When I visited Animal Kingdom back in 2000, I loved the Kali River Rapids and thought that it was the best river rapids ride out there by far thanks to that climatic final drop and the soaking potential of the ride. Flash forward to my last few rides this past summer, and boy has my opinion changed for this. After riding many other examples of this type of ride (at the time I had only been on Story Land’s tame Dr. Geyser’s), this one actually plummeted from the best of the best, to a mixed-bag of an attraction. Nonetheless, the Kali River Rapids is a pretty darn enjoyable expedition that strays from the formula of most rapids rides with mixed results.
First off, I just have to address the sensational job Disney did theming the attraction. It’s just incredible! I really felt like they’re immersed in a jungle both on the ride and during the lengthy queue line that meandered through the tranquil woods. Also adding to the effect is how almost all of the entire attraction is concealed from view off-ride thanks to the park’s abundant landscaping.
Being one of the park’s more thrilling attractions and the park’s only true water ride, you’d expect that this would garner pretty long waits on hot summer days. Well, while the attraction has Fastpass, the longest lines I ever seen for this have been around 20 minutes! Why? Well, Disney implemented a revolving loading platform to speed up loading exponentially and boy did they succeed. Like a well-oiled machine, riders are rapidly assigned a raft and quickly strapped in their respective seats without any shenanigans. One extra note, if you want to ride this without a wait, ride this within the last hour of closing and you probably won’t have any wait at all. In fact, I rode this 3 straight times without even having to get off!
Onto the ride itself, Kali begins with a lift like many of the ones I’ve been on, only this one is far larger than the others. Not only is it larger, but along the lift hill are some beautiful cobras that dampen all riders with a refreshing mist. Well, after cresting the top of the lift hill there stands a visually stunning geyser that sends torrents of water hurtling high towards the sky. At first this appears like it will surly drench the entire vehicle, but at the last second it recedes, leading to about half the boat only getting pretty wet. Following that is a tranquil journey through the jungle that really captures the feel of a river cruise with the flawlessly executed audio streamed along with the lush vegetation.
However, this picturesque scene soon goes up in flames literally, as a once glorious Asian village quickly erupts into a blazing inferno that shows the absolute devastation that fire can cause nature. But then comes the ride’s saving grace, it’s legendary drop. For a river rapids ride, the drop is absolutely massive and it would be hard to imagine a river rapids ride out there with a bigger drop. The drop is simply an achievement even for Disney, as it’s quite steep and executed to perfection, providing some great thrills on the way down thanks to the unique sensation it provides, especially if you’re fortunate enough to be descending backwards. And speaking of going backwards, whoever goes down backwards will be wringing their clothing for weeks, as a massive wall of water flies over the raft soaking those fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your perspective) riders.
Afterwards the ride simply begins a horrid downward spiral. Instead of building on the immense soak the drop provided, another tranquil journey through the jungle is instead substituted in. While this one goes at a much faster pace, the only elements featured during this section is some sparse theming consisting of only a few sprayers that narrowly avoid riders’ heads (however they usually hit their hands since everyone always tries to deflect the streams). Sadly, the ride is over immediately after and is just too short for my liking.
While I love that incredible drop and the top-notch theming sustained throughout, that’s really all I like about the ride since it unfortunately has many shortcomings that really hamper the entire experience for me. Most noticeable is the lack of any rapids at all. Isn’t this called the Kali River Rapids? Where are the rapids? It wouldn’t be so much of a problem if there were other means for getting riders wet or soaked, but the only way to get drenched is that final drop and the geyser toward the beginning just gets some people moderately wet, but no more. Other than that there is nothing to get riders wet. I doubt that in the future that Disney would consider modifying this attraction to include rapids, but I would definitely be in favor of that revision if it was considered since it would really make this attraction that much better and possibly able to reclaim the title for my favorite river rapids ride.
Despite the shortcomings, the Kali River Rapids still is an above average river rapids ride. The drop and incredible theming alone merit a ride, even though it lacks any rapids whatsoever. Despite how some can come off dry, don’t chance it and wear a bathing suit because there still is the chance you’ll come off absolutely drenched from head to toe and regret it later. While Disney did some things right, I really frown upon how few elements are included that are capable of getting riders wet. Still, despite being somewhat of a letdown, Kali is a mixed-bag and one of the park’s best attractions.
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