Kali River Rapids by Reece Smith

Kali River Rapids

By Reece Smith

Kali River Rapids is a ride along a river hence the name which includes a river. Also it’s based in the Asia area of Animal Kingdom. It opened on February 15, 1999 along with the rest of the Asia area in the park which was a little less than a year after the park had opened on April 22, 1998. This ride also contains a pretty cool queue with a lush forest to walk through and several buildings with equipment for adventuring that make you almost feel like you’re no longer in America but actually in Asia and travelling to go on a river. 

You get into a raft which leads you into the river with white water.  The raft can hold up to 12 people. However to be one of those 12 people in any raft you must be at least 38’’ tall to ride. Some of the people on the raft will get somewhat wet and others will get soaked because there are many drops and rapids areas including a 20 foot drop at one point. There are lots of twists and turns that keep you from knowing what is up ahead.

If you don’t want your stuff to get wet, there is a locker area outside of where you would stand in line where you can rent both large and small lockers depending on how much stuff you have. Also these lockers are free for the first 2 hours. After you’ve dropped off your stuff, if you want you can wear a poncho or rain jacket on the ride to avoid getting your clothes wet. This ride also supports fastpass+ which is a sort of virtual line where you have a pass with a one hour time window to get on that ride and then ride it.  Also, it usually is a shorter line than the standby queue. 

On the ride you’ll encounter a downed forest by loggers and the river that runs through it, the river you’re on is a bit sketchy to say the least. This ride is no longer in my opinion as great, maybe that’s because I’ve grown a lot and I was just lucky but it feels like they either slowed down the water current or turned off water effects. This may be due to the fact that I went for the first time in like 3 years and during Covid no less but I’ve found that others blogged about this even before 2020. Don’t get me wrong I still love the ride, it's just not as great as I once thought it to be and hoped. The ride was at one point going to be named Tiger River Rapids which explains why the tiger trek is nearby and why there’s a lot of tiger themed decorations on the ride. The river is called the Chakranadi River meaning a river that flows in a circle. A fitting name for an attraction ride that constantly goes around and around.