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Review of Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom
Opened: April 2006
Maximum Height: 112 feet
Maximum Speed: 50 mph
Manufacturer: Vekoma
Perhaps one of the most iconic roller coasters ever built, Expedition Everest, (short for Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain), has made its mark in the roller coaster industry. Not only did the coaster take three years to be constructed, but it cost Disney over $100,000,000 to build, making it the most expensive roller coaster ever built.
Don't be fooled when walking up to Expedition Everest (or just Everest) while you walk through Asia, a themed land of the park containing the attraction. Everest's artificial mountain range peaks may appear several hundred feet in the air, but, Disney has a little trick up its sleeve. This trick, known as forced perspective, is a technique for constructing buildings and architecture that makes structures appear farther away than they really are, resulting in the structure appearing taller. Everest is not the only ride/building at Disney World to use forced perspective. Other famous uses of this technique include the facade of Cinderella's Castle and the buildings in the themed land "Main Street, U.S.A." at Magic Kingdom, and the building facade containing Tower of Terror, a drop tower attraction, at Disney's Hollywood Studios (pictured above).
Have you ever noticed Disney World attractions aren't very tall when compared to ones at other parks? This is because if Disney were to build any attractions over two hundred feet, a blinking red light would have to be placed at the top of them as a beacon for low-flying planes, which Disney feels would take parkgoers out of the experience, or ruin the "Disney magic." Because attractions two hundred or more feet tall cannot be built without the blinking red light, Disney must use forced perspective in order to make attractions appear tall while avoiding having to use these lights.
Expedition Everest may also appear to be a tall roller coaster because of the forced perspective used on the mountain range. But, once again, don't be fooled. The coaster itself only reaches a height slightly over one hundred feet in the air. The mountain facade of the coaster is 199.5 feet at the tip-top of the tallest mountain peak. The Imagineers, (Disney's rides and attractions creators, designers, and construction overseers), knew that they needed to replicate a tall mountain range to fit in with the theme of Expedition Everest and give the impression that the coaster winds in and out of the actual Mount Everest in Nepal, but the mountains of the coaster are not a supposed to be those of the mountain range that Mount Everest is a part of.
My favorite part of Everest is definitely the eighty-foot drop out of the cave. This is the largest drop on any coaster in all of Disney World, and that may not sound so impressive because I mentioned before that Disney's coasters aren't very big or tall, but this drop is one of a kind. Before the drop, riders are pulled up a slanted track section backwards where they face a projection of a Yeti, a creature that roams the mountains of the coaster that riders are trying to get away from, on a cave wall. Then, after the switch track in front of riders is rotated and locked into position, riders are released from the slanted track section and go back down it facing forward. A small straight piece of track follows, allowing riders to gain a good amount of speed, and then the airtime-filled eighty-foot drop throws riders toward the back of the train out of their seats. This is by far the most impressive part of the layout. Nobody really knows if the Imagineers intentionally styled the track before the drop the way they did to give riders a huge pop out of their seats or not. I definitely recommend you sit in the very last row of the train on Expedition Everest. Make sure the ride operators let you have a little room between you and the lap bar, because this restraint will hurt your thighs and waist on that drop if you get "stapled," or have the restraint pushing into your body because it is too tight. If you have room, you will be thrown into the restraint as you are out of your seat on the drop.
My favorite non-ride aspect about the coaster is the theming. In my opinion, Everest is the best themed attraction in all of Disney World. From the queue, to the station, to the artificial mountain ranges, Disney didn't let a cent of Everest's $100,000,000 price tag go to waste. The most impressive piece of theming comes after the mid-course brake run when riders drop into a pitch-black cave where they'll see an animatronic Yeti appearing to swing at them. When you enter the queue for Expedition Everest, you feel as though you are in Nepal, just feet from Mount Everest. The theming is truly spectacular. Though Everest is not a perfect coaster, the theming it has makes it world-class.
My final rating for Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain: 8/10
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Both pictures of Expedition Everest in this article belong to Roller Coaster Daily/Caleb Keithley. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror photo courtesy of seeaimeecook.blogspot.com.
