The Banshee Rookery inside of Windtraders in Pandora is completely empty as of 10:45am on June 3rd, 2017
The Banshee Rookery inside of Windtraders in Pandora is completely empty as of 10:45am on June 3rd, 2017
According to guests visiting this morning, there were a few Banshees on the shelves when the day started, but now there are none. Cast members are telling guests it will be a few weeks until more are in stock (take that for what its worth). Either way, it is clear that Disney sold way more of these neat toys than they ever expected to.
The full contents of a Banshee Rookery box, and the optional perch.
If you are unfamiliar with what these are, you can check out our review of them here. The product was selling well during previews, but it wasn’t uncommon to wait 30-60 minutes just to enter Windtraders over the first week of it being open to the public. Guests would then have to wait another 15-30 minutes if they wanted the full Banshee experience, but Disney was also offering “grab and go” pre-boxed Banshees at temporary tables inside of the shop all week.
We will continue to provide updates on the status of the Banshee Rookery as many a guest have told us they were looking forward to doing this on their first trip to Pandora. Well, some guests will have to wait a little while longer.
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 less than 10 days until passholder previews begin, and only 23 days till the official grand opening, Pandora: The World of Avatar will be open before you know it!
Disney has given us a new inside look into this upcoming land, which today showcases the Banshee Connect experience. The Banshee Connect allows guests to ‘pick out’ their own banshee for purchase and take home with them. No, it is not a life-size version, or even close to that, but we have the next best thing.
When guests visit this so called ‘rookery’, a Naturalist from Alpha Centauri Expeditions will assist a guest with identifying a favorite banshee from among 10 unique styles. Each interactive banshee includes three ranges of motion – mouth, head, and wings – that are controlled by hand with remote control. Guests will also hear them make authentic banshee sounds provided by Disney’s partners at Lightstorm Entertainment. Guests will determine each banshee’s personality through a combination of hand movements and sounds.
Guests can either display a banshee on their shoulder or cradle them in their arms. A banshee perch will also be available for purchase separately.
You will be able to purchase these banshees in Pandora: The World of Avatar in the Windtraders gift shop when it officially opens May 27th at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
On Saturday evening, I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to a cast member preview of Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. While not yet open to the public, there are a series of previews for certain types of guests between now and the May 27th grand opening of the land. While I have still not experienced the Flight of Passage attraction and the Satuli Canteen (which we hope to during Saturday’s annual passholder preview), I have received a lot of questions about my experience, so I wanted to share what we saw during our 2-hour preview. Here we go…
Walking Around Pandora
We have seen lot of very pretty press photos, and the jaded theme park blogger in me was skeptical if I would care about trees and rocks. Turns out that I do.
Pandora is absolutely stunning and evokes all of the feelings I had the first time I gazed upon the Cadillac Range from inside of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. The floating mountains are amazing, especially when you stand underneath them. They are unique in that they are in the center of the land, allowing you to see them from 360 degrees as you traverse the land and the attraction queues, each angle giving you a completely different, awe-inspiring view.
Every inch is covered in detail with no space left unattended to. Alien plantlife is everywhere, water features abound, military base ruins are scattered throughout, and impressive rock work covers the landscape. Even silly things like cast member-only access passageways have speakers that play noises like water dripping in a cave, or various animal noises. I swear, if there was something un-themed or that showed signs that we were in a Disney theme park, I couldn’t find them.
A few weeks back, a source told us that there was no attraction signage for the attractions, and I was skeptical as to how this would work. This is actually true in that there are no marquees for the two rides, but the ACE company has set up what look like temporary stations to guide guests into these experiences. Queues are filled with ACE branded lighting that appears to be temporary and cast members who are trying their hardest to keep you in the story at all times.
No signs of Mickey Mouse are present on Pandora either, as it is the first themed land constructed without Hidden Mickeys. Even the FastPass+ readers have Alpha Centauri Expedition logos rather than Mickey Mouse icons.
Beyond that, we found some fun diversions, including an interactive drum circle, a large plant creature that reacted to touch, and strange alien animals who squirt water at guests. This is what theme parks are all about. I love these little things you can do between rides and eating that are unexpected, but decidedly cool and fun.
Despite not having the charm of a small town around Route 66, I found myself wanting to just stand or sit around and watch the world of Pandora unfold around me. Picturesque spots with waterfalls, raised observation areas, and secondary pathways offer plenty to explore and an atmosphere so pleasant that it’s hard not to get caught up in it. I can forsee a lot of days where I will be grabbing a drink at Pongu Pongu and just walking around the land, watching the flurry of activity from guests, cast members, and entertainers alike. Although, the pathways may not be big enough for the expected crowds, but we’ll see, I guess…
I did find some charm in the Pongu Pongu refreshment kiosk, but we’ll talk more about that later this week (and I’m going to yell about the missing hula skirt a bit).
Na’vi River Journey
Initial reactions to the Navi River Journey have been underwhelming, but I found a far more positive experience than most. This isn’t a thrill ride, in fact, it’s Animal Kingdom’s first and only family-friendly dark ride.
The queue for the Na’vi River Journey
The show sets are of the highest quality. There are many areas where the depth of the forest seems to go on forever, making you second guess just how big the scene around you really is.
The projected animals of Pandora are somewhat underwhelming, utilizing the projection technology developed for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and The Seas with Nemo and Friends over ten years ago, leading to moments where you can kind-of see through the creatures. That being said, the physical sets and some of the projection-mapping effects are second to none. I found myself arguing with my friends about the first Navi to appear in the ride and if he was a moving figure or a projection. He’s a projection, but one of the most convincing I have ever seen.
The ride isn’t flawless. It could probably use a few moving figures of larger creatures for sure, but it isn’t unenjoyable. This isn’t a showstopper and it really doesn’t need to be with the Flight of Passage next door. It serves a purpose for those who can’t ride the bigger thrill ride and adds ride capacity & variety to the park.
I like to think of but as Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Navi Shaman, and yes, that AA figure is as impressive in person as it looked on video.
We have a full walkthrough of the queue and on-ride video of the Navi River Journey to share with you as well:
Flight of Passage
Since it is currently not fully operational, very few guests at each preview event have had the chance to ride the Flight of Passage attraction, but the queue has been available for walking tours. Walking this queue, I have one thought to share: be afraid, be very afraid. The queue is long, longer than any I have ever encountered. If you thought the line for the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland seemingly went on forever, then you are going to be amazed as you weave through the 6-hours of inhabitable queue space that the Flight of Passage ride has available, if need be. Walking at a good speed through the entire queue with very little stopping took me about 10 minutes. 10 minutes to hike from the entrance to the pre-show area. That’s intense.
That being said, it might be the most well-thought out and immersive queue ever constructed for a theme park. The outside portion winds beautifully through the mountain range before taking you into the caverns where you’ll find massive cave paintings of Banshees. The queue then goes through the remnants of an RDA facility before entering the active research facility of the Pandoran Conservation Initiative.
You can walk through the entire queue in our video below:
Shopping at Windtraders
One thing Pandora is not short on is unique merchandise. I can’t express the excitement I felt to walk through an entire store that carries merchandise I have not seen anywhere else at Walt Disney World. Every inch is covered in unique offering you’ll only find here, making a shopping trip to Pandora something very special.
With how hard it is to find merchandise not shared between the Disney Parks around the world these days, a shop with items that can only be found in the land (and apparently will never be offered through the Shop Disney Parks app or DisneyStore.com) is incredibly refreshing.
You can have yourself turned into a Na’vi action figure inside the Windtraders shop
Despite my hatred of the film, I was quite enamored with a fair amount of the merchandise. I’ll honestly need an entire post just to talk bout how cool some of the items were. That being said, for every cool item, there is probably something that will never sell, but hey, that’s a much higher success rate that we expected.
There is also a face painting station called Colors of Mo’ara, if you are so inclined.
OVERALL
While I still need to ride the Flight of Passage and dine at the Satuli Canteen, it is clear that Disney and Cameron have succeeded. Disney took a movie franchise with almost no fandom and little affection from the general public and built something very special with it. In many cases, we complain that some movies don’t work well as theme park attractions because you have to try and tell the story in a very truncated format (because, let’s face it, very rarely do we get original stories based on movies rather than film retellings). In this case, we have a film with very little substance that honestly seems like it was made for an in-person experience rather than a near-3-hour film. I recall riding the Haunted Mansion or seeing the Country Bear Jamboree and thinking, “How are they going to make an entertaining movie out of this?” With AVATAR, If the theme park land had come first, I would have wondered the same thing.
Disney Imagineering has honestly made their critics of the last 6 years look pretty silly, providing an experience at a level seldom seen in many theme parks. The Harry Potter lands at Universal Orlando and Cars Land come to mind, and this project has all the feel of those. The size, the scope, the level of detail, the number of different types of offerings available to guests, they’re all there. Provided Flight of Passage delivers and Satuli Canteen is at least edible (both big “IF”s, trust me), I think this is an incredibly important addition to Disney’s Animal Kingdom that may make it the premier park at Walt Disney World (at least until 2019 and the opening of Star Wars Land). Don’t get me wrong, the Magic Kingdom is wonderful and amazing, but it lacks a large-scale experience with this level of immersion and detail, something that audiences seem to crave at this point in time.
Pandora: The World of AVATAR does more to connect audiences with this franchise than the movie’s 3-D gimmickry ever could.
Stay tuned as later this week we review the drinks and snacks of Pongu Pongu, the Banshee Rookery experience, and I talk about seven things we like and dislike (so far) about Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Disney is starting to release more information to the cast members who will be working in Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, giving us the scoop on some things we didn’t know we would encounter when the area opens on May 27th, 2017.
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. (Kent Phillips, photographer)
Reportedly, there isn’t much in the way of signage for the attractions in the land, as it would impede on the natural environment around the two rides (in story). Na’vi totem poles will be used to convey to guests what the attraction is they are entering the queue for. Whether or not this means there will be wait time signs or not remains to be seen. Also, there will be no Mickey icon readers for MagicBands as it would not make sense on Pandora, so expect custom readers or ACE crew members with iPads I suppose.
The Wilderness Explorers attraction at Animal Kingdom will be tied into the land as well, adding two more pages for guests to obtain while they are on Pandora.
Supposedly, the Na’vi River Journey attraction will feature only one Audio-Animatronic Na’vi creature, the Shaman character we were already introduced to. She will be seated along the riverbank in a crossed leg pattern, but if she were to stand, she would clock in at over 10 feet tall. There will however be additional “AAs” of some of the wildlife on Pandora.
Windtraders, (pictured here) travelers can find Na’vi cultural items, toys, science kits, and more.
Regarding merchandise, AVATAR products will only be sold in Pandora and not anywhere else in the park. There will also be specific daytime and nighttime merchandise, such as flip flops, staffs, and spears that interact with their surroundings in the land in the evenings. Disney Parks branded bags and receipts will also not exist on Pandora, instead, everything will be branded to Alpha Centauri Expeditions.
The D-Tech “AVATAR Me” station that can be somewhat made out in the store concept art is apparently a real thing, similar to when Disney offered the service where guests could become a Jedi or a Stormtrooper. There is also a “Banshee Connect” service where you will be matched with a tiny plush version of the beast; a robotic creature that you can take home with you for a price.
The stores will include a bead station where guests can make their own bead necklace or bracelet. As well, the Na’vi artifacts that will be for sale will be actual, hand painted props.
We will share more tidbits like this with you as we inch closer to the opening of Pandora: The World of AVATAR on May 27th, 2017.
