We may know why Expedition Everest has been closed for days at Disney World

Expedition Everest has had a tough few days at Animal Kingdom. We have a pretty good idea why it has seen so much downtime at Disney World.

Expedition Everest

The most thrilling coaster in Disney World is Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. It is my (Monica) family’s favorite coaster, and we affectionately call it “Yeti.”

Board your train in search of the mysterious Yeti who has been known to terrorize the locals. The journey starts off smoothly, but then we find the tracks are destroyed and we must travel backward. We see a projection of the Yeti and launch forward (photo op) and circle back up into the mountain. You will get a VERY brief view of the largest Disney animatronic ever built.

See why it’s such a beloved attraction at Animal Kingdom? I love the queue line with all the artifacts and information regarding the real search for Yeti. It’s the only ride at Disney that actually makes me scream and not just yell “woo” for fun!

Multi Day Closure

Expedition Everest closed for a rather lengthy refurbishment early this year. Guests were not able to ride it from January until late April due to the fact that the software needed a big update.

More recently, Expedition Everest has experienced extended downtime the past few days. On Thursday, August 18th, Expedition Everest experienced extended downtime of about 3 hours. Yesterday, Disney closed Expedition Everest for the entire day. Today does not look promising for the reopening of Expedition Everest. Guests received an update via the MDE app stating that it was unavailable.

Then, it opened briefly for 30 minutes at 10:45 before closing again. Our most recent update as of 2:00 pm is that the ride is open again. Why so many periods of downtime?

Possible Reason

Knowing that Disney updated the software during the refurbishment, it would be shocking if that was the reason why. However, we believe there is a different reason. Most likely, the reason for the downtime is backwards track switch OR the track switch when you see the shadow Yeti.

Since Disney completely closed the coaster yesterday, maintenance probably worked on it all day and night and still could not resolve the issue until earlier today. We cannot say this with 100% certainty, but this is our best guess.

Most likely, the reason for the downtime is backwards track switch OR the track switch when you see the shadow Yeti.

Hopefully the maintenance crew can get Expedition Everest back up and running more consistently. It is one of the best rides at Disney World!

Are you at Animal Kingdom today, or were you there the last few days? What was your experience with Expedition Everest? Let us know in the comments below and on Facebook.