Expedition Everest in Disney’s Animal Kingdom has been closed for several months for refurbishment. It was scheduled to reopen in mid-April and, after a brief moment where that reopening timeline was removed from the website, we got the news that it would be reopening on April 16th!
Expedition Everest
Well, after a bumpy start to reopening this morning (it was closed for several hours due to technical difficulties), we are happy to say that Expedition Everest is officially open! With this reopening also comes a change to how Genie+ and Lightning Lane work for this attraction!
Today, when Animal Kingdom opened, Expedition Everest was available with the standard Genie+ service, not as an Individual Attraction Selection. This means that guests who purchase the standard Genie+ service for $15 will be able to book a Lightning Lane for Expedition Everest without paying an additional fee.
Expedition Everest
Before its closure, in order to get a Lightning Lane for Expedition Everest, you would have needed to purchase it separately. This change will remain in place until August 7th. Here’s the Lightning Lane ready to go at this popular ride!
Expedition Everest Lightning Lane is OPEN!
It just got a little cheaper to ride one of the most popular Disney World coasters! Now you can pay $15 to skip the line at almost every ride in Animal Kingdom (including Everest), instead of paying the usual $7 fee for one ride on the coaster (prices fluctuate depending on the time of year, but this was the original price).
Yay!
By mid-afternoon, Genie+ reservations were already filling up for the ride!
Screenshot from My Disney Experience
We missed you, Expedition Everest, and we’re so happy you’re back!
The area around Expedition Everest
Expedition Everest joins several other rides like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Frozen Ever After, and Space Mountain — all of which will be available through the standard Genie+ service until August 7th.
Make sure to keep reading DFB for all the latest Disney news and information!
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With all these extra charges,like express,Genie,ans over priced parking,I seriously doubt,that I will be returning to Disney World !
We were there when it opened in the 70and returned about every 3 years
We allways stayed at fort Widerness $25 originally per night !
Things got better,but GREED has taken over with your outlandish price increases !
So I guess you priced us out of a good visit Fare well
I remember a time when I got into Disneyland by paying a fee at the gate, then bought separate tickets for every attraction I wanted to do.
Difference was, this was 1975, the gate fee was less than $20 and the books of tickets ran about $10, total, PLUS you could buy extra E tickets separately, if you wanted, to go on the best rides again and again.
Funny how going back to Disney World is looking less and less appealing…
But paying more money for rides AFTER paying $100 JUST TO GET INSIDE THE PARK seems to me a ridiculous waste of money and a stupid way for Disney to up-charge its guests. Last time I was there (2017), we still could use FastPasses, book them in advance and pay nothing extra for them.
What’s wrong with a system like that?
Disney should have just raised the ticket prices directly, instead of this petty, indirect farce: The Disney parks are a show, a fantasy. A guest pays a price (albeit high, but that’s fine) to walk into a storybook for a day or a few. It’s not raising prices, Disney has done that for years, it’s Disney’s executive team being so out of touch not just with Guests, but with their own company. It’s not the increases, but the pettiness, the a la carte format, the “ inflict the pain all at once- then we’ll just replace Chapek, as we planned from the start, and the resentment will disappear with him” roll out that breaks “Show.”
There’s a reason employees are called Cast Members.