Scale the Forbidden Mountain!

Expedition Everest has been one of Walt Disney World’s premier attractions since it opened in 2006. Despite some well-known technical issues surrounding its heavily promoted Yeti animatronic, the ride has become a favorite attraction of many due to its thrilling coaster layout, including a backward portion.

Like any popular roller coaster, there are many opinions as to the best seat to experience Expedition Everest. Before we tell you our choice though, let’s see what our readers thought.

We polled our Facebook audience with the simple question “Which row is BEST on Expedition Everest?” We received a multitude of answers, but there were a few that seemed to reach consensus.

For starters, we got a few responses from readers who said that they weren’t big fans of Expedition Everest, but that if they had to ride it, they’d aim for the middle of the coaster car. For example, reader Kristin wrote “The benches outside the ride. Unfortunately, the backward portion triggers my motion sickness. If I had to ride, I’d probably aim for the middle in hopes of avoiding the worst of it in either direction.”

However, beyond those answers, there were seemingly two options for best that battled back and forth. Many readers responded with the first row at the front of the train. As reader Erwin put it, the “front row hits you good going backward”, while reader Sheila added, “1st for me and my son especially when the track ends.”

However, while there was a decent amount of love for the front seat, a seemingly equal amount of our Facebook readers preferred sitting in the back row. Reader Brian wrote, “Very back! Especially for the drop” while reader Doug added, “I’m sure a lot of people will say the front row, but the back row is absolutely wild!”

Meanwhile, reader Mike gave us our new favorite way to describe coaster trains and vehicles: “Santa Claus seat, the very back, keep all the reindeer up front.”

There were also some diplomatic wanders, such as reader Robb writing, “Not a bad row on the ride. You’re at Animal Kingdom, not a bad moment in my life.” Readers Ben and Jarrod expressed similar sentiments, saying “I’ve been all over and it’s always a good ride!” and “the first one with any available seat so I can ride it” respectively.

So with all those reader opinions expressed, what’s our take? Well, first off we definitely agree with the diplomatic takes that there’s really no bad seat on Expedition Everest. That said, we have to say our favorite is the front seat. We love the feeling of reaching the top of the mountain and encountering the “broken” tracks with seemingly nothing in front of us but an open sky. As if that wasn’t enough, the feeling of plummeting backward with the weight of the rest of the train pulling us faster might be in the top two or three most thrilling experiences at Disney World.

There’s no “bad” seat on Expedition Everest, but sitting in the first seat of the coaster train definitely adds a massively chilling element to the attraction. Stay tuned to DFB for further Animal Kingdom coverage.

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Where’s your favorite spot to sit on Expedition Everest? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Why Disney Adults (Including Me) Keep Asking for Row 17 on Expedition Everest first appeared on the disney food blog.