Expedition EVEREST Press Release - set to open in 2006 :)

[wdwguide]

Disney Announces Expedition EVEREST

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (April 22, 2003) -- Legend holds that high in the Himalayan Mountains lives an enormous creature that fiercely guards the route to Mount Everest.

Now that legend comes dramatically to life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in a new high-speed train adventure that combines coaster-like thrills with the excitement of a close encounter of the hairy kind.

Walt Disney World guests will discover for themselves the fearsome legend of the yeti when Expedition EVEREST opens in 2006 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. The new thrill attraction was announced today during the park’s 5th anniversary festivities at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

“Expedition EVEREST adds a new dimension to our storytelling in Disney’s Animal Kingdom,” said Joe Rohde, executive designer at Walt Disney Imagineering and lead designer of the park. “It’s a thrilling adventure themed to the folklore of the mysterious yeti.”

In Expedition EVEREST, guests board an old mountain railway destined for the foot of Mount Everest. The train rolls through thick bamboo forests, past thundering waterfalls, along shimmering glacier fields and climbs higher and higher through the snow-capped peaks.

But suddenly the track ends in a gnarled mass of twisted metal and the thrills intensify as the train races both forward and backward through mountain caverns and icy canyons and guests head for an inevitable face-to-muzzle showdown with the mysterious yeti -- known to some as the abominable snowman.

Expedition EVEREST will be located in the Asia section of the theme park. At nearly 200 feet high, it will be the tallest mountain in Florida. Expedition EVEREST will feature Disney’s FASTPASS, an innovative system -- offered at no charge to park guests -- designed to reduce wait times at popular attractions in all four Walt Disney World theme parks.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a 500-acre theme park where the exciting worlds of wild and whimsical creatures come to life on an authentic African safari, in an Asian rain forest, on a trip back in time to the age of the dinosaurs and in other attractions and shows brimming with stories about animals and encounters with favorite Disney characters.

 

[helenk]

This should make the people that have been waiting for a new faster ride in AK very happy.

 

[Spartan]

Sounds exciting, but maybe because I've sat through the movie so many times with my son, but when I think of the abominable snowman all I can picture is the one from Monsters, Inc. and him asking if anyone wants the yellow snowcones.

 

[KayleeUK]

This sounds good

 

[Geoff_M]

Sounds like a modern re-work of The Matterhorn. AK conversion to a thrill park continues!

 

[Maridw]

It does sound like the DL Matterhorn. The original matterhorn did not have the abominable snowman on it. Later when they refurbished it, he was added to it.

Maybe this one will be a bit faster than the original. Still it should be fun.