Late to the party, but after not receiving the AP preview notifications and having zero luck for fastpasses since Pandora opened, I finally took advantage of the lack of crowds yesterday (pre-Irma) to ride FoP and NRJ. Note that I avoided all discussion on this topic, all pictures, all previews, etc so I could have a Cars Land moment at WDW for the first time in...forever.
And after all the waiting and not spoiling anything for myself...I did not have such a moment. Pandora is a well put together land, don't get me wrong, but maybe its my adult mind or maybe its my going in the daytime, but it wasn't a "WOW" like Cars Land was for me. What I think I can attribute that to is there's no real 'landmark' from the first movie here. Sure you have the 'floating' mountains, but as much of an engineering feat as they are, the angles and perspectives that you are given in viewing them from all the pathways just doesn't sell the forced perspective as well as I was expecting. Still a really good use of rockwork, fake plants, waterfalls, and colors though.
FoP's queue I thought was very well done up until the pre-ride films. I'm not expecting a show the moment I enter the building, so gradually going through the forest into the lab was perfect to me. The use of tech and screens for some of the lab experiments was awesome, and the Avatar in the tube was pretty mind-blowing. Sure the queue didn't have that scale or grandeur that Gringotts has, but that queue is an exception and not the rule.
The pre-shows fell flat on myself and girlfriend. We both understood the whole premise and what they were setting us up for, but the delivery was off. I know the gentleman is supposed to be portraying a socially awkward scientist, but many of his cues sounded too much like he was reading off a cue card that he received not 5 minutes prior to shooting. We also felt that there were some elements in the shows that they could've done without entirely (like the 'decontamination' and the needless arm shaking and moving around). The second pre-show movie was a bit better, as it's important to instruct people how to sit to help reduce load times.
That said, on to the actual ride. First, the ride vehicles are nothing like what I imagined for FoP. I guess when Disney was advertising and hyping up flying on a banshee, I thought it would be an actual banshee that you were straddling. The breathing effect was a great touch, but it wasn't enough to sell the fact that I was supposed to be on a banshee. Without the perspective of a head or something, its never going to feel any more to me than a camera flying through Pandora
The movie itself is very well done and did not leave me with any sense of motion sickness, which is something I'm prone to on just about every 3-D ride. This is a big deal to me and certainly ensures that I will re-ride FoP many times in the future. The only thing I can nit-pick on with the actual film was the lack of any musical score in the beginning part of it...just made it feel like awkward flying around.
My BIGGEST gripe with the ride was how insecure the glasses felt on my head. I've been on many 3-D rides and I can never remember having worn a more insecure feeling pair of spectacles in my life. I kept having to push the glasses back on to the bridge of my nose...very frustrating.
All said, FoP is probably tied with the Safari as the best ride in the park (sorry, but you can't beat some of the "wow" moments you can have on the safari ride). Its a very good E-Ticket ride, but its not the 'best ride in Orlando' as I've heard my friends throw around.
Navi River Journey obviously doesn't have much of a plot, but I thought as far as a sit down boat ride, its a fun little journey through nighttime in Pandora. Well put together, especially some of the screen effects, but with that said its not something I'd wait any measurable time for. The queue area I thought was really nice.
FoP TLDR:
Pros:
-Great queue
-Well put together film leaving me with zero motion sickness.
Cons:
-Awkward preshow actor and elements in the preshow that could be left out
-3-D glasses that don't feel secure at all
-Never had the feeling I was on a banshee
