A queueing option that’s been part of Animal Kingdom for years is about to disappear. Starting September 21, 2026, Walt Disney World is ending the Single Rider service at Expedition Everest, Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, one of the park’s headline thrill attractions. If you’ve built past Animal Kingdom visits around slipping through this line to squeeze in extra rides, this is a change worth knowing about before your next trip.Credit: Brittany DiCologero, Inside the MagicThe news was first reported by Scott Gustin, and Disney has since confirmed that the shift follows months of behind the scenes testing on how Cast Members sort guests before they ever reach the loading platform. This isn’t just a queue disappearing either. It reflects a bigger operational change in how Disney fills Everest’s trains from the moment guests enter the standby line.What’s Actually Ending on September 21Credit: DisneyRight now, Disney’s Single Rider page still lists Expedition Everest as one of the participating attractions at Animal Kingdom. The service has traditionally worked as a way to fill seats left open by guests using standby or Lightning Lane, letting solo travelers or split up groups slide into those extra spots.That option goes away after September 20. Disney has indicated the Single Rider signage at Everest will come down, and the attraction will be removed from the resort’s Single Rider listings both online and inside My Disney Experience starting September 21, and now that Animal Kingdom is closed for the day, Single Rider is officially closed with Everest.This didn’t happen overnight. Back in May, reports surfaced about earlier changes to Everest’s loading process, including a system that sorts standby guests into odd and even numbered parties before they load, which already reduced how often Cast Members needed to pull from the Single Rider pool. In July, the Single Rider sign at Everest briefly disappeared before returning, which in hindsight looks like an early test run for what’s happening now.Why Disney Is Making the SwitchCredit: D23The reasoning behind the change is fairly straightforward from an operations standpoint. Single Rider exists to solve a specific problem, empty seats left behind by standby and Lightning Lane guests who don’t fill an entire row. If Cast Members can identify and combine odd and even numbered standby parties earlier in the queue, fewer of those empty seats make it all the way to the loading platform in the first place.Disney says its testing of this new sorting approach resulted in lower average standby waits, and that’s currently the clearest justification for the decision. It also pushes back against the instinct that removing Single Rider will automatically slow the attraction down. If pre-sorting genuinely works as intended, trains can leave nearly full without needing a separate line dedicated to solo riders at all.That said, there’s a real tradeoff for guests. Single Rider gave solo visitors, and groups willing to split apart, another way into the attraction outside the standard standby and Lightning Lane options. Once this change takes effect, those guests will need to rely on the same entrances as everyone else.The Loading Station Is Where This Really Gets TestedCredit: DisneyThe bigger question isn’t really whether pre-sorting works during a quiet afternoon. It’s whether the system holds up when Animal Kingdom gets genuinely busy. Moving party organization earlier in the process can absolutely improve how efficiently seats get filled, but it also puts more pressure on Cast Members to group guests correctly and on guests themselves to follow along with a system that’s less familiar than the traditional standby line.There’s no confirmed evidence right now suggesting this will cause backups in the walkways of Asia, the section of Animal Kingdom where Everest is located. Disney’s testing data points toward improved standby performance instead. Still, this is exactly the kind of detail frequent visitors should keep an eye on in the weeks following the rollout. If the new process holds up under heavier demand, most guests probably won’t notice anything different beyond the missing Single Rider sign. If it doesn’t hold up as smoothly, the impact would likely show up in how the queue moves near the final approach to the loading station rather than in the posted wait time itself.What This Means Once You’re Actually Planning Your DayCredit: DisneyOnce this takes effect, Animal Kingdom will no longer have a listed Single Rider attraction at all. It’s worth noting that Disney hasn’t announced any resort wide changes to Single Rider, since EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios still list their own participating attractions. This is specific to Expedition Everest, not a sign that the option is disappearing everywhere.For anyone who has previously built an Animal Kingdom day around repeat Single Rider trips on Everest to maximize ride time, that strategy simply won’t work anymore after September 20. If squeezing in extra rides on Everest matters to your trip, you’ll want to lean more heavily on Lightning Lane or plan around standby wait times directly rather than counting on the Single Rider shortcut you may have used in the past. This is especially relevant if you’re visiting during a busier stretch of the year, since standby lines tend to swing more unpredictably when crowd levels are high.Everest remains a 44 inch height requirement attraction located in Animal Kingdom’s Asia section, and it’s still included in Early Theme Park Entry with Rider Switch available for parents traveling with younger kids who don’t meet the height requirement.Watching How This Plays Out After the ChangeThe clearest way to gauge how this is working will be checking Disney’s posted standby wait times and My Disney Experience directly rather than expecting the old Single Rider entrance to still be there. Disney’s own Single Rider page notes that participating attractions and availability can shift, and as of just a few days before the change, Everest was still listed, consistent with the service remaining active through September 20.What’s confirmed is simple. Single Rider ends at Expedition Everest on September 21 following months of testing a different approach to loading. What’s still unknown is how the system performs once that dedicated line is fully gone and whether the lower wait times Disney observed during testing hold up over time.Have you used Single Rider at Expedition Everest before? Let us know your thoughts on the change in the comments, we’re curious how this affects your next Animal Kingdom visit.The post CLOSED: Disney World Ends Long Standing Single Rider Offering as of 9 AM Tomorrow appeared first on Inside the Magic.