Navi River Journey is missing a storyline. Maybe the only real dent in Joe Rohde's resume - it's so beautifully done, but there's no narrative - it's all environment. (By comparison - Pirates has a storyline - or, maybe more accurately, a series of mini-storylines under an overarching theme.) When it opened, they made the mistake of overhyping the AA - it's impressive, but it's technically impressive, not storyline impressive.
I wouldn't be opposed to installing FOP at
Disneyland, but I'd much prefer the same ride with a different or updated destination / movie. I hope they wouldn't just clone Pandora for DLR - that just seems like a wasted opportunity. There's so much more they could do in that world - and that the movie's creative team would probably be eager to be involved in something new. (Side note: AK closing at sunset most of the year is an absolute waste of how amazing Pandora is at night - it would play so much better in California without that limitation.)
Having said that, I feel like this is an upgrade to the previous announcement. They kept making it sound like we were getting the "Experience" from Asia - it was never really talked about as a land. I honestly thought the Avengers superstore was closed to make way for that.
I was listening to Susan Bond (former Imagineer) on the Tomorrow Society Podcast. She worked on Alien Encounter and suggested one of the reasons it didn't work was because it was in the wrong park (MK). She suggested DHS. That got me thinking; would it work in DCA? I think yes. It would be an even better fit at USH though.
Alien Encounter was not only at the wrong park, it was at the wrong
resort. The problem with moving it to DHS was that it was an upgrade to Mission to Mars - the cost to move it all to DHS would probably have been out of the question in the early 90s. It was
intended to be at Disneyland, which would have been perfect - but it got cut due to the costs and early failure of EuroDisney. (MK is so much more overtly a kids park than DL is - to me, DL feels like a all-ages park with kid-focused sections.) Honestly, I think it would
still work at Disneyland (or DCA) - it's a "practical effects + psychological effects" ride - it wouldn't be dated at all.