It’s hard to believe Pandora – The World of Avatar opened at Disney’s Animal Kingdom three years ago! The two attractions in this land, Avatar Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey, are absolutely amazing to say the least. On top of that, the land itself comes to life with a different experience both during the day and at night. Two key people involved in making the Pandora so successful, Joe Rohde and Jon Landau, share a video to celebrate the 3rd years since it’s grand opening. Check out the details and video below from DisneyParksBlog:
To tell that tale, we brought together two of the lead creative partners responsible for developing the land: Joe Rohde, portfolio creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering, and Jon Landau, producer of “Avatar” and its sequels. These two visionaries assembled a team of thousands to turn a wondrous cinematic digital world into a complete physical environment that inspires and thrills.
Pandora – The World of Avatar is a wonder of our world and has truly ushered in a new era of immersive storytelling at Walt Disney World Resort.
As you listen to Joe and Jon, you’ll learn how Pandora – The World of Avatar meshes with Disney’s Animal Kingdom. You’ll hear them discuss the similarities between developing a themed environment and a major motion picture. And you’ll gain an understanding of how the stories of the film, the land and the park complement one another.
Even though we can’t be in the parks, we can still reminisce and dream of the day when we do get to experience the magic and attractions once again! If you have Disney+, your quarantine time has been made a little easier with doses of Disney daily right on your screen. DisneyParksBlog is taking you on a trip through the parks right from your couch with special watch-lists inspired by favorite WDW Resort experiences. Happy watching Disney fans!
The main entrance to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. (Photo courtesy, Walt Disney World)
Following our recent trip around Disneyland park, today let’s take a tour around the four Walt Disney World theme parks to spark our imaginations and take us back to some of our favorite memories from The Most Magical Place on Earth:
Magic Kingdom Park: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings”
Today’s watchlist starts off with Magic Kingdom Park, where you may be thrilled to go on a treasure hunt alongside Captain Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” or you may prefer an underwater adventure with your favorite mermaid and sea creatures in “The Little Mermaid.” If you fantasize about dream weddings and honeymoons, you can watch fairytales unfold right from the comfort of your own home with “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings.”
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: “Toy Story 4,” “Mickey Mouse” Cartoon Shorts and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
Adventures and excitement await at every turn at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You can have a virtual theme park experience from home with these thrilling titles. Sing and play along with your favorite toys as Woody, Buzz, and the gang are reunited. If you’re looking for a place where “mouse rules apply” and anything can happen, then the “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts are for you. For a more galactic adventure, follow Rey, Finn and Poe as they battle Kylo Ren and the First Order in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park: “The Lion King,” “Avatar” and “Jane Goodall: The Hope”
For all the animal lovers out there, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is where you may feel most at home. Here we embrace Hakuna Matata and the spirit of animals and nature, with titles like “The Lion King,” “Avatar” and “Jane Goodall: The Hope” from National Geographic.
There’s no better place to end our journey through Walt Disney World Resort than at EPCOT, with its exciting attractions and international pavilions. Whether you want to venture into the kitchen or into the unknown, where you can “let it go” or step in time with your favorite chimney sweeps, there is a title here for you!
Immersing ourselves in some of the great Disney stories on Disney+ helps bring our favorite Disney Parks memories to life. Let’s all continue to make time for magic together and check out even more movies, shows and shorts inspired by Disney Parks on Disney+.
From the “You couldn’t even make this stuff up” file.
There’s a reason restrooms had to be installed halfway through the queue inside Flight of Passage at Pandora – The World of AVATAR in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. For months, guests had to make do with a queue re-entry pass to exit out to the nearby restrooms, but what if you weren’t even aware that existed? Or rather… what if you didn’t care?
In a wild new piece by the Orlando Sentinel rounding up various of outlandish theme park incidents this year, one in particular stood out to us, and with the recent addition of mid-queue restrooms at Flight of Passage, you could even call this story somewhat timely.
According to an Orange County Sheriff incident report, a woman was urinated on earlier this year while in line for the attraction, which is notorious for its long wait times. The 22-year-old woman was in line when she suddenly felt something wet on the back of her leg. Upon turning around, she realized it was a man urinating in the queue right behind her. He had turned his back in an attempt to hide the scene, but the act was still in plain sight. The woman then kept her place in line for 20 minutes until she could alert a Cast Member of the incident.
In the incident report, the 46-year-old man stated “He would not have urinated if he thought he could have held it or made it to the bathroom without causing further issues.”
The woman received a change of clothes, and as for the queue-urinal man, he was banned from the park for the remainder of the day. The mid-queue restrooms that were likely installed as a direct result of this and many more un-reported incidents, are history.
For those that have been keeping up with the latest, there has been a lot of recent news in regards to Disney Transportation. From the new Disney Skyliner set to begin full time operation next week to the latest new bus designs that have been rolling down the roads.
The latest design is a beautiful new bus wrap featuring Pandora – The World of Avatar and we couldn’t stop ourselves from chasing it down to get pictures. Featuring a Nav’vi riding a banshee, this wrap is giving us some serious Animal Kingdom vibes.
Featuring the floating mountains in the background and some beautiful colors, this may be our new favorite wrap! We also love the silhouetted banshees.
