Video:Expedition Everest Profile
with Arthur LevineExpedition Everest is a full immersion experience that can't be beat. Learn more about Expedition Everest, including the many sights to see at the fictional Nepalese village and how to survive your one-on-one encounter with the famed Yeti.
Transcript:Expedition Everest Profile
As a coaster, Expedition Everest is just okay. And as a themed ride, the attraction would be just okay without the coaster elements. But the combination of the coaster, which is integral to the ride's story, and the lavish, immersive environment, creates another Disney e-ticket tour-de-force. Hi, I'm Arthur Levine, the Theme Parks Guide at About.com, here at Disney's Animal Kingdom for a journey aboard Expedition Everest.
What to Expect at Expedition Everest
The attraction casts guests in the role of explorers as they trek to the fictional Nepalese village of Serka Zong. The richly themed area is filled with bright prayer flags, weathered buildings, and other artifacts that Disney Imagineers developed based on their extensive research in Asia around Mount Everest. There are shops hawking climbing gear and other supplies, but the bustling air of adventure and anticipation in the village is punctuated by warnings about the Yeti.
The Yeti Shrine at Expedition Everest
Erissa: There is one shrine, the tallest shrine has a Yeti figure inside of it and that's all paying respect to the Yeti figure. If you stand just right and you look at it, those peaks of the shrine align with the peaks of the mountain. You see the Yeti inside and he's the same inside the forbidden mountain, which is in alignment with our forbidden mountain.
Other Sites at Expedition Everest
The queue meanders through the booking and permit offices of the Himalayan Escapes tour company, a pagoda-style shrine that includes the Yeti Museum. It offers evidence of the importance that the Yeti plays in art and culture as well as the reverence and fear that he inspires. The displays also present information that appears to corroborate the existence of the mythical beast.
Start of the Ride at Expedition Everest
The stage thus set, guests proceed to the railroad station where they board old trains, once used to haul tea, to take them to Everest's base camp. The ride starts innocently enough with a pass through bamboo trees and fernsfilled with twittering birds. The train takes a small dive into the mountain, emerges to the sight of twisted, impassable track, and stops on an incline. The Yeti, apparently infuriated by the violation of his sacred ground, unleashes his wrath on the explorers. With nowhere to go, the train hesitates, shudders, and this is where Expedition Everest gets nuts.
Meet the Yeti on the Ride at Expedition Everest
The coaster hurtles backwards into the mountain's dark void. The track banks, andthe positive G-forces push the lap bars into riders and the riders into their seats. It's a strange and disorienting sensation to be blindly racing backwards and to feel the strong gravitational pull. The train screeches to a halt again, and a projected shadow image of the Yeti is seen ripping up another section of the track. The train proceeds forward towards the broken track and plunges down the front of the mountain, sending riders free falling to their apparent doom.
End of the Ride at Expedition Everest
Instead, the coaster careens in and out of the mountain for some high-speed, banked-curve action. Before returning to the station, the coaster makes one last pass through the mountain, for an encounter with the enormous Yeti. If you can handle the moderate coaster thrills, I'd highly advise you to board this this expedition.
To learn more about Disney's Animal Kingdom and Expedition Everest, read more about Expedition Everest and Disney's Animal Kingdom at About.com's Theme Parks site.