***Official*** Pandora: The World of Avatar Information Thread

[TheMaxRebo]

That's interesting feedback! Guidance that I have been looking at recently, be it Touring Plans projections, or peeking at my phone to see line times at various times throughout the day, or hearing anecdotal info from the boards and one person I know who was there last week, had been showing waits of an hour or so at rope drop and nothing less than two or so hours from that point on all day long. If these are wrong and the PP is right, I'd certainly be interested in anyone else's thoughts who might be able to corroborate that. I might rethink a few things for my upcoming trip.

If you can get there a hour before park opening and be in/near the front of the line then you can do well then, but if you only show up at park opening then you will probably be looking at a 2 hour wait or something ... basically it builds up really fast and then trickles down so by mid/late afternoon it is down a bit, then goes back up as evening starts, and then goes down during the EMH

So not that the touring plans projections are wrong or anything, just that you need to be towards the front of the line at rope drop to get the benefit

edit: or basically what @MickeyMinnieMom just said prior to my post

 

[Disfan1968]

My 2 cents based on my MDE wait times graphs 5/31-6/10...
https://www.disboards.com/threads/o...rmation-thread.3587311/page-355#post-57726337
https://www.disboards.com/threads/o...rmation-thread.3587311/page-355#post-57726423

• If you REALLY CAN be there AHEAD of rope drop those still will be your shortest waits of the day.
• HOWEVER, if you are there even 15-30min later, you may as well wait until 3pm or so. The waits build VERY QUICKLY in the morning.
• There is a drop-off in waits after 9/9:30 or so

All of these patterns could obviously change. That's the best I feel I have to go on for now.

Ok- this is what I would have said as well. I guess verdict is, if you really can scoot RIGHT over to FOP right at rope drop, that's still your best bet. But only if you get there ASAP.

 

[ItsLayne]

My only experience with rope drop was also on a Saturday morning with an EMH, so I think that helped. I arrived about 30 minutes before the EMH started (unintentionally slept in, meant to get there sooner) and they were starting to let people into the park. A whole herd of us on that bridge to Pandora, I felt like I was pretty far back in the crowd, but I could see the Steaming Tree Thing clearly so maybe I wasn't too far back. The line moved swiftly and I think maybe I had a 30 minute wait for FoP before I was in the video room. Possibly the fact that it was EMH made the difference, because there was no FastPasses coming into the queue during that time? Either that, or my weaving-thru-the-crowd-to-get-in-line game was stronger than most others.

I may have just gotten extremely lucky.

 

[AngiTN]

That's interesting feedback! Guidance that I have been looking at recently, be it Touring Plans projections, or peeking at my phone to see line times at various times throughout the day, or hearing anecdotal info from the boards and one person I know who was there last week, had been showing waits of an hour or so at rope drop and nothing less than two or so hours from that point on all day long. If these are wrong and the PP is right, I'd certainly be interested in anyone else's thoughts who might be able to corroborate that. I might rethink a few things for my upcoming trip.

the key word here being AT rope drop. Meaning you are AT the front AT rope drop. Not sauntering up around then and in the back of the crowd

I haven't seen any projections from TP that are using accurate info yet. I am not sure why they aren't building in waits to reflect what is actually happening vs. what would be the case for a long standing attraction.

Josh over at EasyWDW did a good touring plan timing post today. May be worth checking out his advice.

My only experience with rope drop was also on a Saturday morning with an EMH, so I think that helped. I arrived about 30 minutes before the EMH started (unintentionally slept in, meant to get there sooner) and they were starting to let people into the park. A whole herd of us on that bridge to Pandora, I felt like I was pretty far back in the crowd, but I could see the Steaming Tree Thing clearly so maybe I wasn't too far back. The line moved swiftly and I think maybe I had a 30 minute wait for FoP before I was in the video room. Possibly the fact that it was EMH made the difference, because there was no FastPasses coming into the queue during that time? Either that, or my weaving-thru-the-crowd-to-get-in-line game was stronger than most others.

I may have just gotten extremely lucky.

An EMH morning and a non-EMH morning are different at rope drop. The wait does build slightly slower on an EMH morning

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Ok- this is what I would have said as well. I guess verdict is, if you really can scoot RIGHT over to FOP right at rope drop, that's still your best bet. But only if you get there ASAP.

OK, once the gates open, and I get inside, what direction do I go?

 

[AngiTN]

OK, once the gates open, and I get inside, what direction do I go?

To Pandora? You go left. Always left. Up the left side (or the only direction they let you if only one side of the oasis is open), left at the tree of life and left again at pizzafari

But once you get to Pandora, you'll go right to FoP

 

[wareagle57]

An EMH morning and a non-EMH morning are different at rope drop. The wait does build slightly slower on an EMH morning

If you'll notice though, he was in the first pre-show 8 minutes before park opening. I'm thinking on EMH days that would not happen. So while the "wait" might be the same, I'm guessing it cuts into park hours more than on non-emh days. So now I can't decide if I still want to do EMH and risk the river journey wait being above what I want to wait in once I get off, or start the day later and go with Josh's proven plan on a non-EMH day.

 

[AngiTN]

Would sure depend on what else you plan to do in the park, that's for sure. Our last trip was Pandora centered, we didn't care if we didn't get in much of anything else outside of it. That won't always be the case. I'd almost consider a Pandora day, where you aren't concerned about spending extra time there. And a different day where you do the rest of AK. Or a half day. Ease up on the stress of how long things take and gives you all the time you want to explore.

 

[Maxwell42]

I've been lurking on this board for a long time, as well as monitoring wait times at FOP, so I felt like I was well prepared for our arrival yesterday. We had a FP+ for NRJ yesterday afternoon, and one for FOP on Wednesday, so we had no plans to ride FOP when we got there.

Well, it appears that AK had some freakishly low crowds yesterday. We got to Pandora around 2:30, with rain forecast for late afternoon/evening but not falling yet, and the standby for FOP was posted at only 50 minutes! I convinced DW to jump in line with me, as I knew it was worth doing standby once, and we weren't likely to see shorter waits while we're here. I was skeptical of the posted wait, with the line extending almost to the standby entrance and the first 15 minutes being outside before we got to the cave, but we stuck it out. It turned out being about 60-65 minutes, but that was much better than I expected - I was willing to do standby if we saw anything under 90!

I just checked Touringplans, and they report that they predicted a 7 but saw a 4 at AK yesterday, so maybe we just got lucky. But I will echo the advice being given here - if you aren't at the head of the rope drop crowd, the best bet for standby is in the middle of the afternoon. And standby is worth doing at least once - the lab scene in particular is very well done!

 

[Mimifree]

We were there this past Saturday night. We managed to in line at 10:00 right as they were closing it (prior to EMH at 11:00). Posted wait time was 105 minutes but we only waited 60 minutes. It was great!!!!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

If you'll notice though, he was in the first pre-show 8 minutes before park opening. I'm thinking on EMH days that would not happen. So while the "wait" might be the same, I'm guessing it cuts into park hours more than on non-emh days. So now I can't decide if I still want to do EMH and risk the river journey wait being above what I want to wait in once I get off, or start the day later and go with Josh's proven plan on a non-EMH day.

From what I've seen, the early morning PEAKS are higher on non-EMH days than EMH days.

 

[Delirium]

Admittedly, this may just be me. But, I wish some of the new threads that are opened about Pandora would be left open and not merged with this one. Out of every 4-5 threads, it's possible that only one of them is one I'm interested in. But, since the topics are almost immediately merged, I'm forced to read through pages and pages of info I'm not interested in so that I can find the little nuggets of info that I am interested in.

I feel providing a link to this master thread in all of the secondary ones is great, but don't close them. Let then run their course. I know there is a desire to limit duplicate information, but is anyone really referring back to page 116 of this thread at this point to find the info they need for their specific question?

 

[Marymc001]

Is anyone gonna give a heads up when the shoulder banshees are available? I'm going on the 25th and I've been religiously looking at this thread in hopes of knowing if/when they show up.

 

[Juliet0778]

Is anyone gonna give a heads up when the shoulder banshees are available? I'm going on the 25th and I've been religiously looking at this thread in hopes of knowing if/when they show up.

Someone said a page or two back that they were back in limited quantity/colors. I'm super hoping they have them when I'm there next week!

 

[CAS239]

Is anyone gonna give a heads up when the shoulder banshees are available? I'm going on the 25th and I've been religiously looking at this thread in hopes of knowing if/when they show up.

Only the blue ones were back in stock a couple days ago, then yesterday they were fully sold out again

 

[barbliny]

My experience - possibly to help others plan - Monday 6/5 and Saturday 6/10

Rode FoP twice - once with a 9:30 pm fp+ on Monday night, once standby on EMH morning, Saturday.

First - FoP has become a favorite!! I do not do Star Tours, the thought of Tea Cups makes me woozy, I don't do well in Imax movies - I ride Soarin' without a problem, I can ride all of the coasters - none bother me, including Everest. One of my daughters is very prone to car sickness. My husband, older daughter, and I all had no issues with the ride. My younger daughter was a little bit queasy after. (She had just started an antibiotic that had to be taken with food, so it might have been a contributing factor). We all rode it a second time later in the week - she loved it, no problems. Both daughters agreed that they did not lean as far forward for the closing of the mechanism the 2nd time they rode, and it was more comfortable. The film in the France pavilion made 3 of us more queasy on Friday, than FoP did.

Na'vi - we rode it once standby on EMH morning (6/10) - and we all agreed, we released the fastpass we had scheduled for it late at night, it wasn't worth doing again.

Monday night fastpass for FoP - wait was around 10 minutes, there were 4 chairs out in our room alone.

Saturday morning EMH ...
We drove to the park, got there around 6:30, parking was easy and close, got on the back of the line at 6:35 - there were 2 lines, one on the right side and one on the left - we obviously chose the left (both were about same length) since that's Pandora's side. At that point we were a few people from being even with the ticket windows.
They made the welcome announcement and started letting people tap in around 6:40 (why do I have such bad karma and get the line where everyone's bands spin blue??? Hint - move to the middle lines when they open the tap stiles, if we had stayed on the original left side lines it would have taken us much longer to get through.
We were held at the 'turn' by the bridge for about 5 minutes. Ropes were dropped at around 6:45. Somewhat controlled walk into Pandora - so, I think we probably started walking the queue around 6:50. When we were approaching FoP posted wait was 5 minutes, as we started the winding through the outside queue wait jumped to 30 minutes. The walk through the queue at a fast pace is more dizzying than the ride!!! Look down if you're prone to motion sickness. By the time you got to the CMs assigning rooms it was immediate loading - they were actually waiting for people to fill rooms. We did not see a film in the first room as in the previous ride - we were in there for maybe 30 seconds before moving to the 2nd room.
All of the seats were in working order this ride. The 2 people sitting next to me had to do a little bit of adjusting to get the green light to come up when their seat 'closed' - they were not big people, just sitting incorrectly. I think they really should change that pre-film to show your feet in a 'tippy-toe' position instead of flat on the floor - it seems to put you in a better position.
We were off the ride at 7:15 am. When we got off, the posted wait time was 70 minutes and jumped up to over 100 in the next 10 minutes.
We walked on Navi with a posted 5 minute wait, walked right on a boat - again with the dizzying queue.

We all agreed that while it is beautiful at night it is very, very hard to see in Pandora at night.
The walk through the back way past the Lion King is empty and much more enjoyable than the crowded walk through the front entrance.

Everyone really enjoyed the food at Satu'li.

Banshees were sold out on Monday. There were a couple of colors available first thing Saturday morning. Saw lots of people walking around with them on Saturday - particularly blue ones. So, I'm guessing it's just luck if they are available for sale on the day you are there.

Also, Pandora has made the rest of AK empty - almost deserted on EMH mornings. Everything was 5 minute waits or less. After Pandora we were on Safari at 7:30 - no wait, Everest 3 times in a row with absolutely no waits, Dinosaur - no wait - cars were going out with 3 people in them in some cases, Primeval Whirl. We would have been ready to leave AK at 9:00 am if it had not been for a Tusker House ADR. It would have been a great time to walk some of the trails, but it was the last full day of our vacation and we were all over the walking thing!! I wish Disney would consider adding an earlier showing of Lion King.

 

[emi6891]

Getting ready to make my 60+10 fast pass reservations this Wednesday morning. Have people had difficulty getting reservations for Flights of Passage early on in their 10 day window, or has availability been good? I will be trying to schedule a fast pass for day 4 of 10 and day 8 of 10.

Thanks in advance.

My booking window opened this morning for 60 days. AK is our 2nd day of a 3 day trip. The earliest FOP FP I was able to get was 4:50pm. All day, I kept trying to modify time to try to pick up something earlier and by 7pm, it said there are no more fastpasses available. I think you will definitely have afternoon/evening choices on both days and possibly some morning choices, at least on day 8. Definitely be ready right at 7am and try to book day 8 first.

 

[T- I Double G errrrr]

Has anyone heard if they plan to extend the extra Magic Hours in Pandora after the July 4th date at least on select nights? We go the end of July and would love to spend some time at night to see everything lit up but with the late sunset, dinner reservations and ROL we are trying to figure out the timing. It would be great if we could go after ROL.

 

[rteetz]

Has anyone heard if they plan to extend the extra Magic Hours in Pandora after the July 4th date at least on select nights? We go the end of July and would love to spend some time at night to see everything lit up but with the late sunset, dinner reservations and ROL we are trying to figure out the timing. It would be great if we could go after ROL.

Nothing yet. At the very least I am sure AK will be put into the rotation for night EMH.

 

[CAS239]

Has anyone heard if they plan to extend the extra Magic Hours in Pandora after the July 4th date at least on select nights? We go the end of July and would love to spend some time at night to see everything lit up but with the late sunset, dinner reservations and ROL we are trying to figure out the timing. It would be great if we could go after ROL.

I HIGHLY doubt they extend the nightly EMH, put I don't think there's any doubt that AK will have evening EMH probably once a week, maybe even twice for the time being