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Pandora : World of Avatar Review

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Animal Kingdom’s Pandora: World of Avatar
Several months ago I read a rumor that annual passholders might get an opportunity to check out Pandora before it officially opens. A few days later, someone in a facebook group I’m part of posted that preview sign-ups were up on the website. I quickly reserved my spot for a day Ray and I were already planning to be at Animal Kingdom. Within the next 30 minutes all the reservations were accounted for!
Last Sunday Ray and I were at Disney World spending time with our family and celebrating our cousin’s graduation/birthday (more on that trip to come). We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom riding Everest, the Safari, and Dinosaur. After a break at our hotel, we made our way back to Animal Kingdom for our 6pm Pandora reservation.
Walking into Pandora was an incredible experience. It truly felt like I was walking into a different world. Here’s the breakdown:

Valley of Mo’ara
So, let’s start with Pandora’s most obvious and breathtaking feature, the Valley of Mo’ara. The landscaping is stunning and intricately detailed. Every view is a photo opportunity… waterfalls, alien vegetation, oh, and floating mountains. FLOATING MOUNTAINS. The details are bananas. Glowing sidewalks, native weavings, tiny bioluminescent flowers… I could go on and on. The theming extends to the ride queues, which I always appreciate.

Na’vi River Journey
The Na’vi river Journey is an evening boat ride through Pandora. It features glowing plants and Pandoran animals. Disney has created some new magic using video screens, projections, and tradition 3-dimensional sets. I have no idea how all of this works together, but the outcome is beautiful. The ride concludes with the Shaman of Songs (I had to look that up) which is hands down Disney’s most life like animatronic. Its arms move so fluidly it’s hard to remember it’s actually a robot.
Overall this ride is relaxing and beautiful. The queue, while mostly unairconditioned, is beautiful. It’s a must see.

Flight of Passage
Flight of Passage is the most technologically advanced ride I’ve ever experienced. It’s a flight simulator of which you ride on the back of a banshee (but why aren’t we just calling them dragons?) through the planet’s different environments.
Because we went to a preview viewing of Pandora, we walked through the fastpass line for this ride which is MUCH shorter than the standby queue. I’ve read that if the entire queue is full it’s about a 4 or 5 hour wait. Thankfully, the theming is very well thought out and at least half of the queue is air conditioned. You walk through the jungle, some rocks, and a laboratory. Once you make it through the laboratory, you’re taken into a 16 person room to get the background story of the ride and prepare for your flight. A video plays, it talks about your consciousness, blah blah blah. Honestly, this part was rather boring to me but I know it’s what they needed to do to set up for the ride. You’re then led into a room with what almost looks like stationary bikes or motorcycles. You’re handed 3-D glasses and told to “mount” the seat. Once you’re seated, back and leg restraints deploy.
To start the ride, the room goes dark, there’s a flash of light, the screen in front of you disappears, and suddenly you’re immersed into the world of Pandora. You fly up, down, and around experiencing the various landscapes. Oh, and you can feel the dragon breathing beneath you. The video is beautiful and well synched with the ride vehicles. You truly feel as though you’re flying!!
The Downside:
Apparenlty, if you have large calves or a larger middle, you may not fit on the ride. There have been tons of reports from people not being able to experience Flight of Passage due to the size of the ride vehicles. That’s a super bummer. When we went there were no test vehicles outside the ride, but hopefully that will change soon because waiting hours for a ride, then not fitting properly is a truly un-magical experience. Also, while I felt fine, there is potential for motion sickness during Flight of Passage.

Pongu Pongu
Pongu Pongu is currently the only refreshment kiosk in Pandora. It offers several drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and a few snacks. Ray and I ordered a Night Blossom and a Mo’ara Margarita.
The Mo’ara Margarita is a mix of strawberry and blood orange flavors and topped with boba balls. It was good, but nothing special. I probably wouldn’t purchase this again.
The Night Blossom is a mix of limeade, apple and pear, and topped with passion fruit boba. This drink was delicious and because it’s non-alcoholic everyone can enjoy! Also, it’s very instagram-worthy. Definitely get this on your next trip to Animal Kingdom! Satu’li Canteen
The Satu’li Canteen is a great change to the Disney parks. This “fast casual” restaurant offers primarily healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. At the time of our visit, Ray and I only saw the lunch and dinner menu so that’s what I’ll be talking about. There are two main options on the menu, bowls and pods. For the bowls you choose a protein (slice grilled beef, chopped grilled chicken, fish fillet, and crispy tofu), base (quinoa salad, red and sweet potato hash, mixed rice, and romain and kale salad), and a sauce (onion chimichurri, black bean vinaigrette, and creamy herb dressing). Ray chose sliced beef over rice with the chimichurri sauce. It was DELICIOUS! The pods come with two options, cheeseburger and vegetable curry. I ordered cheeseburger pods, which were also very good but I wish I had tried the curry. We also ordered the beautiful, yet underwhelming blueberry mousse dessert.

Things of Note:
Windtraders
Windtraders is a unique store in Pandora. We were only inside for a few minutes, so I can’t give a real review, but it sold tons of interesting and pandora-like objects. Also a banshee adoption center.
Scent
One of the best parts of the theming Disney incorporates is scent. To me, most of Pandor smelt like jalapenos, which I loved.
Night Viewing
We visited Pandora during the late afternoon before it was dark. The Valley of Mo’ara is supposed to be beautiful at night, all light up with bioluminescent plants. I can’t wait to see it!
Moss Wall
Find the moss wall. Take an instagram. #mosswall
The Movie
I’m coming clean and letting you know i’ve never seen Avatar. Honestly, I’ve never wanted to. But guess what… I still LOVED Pandora : World of Avatar. If you haven’t seen the movie OR if you didn’t like the movie, don’t let that stop you from going!!!

 

We had such a wonderful time and I can’t wait to go back!

Year of Root Beer: Virgil’s

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virgilsWe’re starting off our Year of Root Beer with a bang! Virgil’s Root Beer! Neither of us had tried this brand before and we were both pleasantly surprised.

Allison’s Review:
Creaminess- 2.5
Not bad, but I would normally prefer more of a creamy taste.
Flavor- 4
Great flavor. Very “rooty” with a hint of liquorish. Sweet and no strange after taste. A strange after-taste is the worst.
Carbonation- 3
Eh, average.
Packaging- 3.5
I like that the packaging actually looks like a beer bottle, and I like that the ladies on the label are sitting in giant chairs.
Overall Experience- 3.5
Virgil’s Root Beer is a good pick and I would absolutely repurchase it. Despite the lack of creaminess AND carbonation I really loved it. Very unique and bold.

Ray’s Review:
Creaminess – 2
This one only has a hint of creaminess
Flavor – 3.5
The flavor of this one is unique. This root beer has somewhat of a beer texture to it. The after taste is still good. It’s not as creamy as I usually like in a root beer but it has bold flavored with a hint if creaminess. There is a very slight hint of mint to the flavor which I feel like is unique.
Carbonation – 4
It’s not extremely carbonated, but if it was it would cancel out the flavor I believe.
Packaging – 4
Overall, I like the packaging. It claims to be a recipes from 1916. The label seems old and it’s wrapped around a dark bottle. I also enjoy the boldness of the bottle cap.
Experience – 4
This was a great root beer. Not perfect, but not predictable. Overall from the artwork to the glass bottle to the flavor, it was a very enjoyable root beer.

Have any of you tried this brand? How would you rate it? =)

The Dark Night Rises, a review by Alliray

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batman 2Hey guys, we’ve decided to do some movie reviews on the ole blog here. We will be alternating which one of us gets to choose the movie! Ray picked fist so we watched The Dark Knight Rises. Here’s what we thought:

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

Allison’s Take: Let me start off by saying that I just watched Batman Begins last Sunday. I’ll also tell you I only saw The Dark Knight about 3 months ago. I haven’t read the comics or watched the cartoons, so my batman knowledge is a little lacking.  Despite what you may think, I do love (some) action movies, and this one did not disappoint. My favorite part of The Dark Night Rises was Joseph Gordon Levitt, or as I like to call him, JGL. JGL made this movie for me because, frankly, I think Bruce Wayne can be rather boring and tragic. My second favorite part of the movie was obviously Catwoman’s biker goggles/cat ears. Bane had a creepy-ass voice, but I think the Joker was WAY more terrifying (RIP). I truly feel that all 3 of these movies are good enough to stand alone without being part of the trilogy.

Why girls might love it:
1. JGL as a cop
2. Alfred’s voice

Why girls might hate it:
1. Batman’s dumb voice
2. Bane’s voice + terrifying mouth contraption
3. Alfred crying (one of the saddest things you could ever see)

Ray’s Take: Ok, so I’ve been known to read a comic book or two in my day. And Batman is not on the top of the list of my favs. That being said, I’ve enjoyed all of these Christopher Nolan Batman movies very much! This was a great way to end his part of the series, it was very dark (as any good batman movie should be), it was very suspenseful, and it had just the best ending. I’ll give it 4 stars ****

Why guys might like it:
1. It’s Batman
2. No nipples on the batsuit
3. It’s Batman!

Why guys might hate it:
1. They are dumb.

Let us know if there are any movies you would like us to reviews!

Moonrise Kingdom: a review

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As I mentioned yesterday, I FINALLY saw Moonrise Kingdom (remember when I posted about it forever ago?). Brie, and our friend Pearl and I went Saturday afternoon. I smuggled a Panera salad and giant green tea into the theater and Pearl wore a wig, so as you can imagine, we had a great time. We also ate fancy lady chcocolate that only melted a teeny bit in Pearl’s purse. Haha.
 I’m not really sure what to say about the movie other than it was perfect. Wes Anderson movies are filled with oddities and yet still feel so familiar and comfortable (except also slightly uncomfortable, if you know what I mean). This movie was interesting because the focus was on strange (troubled?) eccentric children, rather than the dysfunctional adults they will one day become.
 Some of my favorite details:
1. Wes Anderson replaced his usual futura bold with a new curley-q font.
2. Suzy’s stolen library books.
3. Suzy’s record player. Or, rather her brother’s record player.
4. Khaki scout uniforms.
5. The classic Wes Anderson slow-motion walking scene.