The two goofy guys crack me up, and I just love this ride:

Click more for everything you need to know about this ride.

TriceraTop Spin is an attraction at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It is a dinosaur version of Dumbo, at the Magic Kingdom.

Attraction Facts:

Grand opening: November 1, 2001
Location: DinoLand U.S.A.
Show length: 1:30
Ride system: Controlled moving dinosaurs rotating around central tower

Controls:

Each of the moving Triceratops are controlled by a joint stick in the back seat of the Triceratops, and by a joint stick in the front of the Triceratops.
The back joint stick controls the Triceratop’s upward and downward motion.
The joint stick in the front of the Triceratops controls the Triceratop’s forward and backwards motion.

Kilimanjaro Safaris is a safari attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on the Walt Disney World Resort property in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It simulates an open-sided safari ride through the savanna of East Africa.

The ride originally begins as a two-week safari aboard Simba 1 through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve in Harambe, East Africa. It is 800 square miles (2,100 km) of natural terrain, including Ituri forest, wetlands of the Safi River valley and the open bush country of the Serengeti Savanna. During most of the ride people view the common African animals including elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelope, gazelles, crocodiles, monkeys, hippos, lions, cheetahs, warthogs, ostriches, rhinos, storks, pelicans, flamingos, impalas, wildebeests, and okapis. The tour guide points out animals and provides entertainment. During the journey, the driver is in radio contact with reserve warden Wilson Matua, who is flying over the reserve on his daily routine. It all takes a turn when poachers are spotted in the reserve, and it’s up to Simba 1 and the guests, with support from the air and other rangers, to stop them.

This attraction was thought up by Greg Hill Who did not continue to work for Disney because he refused to shave his beard. Greg Hill had the idea of using real animals for an attraction. Kilimanjaro Safaris typically operates until sundown. However, during the holiday season of 1998, the safaris were continued at night and dubbed Kilimanjaro Night Safaris. Though many animals were asleep, or unable to be seen at night, the attraction had a completely different script and storyline. This “new” attraction featured additional animal sounds, reflectors hidden in the foliage to resemble animals’ eyes, and an actual African dance troup, who performed around a bonfire in the area normally occupied by the attraction’s elephants. Kilimanjaro Night Safaris only ran during that initial holiday season. After this time, it was deemed that the additional costs, plus the fact that animal visibility was poor (eliciting many guest complaints), made Night Safaris unfeasible to continue regularly.

In 2004, much of the savanna’s drainage system had to be replaced. The attraction remained open during the rehab, with green tarps covering the construction sites to keep the animals out.

In 2007-9, the trucks were extended with an extra row of seating, allowing for more capacity. Also, the safari script/story, along with the Wilson/Jobson story has significantly changed. There is less of a story about “Little Red”, and more about the animals in the Reserve and the need to find a lost elephant at the end. This led to a somewhat confused plot in which guests are searching for a lost “mother elephant” and eventually find her baby which, according to the story, had already been safe the whole time.

The ride originally featured a cast member in the role of a gun-toting reserve warden who captured the poachers and saved Big Red and Little Red. This element of the attraction was eventually eliminated. During Cast Previews of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there was a “Dark Ending” in which the safari vehicle encountered the slaughtered corpse of Big Red. This scene proved too shocking for families and children, and thus was eventually changed to give the attraction a happier ending.

Long before the safari or even Walt Disney World opened, Walt Disney wanted to use real African animals for the river attraction Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. However, due to several reasons, Audio-Animatronics replicas were placed instead.

In July of 2010 it was announced that guests will soon be able to go on “guided treks” around the savannah. This will include areas that are not part of the regular ride experience.

Trivia

• The attraction features custom-built GMC trucks riding washed-out, rutted roads and a bridge that tilts. The roadbed is actually constructed of dark brown-colored concrete embedded with permanent tire ruts.

• The flamingo island is a huge Hidden Mickey.

• Between each ecosystem are both chain road sensors and bars to prevent animals from venturing between sections. The vehicles drive directly on these obstacles.

Great song from a great show:

Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain is an elaborately themed roller coaster at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida.

I have a popular video of the ride at my web site http://cooldisneytrips.com and on Youtube, and have had numerous questions about the ride.  I thought I would write an article to answer all these questions and perhaps serve as a nice reference for interested parties.

Is the ride scary?

A difficult question to answer, as one’s level of scared is different from another’s.  That being said, I would say that anyone who has ridden on Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, could handle Expedition Everest.  It is slightly scarier, and certainly faster, than either of those other roller coasters, due to the Yeti and significant theming of the ride.  But one must conquer their fears, and if you handled Space Mountain, for example, you can handle this.

Does it go upside down?

No, Expedition Everest does not go upside down.  It does go backwards at fast speeds and has a significant drop at one portion of the ride.

Where is the ride located?

It is in Orlando, Florida, at the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, in the section or continent of “Asia”.

When was I there?

I visited in February 2007 and January 2010.  Both trips experienced some cool weather, actually January 2010 rarely reached above freezing!  It is true, look up the almanac if you must, pack a jacket or check the Weather Channel before visiting in January or February.

Do you get that feeling in your stomach?

Absolutely!

Does the ride go fast when going backwards?

The answer to this is pretty much yes.

Does the ride offer FastPass and did you use FastPass?

It does offer FastPass and we used it for both rides, which we waited approximately 90 seconds.  The wait line was often over 60 minutes, but I also understand the queue (waiting area) is quite nice.

How high does it go?

At the top of the ride you are 112 feet up.  This is roughly equivalent to an 11 story building, but I will say that it feels like you are even higher than that.

Does the ride smell?

I recall no strange or bad smells on this ride at all.

Do you head backwards the same way you went up?

No, if you check the video, at one point you can see the track switch using night vision on my camera. Very cool.

I hope these questions and answers will assist you in making plans to ride or not ride Expedition Everest on your next trip to Walt Disney World.

You may reproduce this article or portions of this article as long as the following reference is included in its entirety:

Submitted by Jim Ranieri, a Disney enthusiast, who manages http://cooldisneytrips.com which includes a video of the ride Expedition Everest.

Really neat video of this great Disney ride.  At the Animal Kingdom, Everest is a high speed thrill ride.  These two guys have quite a lot of fun, they are a little goofy, but all in all a humorous video adding some laughs to the fun.

The Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch is a transport ride that takes guests at Disney’s Animal Kingdom from Harambe, Africa to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. On the ride, guests get the chance to see a little of the Animal Kingdom backlot, including animal holding buildings for rhinos and elephants, among other animals. It takes about seven minutes to go from Harambe railway station, Africa to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and an additional five to return. The full journey is 1.2 miles round-trip.

Disney is unusually strict about people standing up while the train is moving. They monitor it closely and will stop the train if they see anyone standing.

The railway is part of the fictional Eastern Star Railway, running from Lusaka to Nairobi and Kisangani.

There are three diesel-hydraulic, steam outline locomotives, built by Severn-Lamb of Stratford-on-Avon, United Kingdom in 1997 before the park’s opening the following year. They have a wheel configuration of 2-4-2 and are based on John Aspinall’s 2-4-2T engines built for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway of England in 1898 at Horwich locomotive works, Lancashire. However, the builder’s plates of the locomotives tell a different story, saying that the engines were built in 1926 by Beyer Peacock of Gorton Foundry, Manchester. Their numbers are 02594, 04982 and 00174, the former also being named, R. Baba Harpoor, in honour of Imagineer Bob Harpur. The railway is built to a narrow gauge and this is 3′ 4″ (1016mm), a little wider than the metre gauge that was used on East African railways. There are two sets of coaches forming the passenger rolling stock, each with five vehicles and each seating around 250 people.

Obtained from Wikipedia

The ride is part of Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama, which is itself part of Dinoland USA. It is a roller coaster in the “Mild But Wild Thrills” category. It has cars that spin in circles while traveling on tracks, permitting the ride experience to vary greatly each time it is ridden. It usually seats up to 4 riders.

The ride is lightly themed, with decorations related to time travel and to the meteor which is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. This gives the coaster a storyline very similar to that of the nearby dark ride, DINOSAUR.

Similar to Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, Primeval Whirl is actually two roller coasters with identical layouts, but facing opposite directions.

Attraction facts
Grand Opening: April 18, 2002
Soft Opening: March 31, 2002
Designers: Reverchon with Walt Disney Imagineering designing the theming.
Length: 1377′ 11″
Height: 42′ 8″
Vehicles: 13
Vehicle theme: Time machine
Inversions: 0
Top Speed: 29.1 mph
G-Force: 2.5
Ride Duration: 1:10
Height Requirement: 48″ (122 cm)
Ride System: Roller coaster
Location: DinoLand U.S.A.

Fastpass currently unavailable

This is a scary ride, even the video is scary. I brought my 5 year old daughter on here and wished I didn’t although she did OK. Neat fact about the ride: While viewed from the front of the building’s entrance, trees are seen just behind the building. However, these trees are on the building’s roof, and create the illusion that the building is quite smaller than it actually is.

Video of ride:

* Before the ride opened in 1999, the ride was originally going to be named Tiger Rapids Run.

* This was Disney’s first attempt at a river rapids type ride, it has since been joined by Grizzly River Run at Disney’s California Adventure.