AVATAR Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Any article that begins "The first thing you notice when you meet Joe Rohde is his left earlobe" is good in my book!

One of the things that often gets overlooked in these business-focused discussions about how much HP did for IOA is how bad the park's attendance was prior to it opening. Sure, there was a massive jump, but the park opened below expectations and never really recovered from the 9/11 recession. DAK has had a slow but steady climb ever since opening, and has passed the Studios (and is poised to pass Epcot) in annual attendance.

There's still room for it to grow, but it's a much more mature product than IOA, so a huge jump shouldn't be expected. Similarly, when DCA relaunched in 2012 it had a noticeable bump, but it wasn't exactly earthshattering, since the park had managed decent attendance in the years prior

 

This just in...

'Avatar' Sequels Get Official Release Dates, Beginning in December 2020

 

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't it seem a little early to announce a specific date for release that's 8.5 years away? Especially considering how many times the 2nd & 3rd films have been delayed so far...

 

What if Avatar 2 is a bomb? Will they still go through with the others?

 

I'm pretty sure they're filming 2 & 3 concurrently, so I have to imagine that #3 will be released regardless. There's enough of a gap that they could potentially cancel 4 & 5 though. Then again, considering the current Hollywood trend of giving us sequels that nobody asked for, it would have to take a flop of colossal proportions to stop these from coming down the pipeline

 

So it seems Flight of Passage is nothing more than Soarin' on a Tron bike. Where is the part where we actually ride those dragons? Are we watching in third person? I guess we get no motion control over the character on screen. It feels a little detached.

 

The first previews are starting to show up online. It should go without saying spoilers!

 

The little snippets I've seen it looks mighty impressive especially the animatronic figures.

Avatar as movie going experience was incredible. Subsequent viewings I'm not as enthralled. But there's no way the next movies are going to flop. They won't hit what Avatar did but it's hard to not put your faith in Cameron

 

I'm intentionally avoiding videos, but the photos I've seen look impressive and the in-person reviews have been positive. I'm still not sure how popular the franchise will be longterm, but it seems like a well-crafted theme park environment

Not sure what you were expecting from Flight of Passage. Everything has made it sound like there will be a bunch of people sitting side-by-side getting more-or-less identical experiences. No way to make it customizable/interactive or anything more than the next generation Soarin'-type attraction. By all accounts, it's an impressive experience

 

Here is a fairly long review of the land and rides. Again major spoilers.

 

Here is another review of Flight of Passage.

The post contains spoilers.

REVIEW: Flight of Passage Provides an Exhilarating Experience High Above Pandora

 

Some, ahem, larger guests are getting upset that they can't fit in the safety harness, and thus are unable to ride.

 

Any word about a soft opening, if even just for 4 or 5 days ??

 

Last night I saw several guests exiting Pandora and they didn't exactly look overwhelmed. Some came out smiling while others looked unimpressed. I hope this is not an indicator of what is there.

I bet those miniature banshees will sell like hotcakes. Out of say 60 exiting guests I saw last night, 5 had these small banshee dragons on their shoulders(they come in different shades and colors )

 

I saw on social media it was already at capacity. I can't imagine what Star Wars land is going to be like

 

Avatarland seems to be very popular. I've just checked the Disney World App and both attractions have pretty long wait times. I know it's just opening day, but I guess the land will be a success for Disney.

 

. Reaching "capacity" is an absolute given; there is nothing noteworthy about this as it was completely predictable, irrespective of the chosen theme(Transformers Land, Snoopy & Peanuts Land, James Bond Land, Carsland,Lord of the Rings Land) due to:

Not just a single attraction but an entire land opening with 2 headlining attractions

An opening in the Summer Season, on a Saturday, on a holiday weekend

$750 million plus or minus $100 million budget.

Disney created/marketed

Positioned in Walt Disney World which has been hosting 50 million visitors annually as well as entices locals/Floridians by the hundreds of thousands.

These factors lead to one super predictable outcome for an opening: Sellout Crowds.

 

I saw all of Pandora yesterday.

The placesetting, attention to details, facades, architecture and use of "force perspective" is dare I say better than Potter Hogsmeade, Cadillac Range, and even the mysterious Island at Disney Sea

The bar of excellence has been raised.
We have a game changer in immersive placesetting. This land is unreal......oh and in case I'm branded a biased Avatar movie loyalist ponder this one: I never even made it through the entire movie due to a lack of interest .

 

I would like to comment on the 2 headlining attractions. The Navi boat ride is, based on a 'pound per pound- inch per inch' metric is the best boating style attraction anywhere. The details, CGI and sets left me speechless.
Yes, way better than pirates and Spash mountains(I have not seen Shanghai Pirates ). It's only drawback is its duration. It fell far short of
being an epic.

As for Flight of Passage I will never again ride Soarin as it has now been rendered completely obsolete. This attraction has the most incomprehensibly stellar and super long queue.
Oh and thanks to this Flight of Passage your waits on Star Tours just got a tiny bit shorter as I can not waste my time with that anymore.

 

That's great to hear that everything was so well done. With how much they spent, and how much the park needs it, I'm really glad that it's working out. I'm even more impressed that they were able to make strong attractions that tie into the Avatar story, but still appeal to people with limited interest in the franchise; from the very first announcement, I've been skeptical of how that would work out

Since you've seen it in person, how to all the plant textures and moss areas look in real life? They look neat in photos, but I'm concerned that they will become maintenance problems quickly, attracting mold, fading quickly, and getting beaten up by weather. What I've seen online looks really nice, but it just didn't look like it was practical for the real environment of an outdoor theme park