Na'vi River Journey - EPIC Disappointment

[CAS239]

You should've posted or read on these boards prior to your trip. You would've known not to wait in an 80 min line for it.

But with that said, no ride is worth an 80 min wait

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Unless I luck out with no waiting, then I will probably never ride this attraction. I have watch videos and am underwhelmed. I won't waste a FP on it and certainly won't wait more that 10-15 minutes.

 

[gharter]

The scenery is really nice and I love the special effects. Just very disappointed that there is no story to it at all.
We ride it most times when we go, but are careful to only ride when the line is short.
I'm amazed at the 70-90 minute wait times for that ride. Never understood that.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

I really enjoyed it.
Granted, we went on it during a DVC moonlight magic event so we walked on.

I wouldn’t wait more than 15/20 minutes for it, but I thought it was beautiful, relaxing, immersive and serene.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I went in with limited expectations and although visually very pretty it's not a 'must do' on future trips unless the line is short at the end of the day. I guess this is one I'm glad I read reviews about before visiting so that I didn't have my hopes up.

 

[Mome Rath]

I absolutely love the ride, and the Shaman is by far the best audio-animatronic in the parks. FoP blows everything else out of the water of course, so RJ suffers in comparison, and suffers because people just get in line because it is "shorter" than FoP... And that makes my point; I love RJ, no way would I wait more than 30 min for it just because I don't stand in line that long for any ride.

FoP carries itself, RJ is much better IMO if you've seen the movie and enjoyed it. Love the movie, so I love seeing the animals, the Na'vi, hearing the music, and seeing the workmanship that went into the shaman is awesome. Both rides let you experience different aspects of Pandora in different ways.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We missed our FP+ for it two weeks ago. Then the day we tried to do RD we got there around 9:15 and the line was already 35 minutes. I refuse to wait over 15-20 minutes for any ride so we never got to ride it. No way would I wait 70 minutes for any ride, especially Navi. We did do FOP twice.

I don't do youtube and watch videos of any rides or lands beforehand. I like to be surprised. Thankfully I had read a few reviews on the boards and knew it was "just" a boat ride so I wasn't pressed to ride it. We also missed Frozen too. There's always next trip.

 

[cygnusx1jg]

Hmmm. Since you "refuse to wait over 15-20 minutes for any ride" was wondering how long the wait was for the two times you rode FOP?

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

My son (6) liked it quite a bit. We had a FP for it though!

Strangely enough, I could not get another day-of FP for it! FOP kept coming up but not this one.

That was our experience also. FOP came up twice but we did not see a Navi FP all day. I expect that will change as more people are underwhelmed.

I like it. It's pretty good for a dark ride (which are not my favorite - most seem like nice AC breaks). I like the bioluminescence and animals. No, it doesn't really have a story but the story for Little Mermaid is well known and I don't really need to see it in animatronic form. I expect that eventually Navi will be like Little Mermaid - an easy 4th FP for those who like it, a skip for those that don't.

 

[thegales]

On Pandora opening day, we had FastPass+ for FOP. We did rope drop for NRJ. We knew very little about it, and we enjoyed it. But it definitely underwhelmed us, when the ride ended.

A couple months later, my daughter and I rode it again, since we could do it with little wait. This time, the Shaman was not there, and they were showing a video of her on the screen instead. We could only laugh, imagining what newbies thought of the ride that day.

 

[Tar_Heels_Love_WDW]

I agree with the above. I did ride it 3 times in a row without waiting during the super bowl this year, on a very rainy Orlando evening. The last ride they just let me get on without going back through the que. i could have gone a few more times but opted out. I think I am good for life with this ride.

shhhh...I don't need everybody finding out about the crowd levels during the super bowl.

 

[snappy]

Not to mention a rainy superbowl

 

[Dan Murphy]

One of the dullest rides at WDW.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Two hours at Disney... Gone.

 

[tnolan]

When it first opened we saw a marker that said there would be a 90 minute wait, and decided to go for it. 3 hours later, after the ride that lasted less than 10 minutes, we said never again, and we have not been back since.

 

[epcotty]

Why are they still implementing FP+ so badly? That's extremely unfair, especially since you can't fastpass everything by any means. You'd think they would've changed that by now so it could be more like it used to be with regular FP.

I agree the line is really boring. We thought the ride was really good though, but then we didn't have to wait as long (35 minutes) since we got in line in the last hour

 

[Dan Murphy]

I think had they integrated as part of the line for Flight of Passage it could have been a great introduction to the world of Pandora.

Excellent thought, Steve

 

[snappy]

Omg, I would pass out if I got stuck in a 3 hour line. Might sour me on Disney. That was a huge FP scheduling/timing miss on Disney’s part. I had no idea that was happening. If the ride isn’t ready for opening day of pandora, delay opening pandora, if the ride breaks down, tell people to return later and give them a fast pass or something but don’t tell people the line is 90 minutes and make them wait 180 minutes. Don’t do it.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I love it! While I agree that it could be longer, I think it is beautiful and very well done. With that said, there are very, very few rides that I would wait more than 20-30 minutes for and this one is no exception to that.

 

[runwad]

Never rode it, we did FoP with our FP, but this is how I feel about FEA