AVATAR land construction progress

[sedati]

Provides some good views of the land, concept art of Flight of Passage queue and some neat insight into the attention to detail that went into the construction of the new land.

Noticed the little bat-like creatures @ 3:45. Wonder if they are static or have some movement. Still hoping there will a large creature out in the land, or perhaps a puppet/animatronic that will wander through (maybe one that has be rehabilitated back into the land as they put it.)

 

[JenniferS]

Should we read anything into the comment at 3:54 about " ... taking your first walk through the jungles of South America"?

 

[180º]

Have we seen this piece before? Flight of Passage queue, maybe?

 

[Skipper of the SEA]

Have we seen this piece before? Flight of Passage queue, maybe?

View attachment 192865

Interesting direction, but I really love it!

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Have we seen this piece before? Flight of Passage queue, maybe?

View attachment 192865

Is that the Allspark?

 

[PorterRedkey]

Is that the Allspark?

Definitely, reminds me on the Transformers queue. I admit that is a little disappointing. However, it is just one room, I am sure there will be many.

 

[raven]

Provides some good views of the land, concept art of Flight of Passage queue and some neat insight into the attention to detail that went into the construction of the new land.

Anyone else think this video highlights a desperate attempt at answering the question of "How does this fit into Animal Kingdom?" They didn't answer it but hinted at it. They related the experience to Earth, not animals, and how guests will feel the same experience like they do in other sections of the park.

If that's the only connection between DAK and Pandora then why not add something Mars related? Or anything else far-fetched? They need to tie the land in with a better explaination than that, at least in my opinion. Still looks like an extremely late resolution to "Hogwarts" to me, which was their goal. But, 7 years from announcement to reality killed that whole idea, huh? Maybe spend less time and money flying all over the world to shop for a necklace and having endless months of meetings on colors for blades of grass?

I'm sure it will be spectacular when it opens and attract large crowds but come on, seven years?!! That time frame makes guests expectations extremely high, by their own doing, and they had better expect a lot of negative feedback if they don't meet them. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Skipper of the SEA]

Anyone else think this video highlights a desperate attempt at answering the question of "How does this fit into Animal Kingdom?" They didn't answer it but hinted at it. They related the experience to Earth, not animals, and how guests will feel the same experience like they do in other sections of the park.

If that's the only connection between DAK and Pandora then why not add something Mars related? Or anything else far-fetched? They need to tie the land in with a better explaination than that, at least in my opinion. Still looks like an extremely late resolution to "Hogwarts" to me, which was their goal. But, 7 years from announcement to reality killed that whole idea, huh? Maybe spend less time and money flying all over the world to shop for a necklace and having endless months of meetings on colors for blades of grass?

I'm sure it will be spectacular when it opens and attract large crowds but come on, seven years?!! That time frame makes guests expectations extremely high, by their own doing, and they had better expect a lot of negative feedback if they don't meet them. Again, just my opinion.

The only better type of land to fit the mystical description is truly Dragons & Unicorns (bad and good, like fire and water). Avatar also works though because it has mystical creatures (Banshee Na'vi etc.), but mainly the realm, the other planet it resides upon. Like you said it is mainly about the planet, but a land about mystical creatures goes the same way -- it is mainly about the land not the creatures like you won't see real animals, but on the rides you will see the animals, and the creatures that life was given to. I'd say it will probably be on par with animals as any mystical land could possibly be.

 

[Capsin4]

Still looks like an extremely late resolution to "Hogwarts" to me, which was their goal. But, 7 years from announcement to reality killed that whole idea, huh? Maybe spend less time and money flying all over the world to shop for a necklace and having endless months of meetings on colors for blades of grass?

I took my daughter on her first trip to DW when she was 6 months old. The week we got back home, Disney announced their partnership with Cameron. I'm taking my daughter back this fall and she should be able to handle both rides in Pandora. She's 6. Time flies and I did tune it out somewhat.

 

[doctornick]

Anyone else think this video highlights a desperate attempt at answering the question of "How does this fit into Animal Kingdom?" They didn't answer it but hinted at it. They related the experience to Earth, not animals, and how guests will feel the same experience like they do in other sections of the park.

I think people are reading into it what they want to see. These promotional videos always talk about random stuff to try to get people hyped. In general with DAK, they are often talking about how things "fit" -- the promotional stuff for RoL did that as well -- because the park tends to have a strong unifying theme, more than other parks. So, it's just part of what they would sell for anything new.

 

[FNG]

Any speculation on when soft openings will start? We are there for Dark Side race weekend, which is also Earth Day. Too early to hope for a sneak peak?

 

[DisneyJayL]

I guess no more pictures.

 

[BrianLo]

Anyone else think this video highlights a desperate attempt at answering the question of "How does this fit into Animal Kingdom?" They didn't answer it but hinted at it. They related the experience to Earth, not animals, and how guests will feel the same experience like they do in other sections of the park.

If that's the only connection between DAK and Pandora then why not add something Mars related? Or anything else far-fetched? They need to tie the land in with a better explaination than that, at least in my opinion. Still looks like an extremely late resolution to "Hogwarts" to me, which was their goal. But, 7 years from announcement to reality killed that whole idea, huh? Maybe spend less time and money flying all over the world to shop for a necklace and having endless months of meetings on colors for blades of grass?

I'm sure it will be spectacular when it opens and attract large crowds but come on, seven years?!! That time frame makes guests expectations extremely high, by their own doing, and they had better expect a lot of negative feedback if they don't meet them. Again, just my opinion.

5 and a half. Staggs estimated 5 on announcement. We probably could have had it a year earlier if that parks era wasn't so penny pinching thanks to Tom's My Magic Plus money sink. Inevitably Cameron got his way and the product will better for it, albeit delayed.

 

[CrescentLake]

Anyone else think this video highlights a desperate attempt at answering the question of "How does this fit into Animal Kingdom?" They didn't answer it but hinted at it. They related the experience to Earth, not animals, and how guests will feel the same experience like they do in other sections of the park.

If that's the only connection between DAK and Pandora then why not add something Mars related? Or anything else far-fetched? They need to tie the land in with a better explaination than that, at least in my opinion. Still looks like an extremely late resolution to "Hogwarts" to me, which was their goal. But, 7 years from announcement to reality killed that whole idea, huh? Maybe spend less time and money flying all over the world to shop for a necklace and having endless months of meetings on colors for blades of grass?

I'm sure it will be spectacular when it opens and attract large crowds but come on, seven years?!! That time frame makes guests expectations extremely high, by their own doing, and they had better expect a lot of negative feedback if they don't meet them. Again, just my opinion.

Not sure that I agree. I don't think Pandora has any problems fitting into Animal Kingdom. In fact, I think this video only helps the land's case. One of the two major themes of AK are nature/animals and conservation. The theme of conservation is very clearly woven throughout the land and both rides seem to focus primarily on the flora and fauna of Pandora.

I agree with you on a long time frame making guest expectations high, but how many people truly new about Avatar back in 2012 when it was announced? (or was it even earlier than that?) Think of your casual Disney fan- I would wager that most didn't know about Avatar until construction started. Now super fans, like us, that is a different story.

I say this with all due respect, as I understand you are an insider on the boards. There may be more that you know that I do not.

 

[raven]

5 and a half. Staggs estimated 5 on announcement. We probably could have had it a year earlier if that parks era wasn't so penny pinching thanks to Tom's My Magic Plus money sink. Inevitably Cameron got his way and the product will better for it, albeit delayed.

I stand corrected, six years. I believe it was 2011 when it was announced. That's still an extremely long time for guests to wait for an existing section of a park to be built. From what I understand the reason behind this is to spread out costs over several years. But by these videos and "leaked footage" (which was probably planned) I think they discovered that guests have lost interest in this project years ago. I understand trying to hype guests about a new project but they shoot themselves in the foot by announcing it too early then taking too long to build it. Look at Ninjago at Legoland. Or Volcano Bay and Jimmy Fallon at Universal. Very speedy projects and kept guests interested the entire construction time. I think Disney uses their early announcements to help explain their constant price hikes, even though a lot of their projects anymore take half a decade to come to fruition.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

I honestly don't give a flip at this point how long it took to build, I'm tired of talking/thinking about it as that's been beaten to death here. By my math it took about 3.5 years to build. Pretty long, but not completely outrageous considering the subject matter. It was announced and followed by several years of silence making it look like they may not go through with it. It was rumored there were creative differences between Disney's crew and Cameron's party. Sometimes, these large-scale projects aren't so simple at all to execute.

I'm just glad it's finally here and ready to experience and see if it's worth the price of admission. Exciting times in Orlando.

 

[CTXRover]

I stand corrected, six years. I believe it was 2011 when it was announced. That's still an extremely long time for guests to wait for an existing section of a park to be built. From what I understand the reason behind this is to spread out costs over several years. But by these videos and "leaked footage" (which was probably planned) I think they discovered that guests have lost interest in this project years ago. I understand trying to hype guests about a new project but they shoot themselves in the foot by announcing it too early then taking too long to build it. Look at Ninjago at Legoland. Or Volcano Bay and Jimmy Fallon at Universal. Very speedy projects and kept guests interested the entire construction time. I think Disney uses their early announcements to help explain their constant price hikes, even though a lot of their projects anymore take half a decade to come to fruition.

Partnership between Disney and Cameron was announced on Sept 20, 2011. So about 5.5 years from that announcement. The mistake was announcing the land before any planning of what the land would involve was completed. Groundbreaking was January 10, 2014. Thus a little over 3 year build time, which is a little on the long side.

With that in mind, isn't 5 years a typical time frame from blue sky to finishing construction for large projects like this?

 

[WDWtraveler]

Photo update as of Wednesday, March 8. Installation of some additional tall bamboo on the berm, and construction of the new bus terminal can be seen behind the wall. Additionally, some vegetation has been cleared behind the construction wall for installation of new pavement leading to this bus terminal.

 

[raven]

With that in mind, isn't 5 years a typical time frame from blue sky to finishing construction for large projects like this?

Yes. 5 years is about right from conception to completion. But I believe Disney was too quick to announce the project. It was an obvious attempt to pull back guest interest after IOA opened Harry Potter just a year before. More guests were leaving Disney property for a day to check out HP. I don't blame them for wanting to try and pull interest back but the Avatar idea seemed like a random choice to some people. And now the movie has pretty much been forgotten by most. Perhaps they should've stuck with the original Beastly Kingdom idea where there wasn't a movie tie in. But, you know...this is Disney. Gotta make that $$$.

 

[twebber55]

good lord....