AVATAR progress

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Tim_4

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
PeterAlt said:
Here's my take on the whole thing. For months, the top two questions people kept asking here have been (1) Where's George K, and (2) Why haven't they started construction on Avatar? It just happens to be that - out of the blue - George K. steps out from hiding to talk about Avatar. Suddenly, it's all very clear now, for me. George K. has taken ownership of the Avatar project. This is his baby now - the first project he will supervise from start to finish under his watch as the new WDW president... And he has to get this one right because this is what everyone will look to as a measure of his performance. He needs to make a good impression on everyone who's watching - fans, Bob Iger, future possible boses such as Kathleen Kennedy or Tom Staggs, stockholders, all the WDW cast members working under him, the Orlando Sentinel and other local media, etc.

So, mystery solved. George K. took ownership of Avatar and he's been mostly at the model shop and sitting in on WDI meetings, giving his say on every little project detail, telling the Imagineers to add that, change this, delete that, and pushing the Imagineers to create at the best of their abilities. He probably walked into the project from day 1 of his new job unsatisfied with the work thus far and they basically had to start over. There might have been multiple project restarts.

That explains the delay. It also explains what George was doing all this time in hiding!
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That would make a lot of sense. Except "where George was" was in Europe on vacation with his partner.
 
bubbles1812

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Yes. And the original announcement by Bob Iger in 2011 was that Avatarland "construction would begin in 2013". But that hasn't started yet, and four years of construction makes no sense logistically.

The new 2017 date released to the media by George Kalogridis would seem to offer them some breathing room for the next 12 to 18 months while they decide if they are really doing this Avatarland thing or not. To cancel it though, they'll need to be able to announce something else major and impressive for a WDW park; Cars Land East, Star Wars Land, DHS Extreme Makeover, etc..

But with the "2017" date now out there, they at least just bought themselves some time.
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And they sad part is that they shouldn't have needed to buy themselves some time. They've already had two years. It's ridiculous though sadly not unexpected.
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
A ride going into Avatar will go something like this....

Instead of spaceships, guests will board bicycles for their journey to Pandora. A friendly Pandorian alien with a glowing finger will sit in a basket on the bicycle with you as the two of you fly through a forest on earth being chased by military personnel. Forget the fact that there's no pressure suit and no Oxygen, some how you and your friendly Pandorian alien host managed to fly the bicycle to orbit in space, passed all the sun's planets to the Alpha Centari system, four light years away... I think I'm mixing up my movies....never mind...
 
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Tim_4

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Animaniac93-98 said:
Really? Last we heard it was one ride, one shop and that's it. Plans change, but I'm not expecting this to be a very substantial "land".
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Yes really. Nobody points to a source when they say "we heard one ride." Someone threw that up as speculation and now it's gospel.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
PeterAlt said:
So, mystery solved. George K. took ownership of Avatar and he's been mostly at the model shop and sitting in on WDI meetings, giving his say on every little project detail, telling the Imagineers to add that, change this, delete that, and pushing the Imagineers to create at the best of their abilities. He probably walked into the project from day 1 of his new job unsatisfied with the work thus far and they basically had to start over. There might have been multiple project restarts.

That explains the delay. It also explains what George was doing all this time in hiding!
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An interesting, and yet completely inaccurate, theory.
Tim_4 said:
It's NOT one ride for the millionth time. It's a full proper land.
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A proper land consisting if one ride, a merch location, and a restaurant? That's what I hear, as of six weeks ago or so.
 
MerlinTheGoat

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
Tim_4 said:
Plus a C ticket at least. They haven't settled on a design but a boat ride is on the table.
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Is your source of information those blueprints leaked quite some time ago (posted online October 2012 and likely originally drawn well before that) showing a proposed expansion plan (possibly Avatar related but maybe for something else)? I only assume this because those plans called the boat ride a C ticket (the Soarin like ride was being labeled an E). Unless you have a different and more up to date source than even Lee.

While i'd much rather you end up being correct than Lee's info in this case (obviously because I want the better and more meaty experience out of this and not because I want anyone to be wrong), Lee's info seems to be considerably newer than that plan. He said it was info from just 6 weeks ago, much more recent than those plans. And he's generally spot on in these matters. I'd again much rather you be right in this case, but i'm not getting my hopes up.

I'm assuming we're going to hear more about the concrete plans come August at D23 (maybe), so we'll know who is right and who is wrong soon enough.
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
Lee said:
A proper land consisting if one ride, a merch location, and a restaurant? That's what I hear, as of six weeks ago or so.
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Could it be that that is what is definitely "in" right now and there is some debate on additional aspects and thus...

Tim_4 said:
Plus a C ticket at least. They haven't settled on a design but a boat ride is on the table.
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Maybe the plan is to do the Soarin' 2.0 ride, a shop, a restaurant and then some other attraction yet to be determined.
 
T

Tim_4

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
MerlinTheGoat said:
Is your source of information those blueprints leaked quite some time ago (posted online October 2012 and likely originally drawn well before that) showing a proposed expansion plan (possibly Avatar related but maybe for something else)? I only assume this because those plans called the boat ride a C ticket (the Soarin like ride was being labeled an E). Unless you have a different and more up to date source than even Lee.

While i'd much rather you end up being correct than Lee's info in this case (obviously because I want the better and more meaty experience out of this and not because I want anyone to be wrong), Lee's info seems to be considerably newer than that plan. He said it was info from just 6 weeks ago, much more recent than those plans. And he's generally spot on in these matters. I'd again much rather you be right in this case, but i'm not getting my hopes up.

I'm assuming we're going to hear more about the concrete plans come August at D23 (maybe), so we'll know who is right and who is wrong soon enough.
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I'm sure Lee's sources are more reliable than mine but mine are two days old, not six weeks.
 
TalkingHead

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
Genie of the Lamp said:
I was reading on the Orlando business journal site that they had an interview with George Kalogridis recently and he told them that avatar at ak will open in summer of 2017. I would link article, but you have to be a subscriber to the site. I will link the tidbit though just to give you an idea:
http://m.bizjournals.com/orlando/print-edition/2013/05/03/disneys-kalogridis-avatar-to-open-in.html

Edit: my apologies on my post no pertaining to construction progress/updates.
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How is that even possible? 2017?

Might as well push it to 2018 and let it be part of DAK's 20th anniversary. (I realize the 15th anniversary was a few weeks ago...)
 

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