mmfancipher 31 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 FPBR!! (First Page Bragging Rights) Darn!!! Correction SPBR! (Second Page Bragging Rights) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted June 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 On 6/2/2017 at 2:20 PM, parrothead7368 aka Norm said: First?????????????? Yes! Nice job! Congratulations. On 6/2/2017 at 2:25 PM, shoreline99 said: FPTCDMDTRBR! LOL. Good job. And congratulations to you, too. On 6/2/2017 at 2:33 PM, mouseketab.....Carol said: Another Fort report!! Yay!!! Yay! is right. It was good to get back to the Fort. On 6/2/2017 at 2:34 PM, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said: I'm in too! Glad to have you along, Gwen. On 6/2/2017 at 2:46 PM, ImDownWithDisney said: w00t....I was mentioned in a TCD report. I am famous now! LOL. You have arrived. On 6/2/2017 at 3:27 PM, dieseldave said: Awesome, I'm in too! Sounds like someone messed up bad with the site assignments. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah. It's the second time it has happened to me in my last four trips. So, 50% of the time in my last four check-in's someone was in the site that I was assigned. On 6/2/2017 at 3:32 PM, TN22.....Brady said: Way to go Blake! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Blake has arrived! On 6/2/2017 at 3:42 PM, alexwyattmommy said: Looking forward to hearing about what I missed. We had planned on going to Disney Memorial Day weekend and then spending 7 more days. Unfortunately someone's track schedule didn't let us. And afterwards we found out summer team swimming would have started so it was just as well. Sorry that you had to miss. The busier your kids get the harder it is to get away. On 6/2/2017 at 3:58 PM, ceemike...Mike & Judy said: First Page TCD Memorial Day Trip Report Birthday Report???? Almost. On 6/2/2017 at 4:02 PM, shoreline99 said: On 6/2/2017 at 4:09 PM, ceemike...Mike & Judy said: Yeah, I didn't think Birthday Report sounded right, but I was sooooo excited about getting on the First Page of a TCD TR that I panicked. Now I can cross that off of my BL! You get first page bragging rights too. On 6/2/2017 at 4:28 PM, BigTom said: I am here too Hey, Tom. Glad to see you're reading along. On 6/2/2017 at 4:40 PM, Mrs.TN22 said: yay! I'm in - love to read another TCD trip report! I'm happy to hear that. This one is off to a slow start, but I'll try and make up for that. On 6/2/2017 at 5:00 PM, WannaBeImagineer said: I'm in! I don't get why the Fort has such a hard time assigning sites and knowing what's empty and what's not empty. Why doesn't a Fort CM drive the loops twice a day and confirm, I'm assuming because there's so many sites? I guarantee that motor home on 811 took the wrong site and no one noticed until you were assigned 811. Our last trip we were also assigned a site that was already occupied, after a long trip it's the last thing you want to deal with. Score on the chicken! Looking forward to more! WBI It never occurred to me that someone would set up on the wrong site, but that is probably exactly what happened here. Now I wonder if it was intentional, or someone just goofed. I lean toward that it's intentional- if you don't like your site, just take one that you like. Or what if this is a new level of freeloading? On 6/2/2017 at 7:46 PM, dblr....Rennie said: I'm in also!!!!!! Glad to have you along, Rennie. On 6/3/2017 at 9:35 AM, Grumpy and Grandma said: TCD at the FORT, who would have thought? Good point. On 6/3/2017 at 0:34 PM, lightbikes said: Since I live vicariously through TCD's Fort trip reports I'm delighted to see a new one. I'm glad that you're reading along. I visited the 1500 loop while I was at the Fort, and I'll have some photos to share. I know you're a 1500 loop fan. On 6/3/2017 at 3:02 PM, DramaMama .......... Janet said: I'm in. Carry on. I will carry on. In fact, I'm working on an update now. On 6/3/2017 at 8:10 PM, momof3kids-Yvonne said: I'm in too. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk The more the merrier. On 6/3/2017 at 9:10 PM, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said: OMG, I haven't been on here for months and months, and I visit today and not only do I find a TCD trip report, but I am posting on the first page!!! WooHoo!!!! Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!! Hello Heidi- I'm glad to see a post from you. I hope all is going well with you and your family. 22 hours ago, Travisma said: Good so far. For a multi billion $$$ company the fort sure can be a hot mess at times. People camped out on your assigned site is just crazy. As we have already discussed ad nauseam on other threads, the problem with the Fort is that they try to run it like a hotel, and campgrounds are not hotels. 15 hours ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said: First page!! What a crazy check-in ordeal. Good thing you arrived early AND knew your Fort facts. You are right- while it took some extra time, it all worked out fine because I knew what to ask for and how to ask for it. If I was a newbie, I'd probably have somehow ended up stuck on the 2000 loop. 15 hours ago, ImDownWithDisney said: Saturday night a class A pusher pulled up in front of our site. It had been assigned to the site next to us which was occupied. A few CM's showed up, they were looking at the parking pass in the window and making calls. Finally, I heard them say to go to the 700 loop instead. Our neighbors were still there when we left on Tuesday. Strange. How does that happen? How does an occupied site get assigned to someone else? It wouldn't be a big deal if it was a rare occurrence, but it seems to happen a lot. 8 hours ago, LONE-STAR said: So did yall get your faces painted blue? LOL. I told the girls I would do it on opening weekend, but I "forgot" about that promise, and, thankfully, so did they. 31 minutes ago, mmfancipher said: FPBR!! (First Page Bragging Rights) Darn!!! Correction SPBR! (Second Page Bragging Rights) Way to go- top of the second page! Nothing wrong with that. 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Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted June 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 Today was the big day. May 27, 2017. The new Avatarland, which we have heard about for years, was going to officially open. We were on top of this, and had been able to snag FP+'s for the opening day. Through a glitch that was only in place for less than an hour on the first morning that they opened FP+ scheduling, we were able to get FP+'s for both rides. You can't do that anymore- now you have to pick one or the other, but we got both. Banshee dust!: Originally, AK was supposed to open at 8 am on May 27th. But, somewhere along the line, they announced that they would have morning EMH for resort guests and open up at 7. And, then we kept hearing reports of people who planned to show up at 5 am or earlier to line up to get in. I expected it to be busy at AK, but since we had FP+'s we decided that there was no reason for us to try to get there for the 7 am opening. With all of the crazy talk about people showing up so early, we were worried what the parking situation might be like at AK, so we decided that we would take our chances with the bus system. The plan was that we would be at the Outpost bus stop at 7. That gave us two hours before our first FP would expire. We figured that would be sufficient. We got up earlier than normal on Saturday morning- 6 am. To my surprise, the showers were almost all taken at the Comfort Station. I guess everyone was in a hurry today. It was an amazing morning weather-wise. We have visited the Fort a lot over Memorial Day weekend, and it's always hot and humid. But, this morning, it was cool and not at all humid- look: I have other places I've visited saved on my weather app, and look at this: It was the same temperature in NYC and Dublin as it was at the Fort on Saturday morning, May 27th. That was sweet! We were a couple of minutes late leaving the site, but pulled up to the Outpost bus stop at about 7:08. The Kenny Cart we drove was a fast one, and we were cold driving with the windshield down. Amazing. For some reason, no one had parked in the very first golf cart parking space at the Outpost, and we slipped right in to it. Just in time to see an Animal Kingdom bus pulling up to the bus stop. At 7:09 am we boarded the bus!: So far. So good. The TCD bus luck was going strong. As we arrived at AK, we could see that the parking lot was pretty full already, but traffic was moving, and it wasn't too crazy. I expected that there would be long lines at the bag check, but there weren't. They had every lane staffed, and we zipped right through faster than a normal day. This wasn't going to be bad at all. Next, we would zip through passholder line at the touchpoints, and we would be at Pandora with time to spare. Not so fast. This is what we found as we passed the ticket booths at 7:33 am: I'm not sure if you can see it in this photo, but if you look past the touchpoints, you will see that the entire entry area past the touchpoints is wall to wall people. We heard that there was a solid wall-to-wall mob of people from here all the way to the Tree of Life, and that they could not admit anymore guests through the touchpoints until that mob cleared: As you can see, we were over to the right of the mob facing the touchpoints- the AP lane was up ahead. But, we could see as we stood there that more and more guests were coming in and shoving in to the mob from the right side, ahead of us. That AP lane wasn't going to do us any good with all the guests shoving in in front of us: Way over to the left of the mob we were now standing in, we could see a CM holding a sign. We all were pretty sure that it said "Resort Guests" on it, and we thought that maybe there was a lane open all the way to the left where resort guests were being let in. It was still not 8 am yet, and it was still EMH's for resort guests, so we wove our way through the mob all the way to the left: When we got over there, we saw the CM with the Resort Guests sign walk away! They were not letting anyone in anymore. But, it was less crowded over here on the left, and no one was shoving in from the side: As we stood in the mob wondering what would happen next, a CM made an announcement. To our amazement, the PA system worked, and we could clearly hear the announcement. Usually, announcements are not audible or they're garbled, but we all heard this guy. He said that they were still waiting for the guests in the park to clear the area in front of the touchpoints, and then they would let us in, but we would be routed through Dinoland. Dinoland? How? Also, looking at how many people were in front of us, we wondered how long it would take to just get to the scanners. We all know how painfully slow it can be to wait for each guest to scan his MB and fingerprint. But, we still figured that we were good because we had FP's and it was still over an hour before the first ones would expire. At 7:46 am, they announced that the touchpoints were open, and we would be admitted: The lines in moved amazingly fast. We realized that this was because they had turned the fingerprint scanners off, and all you had to do was touch the touchpoint with your MB, and head on in. Nobody was being turned away- guests zipped right in. That was amazing. As soon as we got in, there were CM's herding everyone to the right. We thought that the resort guest line was over to the left, and we all broke through the line of CM's herding us the other way, and went to the left. We joined the line that was solid people just past the Rainforest Café path. And that line was not moving. We figured that this line was solid people all the way to the Tree of Life, and maybe we didn't want to be in it after all. So, we went back to the herd, and followed the mob as we were herded through the gate just past the stroller rental shop: They were taking us backstage!: That is the back of Restaurantsaurus- it takes forever to walk there while in the park, but the back of it is right there: On we marched into the rising sun: I've never been backstage at AK, but here we were- seeing everything they have hidden back here: The back of Restaurantsaurus is a café for castmembers: The signs they had posted on the fences back here were very interesting. But, we didn't stop to read them: There were CM's stationed all along the way telling us to keep it moving: And, just like that, we emerged back into the park at the back of Restaurantsaurus and the Dinosaur ride: It was now 8:06 am, and our first FP+'s were active. We needed to get to the other side of the park. So, we headed right out of Dinoland, with the plan that we would walk over the bridge back to Discovery Island, and head straight on to Pandora. But, CM's were blocking the bridge and sending all guests into Asia. We found a CM who looked like he was a manager-type, and asked him if we still had to walk through Asia if we had FP+'s that were active. He said no, we could go on over the bridge, and so we did: We picked the right guy to ask, because as we were waking away, we heard the people behind us ask the CM next to ours about going across the bridge since they had FP's, but that CM told them then needed to head through Asia, then walk all the way around the back of the park to get to Pandora. The bridge and the area we were walking through was surprisingly uncrowded: It turns out that the AK management had done a really good job with crowd control this morning. The reason they herded the big mob we were in through Dinoland was that the standby line to get in to Pandora was already over an hour long, and they didn't want any more guests to get in that line yet. It's a good thing that we did not stay at the back of that line, or we would have been way back there instead of heading toward Pandora on our own. As we walked toward Pandora, we saw a CM with a legacy name tag and asked her what the procedure was for guests who had FP+'s for Pandora. She told us we did not need to wait in the standby line, and she told us to head toward the bridge to Pandora, and that there would be CM's there to scan our bands. So, we walked past these poor guests who were in the standby line just to get in to Pandora: So, those guests were going to be waiting over an hour just to get in to the new land, where they would find standby lines of 3-4 hours for each of the new rides. Wow. But, that wasn't for us. We walked right up to the bridge where there were two CM's with handheld scanners to admit guests who had active MB's. Twin #1 had used those scanners back when she worked attractions, and they were very difficult to use. They need Wi-Fi to work, and they take a long time to re-set if the connection is lost. She could tell right away that the scanner the young lady who was checking our MB's was using was not working, and the CM was faking it. Twin #1 made a comment about that to her, and she laughed and said, just play along, because if anyone in the standby line figured that they were faking it, there would be a stampede. After the fake scan, we were heading across the bridge into Pandora: That big crowd was behind us, and would be for another hour at least: Boy, it was crowded in the new land. And it probably always will be for a long time: Here's something that blew my mind. See those people over there to the left?: That's the standby queue for the new river ride. When we were here earlier in May for the previews, I had noticed the posts there along the path, and couldn't figure out what they were there for: _________ These chains create some kind of queue along the side of the entrance path. We couldn't figure out why. There must be some kind of photo op planned for this area: ___________________ It turns out that those posts are part of the stand-by queue for the river ride, the entrance for which cannot even be seen from here. That amazed me. The designers of this new land planned for the contingency of the already big stand-by queue overflowing, and they had a place to put those guests. And that's not all. The actual end of the line wasn't even along that path, it was around the corner. They had CM's at the end of that line, and across the path, making a break in the standby line so it wouldn't block the path. We saw the end of the line round the corner, as we headed to Flight of Passage: The managers in charge of crowd control at the Magic Kingdom could learn a thing or two from the managers over here at AK. This was all planned and, more importantly, staffed, properly, which made it great for us. Next up, we will see if that TCD luck holds for our ride on the banshees. Flight of Passage had a lot of issues during the previews, and even with our FP's we could be in for a long wait. But, that is where we are headed. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ceemike...Mike & Judy 50 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said: The lines in moved amazingly fast. We realized that this was because they had turned the fingerprint scanners off, and all you had to do was touch the touchpoint with your MB, and head on in. Nobody was being turned away- guests zipped right in. That was amazing. As soon as we got in, there were CM's herding everyone to the right. We thought that the resort guest line was over to the left, and we all broke through the line of CM's herding us the other way, and went to the left. We joined the line that was solid people just past the Rainforest Café path. And that line was not moving. We figured that this line was solid people all the way to the Tree of Life, and maybe we didn't want to be in it after all. So, we went back to the herd, and followed the mob as we were herded through the gate just past the stroller rental shop: DW would have appreciated the opportunity to enter the park with the fingerprint scanners turned off. She has so much trouble with them that when the plaid wearing CM with the tablet is called over because her fingerprint won't scan, her picture pops up on the tablet so she doesn't have to show her photo ID each time. Many moons ago, (more moons than I care to think about), we took our grandsons to Donald's Breakfastosaurus at Restaurantosaurus. Our ADR was earlier than the opening of AK, so we were escorted to Restaurantosaurus down that very same path through the backstage area. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sherryberry 35 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 Awesome! Great to see another TCD trip report! I don't know that I could have handled the crowds on opening day, but I'll gladly watch from where I am. I'm on vacation now and almost planned a trip to the Fort, to take our new little camper, but we had too much to do at home this week. So, it's a staycation for us. We don't head back to Disney until October, so I'll learn as much as I can from your trip report on navigating Pandora. We'll probably buy an annual pass on our next trip, so we'll actually start visiting the parks again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Memphis 105 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 I'm in. What a fun check in. We have had a couple of those. I really don't think I could handle that AK crowd. So please keep the trip reports coming. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 I just showed this last batch of pictures to David. He said Disney couldn't build anything that would warrant him standing in line that long! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kadancer 82 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 Enjoying the report so far. It would be great if they mistakenly sent our bills to the wrong site numbers. No way could my gang endure those lines. We may have to skip Pandora on our summer trip.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
momof3kids-Yvonne 596 Posted June 5, 2017 Report Share Posted June 5, 2017 I just showed this last batch of pictures to David. He said Disney couldn't build anything that would warrant him standing in line that long! I have decided it is best not to show these pictures to Steve. David at least likes Disney. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie 119 Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 Suspense, backstage herding, beautiful weather, on the ball CM's mercy, what a beginning. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Seals 111 Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 My face is armpit level with the majority of people so I avoid tight crowds. Especially after an experience where everyone pushed together and I couldn't breathe. I'm ok with crowded places as long as people aren't all trying to get to the same space. Luckily I still have no interest in Avatar or Avatarland, and (unluckily) probably won't make it back to WDW for 2+ years. But, I am enjoying reading about it so I can be glad I'm not there with the masses. Plus I love AK. So, thanks and I'm reading along. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Helmsey......Todd 134 Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 Late to the party but I'm in. That blue Kenny cart is the same one we had last October. It was fast! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tony 27 Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 Love The trip reports!! I was at AK over the weekend and it doesn't look like its slowing down anytime soon. Gladly following along as usual, thanks for TR so far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 I have hesitated clicking on this thread because, based on the title, I thought it was a thread about anti-diarrhea medicine, or maybe a prescription for psoriasis. "Ask your Doctor is Kaltxi is right for you". I hate made up languages. Stupid. Why can't the blue people just speak English? It's not like they are real. Tony 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Seals 111 Posted June 6, 2017 Report Share Posted June 6, 2017 1 hour ago, DaveInTN said: I have hesitated clicking on this thread because, based on the title, I thought it was a thread about anti-diarrhea medicine, or maybe a prescription for psoriasis. "Ask your Doctor is Kaltxi is right for you". I hate made up languages. Stupid. Why can't the blue people just speak English? It's not like they are real. Covfefe ! Avatab.... Steve 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mmfancipher 31 Posted June 7, 2017 Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 15 hours ago, Seals said: Covfefe ! You used the wrong tense! It's Covfefe. Avatab.... Steve 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted June 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 On 6/5/2017 at 0:31 PM, ceemike...Mike & Judy said: DW would have appreciated the opportunity to enter the park with the fingerprint scanners turned off. She has so much trouble with them that when the plaid wearing CM with the tablet is called over because her fingerprint won't scan, her picture pops up on the tablet so she doesn't have to show her photo ID each time. Many moons ago, (more moons than I care to think about), we took our grandsons to Donald's Breakfastosaurus at Restaurantosaurus. Our ADR was earlier than the opening of AK, so we were escorted to Restaurantosaurus down that very same path through the backstage area. I would hate it if my fingerprint didn't work. We used to have a lot of problems with the old scanners that you had to stick your fingers in. I hated those things. I never thought about how they got guests back to those breakfasts in Restaurantsaurus. It makes sense that they used that gate and path rather than have you walk all the way through the park. On 6/5/2017 at 0:36 PM, sherryberry said: Awesome! Great to see another TCD trip report! I don't know that I could have handled the crowds on opening day, but I'll gladly watch from where I am. I'm on vacation now and almost planned a trip to the Fort, to take our new little camper, but we had too much to do at home this week. So, it's a staycation for us. We don't head back to Disney until October, so I'll learn as much as I can from your trip report on navigating Pandora. We'll probably buy an annual pass on our next trip, so we'll actually start visiting the parks again. You have a camper now? Congratulations! I hope that you get it to the Fort soon. On 6/5/2017 at 2:56 PM, Memphis said: I'm in. What a fun check in. We have had a couple of those. I really don't think I could handle that AK crowd. So please keep the trip reports coming. Yeah, you never know what you're going to get with check-in. But I have no complaints, I was early, and I ended up with a good site. It took longer than it should have, but no big deal. The only reason we braved the Pandora crowds was because we had FP+'s for both attractions. I wouldn't do it otherwise. On 6/5/2017 at 4:07 PM, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said: I just showed this last batch of pictures to David. He said Disney couldn't build anything that would warrant him standing in line that long! It's totally worth it if you have FP+'s, but I agree, neither of the new rides are worth waiting in a long line to ride. On 6/5/2017 at 6:00 PM, kadancer said: Enjoying the report so far. It would be great if they mistakenly sent our bills to the wrong site numbers. No way could my gang endure those lines. We may have to skip Pandora on our summer trip.... Yeah- isn't it funny how they have no trouble getting the billing straight? As I said above, if you can get FP's, then go to Pandora. If not, definitely wait until the craziness dies down. On 6/5/2017 at 7:19 PM, momof3kids-Yvonne said: I have decided it is best not to show these pictures to Steve. David at least likes Disney. We have been in much worse crowd situations in Disney- 4th of July and NYE Fireworks at the MK come to mind. And some bad Food and Wine Festival crowds at Epcot. The big difference here is that they had a very good crowd control plan in place. On 6/5/2017 at 9:01 PM, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said: Suspense, backstage herding, beautiful weather, on the ball CM's mercy, what a beginning. It was a great beginning. And, the Banshee Dust continued for the rest of the day- I'll share how we experienced some more magic in Pandora in the next update. 22 hours ago, Seals said: My face is armpit level with the majority of people so I avoid tight crowds. Especially after an experience where everyone pushed together and I couldn't breathe. I'm ok with crowded places as long as people aren't all trying to get to the same space. Luckily I still have no interest in Avatar or Avatarland, and (unluckily) probably won't make it back to WDW for 2+ years. But, I am enjoying reading about it so I can be glad I'm not there with the masses. Plus I love AK. So, thanks and I'm reading along. 2+ years sounds like a safe amount of time to wait. At some point, things will calm down, and it will be easier to enjoy the land without the mobs of guests. But, it's going to be a while. They have a certified hit on their hands here. 19 hours ago, Helmsey......Todd said: Late to the party but I'm in. That blue Kenny cart is the same one we had last October. It was fast! Glad you made it in! That blue cart was fast, but the older, beat-up green one was a bit faster! That's another reason I like Kenny carts over Disney's. That bit of extra speed makes a big difference. 19 hours ago, Tony said: Love The trip reports!! I was at AK over the weekend and it doesn't look like its slowing down anytime soon. Gladly following along as usual, thanks for TR so far. It looks like my prediction that things would die down in Pandora was wrong. I guess it's going to be crazy for a while. 19 hours ago, DaveInTN said: I have hesitated clicking on this thread because, based on the title, I thought it was a thread about anti-diarrhea medicine, or maybe a prescription for psoriasis. "Ask your Doctor is Kaltxi is right for you". I hate made up languages. Stupid. Why can't the blue people just speak English? It's not like they are real. Agreed. There's a lot of stuff about the Na'vi and the Avatar movie that's dumb. The whole concept is dumb- growing fake bodies that humans can inhabit? Why go to all of that trouble? In the movie- the Na'vi and the Avatars switch between speaking Na'vi and English, and there are lot of things that just don't make sense. 17 hours ago, Seals said: Covfefe ! 1 hour ago, mmfancipher said: You used the wrong tense! It's Covfefe. Wait, do you mean to tell me that this is a Na'vi word? Y'all might have broken the code! TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Momof6....aka Marty 769 Posted June 7, 2017 Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 On 6/5/2017 at 0:36 PM, sherryberry said: Awesome! Great to see another TCD trip report! I don't know that I could have handled the crowds on opening day, but I'll gladly watch from where I am. I'm on vacation now and almost planned a trip to the Fort, to take our new little camper, but we had too much to do at home this week. So, it's a staycation for us. We don't head back to Disney until October, so I'll learn as much as I can from your trip report on navigating Pandora. We'll probably buy an annual pass on our next trip, so we'll actually start visiting the parks again. I am here! Better late than never. Although I missed bragging rights, it's nice to read a large chunk of a TCD TR in one siting. Thanks for bringing us along! Annual pass! That sopunds fabulous! A WDW annual pass is on my bucket list, but so is a DCL cruise. Meanwhile, I'm saving to buy a car with either working windows or AC! LOL Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted June 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 11 minutes ago, Momof6....aka Marty said: I am here! Better late than never. Although I missed bragging rights, it's nice to read a large chunk of a TCD TR in one siting. Thanks for bringing us along! Welcome, Marty! You haven't missed much. This report is off to a slow start- mainly because Photobucket is such a pain lately for getting my photos loaded. But, I just got some loaded and will be posting an update this morning. So stay tuned. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted June 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 Here we go. It's still Saturday Morning, May 27th. I should have mentioned that it was just me, Twin #1, and her good friend on this visit to Pandora. Here we are: Twin #2 was back at the camper sleeping in. She currently does not have an AP, since she's a CM. Which is a great deal for me. But, CM's were blocked out of Pandora for opening weekend. Which is a pretty stinky thing for Disney to do. But, I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if all the College Program kids were allowed in. My oldest DD had to work all day on Friday, and decided that she would meet up with us this afternoon at the Fort, and Mrs. TCD also waited until Saturday to arrive. After a lot of debate, we decided that Rocky would need to be boarded for the weekend. Since we would be spending a lot of time in the cabin, he would have to be cooped up in the camper, and that wasn't going to work. He needs direct supervision at all times at the Fort. So, there were just the three of us here on opening day. And, boy were we blessed with perfect weather! Look at that blue sky behind the floating mountain: It was just 8:18 am when we presented ourselves at the FP+ touchpoints for the Flight of Passage ride. Here, we encountered a pesky problem that we encountered at both Pandora rides for the whole weekend. They FP+ entrance for the rides is set up like the FP+ entrance for the Mine Train ride at the MK- with a podium and a CM stationed right to the side of the FP+ scanners. Guests congregate and mob around that podium, and they block the FP+ line: But, we weaved through those dummies, scanned our bands, and headed on in. The FP+ queue is nowhere near as themed as the regular standby queue, but there are some interesting things to see. Like this handprint: That handprint is from a real Na'vi, and not an avatar. Do you know how to tell the difference? Na'vi's only have three fingers and a thumb. Another dumb James Cameron quirk. Here, we see a both a human handprint and an avatar handprint- note both have four fingers: Sorry, but this three finger/four finger thing is dumb. As we know from the movie, the avatars are man-made fake Na'vi's, complete with working tails, weird cat eyes and magical hair braids. So, why not manufacture them with three fingers so they are exact Na'vi replicas? In any event, by 8:23 am, we were here in the loading queue: Note that the family right in front of us skipped the standby line via the benefit of a VIP Tour Guide. We all agreed that whoever it was in that family who made the decision to hire a VIP Tour Guide on the opening day of Pandora was a genius. That must be why they're rich. So, we rode Flight of Passage. No problems. And then we rode it again. See, I had another FP+ that I had booked for my oldest DD who was not with us, and Twin #1's friend had 2 FP+'s for his mom and sister, who also weren't going to make it. Which gave us three extra FP+'s for our party of three, and allowed us to ride again. Word on the street is that Disney is about to crack down on guests using FP+'s that are on MB's that weren't used for park admission, but that crack down wasn't implemented yet, so we rode FOP twice before 9 am on opening day. I don't imagine that there were any other guests who are able to say that. After our second FOP ride, our river ride FP's were good, so we went there. And rode it twice too. Honestly, once would have been enough, but there was no way we were going to let those FP+'s go to waste. So, before 10 am on opening morning, we had ridden both attractions twice. I'm pretty sure no one else did that. Bragging rights. The plan all along was for us to get back to the Fort by lunchtime. I didn't expect that we would be done with the rides so soon. So, we decided to give the mobile ordering at the quick serve restaurant a try. We took a break over by the restrooms. This path next to the restrooms is a nice, shaded place where you can get away from the crowds. I'm pretty sure it's not a designated smoking area, but that guy over there decided that it is: We went ahead and logged on to the app and ordered our food. The app told us that they would stop serving breakfast at 10:30 am, so we needed to get there and claim our meals before then. We decided that we would check out what the wait times were for standby at both rides, and make our way to the quick serve. Those people you see standing in this photo are in the standby line for the river ride. They will be waiting quite a while before they even get to the entrance: Here are those posts that I wondered about two weeks earlier: Those poor people: Here's the river ride FP entrance- it also was blocked by a mob trying to get something from the CM at the podium: You can't see it too good in that photo- but the posted standby time for the river ride was 150 minutes. And, that's from that point. Those folks we saw in the line by the bathroom are still standing in line to get into this 150 minute line. But that's nothing. The posted standby time at FOP was 250 minutes. Note there is a single rider line, but they weren't using it: Note that the equipment being used at both ride entrances is built to look like it's temporary stuff that was wheeled in here by the ACE company: Something that we noticed throughout the opening weekend is that the CM's have already dropped the hokey story that they're all supposed to have traveled here some time ago from earth. When we visited for the previews, the CM's all asked questions about how things were on earth, and acted like they had been living on this foreign planet for a long time. That has already all gone out the window, since the CM's are all in survival mode now, and being worked to death. We got to the Sa'tuli Canteen (the dumb fake name for the quick serve) at just a few minutes past 10 am. There was a long line of guests outside of the restaurant, and the CM's invited us to go to the end of that long line. I explained to the CM at the door that we had pre-ordered breakfast, and asked if we still needed to go to the end of the line. As expected, the CM said no, we could go right on in. So, there's a pro tip for you. This mobile ordering thing is great in that it lets you skip any standby lines at the restaurants that offer this service. Right now, it's only this one and Be Our Guest at lunch. But, they're adding more. When we got in to the restaurant, I pressed the button on the app to tell them that we were here, and the app told us to find a seat and they would let me know when to come to the pick-up area. Because they had basically shut down the restaurant to clear out the breakfast crowd, there were open tables, and we claimed one. The decorations in here are supposed to have been made by the Na'vi, but it reminds me of Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge: There is some interesting stuff to see in here. I noticed this "photo" on the wall which depicts a group of Na'vi looking at the same kind of big plant that they have near the entrance to Pandora. I am not sure if this is actual scene from the movie- if it is, it must be during a part that I missed while I nodded off. Despite my best efforts, I'm not sure that I've seen the whole movie: We were sitting at our table for 15 minutes with no further communication from the app, and I was starting to wonder if something had gone wrong. I knew that they were going to be shutting down breakfast in 15 minutes, so I went to investigate. I headed to the pick-up area, and showed my phone to a CM there and asked if I was supposed to be getting some kind of notice. She said I would, and that I could hang out here since it shouldn't be much longer: From the few moments I was standing there off to the side, I could see that there was some kind of problem. All the people standing around were not too happy. The standby line was moving, but I think they had moved on to serving lunch: Eventually, all of the guests that were standing there waiting got their food, and I was still there with nothing. There were only a few folks here now. A male manager type in a suit came up to me and asked if I was waiting for my mobile order. I told him yes. He apologized and told me that they had run out of the breakfast pods we had ordered, and that they were going to have to refund my money. OK, but what about breakfast? I had already invested about 45 minutes in this transaction, and them telling me sorry and refunding my money wasn't really going to cut it. Plus, only two of us had ordered the pods. What about the other food? I told the guy that I'd take whatever they could give me, and that they could keep the money. Key to all of this was that this was a totally friendly conversation. The manager was top notch, and I was as friendly as I could be under the circumstances. He said he'd see what he could do. And we walked up to the counter and he spoke to the CM's there, and asked if they could just get any three breakfast dishes for me. They produced those immediately. We ended up with what they call steak and eggs, one order of the pods, and one order of the French toast. I told the manager that would be perfect. He thanked me for my patience and told me that he was still going to refund my money. So the TCD gang ate for free! And the thing is, that food was great! Before we were even done with the meal, I got a notice on the app that the transaction had been reversed. How about that for some Banshee Dust? I highly recommend the Satu'li Canteen and especially the mobile ordering. As we ate our breakfast, we all agreed that we had had an exceptional morning, but that it was time to get the heck out of here and back to the Fort. We headed out via the new path that they built that connects Pandora with the new area they build for the new Lion King Theater. I am not sure what they call that new area- the signs just pointed to Africa. The standby line for the river ride was now all the way down this path: The standby line for Flight of Passage was over there on the left: This whole path and the boardwalk is new. There is an overlook along the way where you can look at the water and across to the Nomad Lounge: For now, this is a one-way path. It is only an exit for Pandora- they will not let guests in this way. Hopefully, when it's less crazy, you will be able to come and go on this path, an it will be a less crazy way to get in and out of Pandora. As we walked, the line for FOP continued to lengthen, and was almost to the end of the path: The boardwalk looks really nice: Here we are at the end, about to reach the new Lion King theater area: As is the case with all of Animal Kingdom, they did a fantastic job theming this new area: I've never noticed how much detail went in to creating this fake port area: We walked on through the theater area, and back across the bridge from Africa to the Discovery Island area. Here we are back at the crazy area in front of the Pizzafari restaurant- note that they have a bunch of security guards around to keep the peace. There are hundreds of guests out here just waiting to get in to Pandora: When we were in Pandora, we thought about standing in the long line to go in to the gift shop. There was special opening day merchandise that we were interested in, but the line was long, and it was hot. There was a CM there who told us that they were selling some of the opening day merchandise in the regular gift shops in Animal Kingdom. We headed there, and found that was true. There was kind of a long line there too, but it was in the AC, and it moved quickly. We all got some opening day merchandise, and then agreed that we really needed to leave. So we did. The end of the line to enter Pandora was now at the base of the bridge that you first walk across after walking through the paths at the entrance: The CM there was telling guests that it was about an hour wait from there to get in to Pandora, but it looked like it would be longer to me. Those poor guests standing in that line. I wonder what they would have thought if they knew that we had already ridden both rides twice, had a free breakfast, and bought our commemorative merchandise, all before noon, and were no getting away from this mess. Next up, we're back at the Fort. And time to check in to the cabin! Then birthday party time! TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Momof6....aka Marty 769 Posted June 7, 2017 Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 It's good to be TCD! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Duane 152 Posted June 7, 2017 Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 Andrew, it seems like (naturally) all the folks trying to gain entry to Pandora are going there by way of the front entrance. Was/is there a way to enter from the path that you guys exited by the Lion King theatre? Also, since the Florida heat is really getting ready to bear down on Pandora, did Disney install misting fans along the queue lines for these new attractions? Oh, I'm following along by the way... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted June 7, 2017 Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 We had issues ordering food during the sneak peek. Waited forever to get the order, and it wasn't that crowded. I can imagine whats it's been like since the grand opening. Did you get any of the passholder merchandise during you sneak? I bought the pins, and got a discount. They were in a woven vase on a shelf, in the store. If I hadn't asked someone where they got theirs I would've missed them. They did have them at the registers, but again hard to spot. Duane, my wife commented on how hot it was going up the mountain and inside the first part of the mountain, and we moved steadily up during the preview day. There were fans along the way, but I don't think they were misters. Inside there was a water fountain, or a prop for the lab scene.Being stuck in a line and surrounded by people is going to make for a hot, stinky, miserable experience. Other people have been posting about being stuck in line in the heat once they got thru the turnstiles for the ride. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted June 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 3 hours ago, Momof6....aka Marty said: It's good to be TCD! It seems like I've heard that somewhere before. 1 hour ago, Duane said: Andrew, it seems like (naturally) all the folks trying to gain entry to Pandora are going there by way of the front entrance. Was/is there a way to enter from the path that you guys exited by the Lion King theatre? Also, since the Florida heat is really getting ready to bear down on Pandora, did Disney install misting fans along the queue lines for these new attractions? Oh, I'm following along by the way... Hey Duane! For the time being, there is only one way in to Pandora. There are CM's stationed at the other path, and they will only let guests out, and they clearly said there would be no returning through that entryway after we left. There are a lot of fans in the queues, but I don't think they're misting fans. It's already extra humid in Pandora with all of the plants and waterfalls. I don't think the misting would do any good. 11 minutes ago, Travisma said: We had issues ordering food during the sneak peek. Waited forever to get the order, and it wasn't that crowded. I can imagine whats it's been like since the grand opening. Did you get any of the passholder merchandise during you sneak? I bought the pins, and got a discount. They were in a woven vase on a shelf, in the store. If I hadn't asked someone where they got theirs I would've missed them. They did have them at the registers, but again hard to spot. Duane, my wife commented on how hot it was going up the mountain and inside the first part of the mountain, and we moved steadily up during the preview day. There were fans along the way, but I don't think they were misters. Inside there was a water fountain, or a prop for the lab scene.Being stuck in a line and surrounded by people is going to make for a hot, stinky, miserable experience. Other people have been posting about being stuck in line in the heat once they got thru the turnstiles for the ride. I will be reporting on our second experience with the mobile ordering on another day of our trip. We had no issues with it- it worked perfectly that time. We didn't get any passholder merchandise during our preview visit. But we did on opening day. Only we got it in a regular AK giftshop and not Windtraders. I can imagine how bad some of that standby queue will be on hot days. I've been through both standby queues once, and I don't plan to ever do that again. It's FP or nothing for me from here on. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted June 7, 2017 Report Share Posted June 7, 2017 4 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said: It seems like I've heard that somewhere before. Hey Duane! For the time being, there is only one way in to Pandora. There are CM's stationed at the other path, and they will only let guests out, and they clearly said there would be no returning through that entryway after we left. There are a lot of fans in the queues, but I don't think they're misting fans. It's already extra humid in Pandora with all of the plants and waterfalls. I don't think the misting would do any good. I will be reporting on our second experience with the mobile ordering on another day of our trip. We had no issues with it- it worked perfectly that time. We didn't get any passholder merchandise during our preview visit. But we did on opening day. Only we got it in a regular AK giftshop and not Windtraders. I can imagine how bad some of that standby queue will be on hot days. I've been through both standby queues once, and I don't plan to ever do that again. It's FP or nothing for me from here on. TCD Is the standby queue the path up the mountainside? That's the way we went on the sneak. So they still had passholder merchandise after the sneaks? I figured it would've all been snatched up before the official opening. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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