Walt Disney World Disney's Animal Kingdom Discussion Thread

[RRollergod]

how come there is no info on rcdb?

[Wes]

http://www.rcdb.com/id2232.htm

[RRollergod]

O thanx

[s2pids2]

^ Don't Worry.

I used to be scared of ET: The Ride.

 

Now I miss it.

[Slacking]

Yeah they have been running the Yeti on the B format all weekend (meaning no movement and strobe lights. Kinda like when Imhotep just has a projection on his coffin instead of busting out like normal in the Mummy ride.

 

I HATE ROTM's B Show aka Box with lighting effects on its "face."

 

I get disappointed when I see that Inhotep isn't working.

 

The B Show for the Yeti doesn't sound like its too bad.

[Florida420]

I got to ride EE yesterday, and I have to say, I liked it. I don't know what everyone is complaining about. I only saw the wire behind the Yetti once out of the 4 times I got to ride. I saw the track flip both times almost every time I rode it, I thought it looked cool and was looking for it. I did see the supports, track and some light in the reverse part of the tunnel ( only from the front row ) but so what! I mean I also saw Spaceship Earth, ToT, and most of the other parks from the lift hill ( you mean I wasn't realy on Mt. Everest?? ) its a ride, and it was fun. Don't get me wrong, it was no edge of your seat thriller, but it does give me a reason to go to a park that I really had no intentions of going back to ( damn you Disney ) As for a story? I don't realy care, lets just ride, I've ridden the Hulk a buttload of times and still have no idea what the video before the ride is about, or why the coolant level dropping is so dangerous?? and you know what I don't care, I like to ride it. And I do agree that videos don't do the Yetti justice, he's HUGE!! the biggest yeti I've ever seen! also I agree that you should see him just a little more. For something that big to move around like that ( he brought his "A" game ) I personally am glad that there is a wire to help keep him from falling on me. In short, ( too late ) none of the behind the scenes stuff I saw took anything away from my ride experience, it was still very fun and enjoyable. EE may not re-invent the coaster, but IMO it does breath some life into Zoo Disney, I mean Animal kingdom. Oh yeah, if anyone has any pics of the masks in the "museum" in the queue, what's with that crazy deer mask?? Erik or Jose, I know you'll be back there soon and I know you know what I'm talking about, can you take a picture of that, everyone should see that crazy thing. I think that's what attacked that camp site, not the Yetti. I found a pic of it but it's taken from a bigger photo, we need a head on shot to realy appreciate it.

As you may have noticed I am spelling Yetti with two T's, not because I don't know any better, but because he is just too big for one.

I did find it funny that the hieght requirements for Primeval Whirl was 4 inches more than EE ?? Just thought that was funny, don't know why.

 

Also, off topic, in Space Mountain on the warning signs in the ride, I noticed it said it was a roller coaster type ride. roller coaster type ride??? All these years I thought it was a coaster, not a coaster type, anyone know the reason for this?

 

Alright I have to go to bed, because I guess I should go back to work tomorrow, since I blew it off for the past 3 days for some hot Kissimmee action.

Thanks for listening

 

Love

P All

Not so good shot of the crazy deer

[Erik Johnson]

As long as I can remember, Disney always called its roller coasters "roller coaster-type rides." I am not really sure why, maybe because they are extra special.

 

Yeah I saw that deer mask as well. If I rememebr correctly there were several animal masks in that area. Leanne thought that mask was a bit freaky looking.

 

I am glad you enjoyed the ride, I feel pretty much the same as you about it. While it is not the most amazing ride ever, it is a lot of fun and yes everything is much bigger than I expected it to be.

Freaky Deer Mask and friends.

[JT3000]

They probably figure a majority of the family clientele they attract won't ride roller coasters. As if "roller coaster type ride" or "runaway train experience" makes much of a difference.

[johnrose]

Disney aims for new heights with Everest attraction

 

By Travis Reed

Associated Press

 

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - "Respect tradition - beware," warn yellowed posters and weathered totem poles surrounding a 61-metre peak.

 

Inside lives the biggest, fiercest creature Walt Disney designers have ever created - the yeti - and a 1.6-kilometre-long runaway train ride through the Himalayas that brings visitors face-to-face with this mythological legend.

 

In Nepalese lore, the mysterious yeti is thought to protect the pristine east Asian mountains and forests. At Walt Disney World's new Expedition Everest attraction, it's a howling animatronic beast - and the centre of the theme park giant's first big-ticket attraction here in two-and-a-half years.

 

Everest, set to open April 7 in Disney's Animal Kingdom, features a train navigating a 24-metre drop, rumbling over bridges and through valleys backward and forward to escape the monster, who has seemingly twisted and broken the tracks.

 

With no upside-down turns, Everest isn't as white-knuckling as some new coasters. But it could help Disney draw visitors to the Animal Kingdom, which has long lagged in popularity behind sister parks Epcot, the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios.

 

The Everest attraction, billed as a family thrill ride with a 44-inch height limit, could scarcely be more different than Disney's last big-ticket item, the rocket-simulating Mission: Space. Equipped with vomit bags, Mission: Space uses a centrifuge and recreates two times the force of gravity while taking riders on a simulated trip to Mars.

 

Still, Everest was adventurous enough for five-year-old Pauline Cordova, whose Monroe, N.J., family got a chance to check out Everest early as Disney continues testing the ride before the grand opening. Pauline's brothers Chris, 11, and Mike, 8, had already ridden it three times, but once was enough for her.

 

"I thought it was scary," Pauline said, clutching her mother's hand.

 

Several research trips from western China to Nepal helped Disney designers create the 2.5-hectare attraction, including their rendition of a Himalayan village called Serka Zong that leads visitors up to the ride.

 

"The ride experience changes from this sort of scenic tour to this sort of fast-paced drop backwards," said Mike Lentz, vice president of new business initiatives for Walt Disney imagineering.

 

The ride includes turns through a light mist meant to simulate weather in the low-lying mountains and scream-inducing rushes through the dark inside a fake snowcapped mountain.

 

The village includes a tourism booking office, Tashi's General Store and Bar, and an old warehouse refashioned as a yeti museum - all built with taut attention to the architecture and feel of a real east Asian mountain town.

 

"Every detail is intended to be part of a complete story. It has importance, and we spend a lot of time on these details," Lentz said. "As a guest you stand in that place and you feel like you're in some place really, really different."

 

At least 8,000 props purchased from Nepal adorn the village, along with prayer flags and ancient-looking carvings of goats and yak. Disney is nurturing 900 bamboo plants, 10 species of trees and 110 species of shrubs to recreate the local vegetation around the attraction.

 

It took jets, helicopters and donkeys to deliver Disney's creative team past slippery, narrow roads and to a 1,000-year-old monastery to study the Himalayan culture. The team stayed there three days and gathered information about local beliefs in the yeti.

 

"Our story was really about the culture and the people, the areas where there is human habitation," said Joe Rohde, executive designer and vice president with Walt Disney Imagineering, and a member of the expeditions.

 

Disney based its design for the yeti on golden monkeys in the Qinling mountains - cold-weather primates with blue faces and fiery orange fur.

 

Park researchers were accompanied by Conservation International and film crews from Discovery Networks, whose Travel Channel will premiere a chronicle of the trip called Expedition Everest: Journey to Sacred Lands the week of April 9.

 

For Disney's creative team, Everest is an experience - not just a rollicking, roller coaster ride.

 

Their painstaking attention to detail and authenticity may have been lost on little Pauline and potentially on potentially hundreds of thousands of visitors after her. But the real importance is in recreating a realistic environment that transports visitors to another world - whether they realize it or not, Rohde said.

 

"We need enough detail to sustain your attention for 50 years," he said. "We build these things to last multiple generations so people can come back their whole life and enjoy it."

 

___

 

If You Go...

 

Expedition Everest: Opening at Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on April 7. Guests in the park prior to April 7 may have a chance to take a test ride. Children must be at least 44 inches tall to ride.

[Florida420]

Yeah I saw that deer mask as well. If I rememebr correctly there were several animal masks in that area. Leanne thought that mask was a bit freaky looking.

 

 

She's not the only one.

 

 

Erik you never let me down. I knew you could get that shot of the crazy deer. I hope you don't mind that I sampled your picture for my avatar.

Also, I think you should get that Yeti hat, from the shop, so you can use it for this years MNSSHP.

 

P All

[Erik Johnson]

I guess by taking all those pictures of the queue paid itself off. Mmmmm Yeti hats...I have not see them yet, but there is no way that they can replace donkey.

[BarryH]

Well, I went to Animal Kingdom for a short visit today and I rode Expedition: Everest two times. The standby line was a high of 70 minutes at 1 pm and 30 minutes at 3 pm. The single riders line (which I used both times) was around 15-20 minutes. The good things about the ride are:

 

1.) It's heavily themed

2.) It's smooth

3.) It's not too intense, so your entire family can ride

 

The intensity of the ride varied. During my first ride, I rode in row 17 (the last row). The ride was really boring there. I thought to myself, "The Barnstormer was wilder than this!" I almost deemed it "Expedition: Bordeom" until I came back an hour later and rode it in row 2. The ride was much more intense and more fun. It was "Expedition: Excitement" in the front!

 

So it would seem that the further back you go on the coaster train, the less exciting it is. This pretty unusual, as most coasters are more intense in the back. I rode Silver Bullet at Knott's Berry Farm. The second row was a pretty dull and forceless ride. The back row was a lot more fun!

 

The Yeti was pretty hard to see. When the full figure of the Yeti appeared, it was hard to see in the strobe lights. Also, part of the backwards portition is in the dark and it's a helix. It's not as long as the helix in Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Loch Ness Monster, though.

 

So the coaster is pretty fun, but be sure to ride near the front if you want a forceful ride!

 

Video will be posted in the apporipate board!

[Erik Johnson]

Curious...If you saw the Yeti with the strobe lights it means you saw him in Form B. Which means he was not working correctly. They turn the lights off around him and flash strobe lights to make him look scary...but he does not move. Kinda like when they have the cheap projection on the Mummy's coffin when he is not working.

[Slacking]

I personally had about the same experience with both the back and the front. It didn't make much of a difference for me.

 

But, one coaster where the Front gives a much better ride than the back (IMO) is Dollywood's Thunderhead!

[yesac519]

This is slightly off topic but not rely.

 

My question for everone is if you think EE is "boring" then do you think matterhorn mountain is "boring"?

 

Which one do you u like more?

 

 

OR

 

[JT3000]

What does the Matterhorn have to do with Everest? They aren't even the same type of coaster. One is also almost 50 years older than the other.

[Nrthwnd]

Actually, the "mountainology" goes....

 

The Matterhorn = Big Thunder Mountain(s) = Expedition:Everest

 

They just keep gettin' bigger and bigger.....

 

 

(EDIT: And I mean the "natural" mountains, hmm?)

[America Sings Freak]

I found this at screamscape:

Quote "Future Plans - (3/7/06) Not only has the impact of Everest sparked some new thinking about the park’s hours (see above) but it seems that it has kicked off a renewed set of ideas on how to expand the park in the future to grow it into the park that it was always supposed to be. What does this mean? I’ve got two words for you... Beastly Kingdom. Based on the idea that Everest may have been the needed spark to drive up attendance and interest in this park, we’ve heard that the plans for Beastly Kingdom are being dusted off and make bigger than ever. One source tells us that the overall plan for the new area may include 3-4 small attractions, a new show and two massive E-Ticket attractions. More on this as we find out." Quote http://www.screamscape.com/html/wdw_-_animal_kingdom.htm

 

I was wondering if anyone knows more than this about Beastlie Kingdoms return.

[Homer]

Alright, time to place bets... when will this rumor die?

 

I place $50 on "Never"...

[ECZenith]

I don't see why the wouldn't bring back plans they meant to go through with in the first place. I'd say it's just a matter of time. If there's any truth to this rumor, I wouldn't expect to see anything for at least a few years.

[coasterdude5]

Screamscape is awesome! But not usually true.

[Luxo]

From all the articles I've read on Jim Hill Media, Beastly Kingdom sounded like it was going to be one of the greatest themed lands in WDW! So I'd love to see them make it, but I believe this is just a rumor, and will always be a rumor.

[DLA]

With an outside company (Landry's) set to spend some major money on a new restaurant (Asia) it does seem like Animal Kingdom could see something big on the horizon. It seems like the goal is to keep the park open at night. Will Everest be enough to keep so many people around at dinner? Would Landry's question this as well? I guess only time will tell. (No doubt they would also like to eventually add their T-Rex restaurant to Dinoland as well). The dragon is still on the Animal Kingdom logo----maybe this will see the light of day after all. Hopefully any new additions would have some indoor activities as summertime at Animal Kingdom can be brutal (most of the animals must agree as they go into hiding during the broiling afternoons).

[Nrthwnd]

And remember ^ whatever is possibly greenlighted ... could be several years before even a first "smaller attraction" would open, hmm? This whole project could end up taking in a total of ten years.... or more.

 

Then again, since it could be an entirely new part of AK unveiled, it 'could' be all built in one process like a park, itself, hmm? (Like the orig.Bear Country in DL.) And then opened to the GP.

 

Bye bye Minnie/Mickey Character Greet Land?

 

[maliboomer]

I am sure Screamscape is automated, and posts out rumours in a six month cycle.