The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a ride that is perfect for little ones in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom theme park. Climb aboard Pooh's Hunny Pot for a slow-moving ride right into the pages of an A. A. Milne storybook. On a very blustery day in the Hundred-Acre Wood, join Winnie the Pooh and all his friends including Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Gopher, Kanga and Roo. Bounce along with Tigger, float through a floody place with Piglet and drift through the mysterious dream world of Heffalumps and Woozles.
Touring Tips
- This is a short ride with whimsical music that kids seem to love.
- Winnie the Pooh is a VERY popular attraction. FASTPASS is almost always a must here! One suggestion is to go get your FASTPASS when you are ready for breakfast or lunch and about the time you finish eating, it's time to ride.
- Winnie the Pooh is part of the Magic Kingdom's Extra Magic Hour.
- Little kids will delight in this popular attraction, which seats 4 Guests per ride vehicle and features creative lighting effects and playful music to bring Pooh's exciting adventures to life.
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh contains some elements such as a storm that could be a little scary for very small children, but overall it's a willy nilly silly good time!
- Winnie the Pooh and friends can be found in Ariels' Grotto, Toontown, and at the Character Meals at the Crystal Palace on Main Street.
Facts
- This attraction opened in June 5, 1999 and replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride which closed September 1998. A mural exists in the Pooh ride showing Mr. Toad handing over the deed of the place to Owl.
- Winnie the Pooh: Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.
- Special effects, fiber optics, lighting and music enhance your journey as you relive Pooh's exciting adventures.
- The scent of honey greets you as you exit the ride and enter the gift shop.
The Ride
The ride vehicles go out of the load area, and arrive near a giant story-book showing Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin. The vehicles arrive in the Hundred Acre Wood during a rather blustery day (thus placing the events of the ride at "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day", instead of "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree", which is considered the beginning of "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"), with Piglet holding onto a broom while being spun around. Pooh is holding onto a balloon while trying to reach for some honey, while Eeyore patronizes him. Meanwhile Roo begins to be blown away as Kanga holds onto him.
In Owl's home, everything is scattered about, including a rather curious picture of J. Thaddeus Toad himself handing a deed over to Owl. There is also a picture of Winnie the Pooh greeting Moley (Mr. Toad's sidekick), which is flat on the floor to the right. These were placed as a subtle tribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the ride that The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh replaced at the Magic Kingdom (another tribute to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at the Magic Kingdom comes in the form of a Mr. Toad statue in the Pet Cemetery outside the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square).
The ride then passes a second giant storybook page, where suddenly Tigger bounces out, whilst the ride vehicles begin to bounce like Tigger. The ride follows Tigger through the Hundred Acre Wood, where he randomly pops up. Tigger bounces upside down at one point, before the ride moves on to Pooh's home. It transpires that Tigger has pinned Pooh to the floor as he tells him about Heffalumps and Woozles. Once in Pooh's house, Pooh falls asleep, and magically floats up into the sky, as the room blackens and is lit up by fibre optics (Pooh's floating is achieved with a Pepper's Ghost illusion).
The ride vehicles then move into a strange room as Pooh floats through. There are objects with eyes and mouths, while giant woozles with jack-in-the-box necks move in front of the guests. The ride moves round some very strange objects: a purple woozle lights a heffalump, causing a giant smoke ring to come from its trunk (in the Hong Kong Disneyland version, it was replaced with a heffabee taking a picture of a tan heffalump in a green uniform), and a giant heffalump has holes that reveal the way out of the heffalump scene.
Other funhouse effects are seen as the vehicles make an escape out of the heffalump scene, indicated by an umbrella and a watering can pouring rain over a pot of honey. After this the vehicles arrive in a room painted with rain and cloud patterns, as thunder and lightning go off, and then reenters the Hundred Acre Wood, which is experiencing the rainstorm. The ride vehicles begin to "float", although this is achieved by moving the vehicles at a steady speed. Eeyore complains about the wind and then about the rain. Gopher squirts water out of his mouth. Roo, Rabbit, Tigger and Owl attempt to save Piglet from floating away, and the ride vehicles move to find Pooh flying around owing to the wind.
he vehicles move into the final scene, where everyone apart from Pooh is celebrating that the rain has gone away. Piglet was a sculpted figure with movement, while Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo are illustrations on the wall behind. The vehicles move past Pooh enjoying a load of honey, and then go past a page that reads "The End" before arriving back in the load area.
History
After the rise in popularity of Walt Disney's film adaptation of Winnie the Pooh, Disney Imagineers made plans in the late 1970s for a Winnie the Pooh attraction at Disneyland's soon-to-be renovated Fantasyland. However in 1983, when the renovated Fantasyland reopened, a Winnie the Pooh attraction was notably absent.
Following the success of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, plans were made for a new section of the park located behind Fantasyland. Called Mickey's Toontown, this section of the park would recreate the Toontown that was seen in the film. One of the rides that would have gone on the east side of this land was a Winnie the Pooh dark ride in which guests would ride in "spinnable" honey pots (much like the Mad Hatter teacup ride in Fantasyland) through what was conceptualized as the best scenes from the three Winnie the Pooh featurettes. The ride fell through before it could be made, though, and the space that this ride was to have taken up and vehicle design of this ride were worked into Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.
Seven years later, during a period when the character was undergoing a resurgence in popularity, plans for a Winnie the Pooh attraction were approved at a different park: Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. That park's Fantasyland, much larger than the original Disneyland's, had the space to easily accommodate a new attraction. However, planners instead decided to utilize an existing structure: that of the Fantasyland attraction Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
When some fans found out that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was being shuttered for a Pooh attraction, they protested against its closure, organizing mass ridings along with peaceful protests. Despite cries from fans, the Walt Disney Company went ahead with its plans and the first The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction opened in June 1999, proving popular with younger crowds. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is staying during the Fantasyland expansion. But it has recently gotten a new queue resembling the Hundred Acre Wood.
Hidden Mickeys
- When you go into the "Rabbit's Garden" pay attention to the radishes. Around that area is suppose to be the radish that is shaped like Mickey.
- In Pooh in the Honey Tree, if you look at Pooh on the left side of his head there is a Hidden Mickey in the honeycomb.