Endless Everest

Every year or so, Disney will take a ride or attraction offline for “refurbishment”. Rarely does the refurb lead to any noticeable changes, but it does churn an emotional response from park goers. Especially when the ride is quite popular and the refurb happens to align with your trip.

Luckily, trusted Disney news outlets and bloggers/vloggers are on top of this schedule. As soon as Disney announces an upcoming refurbishment closure, the information is widely circulated. I say luckily because I happened to catch that Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park would be closing for several months, starting in January. As one of few true thrill rides in Disney, and a Leisure Mouse fav, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to get my fill of this ride while on a trip about a month ahead of the planned closure.

Showing up to Animal Kingdom bright and early during the Early Theme Park Entry for resort guests window, the park was more or less empty. A bee line to the Asia section of the park and into the queue for Everest led to 5 rides in a row. One of these rides was a front row seat to the action (at least the forward moving part of the action) and allowed for this shot.

Any WDW fan who rides coasters knows this iconic vantage point from the ride as the moment you stop in your tracks, pun intended, right before suddenly being hurdled backwards from where you came as the ride takes you through the forbidden mountain and close encounters with the Yeti. The only editing done here was a little lightening of the foreground and a little boost in color saturation. The rest was just good luck, a perfect seat and the beautiful Florida sun.