Avatar construction aerial updates

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Had fun doing some guess work based on the aerials, model glimpses & art:

There

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Had fun doing some guess work based on the aerials, model glimpses & art:

Therw

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Therw

There was a roller coaster planned? Not happening? What a shame if the answer is no. I would think Cameron would want the best attractions?

 

[Hakunamatata]

There was a roller coaster planned? Not happening? What a shame if the answer is no. I would think Cameron would want the best attractions?

Maybe the coaster wasn't the best......

 

[RandySavage]

There was a roller coaster planned? Not happening? What a shame if the answer is no. I would think Cameron would want the best attractions?

I believe it was posted here (by Martin?) by a reliable contributor that the first package brought to Cameron featured a trio of rides: boat ride, flying simulator and launch coaster. As happens, things got scaled back and the coaster was cut from Phase I, but it looks to me like the coaster pad is there (currently being used for construction parking and staging) and something could one day go in down the road.

I didn't put a dedicated exploratory trail (equivalent of Pangani Forest) in the drawing. I hope something like that happens in Phase I, and maybe we'll see signs of it in future imagery.

 

[doctornick]

Is anyone a bit concerned about the boat rides potential lack of ambition?

The footprint of the concrete doesn't look huge, I am presuming it is going to be on one level and have no drops... putting it in It's A Small World territory as opposed to at least Maelstrom (rip) never mind Pirates or Splash (wishful thinking I know).

I've never really understood the fascination with drops. I mean, if they fit into what the ride is doing (like Maelstrom) then fine, but the drop in POTC doesn't seem to make a different to me for that ride. I certainly don't think it makes a big difference in thrill level unless you are talking about a Splash type of drop. Having a ride all on one level doesn't make it "bad" or less ambitious intrinsically.

That said, ironically, I wouldn't be shocked if there is a drop simply because the show building seems like it will be at a low level -- the queue to the Banshee ride will be above part of the show scenes for the boat ride. Given that, if the boat ride and the Banshee ride have queue entrances on the same level, the boat ride might load and have to drop to get to the main show scenes. We'll see.

Anyhow, we haven't hear much about the boat ride, but that doesn't mean it won't be good. Cameron doesn't strike me as someone who would settle for a mediocre outcome and we've heard talk about very sophisticated AAs for Pandora -- the boat ride would be the most logical place for them to be featured.

 

[GoofGoof]

I believe it was posted here (by Martin?) by a reliable contributor that the first package brought to Cameron featured a trio of rides: boat ride, flying simulator and launch coaster. As happens, things got scaled back and the coaster was cut from Phase I, but it looks to me like the coaster pad is there (currently being used for construction parking and staging) and something could one day go in down the road.

I didn't put a dedicated exploratory trail (equivalent of Pangani Forest) in the drawing. I hope something like that happens in Phase I, and maybe we'll see signs of it in future imagery.

I think at least part of that area is where the new power station is going. Towards the bottom by the trees that front the parking lot. Not sure if there is enough room for a coaster too.

I may be remembering it wrong, but the "bike coaster" was rumored to be used for Avatar too at some early stage. It's pretty much rumored for everything though. Tron, Star Wars, Avatar, Marvel outside of FL.

 

[doctornick]

I believe it was posted here (by Martin?) by a reliable contributor that the first package brought to Cameron featured a trio of rides: boat ride, flying simulator and launch coaster. As happens, things got scaled back and the coaster was cut from Phase I, but it looks to me like the coaster pad is there (currently being used for construction parking and staging) and something could one day go in down the road.

I didn't put a dedicated exploratory trail (equivalent of Pangani Forest) in the drawing. I hope something like that happens in Phase I, and maybe we'll see signs of it in future imagery.

I hope there is some sort of trail as well. At a minimum, I'd expect to see a M&G of some sort.

Also, regarding the coaster... it's unclear where exactly it would have gone, but that southern part of the land is going to be taken up by a power station apparently. That doesn't mean that there isn't some land available as an expansion pad, but it's probably not as large as you propose on the drawing.

Edit: Also, I think your drawing is probably pretty much spot on, but we'll probably also see some merch near the rides (at the exit?) and I think they'll be at least a snack bar if not a regular quick serve near the rides.

 

[danlb_2000]

Is anyone a bit concerned about the boat rides potential lack of ambition?

The footprint of the concrete doesn't look huge, I am presuming it is going to be on one level and have no drops... putting it in It's A Small World territory as opposed to at least Maelstrom (rip) never mind Pirates or Splash (wishful thinking I know).

The leaked plans do refer to it as a "C-Ticket".

 

[flyerjab]

The leaked plans do refer to it as a "C-Ticket".

Maybe the boat ride will be similar to how the 7DMT was constructed for NFL: incredible theming and advanced AAs, but not as long of a ride as one would hope.

 

[GoofGoof]

Maybe the boat ride will be similar to how the 7DMT was constructed for NFL: incredible theming and advanced AAs, but not as long of a ride as one would hope.

Probably. Since it will most likely be a slow moving boat ride it should at least be longer than 7DMT (2.5 minutes). For comparison: Living with the Land is an almost 14 minute ride, Splash 11 minutes, IASW is 10.5 minutes, Pirates 8.5 minutes. I would guess this ride will be closer to Pirates length, but still pretty long.

 

[msteel]

From what I can tell, the boat ride will either venture outside the concrete slab area.....or they've changed the boat ride layout since the plans were leaked.

It looks to me like they have changed the boat ride layout. If I have overlayed this correctly, I see the following discrepancies:

1) The turn where the blueprint shows the boats coming into the building doesn't seem to work with what has been built.
2) The turn where the blueprint shows the boats going out of the building sits on top of the deeper section that has been built.
3) The building outline in the plan seems smaller than what is being built. It looks to me like the boat ride does not go outside the show building as shown in the leaked plans.

 

[Tom]

It looks to me like they have changed the boat ride layout. If I have overlayed this correctly, I see the following discrepancies:

1) The turn where the blueprint shows the boats coming into the building doesn't seem to work with what has been built.
2) The turn where the blueprint shows the boats going out of the building sits on top of the deeper section that has been built.
3) The building outline in the plan seems smaller than what is being built. It looks to me like the boat ride does not go outside the show building as shown in the leaked plans.

View attachment 82629

Thanks for the overlay. I don't have those skills.

And now I'm positive they've changed the boat ride. The emergency egress stairs from the E-ticket queue come down in the middle of the giant slab, which is obviously the bottom of the water container. That won't work.

But, it could still be indoor/outdoor, as illustrated in the rendering from earlier.

 

[George]

The leaked plans do refer to it as a "C-Ticket".

Which, if for the hundredth trip in a row they don't take my ticket (after paying that ridiculous cover charge they have now), when this ride clearly is marked "C-ticket" you can bet your sweet tuckus that this guy is launching the letter writing campaign to end all letter writing campaigns.

 

[danlb_2000]

Thanks for the overlay. I don't have those skills.

And now I'm positive they've changed the boat ride. The emergency egress stairs from the E-ticket queue come down in the middle of the giant slab, which is obviously the bottom of the water container. That won't work.

But, it could still be indoor/outdoor, as illustrated in the rendering from earlier.

I wonder if the boat ride shown on the plans was just a representation of what was going to be there but not actual plans. This would make sense since these plans focused on the Soarin ride building.

 

[GoofGoof]

I wonder if the boat ride shown on the plans was just a representation of what was going to be there but not actual plans. This would make sense since these plans focused on the Soarin ride building.

This is very possible. It's also remotely possible that they "upgraded" the boat ride from a smaller C ticket ride to what is currently being built. I know, I know, that never happens at WDW. Maybe Cameron wanted more meat to the land, maybe Staggs pulled a Mine Train and suggested a change. Who knows. Either way the foundation for the boat ride looks substantially bigger than the leaked plans.

 

[danlb_2000]

This is very possible. It's also remotely possible that they "upgraded" the boat ride from a smaller C ticket ride to what is currently being built. I know, I know, that never happens at WDW. Maybe Cameron wanted more meat to the land, maybe Staggs pulled a Mine Train and suggested a change. Who knows. Either way the foundation for the boat ride looks substantially bigger than the leaked plans.

We don't really know how big the boat ride was in the leaked plans. The plans showed the section that was inside the Soarin building and that it went outside, but there is no indication of how big the outside was going to be.

 

[doctornick]

This is very possible. It's also remotely possible that they "upgraded" the boat ride from a smaller C ticket ride to what is currently being built. I know, I know, that never happens at WDW. Maybe Cameron wanted more meat to the land, maybe Staggs pulled a Mine Train and suggested a change. Who knows. Either way the foundation for the boat ride looks substantially bigger than the leaked plans.

This is where I chime in to point out that the "leaked plans" date to a period before final agreement and approval of the project. It was reported that Cameron and Disney had trouble agreeing on a final plan for the project -- so it's entirely possible that aspects of the plan were changed between the leaked plans and the final greenlit project. Given the circumstance, it's not that improbably that Cameron's folk demanded some changes to make things more impressive before signing off on them.

In general, I would rarely expect Disney on their own to "upgrade" a ride to something more expensive during the planning stage, but the presence of Cameron is a different dynamic from a typical WDI situation.

 

[dstrawn9889]

This is where I chime in to point out that the "leaked plans" date to a period before final agreement and approval of the project. It was reported that Cameron and Disney had trouble agreeing on a final plan for the project -- so it's entirely possible that aspects of the plan were changed between the leaked plans and the final greenlit project. Given the circumstance, it's not that improbably that Cameron's folk demanded some changes to make things more impressive before signing off on them.

In general, I would rarely expect Disney on their own to "upgrade" a ride to something more expensive during the planning stage, but the presence of Cameron is a different dynamic from a typical WDI situation.

reference pro-Disney Plussing: the last minute change from static faced dwarves to the new projection mapped faces?

 

[flyerjab]

This is where I chime in to point out that the "leaked plans" date to a period before final agreement and approval of the project. It was reported that Cameron and Disney had trouble agreeing on a final plan for the project -- so it's entirely possible that aspects of the plan were changed between the leaked plans and the final greenlit project. Given the circumstance, it's not that improbably that Cameron's folk demanded some changes to make things more impressive before signing off on them.

In general, I would rarely expect Disney on their own to "upgrade" a ride to something more expensive during the planning stage, but the presence of Cameron is a different dynamic from a typical WDI situation.

The part of the sentence that I bolded has been an argument I have been presenting all along. Cameron strikes me as someone not easy to negotiate with. He is a headstrong, type A, bull in a china shop type of guy. In the movie world, he typically gets his way mainly because his movies pay off financially - I think the studio delayed the release of Titanic over six months so that Cameron could make the movie the way he wanted it to be made. And he went audaciously over budget, but the risk was rewarded with the type of money that movie made worldwide.

With the Pandora expansion, maybe he did ultimately concede to the number of rides for the initial design, or the length of the boat ride for the initial design. I guarantee that he made up for it else where, whether it was to have the most outrageously and beautifully themed environment any park goer will see this side of Tokyo Disney Sea, or the most advanced animatronics in any theme park period, or a guarantee that an expansion pad for Avatar will be added on to at a later date with the coaster ride pending the performance of the first phase of the expansion.

I've said this before though, Cameron is successful enough on his own and I don't think that he needed Disney as much as Disney needed him at the time. Also, after screwing up the chance to add the most successful story franchise in modern times (Potter), I would think that Disney worked to make certain that the expansion was impressive enough that Cameron would not walk away from it.