Expedition Everest (full title: Expedition Everest — Legend of the Forbidden Mountain) is a roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World, manufactured by Dutch coaster company Vekoma
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Located in the Asian section of the park (which represents the fictional country of Anandupar), visitors are on an expedition to the base of Mount Everest, boarding trains previously used for transporting tea and travel over the Forbidden Mountain to do so. However, these activities have gotten the attention of the mountain's guardian, the Yeti of Tibetan legend, and it won't let humanity desecrate its land so easily, leading riders to encounter it.
The ride was announced during Disney's Animal Kingdom's 5th anniversary event on April 22, 2003 and would have its soft opening on January 26, 2006, before opening to the public on April 7, 2006. The ride would become immensely successful and would give Animal Kingdom the boost in popularity it so desperately needed after its rough first few years following its opening.
It is notable for being the tallest roller coaster Disney has built to date, standing at over 199 ft (61 m). It is also the most expensive roller coaster Disney has produced (costing over US$100 million) and until it was beaten by Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure a decade later, held the world record for the most expensive roller coaster in the world.
Expedition Everest contains examples of:
- Apocalyptic Log: The museum exhibit in the queue features objects from an expedition that disappeared in the mountain. Among them is a camera that took photographic evidence of the yeti, and the last ones are of the yeti attacking the explorers.
- Arc Welding: An advertisement for the nearby Kali River Rapids can be seen right before boarding the train.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Yeti itself is an impressive animatronic to behold, even being the largest on record - but the way things were built and the sheer strength the thing has means it started tearing down the pillar it's mounted on. Said pillar is one of the main support beams for the entire ride. As a result, if it was allowed to function as originally intended, it runs the risk of destroying the entire mountain.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Yeti is the main antagonist of the ride.
- Gone Horribly Right: The Yeti animatronic is an amazing machine, the largest theme park animatronic ever created, and incredibly strong. That strength is the exact problem and reason it's been kept in B-Mode for so long. As it turns out, it's too strong and running the risk of splitting the pillar it's mounted to, one of the support beams of the entire mountain. If it were allowed to function fully, it'd run the risk of destroying the entire attraction.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: A staple in Disney attractions continues here. The train was meant to go up to the base of Mount Everest and outside of a few dips and turns, things go rather smoothly...until its shown that the track got torn off by the Yeti, in which things go arwy as the train is forced to go backwards and gets sent down the wrong track.
- Ignored Expert: The exhibits about the Yeti in the queue are presented as the creation of a local academic named Professor Pema Dorje, as part of his attempt to warn the tour operators that the Yeti is real and dangerous and that running trains past Forbidden Mountain is a bad idea. Unfortunately, your expedition group boards the train anyway...
- Red Is Violent: All of the buildings at and around the attraction have a red coat of paint to offer protection from the Yeti. The building closest to the mountain is completely covered in red.
- Runaway Train: Your ride vehicle, even more so after the Yeti rips up the track.
- Scaling the Summit: The train is intended to go to the base of Mount Everest. However, things go awry when it's shown the track got torn off by the Yeti.
- Show, Don't Tell: The ride has no dialogue and the only sounds present on the ride is the train whistle and the Yeti sound. The ride largely tells its story through the many items and news articles in the queue, its atmosphere and the track layout.
- Track Trouble: The Yeti is shown to have completely torn up the track to Everest, forcing the train to go backwards as a result.
