The giant Yeti that has been terrifying guests on Animal Kingdom’s Expedition Everest is about to serve a dual purpose: scare guests and charge your phone while doing it.
Expedition Everest is a roller coaster that first opened to the public in the Spring of 2006 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The ride’s conclusion once featured a 25-foot-tall Yeti that swung at guests as their roller coaster train barreled passed the mythical beast. Unfortunately, a major problem arose shortly after the ride opened which prohibited the Yeti from operating as designed. While a solution was being sought, Disney Imagineers settled on flashing a strobe light on the Yeti to give the appearance of movement. This temporary fix caused some fans to refer to the beast as “Disco Yeti.”
“We have meetings daily about what can be done to improve our guests’ experience with the Yeti encounter inside Expedition Everest,” said Travis Hopper, Vice President of Disney’s Yeti Strategists Committee. “No idea was overlooked or ignored. That’s when someone thought of attaching a phone charging station to the Yeti.”
Hopper noted that the Yeti draws a tremendous amount of power and that it only makes sense to let guests benefit from this so that they can refuel their power-hungry portable devices.
It will work like this: guests entering the standby waiting area will have their path re-routed to traverse the mountain. The first stop will be the Yeti seen at the conclusion of the ride. Guests will then place their cell phones in containers for safekeeping and then continue on to the standby queue. Once those guests are off the ride, they can climb back inside the mountain to retrieve their cell phones.
Hopper said that guests can expect their cell phone batteries to gain an extra 10-20% in battery life, depending on their wait time.
When news of the re-purposed Yeti solution broke online, many were relieved to hear that the Yeti would actually be useful for once.
“I was so excited to hear about Yeti 2.0,” said Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III, an unemployed Sandwich Artist who has been tracking the mystery behind the Yeti’s malfunctions since he was let go from his job in 2007. “I am delighted that my cell phone battery will gain an extra 20% while waiting in line. You’d be surprised by how much of a battery hog the Twitter app is when I’m live tweeting how disappointed I constantly am with everything Disney does, all while visiting their parks on a near daily basis.”
The re-routing of the standby queue will gradually transform while the park is closed. The charging station is expected to be delivered this weekend because Hopper ordered it off Amazon and he is a Prime member. The station should be ready for phone charging by Monday. Keep your eyes locked on Typhoid Lagoon for updates!
