Kali River Rapids, the you-will-get-soaked water ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, will reopen earlier than expected. The ride was originally scheduled to reopen March 16th, but the reopening has been pushed up a day to March 15th. While visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom recently, we noticed that ride vehicle testing was underway.

Here’s a look at a partially unweighted vehicle in the load zone. Each raft can hold 12 guests, and the load station is constantly moving around a circular load platform. This ensures that the hourly capacity of the ride is somewhere north of 1,500 guests per hour. The ride takes you through lush (and not-so-lush) landscapes through a whitewater rapids environment, culminating in a 20-foot drop.

As you can see in our photos below, the ride vehicle rafts are weighted down to simulate the average expected weight of guests when the ride reopens. In reality, Disney is probably using more than the expected average weight in some cases to ensure that the ride is operable at more than the highest expected weight. There were a variety of methods used to simulate the weight – from dummies filled with water to bags tied to the seats. Here’s a look!

As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!