Arthritis knees - info about the boat rides please

[LongLiveRafiki]

I'm not sure what your actual bending capabilities are. For me, I have problems with hip and knee flexion greater than 90 degrees. For instance, I cannot sit with my knee higher than my hip or my knee bent in a way that causes my foot to be further back than my knee, on my left side anyway, if that makes sense. I found with the boat rides that the seats seemed lower to the floor of the boats in the first row than they were in the rest of the boat, which meant I had to sit sideways with my legs straight out to avoid bending my hip and knee in unfathomable positions and it was difficult getting out. Also, due to the curvature of the boats, it seemed like if you were sitting on either side of the front row, you had less leg room. After going on Pirates and iasw and experiencing this, I began requesting to sit anywhere but the front. The other rows were still a little tough because the seats still weren't high enough to sit feet flat without my hip flexed greater than 90 degrees, but by having my ankles crossed, knees sort of spread apart a bit, I was able to make it work and not have my hips and knees flexed as much. I was also then able to hold onto the back rest in front of and behind me to help me get out, whereas in the first row, I only had the back rest behind me to grab. A couple of times when my hip and knee were really bothering me, I rode with just my toddler and sat mostly sideways with my legs stretched out across the floor space for the row. Instead of saying we were a party of 4 but needed 2 rows, DH and I each said a party of 2 and each took a kiddo in a separate row. CMs never tried to sit more in a row than the number of people I said was in my party. I know that can vary depending on the CM and how busy they are, but it worked for us without a problem.

 

[mamabunny]

@SueM in MN

Thank you SO MUCH for posting all of those details regarding step height; I will start my new training tomorrow morning at PT! Who knows! I may ride that boat in Pandora yet!

 

[Selket]

I have terrible knees as well from arthritis. I can usually get in and out of whatever ride (not gracefully) but there are a few that always always make my knees hurt because of the bend required (and I'm on the taller and larger side): Splash Mountain and Small World. Those are the only 2 rides I can think of that I just rarely ride - and I've also gotten stuck on both when the ride went down and felt like I was just about ready to climb out of both my knees hurt so bad. We actually had to be evacuated off of the Small World boats by CM's that got in the water to help us out. I guess something to consider is could you stand to hold that position with your knees for 30mins to an hour?

 

[sharadoc]

Eek, I don't want to think about getting evacuated on a water ride!

 

[Euby]

I went this past January on a solo trip and used an ECV to get around the parks. I have bad knees as well and currently going to PT to help build some strength in the legs. That being said, I would use a cane to navigate from my ECV to the ride vehicle. While the CMs couldn't help me get in our out, I found that the guests that I was in the same row with always offered to assist me. So considered myself to have won that lottery! I rode all of the boat rides (IASW, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Frozen, Gran Fiesta, The Land, and Na'vi). The only one that was a little uncomfortable to me was The Land. However, I just sat sideways to give my self more room.