Long post ahead, thanks for the aerial shots. I've got some thoughts to share. And I hope no one minds, but I took a look at the leaked blueprints from several years back and decided to overlay them on top of the new aerial shots. The shapes of the buildings in the plans appear to line up pretty darn well with what is presently being built, perhaps lending credence and accuracy to the blueprints. I also traced over the boat ride's layout in the blueprints for better visibility.
Note that it's definitely safe to assume that the boat ride isn't present in its entirety in the leaked blueprints. The flume track is cut off at the top, and each of the sides are clearly traveling in opposite directions.
This speculation is of course being made under the assumption that the leaked blueprints are still accurate. And this may not be the case. At this point it's probably fair to assume the Flight of Passage ride is accurate in the plans, the show building is identical in scale and shape, as well as the description of the ride system. The boat layout is another story...
At least part of the boat's show building does line up with the plans. The red section in the plan (indicating at least part of the interior of the boat ride) lines up pretty much exactly with the lighter tinted gray building underneath it. However the plans do NOT account for the other pieces of the building surrounding the light-gray piece (the darker gray parts outside the boundaries the red section, this more than doubles the size of the red area alone). The area where the track is cut off on the plans is very cramped in the construction shot. This seems to be at or very near the entrance to the Flight of Passage ride and it doesn't look like there's much (if any) space to spare for additional length for the track indoors. Even though the plans indicate there's substantial unseen additional track traveling beyond the boundaries of the interior show building. Unless they're planning this area to be outside, either the queue being located here or the ride travelling outside in front of the Banshee ride building somehow. Though the D23 model didn't show the boat traveling outdoors. So it's entirely possible (if not probable) the track layout may have changed since these plans were leaked, so these plans may not be accurate for the boat anymore.
Perhaps further indicating the plans were changed, there was some speculation recently that the boat ride may contain multiple levels like POTC or Maelstrom, and include a drop as well. Some people thought they noticed evidence of this in earlier construction aerials (before the building had been capped off with a roof). Even
@articos seemed to be teasing something in the conversation (or perhaps we read into his comments incorrectly). Here's a link to a post I made some months back regarding this (and my own hypothetical speculation), you can find the rest of this conversation here as well-
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/avatar-land-construction-progress.877041/page-93#post-6744526
It's kind of speculatory at this point however, we can't know now unless we're deliberately told. Though given the potentially larger than expected show building for the boat ride breaking the boundaries of the red portion of the plan, maybe the boat does in fact have multiple levels and is now using a different layout (with the lighter gray area of the building being a second level and the surrounding darker gray areas being the lower level). Then again these buildings may be dedicated to backstage areas for the mechanics, or even boat storage. At least parts of the building would have to be dedicated to those elements.
