RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
It's a great place to take a 4.5 minute nap after a long day in the heat.
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Na'vi River Journey reviews, comments and questions
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
It's a great place to take a 4.5 minute nap after a long day in the heat.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
It's not long enough for a nap
True, but at least it's a place to sit, unlike the rest of Pandora!
Prototype82
Well-Known Member
Gotta disagree with this one. When Diagon first opened up, I felt like its biggest problem was finding places to sit. Pandora seems to have a bench built into every other wall, root and log. And unlike Diagon's stage, I love that the drum show has a bench-shaped root that wraps around the entire stage(to the point they start pulling everyone into the show!) That being said, all of these places aren't necessarily shady. But I had plenty of places to sip my grog ales.True, but at least it's a place to sit, unlike the rest of Pandora!
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
Gotta disagree with this one. When Diagon first opened up, I felt like its biggest problem was finding places to sit. Pandora seems to have a bench built into every other wall, root and log. And unlike Diagon's stage, I love that the drum show has a bench-shaped root that wraps around the entire stage(to the point they start pulling everyone into the show!) That being said, all of these places aren't necessarily shady. But I had plenty of places to sip my grog ales.
There are a few places to sit near the store, and canteen but beyond that there isn't a lot of seating. Concrete does not make a good bench. You're right that the Diagon stage does need better seating, but it seems to work pretty well the way it is. Plus it's very well shaded.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I managed to find a fastpass for the River ride and got on within 5 minutes. I would not wait more than 15 minutes to ride this, but I will give my thoughts on the ride without focusing on the wait time. Surprisingly it seems I will have a somewhat different opinion than some here.
I thought it was VERY good. Almost great, so close to being the ride I ideally wanted out of this land but not quite reaching it. It provides something the park needs desperately, a calm ride that anyone can enjoy including those with issues preventing thrill rides. And full of lovely eye candy, gorgeous lighting and little details everywhere. The effects mostly aren't even cutting edge, they are just extremely well executed, well designed and there is a lot of them.
And i'm glad the scenes are so densely themed. One big issue i've had with many recent rides are the inconsistent or sparce theming in them, or lots of visible backstage stuff that breaks the immersion. Little Mermaid for instance has a lot of the structural elements like lighting rigs that are very visible. It doesn't help that most of the show scenes are also poorly designed with mediocre sets and figures, and poor lighting. 7DMT has its excellent Mine Scene (and a nice cottage scene), but the exterior scenery is nowhere near as detailed and suffers especially at night with very poor lighting. Navi River is at least an infinitely better ride than Little Mermaid IMO, regardless of what alphabetical ticket rank Disney internally classifies these as. And at the very least more consistently themed than Mine Train (though yes the Mine scene is excellent and has some nice and well designed animatronics). I would also bring up Expedition Everest's backwards tunnel, which is unthemed and exposed to the naked and very visible steel interior. Even Dinosaur (while the scenes it has are well designed) has a large chunk of the attraction occur in complete darkness due to intended scenes having been cut. Frozen has similar lapses in show quality too.
So one phrase I would use to describe the visual element of Navi River- consistently well themed. Look around all you like, there are no lapses in quality or "dead zones" where scenes are more sparsely detailed. It's the most consistently well themed WDW ride in a VERY long time, perhaps since the Safari. The imagineers did an excellent job of not only designing the scenes in the ride, but also clearly made the effort of thoroughly hiding unthemed backstage elements.
So is there a flaw? Absolutely. It should have been AT LEAST 8-10 minutes (which according to Martin WAS the original intention). I consider myself lucky that the ride actually stopped for a couple of minutes and artificially stretched it out. The ride also needed more animatronics. Not all have to be of the Shaman's movement (which is excellent btw), but they still should have had some others. Though more importantly the length is lacking, it's over far too soon. That being said, I am glad for a change to have a ride being good enough that I wanted to see more of that, as opposed to my criticism being able to point out a huge list of poorly designed scenery elements, figures, lighting etc.
This is not a thrill ride, and i'm glad of that. While I wouldn't have said no to having a drop as the original form was apparently intended to have, the lack of one isn't something I would count against it either. It's my idea of a relaxing "zen" type experience with just a lot of lovely eye candy. The length is a buzzkill (admittedly a serious one that prevents the ride from reaching its full potential), but i'm still a big fan of Navi River. Mom loved it too (same complaint about shortness though). I haven't been on the Flight sim yet and don't expect it to be my cup of tea. Thrills don't bother me but simulators don't really interest me.
People will probably be pretty irritated if they wait an hour or more for this though. Fair warning.
I thought it was VERY good. Almost great, so close to being the ride I ideally wanted out of this land but not quite reaching it. It provides something the park needs desperately, a calm ride that anyone can enjoy including those with issues preventing thrill rides. And full of lovely eye candy, gorgeous lighting and little details everywhere. The effects mostly aren't even cutting edge, they are just extremely well executed, well designed and there is a lot of them.
And i'm glad the scenes are so densely themed. One big issue i've had with many recent rides are the inconsistent or sparce theming in them, or lots of visible backstage stuff that breaks the immersion. Little Mermaid for instance has a lot of the structural elements like lighting rigs that are very visible. It doesn't help that most of the show scenes are also poorly designed with mediocre sets and figures, and poor lighting. 7DMT has its excellent Mine Scene (and a nice cottage scene), but the exterior scenery is nowhere near as detailed and suffers especially at night with very poor lighting. Navi River is at least an infinitely better ride than Little Mermaid IMO, regardless of what alphabetical ticket rank Disney internally classifies these as. And at the very least more consistently themed than Mine Train (though yes the Mine scene is excellent and has some nice and well designed animatronics). I would also bring up Expedition Everest's backwards tunnel, which is unthemed and exposed to the naked and very visible steel interior. Even Dinosaur (while the scenes it has are well designed) has a large chunk of the attraction occur in complete darkness due to intended scenes having been cut. Frozen has similar lapses in show quality too.
So one phrase I would use to describe the visual element of Navi River- consistently well themed. Look around all you like, there are no lapses in quality or "dead zones" where scenes are more sparsely detailed. It's the most consistently well themed WDW ride in a VERY long time, perhaps since the Safari. The imagineers did an excellent job of not only designing the scenes in the ride, but also clearly made the effort of thoroughly hiding unthemed backstage elements.
So is there a flaw? Absolutely. It should have been AT LEAST 8-10 minutes (which according to Martin WAS the original intention). I consider myself lucky that the ride actually stopped for a couple of minutes and artificially stretched it out. The ride also needed more animatronics. Not all have to be of the Shaman's movement (which is excellent btw), but they still should have had some others. Though more importantly the length is lacking, it's over far too soon. That being said, I am glad for a change to have a ride being good enough that I wanted to see more of that, as opposed to my criticism being able to point out a huge list of poorly designed scenery elements, figures, lighting etc.
This is not a thrill ride, and i'm glad of that. While I wouldn't have said no to having a drop as the original form was apparently intended to have, the lack of one isn't something I would count against it either. It's my idea of a relaxing "zen" type experience with just a lot of lovely eye candy. The length is a buzzkill (admittedly a serious one that prevents the ride from reaching its full potential), but i'm still a big fan of Navi River. Mom loved it too (same complaint about shortness though). I haven't been on the Flight sim yet and don't expect it to be my cup of tea. Thrills don't bother me but simulators don't really interest me.
People will probably be pretty irritated if they wait an hour or more for this though. Fair warning.
flyerjab
Well-Known Member
I'll be honest and say that I typically find your ride critiques very hypercritical. That being said, I really appreciated your review of this ride. It was an honest, straight forward review with valid criticisms while still highlighting the positive aspects. Nicely done!
sedati
Well-Known Member
People have been waiting well over that since opening- has anyone heard what the average guest reaction have been like?
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Gotta disagree with this one. When Diagon first opened up, I felt like its biggest problem was finding places to sit. Pandora seems to have a bench built into every other wall, root and log. And unlike Diagon's stage, I love that the drum show has a bench-shaped root that wraps around the entire stage(to the point they start pulling everyone into the show!) That being said, all of these places aren't necessarily shady. But I had plenty of places to sip my grog ales.
I know that complaining about a lack of benches is a "thing" on these pages, but I have found -- as you've pointed out -- that Disney has been doing a great job in recent years of having areas to sit that are seamlessly integrated with the surroundings as opposed to out of place benches. I much prefer it that way where there are still places to rest but done in a way that doesn't take away from the theme.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I saw plenty of places in Pandora to have a seat on. They have been doing a better job integrating seating in newer builds. The lack of benches and seating elsewhere though remains a problem. I actually think DHS is great in terms of that.
Dizney Crew
Active Member
Rode it again last night around 9:30pm, stand by was posted at 60 mins, but only took 25 mins before we got on, line moved fast. I did notice a set of stairs in the back of one of the scenes that I haven't noticed before, it was around the part where you can tell they take the boats backstage, the lighting was on in the back and that is why the stairs were revealed, I hadn't noticed this before, just wondering if they had some lights on that weren't supposed to be turned on. Being this was our 4th time riding, my eye's were probably wondering more then most guest, so I'm sure this went unnoticed by most..
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
If you look up you can also see the cable routing boxes and a few other behind the scenes aspects of the ride as you make your way through. Most of it is pretty well hidden, but there are quite a few gaps.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
One of my biggest gripes with mermaid is that you really shouldn't look up or behind you but you can't help but look. Immersion is terrible in certain scenes. I appreciate River Journey for utilizing the ceilings lol. I'm so taken out of Mermaid every time you get to the Under the Sea scene. Ironically
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
NFL is gorgeous. The rides are lacking a bit however. The mine train is not horrible, it is just a bit too short. Mermaid is definitely lacking but I am glad they realized that and made some small improvements where they could. The line between mediocrity and hugely successful is thinner than you think.
Todd H
Well-Known Member
Finally rode it this morning. Rates a meh. It was pretty but just missing something. Wouldn't wait more than 15 minutes to ride it again.
Forgot to mention that during my ride the guy in front of me used the flash on his camera the whole time. Told the CM at the end and he shrugged his shoulders and gave me a sarcastic "sorry."
Forgot to mention that during my ride the guy in front of me used the flash on his camera the whole time. Told the CM at the end and he shrugged his shoulders and gave me a sarcastic "sorry."
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Kman101
Well-Known Member
This
invader
Well-Known Member
Rode yesterday.
The ride is worth a 30 minute wait max. Nice to be able to sit and not have a story, let the mind wander and take in what is all around you. The Shaman was very cool, people on our boat kept talking about how real it looked and how creepy it was. I was honestly taken back by how large it actually was. All around the ride was done very well.
However, I'm fully convinced there is a conspiracy to keep DAK water rides short. That can be the only explanation. Had it been a bit longer I think it would be a much better ride.
The ride is worth a 30 minute wait max. Nice to be able to sit and not have a story, let the mind wander and take in what is all around you. The Shaman was very cool, people on our boat kept talking about how real it looked and how creepy it was. I was honestly taken back by how large it actually was. All around the ride was done very well.
However, I'm fully convinced there is a conspiracy to keep DAK water rides short. That can be the only explanation. Had it been a bit longer I think it would be a much better ride.
mousekedoc
Well-Known Member
I have been anticipating my trip to Pandora, expecting a Meh experience. I have read there are no hidden mickeys and the Navi river ride is a new it's a small world.
1. Pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the place. It's an immersive area that, at the very least, blows Camp Minnie Mickey away. That is what this new attraction replaced, after all.
2. While not looking for hidden Mickeys, I stumbled upon one in the light fixtures. The imagineers have hidden the classic hidden Mickey inside the overhead lights with a three bulb cluster, one large, two small.
3. Navi is nice. It could've had more animatronics. No, it's not knock my socks off, but it's better than any Nemo or Ariel or (yes, I'm saying this)Peter Pan ride.
4. Flights of Passage is hands down fantastic.
5. The food here is better than anything in the new fantasyland.
Who knows how this will age. Right now I don't care. It's a great addition to the parks.
djkidkaz
Well-Known Member
You should have said something to the guy, not the Cast Member. I have no problem confronting someone who is ruining the ride experience for me.
Todd H
Well-Known Member
I did a couple of times. Did no good.