It’s been well over 2 years since the land of Pandora – World of Avatar opened in Disney’s Animal Kingdom – and almost as long since my first ride on Avatar Flight of Passage. I had the chance to ride it twice yesterday and thought it was worth sitting down this morning to pay it tribute again.
When I first rode Flight of Passage I was down for a house building visit. I rode with a group of friends who were local and had already been on it many times and after my first banshee ride they all looked at me expectantly waiting for my thoughts.
I was speechless. When I finally did find words, all I could say was “It’s like joy is a ride. I just rode joy.”
Two year later it still stands up to this description. From the queue to the smells to the campy intro that we all love even though we know it’s just buying them time to load us – it’s still worth every minute of wait. As a local who can hit a park any time and rarely bothers to wait more than 15 minutes for anything, I would happily bring a book (or, more realistically, my phone) and relax in that gorgeous queue area for a couple of hours just to ride it again. It’s worth every minute of wait time – both for my own experience and for the joy of seeing other park guests ride it for the first time.
It’s also worth mentioning that the experience is very different from each of the three levels. I rode on the top level yesterday for the first time in ages and was struck by how much different my view was and the different parts of the scenes that I noticed.
All of this is just to say: Sivako! If you are visiting Walt Disney World, please, please don’t leave without riding Avatar Flight of Passage. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen the movie or care about it. (I have no attachment to the film whatsoever.) The ride stands for itself and is worth every minute of wait time.
I’m not kidding when I say that it will change your entire trip when you experience it.
And not just because it makes me look like this….
