Disney's Expedition Everest Getting a Refurb in Early 2022

Maybe it will give them time to replace the strobe effects with smoke machines and laser effects to better transition from “Disco Yeti” to “Pop Lock’n’ Yeti” aka “Breakin’ Yeti”…

Man, I count myself lucky being able to ride Everest right after it opened to see the Yeti in full operation, it was an amazing effect.

The working Yeti was incredible.

agree with mike w and th creative, i am so glad i got to experience the yeti, as little did i know it would be so short-lived. i was just thinking on my last visit to AK that now that the park has another solid e ticket attraction with FOP, maybe it's time to give some TLC to EE, which has gotten a bit rough and is showing its age. hopefully next on the list, after they remove primeval whirl, is a total re-do of the dino-land carnival area that sticks out like a sore thumb.

The only time I ever saw the working yeti, I felt like he was going to swipe my head off. It was amazing, exhilarating and terrifying

Yep. They can build new theme parks, prepare a 5th Cruise ship, pay billions of dollars for other companies, launch a streamining services and multibillions dollars franchises, but they can't fix the * effing * YETI!!!!

Sucks that the Yeti was built into the foundation of the mountain(It’s also the reason the Matterhorn has never got new tracks because the old tracks were built into the foundation).

But at least this goof up lead to imagineers to prioritize building easily removable animatronics when they break down.

Actually, the Yeti is built into its own structure that's separate from that of the coaster and surrounding mountain. The issue is that the motion of the animatronic ripped it's structure to shreds, and continuing to operate it would have caused the structure to fail. The only way to correct it is to completely redesign and replace the structure that supports the animatronic, but in order to do that, the surrounding structure for the coaster and mountain would have to be disassembled to get heavy equipment inside to perform the repairs on the Yeti's structure.

Imagineers were actually smart in giving the Yeti its own structure that is not integrated into the coaster - if it were, the damage the motion of the animatronic would have made to the structure of the coaster almost certainly would have caused a year's-long rehab. The problem is that the motion of the Yeti, while very dynamic, is a very minor portion of the overall experience, so Disney has never seen value in taking the coaster down for 9+ months to perform the needed repairs (assuming any repairs could fix the problem without taking apart the entire attraction). I've always assumed that Disney never wanted to take Everest down for that long or just didn't see a way to prevent the same problem from occurring again without completely redesigning the entire mountain and animatronic. Disco-Yeti may not be what Imagineers intended, but given the circumstances, it's probably the best of bunch of bad options Disney had when the issues with the animatronic's structure were first identified.

Why not pull out the Yeti figure and replace it with a Yeti sized, but lightweight inflatable like you see outside used car dealerships? It would be massive, and the unpredictable waving and swaying of the inflated figure would make every ride unique...and probably safe. Problem (not exactly) solved.
I also was one of the few who rode the ride back when the figure was in working as designed. It was spectacular. Such a shame its not in show mode anymore.

@rob I think you're joking, though you make the right point: surely technology has advanced enough in the last 20+ years to allow them to use a lighter, maybe less fancy Yeti that would work in that space. As with the always broken hand-truck scene on Splash Mountain (actually, a number of scenes there), or the never-working fireball on Thunder Mountain, or the "it's just dark" room on Indiana Jones, anything would be better than the disappointment of being constantly reminded Disney doesn't give a crap and isn't fixing the ride no matter how much you spend.

What baffles me is that they had a year and half Window of oportunity during the pandemic with the parks closed to at least attemp one of the Many plans to fix it. It's not lack of money. Or that it was not safe to work or something like that. It's lack of interest to present your costumers with the Best experience possible, when You know they Will pay anyhow. It's an excellent coaster Even without the yeti, so why try to improve?

@thecolonel - I'll never tell if I'm being serious or not. That dark room at Indiana Jones drives me crazy. Way worse than the Yeti. In a time where SO many rides now have projection mapping used, why has nothing been added there to do something...anything. Unless they are saying that room is suppose to play on people's fear of the dark. Yawn.

I'm with you 100% Rob. We were there last month and seemingly everything on Indy was in top working order, I can't remember the last time everything seem to be so tuned up . . . until we got to the dark room, hahaha

@Pabloatthepark

They should have brought back the Peoplemover at Disneyland! Imagineers have famously said that in order to tear down the old structure and build a new one was that Disneyland would have to be closed for 6 to 9 months for it to be done. Well, Disneyland was closed for 13 months, they could’ve fixed it but didn’t.

Has there ever been a full explanation why the animatronic hasn't been moved out, a static replacement put in its place, and the animatronic moved somewhere else? All I've ever heard is that it was amazing. Couldn't it be "amazing" somewhere else (as long as the support structure wasn't built into the mountain itself, which there appears to be conjecture on)? I mean, they could put it practically anywhere to show it off. In the exit line. Over top a gift shop. It's own mini-walk-through. Just seems such a waste.

Is it normal for a major attraction to be down for refurbishment during a milestone anniversary celebration ?

Chopper i don't know. But it seems normal whenever i AM visiting the parks ( so is severe thunderstorms or polar cold ).

Pablo - I’m from the Northeast, and I learned the hard way how cold Florida can get in January at night. I wasn’t dressed properly, and froze during Fantasmic sitting on the metal bleachers (and the mist coming off the water was like a dream come true cherry on top). I can honestly say I was never so cold in my life, haha.

I usually don’t pay attention to these refurb schedules unless I’m going on a trip to WDW, so I have no idea how often Expedition Everest goes down for refurbishment, but at first glance it sure seems like some poor planning to me...

@Chopper31

Every ride will be down at a certain point within a year(Regardless of milestone celebration). For example, water based attractions tend to be closed in the winter months due to the weather(People don’t like to get wet when it’s cold.).

To everyone asking why Disney didn’t use their pandemic downtime to fix things in the parks, you have to understand that the parks had no revenue coming in during that time. If they couldn’t pay their employees while the parks were closed, where were they going to get the money for cosmetic repairs?

I mean the ride is going to be 16 next year so a big refurb makes sense

James trexen.
Disney is a monster of a company with múltiple revenue sources. And once they deemed it was safe to go back to work they restarted with several proyects including some new rides. Money is not an issue ( they did a Lot of money saving procedures, such as letting a Lot of people go and then rehire as needed ) but they have priorities since the anniversary is coming. We know this and we are just lamenting the low priority that this issue has with managment. It seems like a wasted oportunity to try and fix a beloved ride. Or Many other rides, for that matter.

If Disco Yeti was in Shanghai, Disney would've fixed it immediately.