After the exciting inside look at Pandora: The World of AVATAR that we got to see on the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration special, we decided it might be a good time to take to the skies and take a look at Animal Kingdom’s newest land from above and see how it is coming along.
The below video is the longest of the sort that we have filmed to date, as we fly around the entire perimeter of the land, giving you a 360 degree view of Pandora just months ahead of its Summer 2017 opening.
The video, as well as the photos below, show a project rapidly approaching completion (finally). Hopefully the land will be open to guests by Memorial Day 2017, or at the very least by the 4th of July.
It appears that the full fleet of boats for the Navi River Journey are being loaded in this week. This indicates that the ride is likely finished and now they will begin cycling a full fleet of boats inside of the attraction.
Very little scaffolding remains on the mountain range, meanwhile, Pongu Pongu Refreshments, Windtraders, and Satuli Canteen appear to be just about finished from the exterior
Pongu Pongu Refreshments is the small building on the right side of the above photo, just north of the hangar-looking building, which is home to Satuli Canteen. We believe that Windtraders is the small building to the right of the Canteen, but we have been unable to confirm that as of yet.
Even from this angle, never intended to be seen by a guest, the mountains appear to be floating.
Pavement has been laid finally, no longer leaving dirt trails between the sights of Pandora.
The large cranes were moved off-site in the last two weeks, leaving the skyline of the park closer to its finished product.
So, what do you think of Pandora: The World of AVATAR? Are you excited yet?
Just curious…how do get these videos? Isn’t Disney a no-fly zone?
Nope. Disney asked for no fly but FAA told them to take a hike years ago. You can’t fly circles around it, but it’s not restricted airspace.
Wrong, there is a no fly zone over Disney World and no aircraft can fly lower than 3,000 ft. The area above DAK is outside of the no fly zone thus the reason this video could be filmed. You can find the details on the no fly zone at the FAA, http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_3634.html.
Wrong. This only applies to fixed wing aircraft not in contact with ATC. Tourist copters fly over all the time. Aircraft fly over all the time when on contact with MCO tower. How do you think Tom and others get photos? Tooth fairy?
Keeping our fingers crossed for a soft opening at the end of May!
Looks pretty awesome. Do you think there were be a soft opening to test the ride out? We were there HS when they soft opened the new Star Tours. Very cool.
I’m not a fan but huby is so immediately be going along . I did not care for the movie
Disney doesn’t want fly overs for this reason, nothing to do with safety, they could care less about that, it’s all about $. Pandora land looks small and under-done. Mostly stores and food stands. And how relevant is Pandora? I’m sure Disney will churn out some more, but, not that amazing…obviously they think it will be profitable.
Disney will churn out some more what? They have nothing to do with the movies.
Speaking of soft opening of avatarland, the rivers of lights will celebrate the grand opening of the avatarland with the night time show. The avatarland can connect to Africa?