Pandora

June 10, 2018











Pandora

The trip to see Frank Turner in Orlando allowed me a little extra time and I thought it was a good opportunity to make use of my annual Disney Park Pass to visit a couple of my favorite theme parks. Of course my all-time favorite is Epcot Center and I was able to sneak in two visits to that park as well as one to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to check out the new Avatar section of the park, Pandora.









Epcot Center was in fact my first stop upon arriving in Orlando. Since I had my pass and arrived in the early evening, I was able to spend a nice evening wondering around the World Showcase section of Epcot until the closing of the park and the wonderful “Illuminations” light and firework show that closes the park each night.











Even though there have not been a lot of changes and there was no annual festival happening, it was still a pleasant evening as I checked out Mexico, Norway, China and Germany before the closing night extravaganza. I have been to Epcot literally hundreds of times and it never really gets old to me. Looking back over my past visits, it seems that I have dragged almost all of my friends and family to Epcot over the years. Even my father, who was no fan of theme parks, came to Epcot with me and loved it.









The show did not fail to delight the massive crowd gathered around the lagoon and it was as wonderful as ever. It has not changed much at all over the years and it may be time for an upgrade to appease frequent visitors like myself. After the closing of the park, I headed over to Disney Springs, the shopping and entertainment area formally known as Downtown Disney to catch a movie at the AMC 24 Theatre there.









The next morning, the day of the concert, I was awake early and headed over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to check out their newest attraction based on the Avatar film, Pandora. I was through the gate early and was in line for one of the two rides based on the film and located in the new Pandora section of the park. The ride I chose was the Na’Vi River Journey ride and I waited about 30 minutes after arriving right as the park opened. When I came out of the ride, the wait time was 90 minutes and the wait time for the other ride, Avatar Flight of Fancy was more than two hours so I passed on that.

The boat attraction floats calmly through a bioluminescent forest, culminating in a visit with the Shaman of Songs, a Na’Vi woman who serenades guests as they pass by. It’s intimate, with boats seating only about six to eight people at a time and two boats loading at once.  Floating jellyfish creatures soar through the sky, wolf-like predators trot off in the distance and other four-legged animals puff up their feathers as guests roll past. Above, glowing blue plant leaves reveal the footprints of small animals as they run across the fronds. 

 

But the star of this show is the Shaman of Songs. She is Disney’s most lifelike audio-animatronic created to date, with near-human-like fluidity in her movements. The first time you see her you don’t know where to focus. On her singing? Her arm waving? The wagging of her tail? It is a pretty incredible, though all too brief experience.

 

The Animal Kingdom proved too hot and crowded for my liking so after taking the river ride, I headed back to Epcot for the remainder of the afternoon. I really wanted to eat at the German Biergarden and to finish exploring the rest of the World Showcase before heading to the House of Blues to see the concert and I enjoyed a great afternoon.