Lots of news is already coming out of this year’s D23 Expo, and one of the first big announcements is that an Avatar experience is still planned for Disney California Adventure.
Rumors have swirled that an Avatar something was no longer planned for California. Those rumors suggested Disney was moving away from Avatar in favor of something Zootopia. Put those rumors to bed. The D23 Expo has a model for the new Avatar experience that’s planned for Disney California Adventure.
The model shows a couple interesting things. First, we can see Disney is still not calling the Avatar area a land. They’ve called it an ‘experience’ in the past and now we can see it called a ‘destination.’ That wording feels very intentional. No one should expect this to be on the same scale as Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
We can also see the Monorail will travel very close to the Avatar section of the park. Those views should certainly be interesting. And, we have confirmation that the Avatar ride is still set to be a boat ride of some sort.
Lots of questions still remain. How big will the Avatar area actually be? Is the boat ride a traditional boat ride, or will it use some of that fun tech seen in Shanghai’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride? We’ll hopefully get more details during the parks presentation this weekend.
The Avatar project continuing to move forward should be a big reminder to Disney fans that you can’t believe every rumor you see. Always vet your sources. While we still have lots of questions, it’s clear Avatar is still on the horizon at Disneyland Resort.
