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Pandora-World of Avatar theme park opening in Disney World this month

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Inside a waiting queue for, "Avatar Flight of Passage," which simulates the effect of riding a banshee, one of "Avatar's" winged, dragon-like animals, inside Pandora -- The World of Avatar, the new world at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, in Orlando, Florida. Photo: Los Angeles Times/TNS
Associated Press

It’s not a movie set, but visitors to Disney World’s new Pandora-World of Avatar land are in for a cinematic experience.

The 12-acre land, inspired by the “Avatar” movie, opens in Florida in late May at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. It cost a half-billion dollars to build.

The marquee attraction is Flight of Passage, where a 3-D simulator plunges riders into a cinematic world. You feel like you’re riding on the back of a banshee, a bluish, gigantic, winged predator that resembles something out of the Jurassic era.

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Wearing 3-D glasses and straddling what resembles a stationary motorcycle, you’re strapped in, then the lights go out, a screen in front lights up and you’re swooped into a world of blue, gigantic aliens called Na’vi, with moon-filled skies, plunging waterfalls, jumping marine animals and towering ocean waves.

The ride provides an enchanting and intoxicating five minutes that touches all the senses. Blasts of air and spritzes of mist hit your face, and as you fly through a lush forest, a woodsy aroma wafts through your nostrils. A visitor could go on the ride 20 times and not catch half the visual details.

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Lisa Girolami, Disney Imagineer and executive producer of Pandora -- The World of Avatar, the new world at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. Photo: Los Angeles Times/TNS
Lisa Girolami, Disney Imagineer and executive producer of Pandora -- The World of Avatar, the new world at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. Photo: Los Angeles Times/TNS
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