Na’vi River Journey
We had a 1:05pm FP for Na’vi River Journey, so we headed to Pandora after lunch.
We stopped for a Photo Pass photographer at the entrance to Pandora. There was one family ahead of us, but while we were waiting, a mom and her daughter literally just jumped in line ahead of us. I really do try to give people the benefit of the doubt that maybe they don’t realize there is a line, but this was maybe the third time someone had cut in front of us this day, so I was starting to get annoyed. When the photographer turned back around, I think he knew we had been in line next and looked surprise to see the other people, so he asked, “Um, who was here first?” The mother and daughter jumped up for their turn like they didn’t hear the question, so we told him, “It’s fine, they can go first.”
I wanted to get a picture in front of this plant since I had heard a story about it on a podcast just before our trip. Apparently this plant is helping to detox the air in Pandora so that we humans can breathe while we are there. I think the girls were getting tired by this point! And yes, DD2 had kicked off her shoes in the stroller. It was nearly impossible to keep shoes on her.
As you can see, the bucket was a big hit!
When he finished taking family pictures, the photographer asked if my husband and I wanted a picture together. He said he guessed we weren’t getting too many of those, and I appreciated that he made us pause and get a picture just the two of us.
I was excited just to see Pandora again. The floating mountains are truly amazing.
As we approached the FP line for Na’vi River Journey, I noticed it looked pretty backed up. People were milling around but the line wasn’t moving, so I walked up further to see what was going on. There were Cast Members explaining that the ride was down due to technical difficulties, and they didn’t know when it would be back up. Bummer! The CM said we would be getting an anytime FP since the ride was down. We were standing in line while deciding what to do, and people kept bailing out of the line in front of us. Eventually a free FP did pop up in my email.
When it got to be just a few people ahead of us in line, I asked a Cast Member if she had any idea whether it was worth waiting for it to be back up or if she suggested we come back later. I really didn’t want to “waste” the FP on any other rides if we might get to ride NRJ later in the day. She quietly said that if the problem was what she thought it was, it might be just a 15-20 minute wait, but to not repeat that to others because they couldn’t make any guarantees. From what I could tell, she only told this to the first few parties in the FP line, and they seemed to be discouraging others from joining the line. We decided we would wait.
We chatted with the families ahead and behind us for a little bit, and in 25-30 minutes, the ride did open again, and we were able to walk right on!
I think I appreciated this ride even more since this was our second time riding it. I still don’t think it’s worth a long wait, but it’s a nice, quiet ride. We got stuck briefly in the room with the jellyfish-like things that float around you. All I could think was that there are much worse places you could get stuck! I actually enjoyed hanging out there for a few minutes.
I was most excited to see the animatronic na’vi at the end of the ride. I remembered she was amazing and was watching out for her. So I was surprised to see this screen with a video of that same na’vi instead of the na’vi herself.
It might be hard to tell from the picture, but the video screen was set back and felt strange to me. Maybe you can tell how small it really was better in this picture.
I immediately said something to my husband. I asked him if he remembered an animatronic na’vi being in that spot last time. He said no, he thought I was remembering it wrong. I knew I wasn’t crazy (right?!) but now I was questioning my memory, so as we got off the ride, I asked a CM if there used to be an animatronic figure at the end of this ride. She goes, “Oh, you noticed? Well that
might have been the ‘technical difficulty’ we were having earlier.” I was sad I missed her, but at least they got the ride up and running again quickly.
After our ride, it was time to run back to Dinoland to try to make the 3pm showing of Finding Nemo. I realized we had just come from there for lunch, and this was poor planning on my part! But - more steps for the day!