Walt Disney World executives pinned their hopes on Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, the park’s newest attraction, to turn Disney’s Animal Kingdom park from a “two-meal” to a “three-meal” park. In other words, instead of guests arriving in the morning breakfast hours and staying through lunch, executives hoped that the attraction would convince guests to stick around through dinner time. The goal was to have this park, ranked fourth in attendance at Walt Disney World with 8.2 million visitors last year, catch up to its third-ranked Disney-MGM Studios, with an attendance of 8.6 million visitors.
A train barrels down the track on Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain during its preview period. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
Walt Disney World President Al Weiss certainly thought so. After previewing the attraction a couple of weeks ago, he was heard to exclaim, “Studios, beware!” The attraction certainly has plenty of buzz. By far the largest structure at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the mountain has been under construction for over two years, capturing the attention of park-goers for some time. The attraction even has its own Web site, DisneyEverest.com (link). But will it boost Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s attendance in the same way that Mission Space did for Epcot a couple of years ago?
Let’s look at the previews held last weekend for an indication. Disney Vacation Club members and Annual and Seasonal Passholders were invited to get a “sneak peak” at the attraction last Thursday through Sunday. While crowds on Thursday and Friday were moderate, the park was mobbed on Saturday and Sunday, causing parking lot attendants to start parking guests on the grass before the park was even open for the day.
Eager crowds waiting for the rope to drop extend all the way back through the Oasis. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
The crowd waiting for the rope drop stretched from the front of Discovery Island all the way back through the Oasis. Once the rope dropped, the huge majority made a beeline for Asia, where both the Fastpass distribution and stand-by queues grew quickly. By 10:30, not only was the stand-by queue over two hours long, stretching back to the gibbon enclosure (with some sections folded on themselves), but the Fastpass distribution line itself was an hour long and stretched back almost to the Dinoland bridge. Special Events cast members handled crowd control, pausing traffic on the walkway and in the queues to let people out of the area and through to the restrooms.
The queue of people waiting to ride the new Expedition Everest attraction in the early morning exceeds two hours. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
Though the cast members at times had difficulty keeping people moving—the details in the queue attracted so much attention—they did manage at times to surpass their Theoretical Hourly Ride Capacity (THRC) of 1,800 guests per hour. In fact, Expedition Everest hosted more guests on Friday than Kilimanjaro Safaris, and the ride counts were even higher over the weekend.
Park hours had been extended an hour from its normal 5:00 to a 6:00 close with an internal possibility of extending to 7:00. However, the lines had dropped significantly by midafternoon and by 4:30, the attraction queue did not even extend past the queue’s official entry point. Thus with virtually no lines at 6:00, the extension in park hours never happened.
By late afternoon on the same day when lines to ride the attraction were two hours long in the morning, the queue does not even extend to the attraction’s marquee. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
So why did the crowds fall off? Was the attraction too intense, discouraging repeat ridership? Did the lengthy wait times in the morning and early afternoon scare people away? Did visitors ride enough to satisfy their curiosity and then leave? Those questions remain unanswered for now.
A Disney camera crew shoots a commercial during Sunday morning’s previews. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
Also unanswered is how the balance will be affected once all park guests, and not just a special, invited group, can ride Everest. While the DVC members and passholders certainly pumped up the overall numbers at the park for the day and kept the other attractions busy while waiting for their next Fastpass window at Everest, the numbers may change again once all park guests become eligible to ride the newest mountain.
MousePlanet readers meet for a ride on Expedition Everest during the previews. Photo by John Friedman.
My personal guess is that, while Everest will almost certainly vault Disney’s Animal Kingdom past the Disney-MGM Studios for third place at Walt Disney World, it is not certain to make the park a three-meal park. We’ll have to wait and see how the numbers change once soft openings start in the near future, and all visitors are eligible to ride.
