Disney World Adds Everest Thrill Ride

Expedition Everest, a $100 million attraction at Walt Disney World featuring an encounter with a giant robotic Abominable Snowman, or yeti, opened this week as a preview for Disney fans.

By placing the thrill ride in Animal Kingdom, Disney Co. is hoping to excite teenagers about the least attended of the four Disney parks in Orlando.

Animal Kingdom, known more for its animal safari and its support of worldwide conservation, was the eighth most visited amusement park worldwide with more than 8.2 million visitors in 2005, according to Amusement Business magazine. Sister park, Walt Disney World, saw nearly twice as many visitors last year.

Disney´s parks and resorts business is one of its most successful, accounting for $9 billion of the company´s $32 billion in revenue in 2005. This week´s soft opening of Expedition Everest is limited to Disney pass holders and vacation club members, with the ride´s grand opening set for April 7.

The ride reaches a top speed of 50 miles per hour around a nearly mile-long track with an 80-foot drop. At 200 feet tall, Everest is the tallest of 18 mountains created by Disney at its parks worldwide, and the yeti, the ride´s piece de resistance, is Disney´s largest ever Audio Animatronic robot.

The ride has been estimated to cost as much as $100 million, although Disney has not published the price tag.