For this week’s Disney Ride Wars, we have Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Expedition Everest versus Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds.
Expedition Everest and Matterhorn Bobsleds are both iconic snow mountain/Yeti themed roller coasters. Matterhorn Bobsleds, however, is the very first Disney roller coaster ever built with a family-friendly feel, while Expedition Everest is much newer and more thrilling.
Which is better?
Let’s take a look at these factors:
Queue Area
Expedition Everest’s queue area is designed as a Tibetan village at the foot of “Mount Everest.” In line, guests will find expedition gear, artifacts, books about Yeti, art, and signs warning guests to respect the Yeti.
The queue area for Matterhorn Bobsleds features a cast of a Yeti footprint at the entrance and has a nice view of the monorail.
Winner: Expedition Everest – considering that there is practically nothing to Matterhorn Bobsleds’ queue area.
Ride
Expedition Everest has guests board a train before they ride up to the top of Mount Everest, getting a nice view of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. After making it to the top, guests continue to ride along until they come to a dead end. Thanks to the Yeti, the train tracks are broken. This forces the train to go backwards into a cavern before riding down the mountain. Guests briefly come face to face with the Yeti as they successfully escape and make it back to the loading area.
Matterhorn Bobsleds has two tracks – one on the Tomorrowland/left side (used for Stand-By) and one on the Fantasyland/right side (used for Fast Pass). Single riders have the freedom to use either side. Guests ride on a bobsled in and out of icy caves on Matterhorn mountain, taking a lot of sharp twists and turns, before splashing down into an alpine lake and successfully escaping the Abominable Snowman twice.
Winner: Expedition Everest. Both offer a very fun and unique experience, but the thrill junkie in me prefers going backwards up an incline and going down a nice drop. I’m not sure if there are even any small drops on Matterhorn Bobsleds – the track I rode only has twists and turns. Supposedly the left side (the one I did not ride) has drops and is faster but is also a shorter ride. However, I personally didn’t notice any drops in the video above (unless they are only in the dark).
The Superior Attraction
While Matterhorn Bobsleds is a special, one-of-a-kind classic, Expedition Everest is the superior attraction.
Which ride do you prefer? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned for next week’s Disney Ride War!
Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, opinionated fan-powered news blog that covers Disney and Universal Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment and related Pop Culture from a consumer's point of view. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial news source and has no connection to The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we may cover.
