An Iconic Treat Just CHANGED, and This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things in Disney World

By Robin Burks Leave a Comment

Things change in Disney World ALL the time. That’s kind of the fun (and sometimes frustrating) thing about being a Disney fan.

Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Now a LOT is changing in the parks, including in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We’re getting an entirely new show inside the Tree of Life AND a completely new land. But let’s talk about food…now, we LOVE the food in Animal Kingdom, but a recent change was made to a popular drink, and we have some honest thoughts we’d like to share about it. The drink in question is the Pandoran Sunrise at Satu’li Canteen, and a KEY ingredient of that drink is now different.

You’ll find Satu’li Canteen in Pandora, so as you can imagine, the Pandoran Sunrise is a special Avatar-themed drink. The drink was originally made with a balance of tropical juices blended with Powerade Melon.

Pandoran Sunrise

The drink’s recipe changed in 2023 to a mix of Simply Pineapple Juice and Simply Limeade with Powerade Melon. Well, the drink has changed AGAIN, and a Cast Member told us the old version of the drink looked way too similar to the alcoholic Ilu Splash Margarita, and you can see just how much they look alike. Honestly, we’d be hard-pressed to tell the two drinks apart. Below is a photo of the margarita, and the Pandoran Sunrise can be seen above.

Ilu Splash Margarita

So the recipe for the Pandoran Sunrise has changed again to give it a different color. Now, the drink is made with Dole Pineapple Juice and Minute Maid Limeade blended with Powerade Melon and Powerade Fruit Punch. So now, it looks a lot different.

New version of the Pandoran Sunrise

But how does it taste? Well, we liked the original version of the drink, but the Powerade really came through, so it felt like we were drinking an electrolyte drink. However, we think the new version is pretty tasty, and the fruit punch adds a bit of sweetness (although the pineapple adds some tartness to the overall flavors). The flavors seem to blend really well.

It’s tasty

While we were visiting Satu’li Canteen, we looked around and noticed that a lot of folks had ordered this drink and their cups were nearly empty, so it seems like this version of the Pandoran Sunrise coud be a big hit. Be sure to try it out the next time you visit Pandora.

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What do you think about this drink change? Let us know in the comments!