Kali River Rapids scheduled for refurbishment in the new year

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Posted: Wednesday December 12, 2018 10:13am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Kali River Rapids at Disney's Animal Kingdom is scheduled to close for its annual refurbishment in early 2019.

The refurbishment is set to begin on January 7 through to March 22, reopening to guests on March 23 2019.

View all current and upcoming refurbishments.

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Almac97Dec 18, 2018

I was on Kali last week, during a pretty cold week in FL. Even though my day at AK eventually hit 70F, I went on in the high 60's and there was still a 20 min line. There's totally a place for water rides in places where the temps are hot as they're even fun when it's just warm. But execution is key, and Kali is not on Disney's level IMHO. As mentioned earlier, gravity is a hurdle to lengthen the ride, but if you split the river right after the lift hill, you have a departure and return area at the same height. Make the ride 2x as long, and you can design an exact replica 2nd lift hill on the backside to bring you back to the exact same height and basic location where you can ride out the remaining 80% of the original ride. Then you can have extra elements on the first half like a cave, animatronics, or whatnot and actually tell a story... instead of just having a failing tanker truck, a hill, and some rags hanging from some strings and calling it an "expedition". But that's what they should've done, and still should do... thus why it'll never happen.

GhostHost1000Dec 14, 2018

IMO leave the water rides to the water parks. So much more they could do.

jt04Dec 13, 2018

I agree with this. And they could still build a proper rapids ride on the giant expansion pad next door. Kali just isn't up to Disney standards IMO.

homerdanceDec 13, 2018

Well it may have some work done on it, but it is not a full 3 months worth of refurbishment being done. There will be more days were nothing is being done than work is completed.

dreamfinderDec 13, 2018

Mymagic+ was supposed to help increase revenues and efficiencies. A ride on the other hand costs money to operate without increasing revenues. Kind of the same way how restaurants and gift shops get refurbed lickety split while rides take years to come online. Although if they made Kali wetter, perhaps they would make bundles of money like Shanghai did selling ponchos right before your boarded their raft ride. I think literally 60-75% of guests were dropping ~$3 for a dollar store poncho they threw in the trash can that was conveniently placed as you exited.

yaksplatDec 13, 2018

MyMagic was too big to fail.

matt9112Dec 13, 2018

you mean the one that was planned to be built....but you know budgets....how come mymagic+ didn't have the same fate....thats odd.

_calebDec 13, 2018

No. Sorry, just being sarcastic.

rle4lunchDec 13, 2018

You serious?

_calebDec 13, 2018

Fire effects? I had no idea.

EricsBiscuitDec 13, 2018

I think Kali is underrated. Then again, I don't wear my glasses when I ride it.

rle4lunchDec 13, 2018

Space reasons should've NEVER been a problem in AK. They could've built it right, instead, we get 27 seconds and fire effects that stopped working years ago. Goooo Disney!

Andrew CDec 12, 2018

Not in 10 weeks!

jaxonpDec 12, 2018

Redo this thing. Make it the best water ride in the world. Animal Kingdom has plenty of land. Orlando is hot 10 months of the year. We need water rides worth riding.