Disney will give guests a chance to see the dedication of Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park this week, but not in-person.
Floating mountains grace the skyline while exotic plants fill the colorful landscape inside Pandora – The World of Avatar, which opens May 27, 2017 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Pandora – The World of Avatar will bring a variety of new experiences to the park, including a family-friendly attraction called Na’vi River Journey and new food & beverage and merchandise locations. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is one of four theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Kent Phillips, photographer)
This Wednesday, May 24th, Disney will be hosting a Dedication Ceremony for Pandora – The World of Avatar during media festivities. The Disney Parks Blog will start the live stream for the dedication at about 9:25AM eastern.
Pandora: The World of AVATAR officially opens in just 5 days on May 27th, 2017 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
A bunch of Pandora merchandise just landed at DisneyStore.com, including the Limited Edition ACE-branded MagicBand 2, three Limited Release T-Shirts, and much more!
First is the ACE-branded Magic Band 2, in a Limited Edition of 2000. Retail is $32.99 and is limited to one per person.
A collection of three Limited Release shirts, one for kids, one for women, and one for adults, is also available. The Disney Parks Limited Release Buy One Get One 40% Off promotion is applicable to these shirts. They are only available for two weeks, through June 7, 2017.
Four open-edition pins, a lanyard, and a lanyard medal are also available for the pin collectors out there. Sadly there is no Vinylmation…
As of the time of writing, these items are not featured on the DisneyStore.com homepage. You actually have to go to the Disney Parks menu item, and under the Collections heading will be the link for Pandora: The World of Avatar.
Amusingly, if you just go to DisneyStore.com and type “Pandora” in the search box, you get no Avatar merchandise, just jewelry and charms.
Even if you type “Pandora The World of Avatar” the first two search results are a charm and a bracelet.
You actually have to type “Pandora World Avatar” to get the parks merchandise without having to wade through expensive beads.
The Windtraders shop in Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom has some rather unique merchandise experiences, one of which is the ability to adopt a “Shoulder Banshee” creature to bring back with you to Earth.
These creatures are available near the front of the shop after you wait in a small queue area for your turn to make an adoption. Interested guests are then brought closer to the perches where dozens of the Ikran sit (Ikran is what the Na’vi call these creatures). Guests are given a few moments to pick out a Banshee that “speaks to them” (you can try a few on and test the controls until you are happy with one), then you can choose to adopt and take a pledge to do so. You can see us go through this entire process in our video below:
Once the oath is taken, guests may purchase (or adopt) the creature, and a display perch at an additional charge. The price to adopt a Banshee is $49.99 and no discounts of any kind are applicable. Perches for the Banshees are $14.95 and can be discounted (annual pass, cast member, etc.). Perches are obviously not a mandatory purchase with any Banshee.
Why are these so cool? As illustrated in the video above, the creatures have three ranges of motion (wing-flap, head turn, and mouth movement) and also have sound effects. On top of that, they are just a really neat thing to wear on your shoulder and certainly garner a lot of attention around the parks (at least during these early days of their existence). Cast Members on Pandora are very receptive to those wearing the creatures, and we saw some really cute interactions during our previews, especially with younger guests.
The Banshee stay attached to you via magnets underneath, with a magnetic pad provided that you can put under the shoulder of your shirt to hold them in place above it. I was worried that they would easily fall off, but they stay on there pretty well. The magnetic pad for under your shirt and a belt clip for the controller are provided upon purchase. The Banshee can also be boxed upon purchase should you decide that you don’t want to wear it just yet (or ever, I suppose).
Magnetic shoulder harness
The motion is all accomplished by a pneumatic control connected via a black wire to the back of the creature. The control is probably my only grievance with the piece, as it can be a bit hard to use at times, especially for children, but it’s not enough to not want to take one of these guys home with you.
I did buy the perch as well (for both of my adoptions), which is really great for home display. The long cord connected to the Banshee is held nicely underneath the stand, and there is even a place to lock in the controller on the back, out of sight. I highly recommend this if you will want to display it at home.
Once Pandora: The World of Pandora opens on May 27th, 2017, don’t be surprised if you start seeing these shoulder Banshees all over the Walt Disney World Resort.
Located in the Windtraders shop in Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, guests have the opportunity to be turned into an action figure in the AVATAR Maker experience.
This large kiosk towards the center of the shop is home to the service, offering two stations back-to-back.
The stations are intriguing and hard to miss, so expect to hear a lot of guests asking what this is every time you visit the store.
Several pre-made figures are on display around the space.
Nearby, accessories are sold for the figures. These items can be discounted (annual pass, cast member, etc.).
So, how does the process work? Well, you begin by going to the podium outside of the ACE AVATAR Maker kiosk inside of Windtraders. Once you make a reservation (provided they are available), you then get an RFID enabled card and proceed to paying for the service. The price point is $79.99 and no discounts are applicable, similar to the shoulder Banshee experience.
After you pay, just return to the podium when your reservation rolls around and the cast members will take it from there. After scanning, it does take some time for your AVATAR figure to be made, so you will have to return to Windtraders once again.
The process of scanning your face is simple, but the cast members make it a show experience, playing up story elements and the process as creating your own real-life AVATAR, rather than just an action figure. The scanning doesn’t take long at all and is over in seconds, but the process can take a few minutes between the cast member hamming it up and the guest choosing the body type, hair style, eye color, and facial stripe pattern for their AVATAR.
We recorded video of myself going through the entire process, from sign-up, to scanning, to receiving the figure with my face on it. You can watch the entire experience below:
As you can see in the video, the pick-up process is pretty neat and completes the process with a simple yet effective finale. Kids will be blown away by the tech involved in my estimation, but maybe quite a few parents as well. Figures are typically completed 45 minutes to an hour after you sit in the chair, but not could be longer depending on how busy it is on a given day.
The retrieval station in Windtraders draws a lot of attention even when it isn’t in use, so expect a lot of guests to be watching you play with this thing when you pick up your AVATAR.
The figure doesn’t really have much of your likeness honestly, just the basic shape of your face essentially. Otherwise, you are customizing the remainder of the figure. Since the AVATAR’s in the film also only have a facial resemblance to their host, I guess this makes sense.
The figures are of a good quality and come in a rather nice display tube.
We did have some issues in that the hair that came out was not what I picked, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to get it fixed so I decided not to complain about it. Otherwise, everything was as ordered.
Overall, the ACE AVATAR Maker isn’t the best souvenir available on Pandora, but it does offer quite the experience. I could see a younger guest finding the process fun and thinking that an action figure with their face on it is just about thew coolest thing ever. If the cast member is half as into it as the one that helped me through the process, then I think kids would have an experience that they would never forget and a nice souvenir to remember their time on Pandora. While I still think that adopting a Banshee is a somewhat cooler offering and toy, the AVATAR Maker is also quite unique and memorable, another positive evolution in Disney theme park merchandise.
Now when do I get to be a Star Wars action figure? I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2019???
With the opening of Pandora: The World of AVATAR this Saturday, Disney will release 3 new MagicBand 2 designs.
For Annual Passholders, there will be the first-ever Passholder exclusive limited edition teal graphic band featuring the phrase “I traveled to Pandora on May 27, 2017.” This band, available opening day, retails at $32.99.
The purple limited-edition graphic band with scenes from nighttime in Pandora (pictured above), features the artwork of Dylan Cole, co-production designer for the upcoming “Avatar” motion picture sequels. The band retails for $32.99 and was already made available online and at Riverside Depot at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park.
And for Avatar fans looking to coordinate their MagicBand with other cool Na’vi merchandise, check out the blue graphic band representing the Na’vi pattern. This band retails for $22.99 and will make any Avatar feel like a Na’vi.
These new bands will be sold in Windtraders on Pandora – The World of Avatar.
On a hot day in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, nothing was much better than grabbing a Jungle Juice Slushy from the Mahindi stand in Africa. Well, guests no longer have that option…
Despite signage remaining for the purchase of the drink with a souvenir cup, the drink is removed from the main menu and is no longer available. Mahindi now only sells fountain beverages for drink options.
The Jungle Juice Slushy was a frozen version of the popular beverage served at many locations, most famously at Boma and Tusker House. The drink contains orange juice, passion fruit juice, and guava juice.
With the opening of Pandora: The World of AVATAR over the weekend, the world was finally introduced to the beauty and splendor of the nighttime bioluminescence that fills the newest land at Animal Kingdom when the sun goes down.
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
While there is no grand lighting ceremony, watching the plants and walkways slowly come to life as the sun goes down is pretty neat. It’s not the greatest nighttime lighting package I’ve ever seen, but it’s still awesome to see. While I still think Cars Land at Disney California Adventure is far more grandiose (in the mountain range alone, never mind all of that fantastic neon), this is a solid runner up.
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime on Pandora is a hard thing to capture in pictures or video, so you will need to see it for yourself before you judge, but here is a look at some highlights:
Last night, we actually got caught in the land during a thunderstorm which offered some really beautiful shots.
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
Nighttime bioluminescent lighting in Pandora: The World of AVATAR, Walt Disney World
We also have video of that experience to share:
If you haven’t seen it yet, a nighttime trip to Animal Kingdom is certainly in order to experience Pandora: The World of AVATAR at night.
As 2017 comes to a close, we look back at some of the greatest moments in Disney Parks this year. From new restaurants and attractions, to festivals and more, 2017 added so much to the Disney Parks we love. So, in no particular order, here are the seven (yeah,…. seven) best things from 2017 (in our opinions, of course).
Be sure to read more about each of them by clicking their titles.
Mission: Breakout had many fans upset when news broke that DCA’s Tower of Terror would be gone for good, but after the attraction opened in May, many people’s opinions quickly changed. Not only is Guardians of the Galaxy a worthy replacement for Tower of Terror, but it might even be a superior one. Either way, it’s a welcomed new attraction that takes Disney’s unique drop tower ride and adds a ton of charm the way only Disney knows how.
What’s not to love about Geyser Point Grill and Bar? This new restaurant offers fantastic food and drink options, breathtaking views of Bay Lake, and a cozy outdoor environment that will surely please guests. With solid menu prices and being just a boat ride away from Magic Kingdom, Geyser Point has quickly become one of our favorite spots on property.
After a lengthy bit of downtime, the Disneyland Railroad reopened this summer with new and enhanced scenes that have been a hit with guests. Both the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas were restored to their original glory, with each scene looking fresh and having the added benefit of some new aesthetic touches. This seminal attraction has been preserved to inspire and entertain new generations of guests, while the new area north of the Rivers of America is a beautiful new vista.
When people heard that Wishes was going to end at Magic Kingdom, there was a lot of concern, and rightfully so. However, Happily Ever After debuted in May and won the hearts of Disney fans from all corners of the world. With its outstanding soundtrack, impressive new technologies, unrelenting usage of pyrotechnics, and thoughtful use of beloved Disney IPs, Happily Ever After is perhaps the new greatest Disney fireworks show to date.
It took nearly seven years from the time it was announced, but in 2017 Pandora – The World of Avatar finally opened at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. After all the years it took, the money invested, and confusion among fans, was Pandora worth it? The answer is a resounding yes! Pandora proves that with the proper resources, attention, and passion, Disney can still create something so unfamiliar and amazing that they further raise the bar for what a theme park can and should be. The World of Avatar is absolutely stunning, and houses a phenomenal restaurant, an incredibly lifelike Audio-Animatronic, and one of the most groundbreaking attractions ever conceived. Thanks to Pandora, 2017 has been the biggest year yet in theme park innovation.
At the D23 Expo in July Disney announced that for the first time, Disney California Adventure would be celebrating the Halloween season in a big way. Not only did the park do a wonderful job with the project, but they’ve created what is being seen as one of the most memorable Halloween celebrations ever in a theme park. Just look at Cars Land’s Haul-O-Ween celebration, never mind the new decorations on Buena Vista Street and the Monsters After Dark overlay of Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s reason enough to make the trip out to Disneyland Resort.
2017 started out strong with the inaugural year of the International Festival of the Arts at Epcot. The festival sets itself apart from the long running Flower and Garden and Food and Wine festivals by offering some of the best entertainment, food, and exhibits we’ve seen yet at an Epcot festival. While not quite perfect, the Festival of the Arts is a welcomed addition to Epcot, and we can’t wait to see it evolve over the coming years.
As you can see, 2017 has been quite a great year for Disney Parks fans. With so many new and thoughtful changes, 2017 ends with the promise of a stronger and better Disney experience for all guests for years to come.
With just 18 days until the official grand opening of Pandora: The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom, Disney continues to show us how imagineers have created this one-of-a-kind land.
In today’s video from the Disney Parks Blog, we see how imagineers found the artistic inspiration to create Pandora by traveling throughout the countries of Bali and Jakarta:
Pandora: The World of Avatar opens May 27th, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park.
