Expedition Everest at night
by Soarin’ Diva
What can I say about Expedition Everest? It’s the only real coaster at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, and boy is it a thrill! Personally, I don’t like heights, so it took a while for my family to get me on this particular gem. I love the theming of the ride itself, modeled after an expedition through the Himalayan mountains, no detail left undone. From the intricate tapestries and other decorations seen in the queue to the craggy rock formations and snow-covered top of the towering Mount Everest, everything is as natural looking as it could be.
Going up?
Entering the tunnel
Broken Track
In short, this thrill ride takes you to the top of the mountain, where you come to a stop to find the tracks in front of you are broken and twisted. This is where it really gets wild, you lurch BACKWARDS at what seems like 100 mph to my stomach, but in reality it’s nowhere near that. You then switch tracks and are lunged forward again, and after encountering the Yeti himself, you are plunged 80 feet down the mountain.
Now that I’ve given you a brief overview of the ride itself, let’s jump into that whole, “record-breaking number of rides” thing. The previous year, my family rode Expedition Everest a whopping thirteen times in one day. It’s really not hard to do if you can manage to be at Animal Kingdom on a slow day. This trip, we were determined to break that record, providing the crowd levels were low enough to manage it. Keep in mind, this is a personal family record, I honestly have no clue if there is an official number of times one person has ridden recorded anywhere, but I still don’t think thirteen is too shabby.
Getting ready for another ride
It turns out we DID hit Animal Kingdom on an unusually slow day; wait times posted for Expedition Everest maintained anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes throughout the whole day. Score! Let the record-breaking begin! We did ride other rides and see the shows, don’t worry, we didn’t just camp out at Expedition Everest and refuse to get off. We rode a few times, headed for other attractions, then we would come back for more. As the day stretched on, we were determined to see how many rides we could fit in. We went to watch Finding Nemo The Musical, we took a time travel trip on Primeval Whirl, we explored Africa, and we came back for some more of Expedition Everest. We ate a delicious meal, rode Kali River Rapids, we rode Expedition Everest. You get the idea, we paced ourselves.
So…now you are asking, “How many times did you ride?” Confession time, my oldest son and I both had to bail before my husband and youngest hit their magic number. That shot backwards was simply too much for our heads AND our stomachs. I still think the two of us did pretty well, we broke last year’s record by one, riding it a whopping fourteen times before the end of the day.
We only made it to 14
How about my husband and youngest? Well, let me just say, I was quite impressed. I think they will find it hard to beat their record in the future. Those two explorers with stomachs of steel managed to ride Expedition Everest for a grand total of……drumroll please…..TWENTY times in one day. That’s right, I said twenty! We actually got nervous by number 15 for them. It had started storming with lightning and the ride was shut down. We did a few last minute things at the parks and were on our way out, when we noticed it was back up, so we ran back over to finish strong.
Showing off the number of times they rode
I really have just one DISNEY DIVA TIP to give you if you are planning on a record breaking number of rides on Expedition Everest. Two words, really. Pace. Yourself. Seriously, that whole lurch backwards thing was what did me in. It takes my stomach every time, and the more times I ride, the more it takes my stomach. It also puts a bit of pressure on my head, worsening with each ride. If it weren’t for that, I, too, would be at the magic number of twenty. So make sure you pace yourself throughout the day with this one.
How about you? What’s your record for riding any particular ride in one day? Tell us about it, we would love to know. If you haven’t broken any kind of record yet, and you have decided to give it a try, but maybe you need help booking that next vacation? Contact our recommended travel agent, Patricia at All Dreams for Travel, and she can do all the work for you. Best of all, all of her services are FREE, all you have to do is click here to request a quote!
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Just found and enjoyed your article on your family record.
My Daughter and I really enjoy Kali River Rapids. Back in 2012 we set a personal best of riding it 64 times in one day (like you, don’t know what the actual record might be).
But that was back when AK was only open till 5pm (at least on the day we went in Nov). We have a trip planned in Feb this year and hope the weather will cooperate to be able to break our record. I say that because you really need the right conditions, just cool enough to deter most others from riding but not so cold as to freeze riding all day. Or we need a rain (no thunder) since, go figure, people don’t want to ride a water ride in the rain.
Hoping to be able to get into the 80-90 range, but we’ll see.
Thanks,
Todd
Wow, 64 times is quite impressive! I know what you mean about people not wanting to ride water rides in the rain. One year we were able to ride Splash Mountain several times in a row with no one else in any other logs because of rain. People are funny that way. Good luck on your mission to break your last record. My husband and I will be there in late February as well, if I hear about someone breaking a Kali record, I’ll know who it is!
I found this article because me and my friend rode Everest 6 times ( we thought it was a lot )
Now I’m inspired to go all in for it.