Avatar Flight of Passage

Avatar Flight of Passage: attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Walt Disney World — live wait times, operating status, and planning data on MouseHub.

Wait time history

Historical wait patterns for Avatar Flight of Passage accrete daily as MouseHub records waits every 15 minutes. Charts appear here once enough history exists.

Visitor sentiment

4.8· 8,574 Google ratings

Visitors say this amusement park ride offers an immersive experience, with stunning 3D visuals and a realistic sensation of flying on a banshee through the world of Pandora. They also highlight the ride's innovative technology, including a massive 3D screen and special effects like wind, water, and scents, which create a truly unforgettable experience.

Summarized with Gemini · Report summary

The MouseHub take

Avatar Flight of Passage opened with Pandora - The World of Avatar on May 27, 2017, and it puts you on the back of a mountain banshee for a 3D flight over the Valley of Mo'ara. You straddle a motorcycle-style link chair in a tiered theater, pull on 3D glasses, and go. The seat expands and contracts against your legs the whole way, so the animal under you seems to breathe. Wind, sea spray, and a damp forest smell arrive on cue with the canyons and ocean caverns on screen. Riders have to be 44 inches (112 cm) or taller.

Nothing else at Animal Kingdom draws a line like it. Standby runs into the hours, so parties walk in at opening or buy a Lightning Lane Single Pass, sold on its own and not a Multi Pass pick. Some of that wait earns its keep, since the standby line winds past carved rock and glowing plants into a lab where a full-size avatar floats in a tank. The guests who come off unhappy are the ones the hardware did not suit: 3D motion makes them queasy, or the leg and back restraints pin them for the whole flight.

At a glance

Best for
Anyone who wants the best flying simulator on the property and will spend the morning or the money to get on it.
Skip if
Screen-based motion makes you sick, or a tight leg and back restraint would turn the ride into something to endure.
Ride type
3D flight simulator on a motorcycle-style link chair
Intensity
High. Simulated dives and drops in 3D, a dark theater, wind and mist, and loud sound. Disney warns off riders with high blood pressure or heart, back, neck, and motion-sickness trouble, and says expectant mothers should not ride.

The good

  • The flight reads as flight
    You sit forward on the link chair facing a screen that fills your whole field of view, and the seat pitches and dives with what is in front of you. Riders describe the gliding sensation as the closest a simulator has come to the real thing.
  • The seat breathes under your legs
    Bladders in the link chair swell and settle against your calves during the quiet stretches of the flight. That one effect does more to sell the living banshee than anything on screen.
  • The effects land with the picture
    Wind hits your face on the dives through the canyons, and sea spray and a smell of damp forest turn up in the ocean and jungle scenes.
  • The line is worth walking slowly
    Standby runs past carved rock faces and bioluminescent plants before it reaches a research lab where a full-size avatar floats in a tank surrounded by equipment. Plenty of riders rate the walk as highly as the flight.
  • It thrills without being a roller coaster
    There are no inversions and no coaster forces, so the intensity comes from what you see rather than from being thrown around. Riders who avoid thrill rides often name this as the one they were glad they tried.
  • It has run since Pandora's opening day
    The attraction opened on May 27, 2017, the day Pandora - The World of Avatar replaced Camp Minnie-Mickey at Animal Kingdom.

The bad

  • The standby line runs into the hours
    This is the longest wait in the park most days, and the first stretch of it sits outdoors in Florida heat and humidity before you reach anything shaded.
  • The picture goes soft
    Riders report blurry, out-of-focus imagery often enough that it is a pattern rather than a bad night. Scratched and smudged 3D glasses get most of the blame.
  • The restraints pin bigger riders
    Disney's own advisory says the seating and restraints may keep guests of certain body shapes or sizes from riding, and tall or broad riders describe the calf and back bars locking in painfully tight.
  • Screen motion makes people queasy
    The 3D glasses plus the swooping drops set off nausea and dizziness in riders who handle other simulators fine. Some spend the back half of the flight looking away from the screen.
  • Forty-four inches leaves the youngest out
    The minimum is 44 inches (112 cm), one of the tallest at Animal Kingdom, so families with preschoolers are splitting up for this one.

Veteran tips

  • Head for Pandora at rope drop
    Be at the tapstiles before opening and walk to Pandora first. Morning waits are the shortest of the day and the gap widens as the afternoon goes on.
  • Buy the Single Pass on your first eligible morning
    Resort and select hotel guests buy 7 days ahead of the stay, everyone else 3 days ahead of the visit, and both open at 7:00 AM Eastern. It is a Single Pass, bought on its own, so no Multi Pass selection gets you on.
  • Wipe your 3D glasses before you board
    Hold the lenses up in the preshow room and check them for fingerprints. A shirt or a microfiber cloth is the difference between a sharp flight and a soft one.
  • Drop the glasses if you feel it starting
    Pull the lenses down and look at the theater wall for a few seconds. The 3D collapses and the queasiness usually settles before the next dive.
  • Rider Switch sends two people, not the group
    The attraction is on Disney's Rider Switch list. Your party splits at the entrance, and only two of the waiting group ride next, so sort out who goes in which half first. Service animals cannot ride here either, which is the other reason to ask for it.
  • Sit in the test seat by the entrance
    A sample link chair sits outside so you can check the fit before you commit to the line. Anyone tall or broad should use it, since Disney says outright that body shape and size can rule a guest out.
  • The last hour is the other quiet window
    Waits fall late in the evening the same way they do at opening. Riders who go then report the shortest line they saw all day.
  • Wheelchair and ECV users transfer twice
    Disney lists this one as Must Transfer to Wheelchair, Then to Ride Vehicle, with a transfer access vehicle and a transfer device available. Say so at the entrance so the cast member can route your party.

MouseHub editorial, written from visitor reports and official Disney sources. Last reviewed .

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