Want To Ride Disney World’s Avatar Flight of Passage Without Waiting In Line? It’ll Cost You

Right now, the longest wait at Disney World is in Animal Kingdom. Want to ride the new Avatar Flight of Passage? You better hope you have a FastPass. If not, you’ll be standing in line for hours. You’ll be lucky if it’s less than 2 hours.

But, there is one other way. Some Disney World purists decry some of the special tours Disney has added for folks willing to pay. You’ll find these special excursions will get you on to rides like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan without waiting. Want to get on Frozen Ever After without waiting? They can take care of that, too.

It appears Disney World also rolled out an excursion for Animal Kingdom. It’s called the Ultimate Nights of Adventure VIP Tour. The 4-hour tour includes the following:

• Expedition Everest
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Na’vi River Journey
• Dinosaur
• Rivers of Light (nighttime show)

The tours start in the late afternoon/evening since they end with Rivers of Light. Disney also lists this tidbit for refreshments/ souvenirs:

Enjoy signature snacks and a specialty beverage (non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverage-for Guests 21 and older) along with a souvenir lanyard and other surprises.

The cost for this excursion? $249.

But, Is It Worth It?

Now, you might be thinking that’s a lot of coin for a few rides. I did a bit more digging around to find some folks who reviewed the experience. There are a few small details that aren’t covered in the description:

• “Snacks” appears to be short-hand for “dinner at Satu’li Canteen”. There are multiple reports from folks that there were family style platters to sample a decent amount of the menu.
• All of the reviews I read gave tour participants a choice at the end. View Rivers of Light or ride Avatar Flight of Passage again.

If you’re looking for a more detailed review of the tour, I’d suggest this one.

I haven’t eaten at Satu’li Canteen, so I can’t verify for the quality of the food.  Our entire family did, however, get to experience Flight of Passage this past week.  I have some video I need to put out there.  Suffice it to say, that ride is awesome!  Scoring a single FastPass is difficult.  Scoring two?  Wow.

So, dinner plus FastPass access for 2 rides that are a very tough get along with a few others for $249?  I think the value comes down to what type of ticket you have.  If you plan to be in Animal Kingdom multiple days over the course of your visit, you should be able to hit Everest, Kilimanjaro and Dinosaur pretty easy.  Avatar and Na’vi are a different story.

The Final Two (Hundred And Forty-Nine) Dollars, Er, Pennies

I think the price is a bit too high for my taste here.  We wouldn’t normally dedicate more than one day to Animal Kingdom when we visit Disney World.  In that case, we’d definitely miss out on some of what this tour has to offer.  But, I’m still not sure we’d get $249 worth of value out of the tour.

Our strategy would more likely be to pass up some of these attractions when we went to visit.  We’ve had good luck grabbing multiple extra FastPasses after our initial 3 each day.  I think I’d grab Flight of Passage and/or Na’vi along with Expedition and Kilimanjaro.  I’d gamble that I could pick up Dinosaur later in the day.

I certainly wouldn’t fault anyone for committing $249 here.  Disney is a pricey place.  With park tickets sometimes over $100 a day, trying to cram everything into a shorter time period can be a cost-effective strategy.