News 6 Theme World: Avatar ride named, Animal Kingdom update

Your home for Theme Park news, rumors and perspective.

Greetings!! It was just August 15th that Disney definitively confirmed there were two rides coming to "Pandora: The World of AVATAR" At Disney's Animal Kingdom, not one.

News of the long-rumored family-friendly boat ride came during the D23 convention in Anaheim, CA. Today, D23 opened its sister convention in Japan. At that convention (and on Disney's official blog)  we learned that boat ride will be named "Na'vi River Journey"

That's the latest concept art of the boat ride. Disney says "The adventure begins as guests set out in canoes and venture down a mysterious, sacred river hidden within the bioluminescent rainforest. The full beauty of Pandora reveals itself as the canoes pass by exotic glowing plants and amazing creatures. The journey culminates in an encounter with a Na'vi shaman, who has a deep connection to the life force of Pandora and sends positive energy out into the forest through her music." 

You can't see the boat ride in this picture of the elaborate model of the new land. It will partly go through an enormous show building hidden by the rocks and waterfalls at the right side of the picture. The same building houses the E-ticket thrill ride "AVATAR Flight of Passage" aboard the flying banshee beasts from the movie. 

From the very back of the Animal Kingdom parking lot you can see cranes rising above the construction site. That show building? You can see in the upper-left that it is now enclosed. How big is it? It pretty much stretches to the far right of the picture.

  From behind the Rainforest Cafe, you can see the hunks of metal are receiving plaster "rockwork" needed to turn them into the movie's iconic floating mountains.

Looking very slightly to the right of the last picture you can see a swooping metal sculpture has now appeared. It will probably be part of the mountains too.

 

Heading inside the park, you can see the pathway to the former Camp Minnie-Mickey has been widened to handle significant new crowds Disney expects will flock to Pandora in 2017.

The construction in that picture has nothing to do with giant blue people. It is a new table service restaurant expected to open next year. Not much is known except the restaurant will also take over part of the space currently occupied by Pizzafari. The pizza place has been closed now for a couple of months due to that construction but will reopen sooner than later. 

Towards the entrance of the park, the Outfitters store is also gaining a large expansion.

From Everest all the way past Nemo construction continues on the seating area for the "Rivers of Light" Night Spectacle.

That show should open in Spring or Early Summer 2016.

The last picture was taken from one of my favorite parts of the park: the seating area for Flame Tree Barbecue

The quick service restaurant reopened recently with a more subdued color palate and more shade over the ordering area. You can now buy Flame Tree's spice rub over in the newly-opened Harambe Market.

Its seating area is quiet and lovely. Hopefully Disney repairs these frog statues soon. They are among my favorite touches.

Speaking of animals: look what I got to see in person for the first time.

It is a short show at the Tree of Life called "Winged Encounter -- The Kingdom Takes Flight."  An amazing scene as a flock of parrots makes their way from backstage to a perch in front of the tree. Handlers talk about the birds who fly away again after a quick snack.  It's short but well worth making time for. 

Finally --  The Maharajah Jungle Trek in Asia is welcoming a new addition: a small herd of Water Buffalo. You can spot them just past the large tiger enclosure with the large fountain.  You will, however spot far fewer bats than normal on the Trek.   A handler tells me they will all be back. But right now, it's bat mating season.  So they were moved backstage during this period of un-Disney-like behavior. Have a great weekend!!


About the Author:

Ken Pilcher is a lifelong Floridian with more than 30 years in journalism experience. He joined News 6 in 2003 and has covered Central Florida attractions and theme parks since 1988. He currently produces News 6 at 7 p.m.

Recommended Videos