Kali River Rapids to begin delayed openings starting today at Disney's Animal Kingdom

May 16, 2021 in "Kali River Rapids"

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Kali River Rapids overview

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Posted: Sunday May 16, 2021 7:15am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Starting May 16 2021, Kali River Rapids at Disney's Animal Kingdom will begin operating an hour later than regular park opening.

Kali River Rapids overview

The white water river raft adventure now opens an hour after park opening, which means a 9am start for most days with Disney's Animal Kingdom opening at 8am. The ride remains open until park close.

Kali River Rapids overview

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Tom MorrowJul 06, 2021

12 guests, actually. Grizzly River Run's rafts at DCA hold 8 guests. All the incidents of rafts flipping over seems to be the small 6 person raft versions.

TouchdownJul 06, 2021

It was another older version of that ride with 6 people per raft. Disney (and Universal) use a larger raft with a bigger base able to support 8 guests.

iowamomof4Jul 05, 2021

When I rode it (the first and only time) in September of 2015, I distinctly remember putting my bag in the center thing under a cover. It was our first trip to WDW and I thought that center cover was really neat because I had never seen anything like it before. Edit: Whoops, didn't notice this was an old thread!

peter11435Jul 05, 2021

Not sure of the circumstances surrounding that particular event. However I’m pretty sure the original intamin manufactured rafts at Kali were replaced with non Intamin rafts.

Magicart87Jul 05, 2021

With the recent injuries and accidental death linked with the Intamin-manufactured rapids attraction at Adventureland Park in Iowa this past weekend is it fair to question if Disney's own Intimin-manufactured rapids ride will be inspected or closed for the foreseeable future? Granted, Kali is ridiculously tame but would such an event trigger other parks to evaluate their own rapid attractions?

celluloidMay 21, 2021

It is a pretty weak raft ride even among the lesser ones of the world, and Florida's Raft rides (Universal and Busch Gardens Tampa) are among the strongest. The queue is great and the finale at least paid off a concept but with that dwindling, this thing is just there. The parts that are not drops are not even really rocking rapids.

TouchdownMay 21, 2021

I like how Splash only splashes you, I don’t want to be soaked at the MK and I don’t want my shoes to get wet. However, by their nature raft rides will always get you wetter below the waist. Therefore, I only wear bathing suits and water sanders to ride them, so on raft rides when I ride them, I want to get drenched.

Giss NericMay 21, 2021

Problem is I think Disney purposely adjusts how you get wet on a ride. They don't wanna soak riders. When you compare them to water rides at Universal, you will really get soaked, I mean head to toe soaked. I personally think they should add more water at the bottom of the Splash Mountain drops to create more of a splash. Same with Kali and Grizzly River Run, they barely have any water at the bottom of the drops to create a bigger splash.

Bullseye1967May 21, 2021

They could replace with a person lecturing you and then at the end throw a bucket of water on you. :arghh: Would be about the same. :hilarious:

jt04May 21, 2021

I'm waiting for the day an underwhelming attraction like Kali gets turned into a pre-show of sorts. Not entirely unlike the shuttle at the first section of RotR. Or a simpler example, the train to planet watch. There are several attractions on property that could be reconfigured in such a manner and give it new life. IMO.

RSoxNo1May 21, 2021

I think the move for this ride would basically be to go straight at the top of the lift hill, have a run off and another lift hill to reconnect to the existing track. Otherwise, I don't see a logical way to do it. I think a better move would be to remove the attraction entirely, but only after they re-develop Chester and Hester's. The ride opened in 1999 and you could conceivably get 30 years out of it before they're ready to expand / re-develop that area.

MMFanCipherMay 20, 2021

IMHO not worth the long wait and too short of a ride. Disney needs to extend it. Won't ride it unless it is a walk on. And even then I would have to think about it.