demolish the navi river journey, rebuild it using PotC and Blue Bayou building from Disneyland California as template. Basically make PotC but with Avatar theme. instead of blue bayou, have a pandora themed restaurant with seating right next to boats just like PotC. Maybe the que and first part are outside with and you go into caverns on firstdrop and the rest is indoors? I dunno but make navi river journey a 12-15 minute immersive experience instead of a 5 minutes ok ride. That, with a great restaurant would take Pandora to the next level.
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Pandora World of Avatar Phase Two
- Thread starter EPCOTCenterLover
- Start date
Ghost93
Well-Known Member
I think a Phase 2 should include an underwater ride as that seems like it will be a big component of the Avatar sequels. Overall I think Pandora is one of the best lands ever created at Walt Disney World. However, if I were to make any criticism it would be the lack of Na'vi. THe land feels a bit less lively than it should due to the fact that there aren't many Na'vi character interactions. Because they are 10 feet tall and James Cameron wants this to be as immersive and realistic as possible, I understand why they don't have people dress up in Na'vi costumes for meet and greets. Still, I think there has to be some way to increase the presence of the Na'vi in the land. Maybe adding more animatronics to Navi River Journey and possibly a Na'vi animatronic to the Flight of Passage queue/preshow would help. Maybe we could also get a show that feature the Na'vi in some way.
BlakeW39
Well-Known Member
I think that expanding NRJ would be the best option, but I doubt that Disney would ever do it as there's really no incentive. That said, I firmly believe that if NRJ was spending its budget on one, extremely complex AA -- then it shouldn't have been a Na'Vi, it should have been an animal. The one thing I feel is missing from Pandora is the feeling that wildlife is present in the land, which could easily be rectified by expanding the NRJ to include a number of fauna post-shaman, or to add a new attraction that acts a kind of "safari" to highlight some of Pandora's native fauna, be it either walk through or ride system based.
Ghost93
Well-Known Member
I agree that the ride should have been longer. I think a big part of the problem with Navi River Journey is that you have people waiting 2-4 hours for what is a 4.5-minute boat ride through some pretty scenery, with the only real highlight being the amazing Shaman animatronic at the end. While I don't expect Disney to ever expand the length of the ride, I do think the ride could be improved by having more animatronic animals, and perhaps some additional Na'vi animatronics. There's a few spots on the ride that feel kind of lifeless.
If more Avatar attractions open up over the next decade it may take some of the pressure off Na'vi River Journey and people could better appreciate it for what it is. Maybe they should open a large attraction with Rise-of-the Resistance levels of immersion in which the Na'vi (brought to life through very realistic animatronics) recruit you on some type of mission to protect Pandora.
This^^^
The only issue I have NRJ is the length. Outside of that, it is a stunningly beautiful ride. Had it been 1 of 4 attractions that were there on opening day I would have been fine with the length. As only 1 of 2 opening day attractions, it should have been 3 times as long.
A phase 2 with an additional E and solid D ticket attraction would greatly help to correct this.
Ghost93
Well-Known Member
While a phase 2 would be ideal for 2022 — just in time for Avatar 2 — I think Disney is probably waiting to see how well Avatar 2 does at the box office. Avatar is the most successful movie of all time, but it came out 12 years ago. I think Disney wants to see if the Avatar franchise has any staying power before investing in a Pandora expansion.
I think Avatar 2 will do very well at the box office — more so in foreign markets than in the U.S. If it's a financial success I could see Disney giving a Pandora expansion a green light, with an opening date of around 2025-2026.
Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
Best way to describe this is that Pandora is nothing but The Land Pavilion in AK...Flight of Passage (Soarin) and Navi River Journey (Living withe the Land) they are people eaters no matter as long as guest have something to do..
Ghost93
Well-Known Member
Pandora is way better than the Land Pavillion. It's probably my favorite section of all of the Disney Parks because of its beautiful, alien, atmosphere.
Skibum1970
Well-Known Member
While I agree and think that it is an interesting comparison, I would also say that Navi is not a people eater. LWTL's capacity is twice what Navi is and that is another gripe about the ride.
To me, while it is visually stunning, it would do better with a better story with even a minor "something goes wrong", a longer ride time approaching six or seven minutes, and one drop along the lines of PoTC. Nothing major but just something to add a small thrill. With all of that, they should find a way to increase capacity through the use of different boats or something.