Avatar: Flight of Passage

Whenever I go to Disney, I promise to write a blog summary when I return. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I may still get to our trip last September, but I've been wanting to get this more specific post out very badly.

For on that trip, Carol and I rode on the best ride on the entire planet. In fact, we ended up riding it five times, which, given it's famously long lines, is something remarkable.

That ride, is Avatar: Flight of Passage at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Yes, Avatar, as in the 2009 James Cameron movie, the highest grossing of all time.

Years ago when Disney announced that they had gotten rights to build a "Pandora land" at Animal Kingdom based on the movie, I'm pretty sure the most common reaction was "Huh?" Sure, Avatar made almost $3 billion and was technically groundbreaking, but was anyone clamoring for more? Could it sustain a big chunk of a Disney park?

Behold! Pandora!

Turns out, Disney created not just a lush, beautiful section of the park filled with "alien" landscaping, floating mountains, and a pretty damn good quick service restaurant, but they also created THE GREATEST THEME PARK RIDE ON EARTH.

When we went to Disney last year with my Mom, they had just opened Pandora and were only allowing in select annual passholders. So we saw lines, but couldn't get into the area, much less on the ride. Now, a year later, we were ready.

So, what is the ride? Going into it I had no idea. From brief descriptions, I figured that it was probably based on the great Disney ride Soarin'. In other words, kind of a flight simulator. But if Soarin' is a great ride, Flight of Passage is Soarin' 4.0, an improvement many times over the original.

The idea is that you're going to neurally link with an Avatar, one of the nine foot blue guys from the movie, and fly on an Ikran, one of the pterodactyl creatures from the movie.  Like this:

The ride queue takes you through the lush landscape of Pandora, and then you gradually move into the industrial area set up by humans to study the planet. Interestingly, the ride is set after the events of the movie so there's no military around, just scientists working with the Na'Vi (the blue guys). In any event, the queue is excellent, with plenty to do and see and telling a story as you go.

Eventually you are split into a group of sixteen people who, after an amusing training sequence, move into the ride itself. You sit on a funky motorcycle-like device and the ride starts.

Are you afraid of roller coasters or other fast rides? Not to worry. You don't actually go anywhere. The room you're in tilts and vibrates, but doesn't actually move in space. The effect of movement is created from the small movement of the room and the ginormous 3-D projection in front of you.

What follows is pure magic. The ride is completely immersive. There is wind on your face, spray from the water, scents from the plant-life. What's more, the ride is designed to give you a variety of experiences organized in a meticulously planned progression. There's a quick drop at the beginning, and then you fly for a while. Then another Ikran gets in your face so there's a bit of dodging about, and more. You get a few thrills, lots of beautiful scenery, and fun maneuvers. I can't stress enough how well and thoughtfully designed the actual "flight" is.

There's a moment near the end where your Ikran stops in a dark cave lit by luminescent plant life. For a short time, everything is quiet, and beautiful. You can even feel your "Ikran" breathing between your legs. Then the music kicks up and you're off for the last part of the trip. As you leave the cave, there's a moment where you absolutely forget you're on a ride and lose yourself in flight.

The ride is so exhilarating, so moving, that I shed a tear every single time I rode. Yes, I cried five times.

There are two ways you can go on the ride. First and best, get a Fastpass so you can show up at the scheduled time and get right on the ride. We had one Fastpass set up for Saturday afternoon. The second way is to get in line and wait.

Typically, the ride can have waits of up to three hours, and we don't wait in line for anything for three hours at Disney. So on the Friday before our Fastpass, we got to the park before it opened and made a beeline for the ride. (They let people in before the park officially opens). We saw what appeared to be a short line and got into it. After about twenty minutes, I was wondering what the line on the other side of the path was, going in the opposite direction. After a bit more time, I recognized the horrible truth. That other line was ours, looping around at some point in the distance.

We ended up waiting in line for about 90 minutes before we rode that first time. And when we were done, we didn't regret a second of those 90 minutes. Had we known it was 90 minutes, we probably would have not gone, but damn, we were glad we did.

The next day we went for our Fastpass ride. Then, on Sunday, my brother and his wife joined us at the park. We did a proper early rope drop (early entry) and had to wait about 20-30 minutes in line. That day, we rode twice more, waiting in line each time. It was awesome.

If you'd like to get a small sense of what the ride is like, see the two videos below, knowing that they do the ride very little justice. While the second video has higher definition options available, I suggest at least watching the first couple of minutes of the first video. Listen to the riders. It's worth hearing their reactions.

If you get a chance to go to Disney, definitely do what you can to take this ride. Animal Kingdom is a beautiful park with some fun rides, but we never really felt the need to visit it more than once during any one trip. Flight of Passage puts Animal Kingdom over the top. I can't imagine going to Disney again without going on this ride as many times as we can.