Top Six Things You Must Do at Pandora: World of Avatar

Pandora the World of Avatar is the newest land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It opens May 27th and thousands of people will be flocking to visit Pandora this year. I’m so excited for you guys to see it! I was so impressed with it. You can read my full review and photo tour here.

I know many of you don’t want to watch too many videos so you can be surprised when you see it in person. But that also makes it hard to plan your trip. So here are my must-do recommendations to help you feel like you get the most from your visit.

1) Ride Flight of Passage. If at all possible, try to get a Fast Pass for Flight of Passage. This one will get the longest lines. Someone said the super long queue was built to hold a *gasp!* four hour wait.  While I don’t know if that’s true it is super long and this will be the hottest FP ticket for quite some time. That means the minute your Fast Pass window opens up you must grab them for this ride. Priority one. (Next choices would be Safari, Everest, and Rivers of Light.) If you can’t grab one, try to visit at opening or late at closing to avoid the worst of the lines. There is a sign indicating a single rider option as well which will be a good way to cut wait times too.

2) Ride Navi River Journey. For those capturing pictures or video the shaman animatronic  is towards the end and people on the right side of the boat will have the closer view. This will also have long waits I’m sure, so Fast Pass is good for this as well but if you have to choose go for Flight of Passage over this one.

3) Try a fun drink from Pongu Pongu. The Night Blossom will be the most popular but several of the alcoholic ones looked great. The Night Blossom is a non-alcoholic slushy described as “Limeade with apple and pear flavors topped with passion fruit boba balls”. It tasted similar to the Violet Lemonade at Epcot- kind of a fruity berry slushy with little bobas that have fruit juice inside them. And it takes a lovely picture.

4) Adopt a Banchee.  Even if you don’t decide to bring one home check them out and try playing with one. It’s a fun experience. The hottest selling merchandise in Pandora is definitely these small puppets that you can “adopt”. They are $50 which is a little steep but they are super cool and I saw so many people of many ages having a ball walking around with these on their shoulder. It could be a great take home souvenir. Set aside a little time to check them out at the store. There can be a line to look at them as there’s a little bit on an experience involved with picking out the one you want and seeing if they “choose” you. Think Build-a-Bear but instead of bears its alien creatures. Ok now I made it sound weird. But you get the idea. Here’s Disney’s official info on the experience.

5) Get Painted like a Navi. If face painting is at all your thing they have some seriously cool designs at Colors of Mo’ara. You can go full on blue Navi or opt for several other tribal style looks. They are around $18-26 depending on choice, but they do an amazing job and it’s a fun way to really get into it. If you get it done stop here earlier in your day so you can enjoy it longer. Also if it’s extremely hot you may want to pass since you may sweat it off.

6) Take a Photopass Magic shot. They have several great photopass options around Pandora. My favorite is the one where they put a Banshee up in the sky. It’s the perfect view of the gorgeous floating island landscape and the Banshee looks gorgeous up there. Makes a great souvenir.

Bonus: Take a break at Nomad Lounge. While not technically inside Pandora, the Nomad Lounge is right outside the bridge to the land and is an often overlooked spot. While many people know Tiffins restaurant is there, they don’t realize that there’s a bar/lounge behind it. Nomad’s has the best outdoor area to sit and enjoy a drink or snack and is equally beautiful inside. Comfortable, lush seating with an adventurers/traveler decor theme makes it a great place to take a break. You can get some drinks (My fav is the Malaysian Mule!) and really delicious appetizers and enjoy the view before (or after) your visit to Pandora.

So there’s my best touring tips for visiting this new exciting addition to Walt Disney World. I hope you’ll get a chance to see it yourself soon! If you have something you think should be on this list let me know! You can always leave me a comment here, email me, or leave me a message on any of my social media accounts.