Expedition Everest is now open!
Read my Expedition Everest ride review. Disney's Animal Kingdom, the zoo/theme park hybrid at Florida's Walt Disney World features incredible opportunities to view wildlife amid a lush, immersive environment. But with a scant eight rides, it comes up somewhat short in the attraction department. That will change for the better in 2006 when the park introduces a high-profile, E-Ticket attraction, Expedition Everest.Announced at the Animal Kingdom's fifth-anniversary celebration, the ride will feature a "high-speed train adventure" (that's Disney-speak for a roller coaster) through the Himalayan Mountains. What will this have to do with animals? Riders that brave the expedition, it seems, will be in pursuit of the elusive yeti, a.k.a. the abominable snowman. When the Animal Kingdom first opened, Disney said that the park would celebrate animals that are living, extinct, and creations of the imagination. By exploring the folklore of the yeti, Expedition Everest will be Disney's first Animal Kingdom attraction to focus on creatures of the imaginary kind.
The coaster will climb 120 feet high, include an 80-foot drop, and reach speeds of 50 mph. That's fairly aggressive by Disney's standards (Space Mountain, for example, ascends 90 feet and maxes out at 29 mph), but falls squarely in the "family coaster" category. "Thrill rides are not our business," asserts Marty Sklar, principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering (the group that designs and builds Disney attractions). At 44 inches, the height restrictions for Expedition Everest will be lower than the Tower of Terror. "A five-year-old will be able to enjoy this ride," he adds. "This harks back to the seed for Disneyland. Walt wanted to build a park that families could enjoy together."
Here's a story, about a lovely yeti
That's not to say that Expedition Everest won't include any thrills. The 80-foot drop will be considerably longer than any other Walt Disney World coaster and will approach Splash Mountain's unnerving plunge. And the attraction will feature a highly unusual feature for a coaster: At one point during the ride, the track will appear to end, the trains will reverse direction, and riders will navigate the course facing backwards.Like most Disney attractions, however, the focus will be on the themeing. "This will be in the tradition of great storytelling," says Dave Wilson, one of the Imagineers working on Expedition Everest. To enhance the story, the ride will include blasts of frigid air, plummets through icy canyons, and encounters with what Wilson promises will be an enormous and fearsome animatronic yeti. "We're going to put guests in the roles of heroes. They'll be going on an adventure, climbing the world's highest peak, and conquering the yeti."
This isn't the first time Disney has created a coaster with an icy mountain theme. Disneyland's Matterhorn Bobsleds (the world's first steel-tubing roller coaster) even includes an abominable snowman lurking in its caverns. But Expedition Everest will be a much more ambitious attraction. The ride's official opening date is early 2006. There may be a preview opening sometime in late 2005.
Expedition Everest is now open!
Read my Expedition Everest ride review.Are you looking for hotel accommodations? Compare rates for Disney's Pop Century Resort at About.com's booking partner, Kayak.
