Animal Kingdom Lands

Description And Comments

Whitewater raft rides have been a hot-weather favorite of theme-park patrons for over 20 years. The ride itself consists of an unguided trip down an artificial river in a circular rubber raft with a top-mounted platform seating 12 people. The raft essentially floats free in the current and is washed downstream through rapids and waves. Because the river is fairly wide, with numerous currents, eddies, and obstacles, there is no telling exactly where the raft will drift. Thus, each trip is different and exciting. At the end of the ride, a conveyor belt hauls the raft up to be unloaded and prepared for the next group of guests.

What distinguishes Kali River Rapids from other theme-park raft rides is Disney's trademark attention to visual detail. Where many raft rides essentially plunge down a concrete ditch, Kali River Rapids flows through a dense rain forest and past waterfalls, temple ruins, and bamboo thickets, emerging into a cleared area where greedy loggers have ravaged the forest, and finally drifting back under the tropical canopy as the river cycles back to Anandapur. Along the way, your raft runs a gauntlet of raging cataracts, logjams, and other dangers.

Disney has done a great job with the visuals on this attraction. The queuing area, which winds through an ancient Southeast Asian temple, is one of the most striking and visually interesting settings of any Disney attraction. And though the sights on the raft trip itself are also first-class, the attraction is marginal in two important respects. First, it's only about three and a half minutes on the water, and second, well - it's a weenie ride. Sure, you get wet, but otherwise the drops and rapids are not all that exciting, as this Kansas family points out:

It was boiling hot, [so] we were happy about the prospect of being drenched. We couldn't believe how short and dull the ride was, even with the lush landscaping. At the end, we all looked at each other and said, "Is that IT?!" We couldn't believe we had stood in line, sweating half to death, for 75 minutes just for that.

And how wet do you get? A reader from Plymouth, Michigan, has the answer:

The whitewater rafting ride is great fun but beware! Rather than just getting a little wet, like Splash Mountain, we were soaked to the skin after this ride. It was beyond "fun getting wet," literally drenching you with buckets of water. Poncho sales were brisk the day we were there.

Lastly, from a Worthington, Ohio, 30-something who hadn't intended to enter a wet-T-shirt contest:

I highly recommend the book, and I also recommend not wearing a white T-shirt to Animal Kingdom if you're planning on riding Kali River Rapids.

You can use Fastpass to ride later in the day when it's a little warmer. A family from Humble, Texas, who rode early in the morning on a cool day, shares this:

Our plan hit a definite wall upon experiencing Kali River Rapids as number two on the schedule. We did not read about the precautions for this ride in your book until after riding. The 6-year-old and mom were COMPLETELY drenched- so much so that we actually had to leave the park and go back to our room at [Port Orleans] to change clothes. Since the temperature was around 60 degrees that morning, we were pretty miserable by the time we got back to our room. Needless to say, our schedule was shot by that time. We would not recommend Kali River Rapids so early in the morning when the weather is chilly.