’ll probably maintain for this summer. I would take a dozen WDW attractions and at least a half dozen Universal attractions over it. I’m curious what average guests will think of it, because in many ways, I thought the ride itself was the most disappointing part of the entire land.

The food was good, probably the best part of the land all things considered. The blueberry dessert was nice. The fried tofu bowl was pretty good, or at least unique for a theme park.

I actually think the land looks better in photographs than in person. As someone who has no interest in Avatar, I thought it just looked like DAK-ish rockwork. In person, the mountains don't remotely look like they're floating. You approach the land at a weird angle, which doesn't provide for a scripted dramatic reveal, either. I'm sure Rohde would claim that's by design, but you know, I think theme parks work best when they realize they're designed as controlled environments to dramatically manipulate the guests' perceptions. There's no dramatic focal point like Hogwarts or the dragon on Gringotts or the Splash Mountain flume to draw you in. I walked into the land and actually forgot there was supposed to be a dramatic reveal, because all the greenery waterfally rocky stuff just blends together.

Final thought. Nothing in the land has the heart and charm of the Hogwarts Express. Perhaps that's a result of the movie property not having much warmth. But judged strictly on what's in the land, it feels like a very odd, unemotional place to find at WDW. Sort of like a deserted civilization where all the indigenous people have died off or otherwise disappeared. Post-apocalyptic nature park, if you will. Not exactly a place I'm eager to spend a lot of time.

I'm left wondering what lessons Disney has learned from Potter (is it that they think people are willing to buy embarrassing Avatar merch?), because overall, this feels like a land that learned all the wrong lessons from the two Potter lands.

Long story short, Diagon remains the best land/experience in Orlando by a comfortable distance. Pandora doesn't come close.

 

[epcyclopedia]

I want to put the folks who come off FOP and call it Soarin 2.0 on a bus to Epcot and make them ride Soarin and be like..

"This is Soarin. This is not that."

 

[Alicia]

I want to put the folks who come off FOP and call it Soarin 2.0 on a bus to Epcot and make them ride Soarin and be like..

"This is Soarin. This is not that."

I feel like even Soarin' is only Soarin' 0.5

 

[epcyclopedia]

I feel like even Soarin' is only Soarin' 0.5

Yeah, new film is meh.

 

[Nick]

I want to put the folks who come off FOP and call it Soarin 2.0 on a bus to Epcot and make them ride Soarin and be like..

"This is Soarin. This is not that."

Seriously.

Soarin' is like riding Dumbo compared to FoP.