A sneak peek to Pandora

This past weekend, I was able to get a sneak peek into the new Pandora land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.  It’s based on the movie Avatar.

First, I must confess I watched the movie for the first time Friday night. This is a must do. The area is far more impressive if you have just seen the movie.

The area itself is pretty small.  Pandora has two rides, a quick service restaurant, a drink stand, and a gift shop.  A big garden area with small pools and an interactive drum set will be the focal point at night. These areas are designed to light up to recreate the magic from the movie.

Na’vi River Journey is a ride for all ages. It’s a slow moving boat ride through the forest of Pandora. The boat is similar to the one in It’s a Small World.

Avatar Flight of Passage is a motion simulation ride similar to Soarin’.

The minimum height is 44 inches. You enter the lab to get paired with a banshee. The stand by line is amazing. It's worth going through if the wait isn't too long. On the ride, the seat is really interesting. It’s meant to recreate sitting on the back of a banshee so you sit on basically molded plastic stool a little like a bike seat. Your knees go into these molded plastic spots. You hold onto a bar in front of you and the restraint comes up from the back. It fits behind your back and behind your legs. I couldn’t ride because I couldn’t get my legs in the right position.

Pongu Pongu is the beverage stand with two specialty beers and specialty glowing alcoholic and non alcoholic frozen drinks.

Satu’li Canteen is a quick service location offering breakfast, lunch and dinner. It has a make your own bowl where you can choose the ingredients.

We ordered the cheeseburger pods and blueberry cheesecake.

Windtraders is the gift shop. I couldn’t resist the Navi ears.

You can also make your own Avatar. For $74.99 + tax, they will scan your face and great a plastic doll in your image.

This is not my face.

Overall, the land is impressive. It’s the most immersive land at Disney World to date. It is going to mobbed for the next few months  so leave extra time if you have a Fast Pass to one of the rides and be prepared to wait. The land has two entrances – one by Tiffins and Pizzafari and the other just past the Lion King show. My guess is that the Lion King show entrance will be less crowded, but time will tell.