If anyone has been to Disney's Animal Kingdom in the past 6 years, you have no doubt ridden Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain (which is a SUPER long name for what everyone just calls "Everest"). Its a towering roller-coaster ride inside a faux himalayan mountain that features Disney's first coaster that goes both forwards and backwards.
At opening, the attraction also featured what was billed as the world largest audio animatronic, a HUGE yeti at the finale of the ride. The Yeti, at opening, was truly impressive. As your train entered the final cave of the mountain, you saw this gigantic monster hanging from a broken piece of track from above. His body lunging towards you as his arm reached for your train as you zoomed by, seeming just out of reach of the beast. It provided an epic ending to an amazing ride and gave Animal Kingdom the jolt it needed to inch it closer to become a full day park. I had the pleasure of riding Everest when it first opened and the Yeti was truly a sight to behold.
Shortly after opening, however, the yeti started having problems that effected the entire attraction. The motions that the animatronic was performing was starting to tear the entire mountain apart. The yeti's size and manner in which he moved caused great strain on the structure that housed the roller-coaster and the beast. Before the end of Everest's first year of operation, the yeti was shut down and posed in a manner so that he still seemed menacing while making no movement. A strobe light was added to the cave to give the appearance of movement.
It was the addition of the strobe light that caused park fans to jokingly call the beast the "Disco Yeti" and the name has been adopted by many since he was shut down.
Rumors have persisted that Disney is attempting to fix the issues caused to the structure when the yeti moves, but there have been very little signs of progress. Whenever the internet gets the slightest notion that ANY part of the yeti MAY be moving, the queue at Everest will swell, filled with hopeful internet surfers trying to catch a glimpse of yeti motion. Usually, they are sorely disappointed.
The topic of the Disco Yeti came up between Parker and I. See what we think.
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment