Disney already had announced that Pandora - The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom would open by this summer, with buzz from inside the company over the past two weeks suggesting a big media event the last week in May. The blockout of Florida resident tickets for Animal Kingdom during the end of May and beginning of June also fueled speculation that Avatar would open then.
Today, Iger announced that the Avatar land would open officially on May 27. No word yet on potential soft openings before that. But if you were planning a Walt Disney World vacation for Memorial Day weekend or later this year, Pandora will be awaiting you.
As for Star Wars, fans have been speculating since Disney announced the project at D23 in August 2015 when those lands would debut. Disney has started construction at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios on these twin lands, with the Disneyland project seemingly ahead of the Florida one. But that site had a lot more contextual work to do in creating "buffers" to adjacent lands in the park. The Florida installation will stand more by itself at one end of the Hollywood Studios park, instead of being sandwiched between Frontierland/Critter Country and Fantasyland, as it will be in California.
Iger today said that the Star Wars lands will open sometime in 2019. beating Theme Park Insider readers' collective guesses of a 2020 opening for the two lands.
Update: Disney has launched a new website and Twitter feed to promote the Avatar land opening: visitpandora.com.
ERROR//AU276K_CONTACT_LOST<ACA-POLY-sat05PAN>28.3597N81.5913W pic.twitter.com/rOe6Vc8aJc
— Visit Pandora (@visitpandora) February 7, 2017
Is this our first notice of something going terribly wrong?
Wait....
Question: In 2018 will we see Everest get that extensive refurb to fix the downtrodden Yeti?
Pandora is opening just two days after Volcano Bay. Trying to steal its thunder?
This sounds too cool and too specific to be anything but something they're using for Star Wars Land. Imagine, climbing into the cockpit, and the glass on the windows is a screen showing spaaaaaaaaac
Going in 2019 to visit star wars and hopefully toy story is not a good idea because that they will probably need to still to work out the bugs and kinks even after a soft opening.
Remember WWHOP at USO had an 8hr wait on opening day and I assume them same thing will happen when AVATAR opens this summer.
Wait for the crowd levels to stabilize and be more predictable first.
Now I wonder what will Universal do for 2019 and beyond?
Obviously they cannot steal away the spotlight away from Disney I don't think they will let them completely dominate the theme park headlines in 2019.
hmm, I predict an announcements for the new hotel(s) where Wet N wild once was soon or they will accelerate plans to open a Secret Life of Pets attractions at both USH and USO.
Not enough time to bring Nintendoland stateside, though
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