Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom is an exhilarating raft excursion along the Chakrandi River, courtesy of the Kali Rapids Expeditions. During this rafting excursion, you will journey into a lush jungle landscape that tragically begins to transform into a land ravaged by illegal logging. Your journey ends with a dramatic 20 foot drop where some, if not all, of the 12 passengers in your raft will get soaked.
Length of Ride: 4:30
Height Requirement: 38 Inches
Scare Factor: There is a steep drop your raft will plummet down.
Rider Switch (for small kids): Yes
Weather Procedure: Closed in severe weather
Ride Photo: No
Flash Photography: Well if you want a wet camera…
Queue: Winds through a boathouse that talks about illegal logging in the Himalayas
Extra Magic Hours: Yes
Fastpass: Yes
When to Ride: Before lunch or right before the park closes or use Fastpass
Our Touring Strategy: We usually ride at the end of the day so we don’t have to walk around in wet clothes. One trip, we wore our bathing suits to Animal Kingdom and rode Kali 3 times before going back to the resort to change.
Secrets/Tips and Tricks:
- Opens 30 minutes after the rest of the park.
- There are lockers located to the left of the entrance towards the Maharajah Jungle Trek that you can rent for FREE while you are on the ride.
- It is totally acceptable to wear a poncho.
- Bring a trash bag or Ziploc for your belongings if you aren’t using the lockers.
- Look for the real life geckos in Mr. Panika’s Office in the queue.
- If you go backwards down the drop, you are going to end up getting soaked!
- If you aren’t riding, be sure to stand on the bridge over Kali River Rapids. Look for the buttons. Push them when the boats come by and get the riders wet!
- Consider packing flip flops to wear on this attraction so your tennis shoes don’t get soaked.
- Approximately 20 rafts circle the river at any given time.
- Each raft has its own individual name. Take a look at which one you are boarding.
- As you rise up the 90 foot conveyor belt, the mist is infused with the scents of Indian jasmine and ginger to submerse you into the experience.
- Take note of the sandals lined up outside the temple. It is an Asian custom to remove your shoes before you enter a temple or a house of prayer.
- In the colder months they will turn the splash down. You will still get wet but you won’t get soaked to the bone.
- This attraction is usually closed in January for yearly maintenance.
Check out these tips for Maharajah Jungle Trek.
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Tina says
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately as soon as we got on it starting pouring down rain. So, we really didn’t get to enjoy the ride. Fortunately, we had our ponchos on.
Ashley says
We thought we had everything planning out for our trip 2 weeks ago for my husband, myself and our 3 yr old triplets who are all 38-40″. The blogs and descriptions all reported the 38″ height requirement for Kali so fast passes were scheduled. We got there ready to ride and they measured my kids giving them all special armbands for special seats on the raft. A cast member pulled us aside and informed us we would need to be in separate rafts, one adult per child. Obviously with only 2 adults and 3 toddlers that wouldn’t work for us. We were not offered rider swap and this being our first day at Disney and being caught off guard I didn’t think to ask. The bottom line is that although the descriptions say 38″ to ride, in order to ride in a regular seat (there’s only one special seat per raft) you must be at least 42″. I feel this is important information for parents of multiples or just families with multiple small children.
Tracy says
Yes that should be included. They should of told you that at the front of the line!!! You CAN do rid swap too, but as you said first day you were not thinking!!
Trish says
Great ride for when its really hot out. When we went at the beginning of Sept in 2015, it was so hot we spent a lot of time at the water parks and pool. The one morning we were in AK, we rode on it and my nephew and I got soaked but didn’t complain because it was close to 90 with 100% humidity, so while the rest of our family was hot and sweaty, we were nice and cool :)
My tip is to switch shoes or bring extra shoes, I can live with wet shirt/shorts but wet socks and sneakers… no way! Also if you don’t want to get wet, like one of the commenters seemed like she didn’t want to, don’t ride it. I was in a dry seat when I got on and ended up getting wet
Heather Noble says
This ride is amazing fun and a must do….However, make sure you bring a dry pair of shorts to change into!!, I can not stress this enough. I did not the first time, of course was soaked and my thighs rubbed wit the wet shorts all afternoon and I was so chaffed I got skin burns and couldn’t walk for 2 days!!! Seriously.
Kristin from Couponing to Disney says
Very good suggestion!
Penny says
When you are getting on the ride avoid any seats that are wet or have water already on them – this is a sign that you will end up getting soaked to the skin if you sit in this seat. I avoided them but then the girl on the platform ordered people to move up as there were spare seats beside us, I stupidly moved into the wet seat – no one else moved and I ended up soaked. I was really annoyed as I’d tried to avoid this seat and then it rained and remained cold for the rest of the day, I was frozen cold :(