In this post we give an overview of Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, a roller coaster at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park in Walt Disney World. We cover the basics of the ride, how to ride it, and our thoughts on the experience before closing with an FAQ section. Read on to learn more!
Related Posts
This post is a quick guide to Expedition Everest, but we have related content that dives deeper into topics. Our Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lane post covers Lightning Lane strategy in deep. The Animal Kingdom Rides and Entertainment Guide gives brief introductions to all the park’s offerings. For putting together your day at the park, we have a One Day Plan for Animal Kingdom.
Expedition Everest Basics
Expedition Everest is a roller coaster at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Expedition Everest:
offers rider switch
has an Individual Lightning Lane
has a single rider line
is about 4 minutes long
Disney warns that persons not in good health and expectant mothers should not ride. The ride is an intense roller coaster (more spoilers in the description below).
Where is Expedition Everest Located?
Expedition Everest is located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the Asia land. Entering the park, you’ll want to walk on the right, past the Tree of Life, and then make a further right to get all the way to the back corner of the park.
How to Ride Expedition Everest
The individual Lightning Lane is the lower priced of the two in Animal Kingdom (Avatar Flight of Passage being more expensive) and usually is priced at or below $10 per person. It is rarely worth purchasing, but this is the easiest way to ensure a short wait. The Lightning Lane does skip most of the queue, which is among the best in Walt Disney World.
Single rider is also available and does not usually have too long a wait. As with the Lightning Lane, the single rider line skips most of the queue. Remember, your group will be separated if you ride via single rider.
Because it’s in the back corner of the park—and particularly because it isn’t super close to Pandora or Kilimanjaro Safaris, where most people start their days—the Everest line doesn’t grow super quickly. You will usually be able to head there after your first few rides if you have Early Entry.
Without Early Entry, it can make sense to start at Everest if it has a short wait when the park opens (your other good option is usually Kilimanjaro Safaris).
If you have Genie+ and purchased the individual Lightning Lane for Avatar Flight of Passage, it might make sense to start your day at Everest, which is also nice because you won’t have to arrive early to do that.
Because it has a height requirement (44 in), it offers rider switch. There isn’t much immediately nearby to pass time while doing a rider switch, but you might try and catch a showing of Kite Tails.
Expedition Everest Ride Experience
This section contains spoilers.
The Everest queue is considered one of the best queues in Disney World. The queue is built to mimic the office of a travel agency specializing in these sorts of trips to the Himalayas. The queue contains a booking office, Yeti shrine, and Yeti museum.
That might not sound immediately exciting, but everything in queue is filled with details—with the overwhelming majority of the items having coming from Nepal or the Himalayas. There are a few patently fictional items, but the bulk of the items are authentic.
The roller coaster itself is thrilling and offers great views of Walt Disney World. The ride does not go upside down, but it does go backwards. You can view a video of the ride here.
It isn’t too debatable—in our minds, as of early 2022 (pre-TRON and pre-Guardians)—that Everest is the best roller coaster in Disney World. It’s fun with great story and a good Yeti animatronic.
Okay…the Yeti. This isn’t necessary information. In fact, it might even be detrimental to your ride experience, so maybe stop reading now if you don’t know where I’m going with this.
See, the Yeti used to be a fully functioning animatronic that swiped at guests as the coaster went by. Now the Yeti no longer moves and a strobe light is used to simulate motion.
I’m not 100% sure how many official details of the Yeti’s problem are out there. So much rumor has come and gone, and (former) Animal Kingdom lead Imagineer Joe Rohde has commented on it numerous times in small nuggets, making it tough to track down precisely what’s been said.
My understanding, which I believe is from about 95% official sources and 5% reasonable rumor, is that the Yeti sits on its own foundation, separate from the rest of the ride, basically right in the middle of the ride (i.e. surrounded by coaster and mountain). The movement of the Yeti was unexpectedly detrimental to the foundation, and had to be turned off.
Everest certainly isn’t as good without the moving Yeti as with it. But, not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, it’s safe to say this is a great ride, and a must-ride.
Expedition Everest FAQ
Does Expedition Everest go upside down?
No, Expedition Everest does not go upside down.
How tall is Expedition Everest?
Expedition Everest is 199 feet, 6 inches. At 200 feet, it would have to have a warning beacon for aircraft.
How fast does Expedition Everest go?
Expedition Everest goes up to 50 miles per hour.
How much did Expedition Everest cost?
Expedition Everest cost approximately $100 million to build, which was a record at the time.
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