Orlando offers four great Walt Disney Park, one of them being Disney?s Animal Kingdom, with many thrilling rides, lip-smacking food, and many, many species! The adventure park is the dream park of an adrenaline junkie and has many exhilarating rides, the best one being the Expedition Everest. In this article, you are going to learn the ins and outs of this magnificent ride that boasts itself as one of the best rides in Disney World.
What is Expedition Everest?
The Animal Kingdom?s biggest thrill is called Expedition Everest and finds itself in Asia. The Imagineers of the Disney World started working on the ride in 2003, and it was initiated to the public in 2006, and hoped for it to become the most thrilling ride that the Walt Disney World has ever seen!
Every year thousands of adventure enthusiasts flood Disney World to get the thrill of the amazing Expedition Everest. So what are you waiting for? Load up your roof rack tent and get ready for a ride like never before.
The Expedition Everest rides up to 50 miles per hour and has a drop of 80 feet. The roller coaster has a capacity of 2050 people per hour and gives you an adrenaline rush zooming through the Forbidden Mountain on an unimaginable ride!
But, all these are well-known facts about this electrifying roller-coaster ride. What about the lesser-known facts that one would like to know about? Let us get into that!
1. It is the Largest Artificial Mountain in Disney World!
It is a pretty well-known fact that Expedition Everest is an exceptionally tall attraction. But did you know that it is the tallest of all in the Walt Disney World? It is 199.5 feet tall, the highest it could go, after the second tallest attraction at the Walt Disney World, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This is the highest it could go because if such attractions are more than 200 feet tall, they require a flashing red light to alert airplanes crossing by. To avoid the commotion, Disney Imagineers smartly made the height of the attraction just 0.5 feet shorter.
2. Expedition Everest is not actually at the Mt. Everest!
The Expedition Everest ride takes you as close to Mount Everest as it could, just not physically, but visually!
This is an unprecedented journey for explorers and travelers to have a life-like experience of Mount Everest. To make it more entertaining and amusing, they have named the mountain “The Forbidden Mountain.” The ride carries the guests through the Forbidden Mountain into the Yeti’s house, the guardian of the mountain.
3. It is in the shape of the Mickey Mouse!
If you get an overview of the Expedition Everest sometime, you will realize that it is in the shape of a giant Mickey Mouse?s head. You can get pictures and videos of this view through drones and on Google Earth too!
The engineers built the tracks so skillfully that they come out in circular shapes on both mountainsides, making it look like a giant Mickey head.
4. The Terrifying Yeti B-Mode
The Imagineers have creatively created the Yeti to add to the storyline of the ride. Disney crafted this fictional mammal to make it look like the characters of Matterhorn Bobsleds, one of which was the abdominal snowman. Standing at almost 25 feet tall with 1,000 square feet of skin, it needs 1,000 snaps and another 250 zippers to stay together.
The Yeti has been provided with strobe lighting in Mode B since he is standing in one place. The spiraling lights, along with the roller coaster’s speed, create images of the Yeti’s movement and are more life-like. In the A mode, it can lunge 5 feet horizontally towards the riders in the ride.
5. Worldly Artwork
The Imagineers took the authenticity of the park very critically. They sent a group of people to countries in Asia like China, Nepal, and Tibet to learn their local customs. They bought more than 8000 props from these countries and fitted them in their creation.
Disney even bought and fitted imported vegetation from these countries consisting of hundreds of plants and around ten different types of trees from Asia.
They have decorated the doors and windows nicely, and there is also a hint of red paint at the entrance to living up to the belief of the Asian natives that it wards off the Yeti. That is the level of authenticity that the Imagineers have tried to put.
6. Forward and Backward
The ride’s storyline says that the Yeti heard that you were coming and has tried to stop you by disrupting your path. And therefore, you have to go back now, at an intense speed!
The ride’s speed is 50 miles per hour, which is the same as almost any other roller coaster. To make it different, the Imagineers made the ride go backward at 40 miles per hour, which is not done by any other roller coaster, making it different from the others. This ride surpasses the expectations of even an adrenaline junkie and would blow their minds away!
7. The Mini Shrine
There is a mini shrine positioned right across the lagoon you pass when you are on the ride. They have placed a photographer at this location to take photographs of people enjoying the ride with the background mountains. Interestingly, the shrine is shaped exactly like the mountain, making it a mini version of it.
Final Thoughts
This Expedition Everest ride is one of the favorite rides of fans at Walt Disney World resort. Do not be afraid to request the first or the last seat on the ride; it is a must-try! The organizers and cast members would love to queue you. This ride is generally filled and may take a while, but it is worth it! So if you find yourself here, do not miss out on this ride!
The ride is on the shortlist for the best adrenaline rush attractions in the Walt Disney World. So go ahead, take an unforgettable ride up and down the Forbidden Mountain!
