AVATAR land coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom

[rioriz]

Now that the finished Avatar land appears to be around the corner and is looking quite impressive, I was curious as to any buzz surrounding the two rides, in-particular from our resident experts. Lee, Marni, 74, etc...
Are these two rides suppose be quality, impressive attractions, especially the "flights" ride?

I think a loook throigh the Avatar Construction Thread will give ya good insight into the upcoming attracrions

 

[Coaster Lover]

More info on Avatar Land will be revealed this November.

Including an opening date? Or too soon to hope for that?

 

[twebber55]

Dude, seriously! 283 pgs.
I've been coming to this site mostly as an observer for 20 years and I can tell you accessing the information in these super long threads is not easy and really would take me a full day to do. This site (I'm dating my self a bit) use to be more user friendly pre-super long threads. Granted you could have multiple threads on the same topic but it was much easier to see which thread had the most recent info.
These "super threads" is the equivolent of handing someone an old school encyclopedia and telling them to find the info.
Not to mention these "super threads" are filled with very little info and a lot of fluff. So please don't mind if I'm trying to find out the latest on the rides from some of our super users without spending the next 24-48 hrs to do so.

Thx Champ!

two rides
Flight of Passage its a Soarin 2.0 but much better, 3D, great queue, greater ride motion
Navi River Journey slow family boat ride full of effects
the forest throughout the land will be incredible

 

[DisneyRoy]

Including an opening date? Or too soon to hope for that?

I'm not an insider and don't claim to have any great piece of information. But if I were a betting man, I bet we get a "season" with which the land will open. Something along the lines of "Coming in Summer 2017 to Animal Kingdom". This gives them a few month window with which to work and get it open. A specific date will be announced MUCH closer to the opening. I would be surprised if they released an opening date more than 30 days out from opening.

 

[Coaster Lover]

I'm not an insider and don't claim to have any great piece of information. But if I were a betting man, I bet we get a "season" with which the land will open.

To be honest, I wouldn't expect much more than that this far out... but even a "Coming Summer 2017" would be sufficient for me at this point... I'd think something like that would be effective right about now to start getting the people booking their 2017 vacations...

 

[danlb_2000]

two rides
Flight of Passage its a Soarin 2.0 but much better, 3D, great queue, greater ride motion
Navi River Journey slow family boat ride full of effects
the forest throughout the land will be incredible

Very good summary, and this is pretty much all we know at this point.

 

[doctornick]

two rides
Flight of Passage its a Soarin 2.0 but much better, 3D, great queue, greater ride motion
Navi River Journey slow family boat ride full of effects
the forest throughout the land will be incredible

The screens (3 screens per room) for FoP apparently will move as well in addition to the ride vehicles.

NRJ is rumored to use the same tech as Shanghai's POTC which allows for the vehicles to slow down/speed up and change directions. someone implied that NRJ will have drones in the ride, but that seemed to be debunked (perhaps it was a confusion with RoL which will have drones used in the show).

 

[GoofGoof]

I'm not an insider and don't claim to have any great piece of information. But if I were a betting man, I bet we get a "season" with which the land will open. Something along the lines of "Coming in Summer 2017 to Animal Kingdom". This gives them a few month window with which to work and get it open. A specific date will be announced MUCH closer to the opening. I would be surprised if they released an opening date more than 30 days out from opening.

Agreed. They won't set an opening date too far out. If people book trips based on that and then find out it's delayed it would not make for happy guests. They also want to avoid people delaying trips. If someone was planning on going in Feb 2017 and they hear an opening date of 4/22 they might wait a few months to go. They would rather get 2 trips out of that guest, 1 in Feb and 1 once Avatar opens.

 

[Ripken10]

Agreed. They won't set an opening date too far out. If people book trips based on that and then find out it's delayed it would not make for happy guests. They also want to avoid people delaying trips. If someone was planning on going in Feb 2017 and they hear an opening date of 4/22 they might wait a few months to go. They would rather get 2 trips out of that guest, 1 in Feb and 1 once Avatar opens.

I really don't think that is a part of their strategy at all. First it's debatable that this will even make a financial impact on them (the number of people that MIGHT do this is so insignificant to their bottomline).

 

[GoofGoof]

I really don't think that is a part of their strategy at all. First it's debatable that this will even make a financial impact on them (the number of people that MIGHT do this is so insignificant to their bottomline).

We can agree to disagree. I guarantee that when it gets close to opening there will be a full on media blitz of advertising centered mostly on Disney channel but also in main stream media in some other key markets. They will be hyping the carp out of this thing. Remember how much hype there was around FLE and they spent less than half on that land. Disney is absolutely expecting the opening of this land to move the needle on attendance. If it doesn't somebody is getting fired (maybe more than a few somebodys). It's pretty much theme park basic operations to not hype the newest offerings too soon to avoid people delaying vacations. Universal did it with Harry Potter 2.

 

[Cesar R M]

two rides
Flight of Passage its a Soarin 2.0 but much better, 3D, great queue, greater ride motion
Navi River Journey slow family boat ride full of effects
the forest throughout the land will be incredible

Its surprising how little information of the river has been out.
We got frozen details constantly. even before-opening shots of the inside.

 

[Cesar R M]

We can agree to disagree. I guarantee that when it gets close to opening there will be a full on media blitz of advertising centered mostly on Disney channel but also in main stream media in some other key markets. They will be hyping the carp out of this thing. Remember how much hype there was around FLE and they spent less than half on that land. Disney is absolutely expecting the opening of this land to move the needle on attendance. If it doesn't somebody is getting fired (maybe more than a few somebodys). It's pretty much theme park basic operations to not hype the newest offerings too soon to avoid people delaying vacations. Universal did it with Harry Potter 2.

Hopefully we will get a perfect announcement of an announcement of a soon to be opening ride a la mine train

 

[djkidkaz]

Very good summary, and this is pretty much all we know at this point.

I thought some of the insiders suggested that people are expecting Soarin 2.0 and will be surprised. Insinuating that it's not like Soarin. It may have been @BrianLo or @articos

 

[twebber55]

I thought some of the insiders suggested that people are expecting Soarin 2.0 and will be surprised. Insinuating that it's not like Soarin. It may have been @BrianLo or @articos

@rioriz has some good intel on this

 

[Mike S]

@rioriz has some good intel on this

So does @Disneyhead'71 I think.

 

[rioriz]

@disneyhe

So does @Disneyhead'71 I think.

You beat me to it @Mike S as @Disneyhead'71 has been more bullish than I have on FoP however it seems most of our info seems to run together....I am very confident FoP will set the bar high for Screen Based Attractions... The Thrill level alone will be quite unexpected to the average Soarin rider.

 

[danlb_2000]

I thought some of the insiders suggested that people are expecting Soarin 2.0 and will be surprised. Insinuating that it's not like Soarin. It may have been @BrianLo or @articos

Depends on how you interpret "Soarin 2.0". It seems pretty clear that it's going to be a "ride vehicle in front of a screen" attraction which will lead people to call it Soarin 2.0, but there are still a lot of possibilities to enhance that ride system.

 

[GoofGoof]

Depends on how you interpret "Soarin 2.0". It seems pretty clear that it's going to be a "ride vehicle in front of a screen" attraction which will lead people to call it Soarin 2.0, but there are still a lot of possibilities to enhance that ride system.

EE was BTMRR 2.0. They are both coasters that twist through a mountain. They are 2 very different ride experiences.

Edit: I guess that makes Mine Train BTMRR 0.5

 

[Cesar R M]

Depends on how you interpret "Soarin 2.0". It seems pretty clear that it's going to be a "ride vehicle in front of a screen" attraction which will lead people to call it Soarin 2.0, but there are still a lot of possibilities to enhance that ride system.

if its as effective as the Gringott's cart, Spiderman's car and forbidden journey's.. I'm sold.

 

[danlb_2000]

if its as effective as the Gringott's cart, Spiderman's car and forbidden journey's.. I'm sold.

The difference with all three of those is that the vehicle moves through a larger environment as well as tilting and spinning. I don't expect the vehicles in this vehicle to move very far within the building, but I do expect the tilting motion to be more pronounced then Soarin.