Travel Pandora — The World of Avatar
Disney’s Animal Kingdom adds film-inspired land
“You are not in Kansas anymore,” huffed the general aboard the mission in “Avatar,” filmmaker James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi blockbuster. “You are on Pandora.”
Eight years later — and, in Pandorian lingo, 4.4 light-years away — the greeting is suddenly more up close and personal.
On May 27, Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort, having joined with Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment company, will cut the ribbon on Pandora — The World of Avatar, the most significant and perhaps eagerly anticipated expansion in the 19-year history of the eco-conscious theme park near Orlando, Fla.
“This will not be a revisitation of a plotline of a movie you already saw,” Joe Rohde, Disney Imagineering’s executive designer, said at a recent press preview in New York, “but an entirely new adventure.”
In theme-park parlance, that translates into fully immersive attractions, and the 12-acre mystical land of Pandora plans to offer a double dose: the Avatar Flight of Passage thrill ride and the tranquil yet no less scenic Na’vi River Journey.
The former, which calls for 3-D glasses and, if Rohde’s description is any indication, a dose of Dramamine, casts riders as biologists working alongside the Na’vi native tribe to repopulate Pandora’s beasts of burden, its winged banshees.
While knowledge of the screen “Avatar” may enhance the overall visitor experience, the period backdrop of this Pandora is a full generation after the original movie. By now, all conflicts have been resolved, and, within Pandora’s floating mountains and multicolored rainforest, all storylines can begin with a clean slate.
To experience Flight of Passage, “you proceed through sacred caverns resembling (Cambodia’s) Angkor Wat and end up at a technological facility,” Rohde says of the approach to the ride’s boarding station.
En route, instructional lessons are provided in preparation for this Na’vi rite of passage. Once properly advised, “you will fly on the back of a banshee.”
“You’re going to plunge, you’re going to dive, you’re going to swoop,” Cameron said in a Disney World promotional video. “It’s like dreaming with your eyes wide open.”
The high-rush experience is programmed to last a good four minutes, “because you can only fly so long,” Rohde says. He further notes that the acrobatic adventure has been tested against nausea, although he does admit, “Little kids might be scared.”
Asked if the Flight of Passage might be compared to Soarin’ Around the World at Disney World’s adjacent Epcot, Rohde responds, “This isn’t Soarin’. It’s more like Flyin’.”
Which brings us to Floatin’ — or rather, the Na’vi River Journey.
While early speculation on fan sites likened the journey to Pirates of the Caribbean, Rohde calls the ride “a romantic musical journey into ‘bioluminescence.’” (This much-used scientific term means “the emission of light by living organisms” — so think fireflies and jellyfish, only on Pandora, the flora and fauna and even the ground itself also contribute to a phosphorescent rainbow of light.)
In this instance, visitors will board reed boats “as the beauty of the forest unravels before us,” says Rohde. Along the way, expect to be met by “a rich species of animals,” with the adventure culminating in an encounter with the Na’vi shaman of songs.
According to her press bio, the shaman “has a deep connection to the life force of Pandora and sends positive energy into the forest through her music.”
Pandora will also dish up its own distinctive quick-service restaurant, the Satu’li Canteen, where planet-to-table fare runs the gamut from customized quinoa and vegetable salad bowls to steamed “pods” filled with either a cheeseburger or vegetable curry.
Nearby, the drink stand calls itself Pongu Pongu, after an expat to Pandora. The gift shop is the more conventionally named Windtraders, where signature merchandise includes a Na’vi Translator, “with lights, sounds and 15 translation cards.”
While Pandora ups the game for Animal Kingdom and helps this half-day park graduate into a fullday experience, the new addition is further complemented by the park’s afterdark illuminations show, “Rivers of Light.”
In fact, to accommodate the anticipated crowds, from May 27 through July 4, Animal Kingdom’s regular operating hours are being extended from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Those staying at Disney hotels also have access to Extra Magic Hours, which stretch park time from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Acting as a further draw, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is presenting the new show “The Music of Pixar Live!” — which debuts the night before Pandora’s premiere, May 26. Also on display are replicas from “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” At Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park, a new rafting experience called Miss Adventure Falls has been introduced.
Perhaps not so coincidentally, Disney rival Universal Orlando is opening its new Volcano Bay water park May 25. Likewise, some industry observers see Pandora, which has been five years in the making, as Disney’s answer to Universal’s immensely successful Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (Reps for both companies routinely decline comment on their competition.)
Keeping up its own pace, Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., has scheduled a major May 27 premiere of its own, Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout!
Taking up residence in the former Tower of Terror at Disney’s California Adventure, the attraction features characters from the Marvel Comics superhero team while you sit in a high-speed elevator car that zooms out of control once a power generator blows.
“We never know what we are going to see when a door opens,” Rohde explains. “The ride just goes and goes and goes until it’s done.”
And when it does, he adds, all the goods seen being looted during the ride will be available for sale in the gift shop.