Initial Impressions from December 2017 Trip:
- This morning made my first visit to Pandora. We had a FastPass+ for the River Journey. I should put the disclaimer up front that I am not a big Avatar fan. I watched the movie once, and that was on TV and only because the Pandora project was announced and I wanted to see what I could expect. Walking into Pandora the environment is well done. There is a lot of detail and the look works for Animal Kingdom. My problem was I was just not engaged. I strolled around and saw the plants, waterfalls, floating mountains, etc.. and they were interesting and impressive but I did not have a wow moment like Cars Land. Entering Ornament Valley from the Pacific Warf is a wow moment for me. Or entering Tokyo DisneySea Mysterious Island, or even the park itself. I just did not get that with Pandora. I would have enjoyed exploring the land more but so many walkways were closed off or filled with the overflow queue that it really interrupted the flow too.
- We walked right into the River Journey with our FastPass+ Our group of 8 adults plus a baby was given two rows which was a tight fit with all our camera and baby gear. So it started off on a bad note. Riding through the forest I thought was interesting. There were a lot of little details and I look forward to a future ride to try and pick up on more of them. I thought the overall experience was too short and not really engaging though. As we were exiting the consensus of our group was it was ok with a FastPass+ or maybe a 5-10 minute wait but if they had waited hours they would be extremely disappointed in that short of an experience.
- Caught the Drum Circle. It was interesting for a few minutes but most of my group lost interest and wandered off. It was not entertaining to us.
- I had a FastPass+ for Flight of Passage so went for my first experience on the signature attraction of the land. I was disappointed that the FastPass path misses much of the queue, you cannot even see it. The pre-show video and multiple rooms made for a really drawn out experience for me and instead of heightening expectations I got to the point of asking myself when will I finally reach the attraction. The flight experience itself was impressive. The ride seats were a bit awkward and not that comfortable for me. The video clarity was great. The motion worked well. But a completely CG world just does not draw me in. It looked nice but compare it to say the real destinations in Soarin I was not as interested. Also the Banshee seemed to do a lot of unnecessary dips just to make it feel more thrilling and not really push the story. As I walked off I surveyed our group and the consensus was it was a fun attraction but they were all glad we did not wait hours for it.
- I spent a few minutes walking around Pandora to see it at nights. Some of the plans and effects looked good, but nothing was overly impressive or “WOW”. I was expecting more.
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