Looks like this is going to be a fantastic creation from Disney. construction has moved on a great deal since I saw it in person way back at the start of the year.
Testing is now under way on the ride itself and the remainder of the work is just the theming I believe.
I would be interested if anyone knows anymore about the coaster type. To me it looks like some sort of runaway train sort of thing but anyone with more info please let me know (i'm not big on coaster design :P )
Theres more pictures on the link below and some vids if you fancy paying the join the site.
[quote=""RCDB""]This will become the largest ride in Walt Disney World at a cost of $100 million (USD).
The ride will travel both forwards and backwards.
The height of the attraction is said to be nearly 200 feet. This is probably referring to the height of the mountain and not the height of the track contained within.
The Expedition Everest will be the first ride to use Vekoma's newest track system. Rather than the rails be on the inside of the ties, they will be on the outside. To date Vekoma has only used this system on their smaller roller coasters. This will be the first large scale installation of such a system.
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Looking at some of the pics, there is a part where the track just ends and scrambles up out of the mountain. maybe the backwards feature could be used here, you think your going to come off the rails but it stops and goes backwards.
Can't wait to ride it looks like a beast, seems to have a 1.3 - 1.4 metre height requirement which indicates a great thrill attraction.
I think that would be before the first transfer after the lift hill, you would be facing forwards. looking at the animation (which is great) I'm thinking maybe the first part is through the woods where the Yeti starts the chase then that would fit in with the mangled track after the first drop.
Expedition everest is a new Vekoma prototype using a new track system which in some places looks suspitiously simular to intamin track. Disney seem to have a thing about vekoma that I cannot understand. Bring on the B&M.
I couldn't see anything about the backwards drop thingy? I did the animation and it shows a piece of track jutting from the mountain, which the train drops backwards on, though the image Adam posted didn't work for me.
It looks like it's going to be a fantastic ride and I hope it'll be open by the time I go next year. One thing I have noticed, the trains in the WDW Magic testing photos look like your typical woody style trains and they look nothing like in the plan drawing or the model.
http://www.wdwmagic.com/beastly.htm yeah they do have some testing images, i think the train on the picture i posted (the model) is the back train. This cannot be seen on the pics on the site. So it still could have the themeing.
I too will (fingers crossed) be riding this in May, providing that it is complete in time! I was in Florida last year when they started contruction and the area it is set in is huge, not to mention the teaser pics were very good. Here's hoping it doesn't suck!
I'm going to Orlando this Christmas! Yay! So hopefully I will take some pics for you all, although it looks like i'll be a month early to get to ride on a soft opening.
The theming of this ride is SUPREME and I love theming! Alton need to do something like this to put them on the world stage and if they're going to be a resort.
I went in 1997, before they opened Animal Kindom, and before IOA too. It was exciting seeing both being built and I'm really looking forward to going back. I didn't go at Xmas last time, so it should be cool to see all the decorations, although at this time the queues are quite bad.
I might ask a Cast Member to let me test the ride. I doubt they will though.
