UKDEB
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This is from this week's All Ears newsletter:
On Thursday, February 2, Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain opened in "soft opening mode". In most cases, that means that Everest will be open to guests on a regular basis when possible. Closings will usually be limited to traditional attraction closings (mechanical, weather and such). During a soft opening, mechanical downtime can be expected to be higher than normal (though getting shorter and shorter as the official opening date of April 7 approaches). The local advertising campaign for Everest has started: billboards, the semi-monthly Times and Information guide, and all the Animal Kingdom "Happiest Celebration on Earth" banners have been converted from "New Magic" to "Expedition Everest" at the Animal Kingdom. The construction walls around the attraction have been taken down, too.
Also, check out this thread on the Theme Parks forum.
The great thing about soft openings is that hardly anyone who's actually in the parks knows about them! We were at WDW both the week before the official opening of Soarin' and the week itself. The first week, it was a walk-on and I just kept going around and around! The following week, when it appeared on the park maps, the waits were up to 2 hours and FASTPASSES were gone by about 11am.
On Thursday, February 2, Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain opened in "soft opening mode". In most cases, that means that Everest will be open to guests on a regular basis when possible. Closings will usually be limited to traditional attraction closings (mechanical, weather and such). During a soft opening, mechanical downtime can be expected to be higher than normal (though getting shorter and shorter as the official opening date of April 7 approaches). The local advertising campaign for Everest has started: billboards, the semi-monthly Times and Information guide, and all the Animal Kingdom "Happiest Celebration on Earth" banners have been converted from "New Magic" to "Expedition Everest" at the Animal Kingdom. The construction walls around the attraction have been taken down, too.
Also, check out this thread on the Theme Parks forum.
The great thing about soft openings is that hardly anyone who's actually in the parks knows about them! We were at WDW both the week before the official opening of Soarin' and the week itself. The first week, it was a walk-on and I just kept going around and around! The following week, when it appeared on the park maps, the waits were up to 2 hours and FASTPASSES were gone by about 11am.
