Does anyone else think the Pooh ride is pretty scary for little ones?

[Disney Princess 6]

I went on the ride before I had kids and I thought is was pretty dark and scary at that time. I was actually shocked that it was like that.

And now we just got back from taking our 4yo and 2yo on it and I still think it's dark and scary. The 4yo was fine, but the 2yo was pretty scared. It's dark in there and there's the whole heffalump/woozle situation too. And they focus on the blustery day too much.

Why couldn't they just have made it a nice, bright, happy ride through the 100 Acre woods where we see all the characters maybe on their way to a birthday party or something? My 4yo is still talking about how scared his sister was and he's renamed the ride "Pooh's nightmare forest!" Anyway, I don't think a 2yo should have to be afraid on a Pooh ride, you know?

 

[pam2girls]

We had the same problem with our 3 year old. She LOVES Winnie the Pooh, but was terribly scared of the heffalumps and woosels. Closed her eyes for most of the ride.

I agree that Pooh ride should be all happy thoughts. : )

 

[Libbysmom2000]

I agree with you as well. Our 3 1/2 yo DD LOVES Pooh and all his friends. One of my favorite pictures from our vacation last year is of her giving Eeyore a hug to make him feel better. That said, we will not take her on that ride. She's very sensitive and gets frightened by things many kids take in stride.

 

[BevS97]

My dd is pretty sensitive, at 3.5 she was nervous of nearly all the rides. (We managed to scare her pretty badly on the Cat in the Hat at Universal on our first day which didn't help)

Anyway - she wasn't keen on trying the pooh bear ride, but we watched some kids getting off the ride, and asked them if it was at all scary, and they told her "no it was fine", so on we went.
She was ok, but she wasn't very happy with the Woozles and Heffalumps scene, she mentioned a few times that it was too scary, and would only go back on with her Pooh torch to keep her safe, and closing her eyes through that section.

Bev

 

[tjmw2727]

The ride is based on the story "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" hence the title, which has recently been re-released btw.

This video and book is "classic" pooh and one of my girls favorite all time reads. The ride does a good job following the story, hence the blustery day, heffalumps and hero party at the end.

Personally I am glad they took a great story and turned it into the ride vs - a fluffy character ride through. YMMV

TJ

 

[Baloo]

Maybe if you're afraid your child might be scared of this ride it might be a good idea to read the story and watch the video of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.If the Huffalumps and Woozles bother them during the movie I'd veto a trip on the ride.If they're just a bit uneasy you could talk the ride up saying y'all are going to help Pooh and his pals.I think it's really important to reassure you child that this is make believe when they're having a hard time with a WDW ride.Erich gets through things better if he knows what's going to happen.You might want to go on it without your child first then take them on and when it comes to the part that might scare them tell them to close their eyes and talk to them through that entire part about fun things.I've said before Erich use to be scared of the pop up zombies in HM but we started yelling back at them and now that's his favorite part of the ride!

You know your child best so if you think it might be too much for them to handle don't do it! I know Erich got the bajeebers scared out of him at Tough to Be A Bug when he was 5.He decided to try it again last summer at 8 and it STILLED scared him.I don't imagine he'll be seeing it when he's 18! I know a clown scared me when I was 5 years old and clowns still make me uneasy.It's funny you just never know what will be the thing that stays with you for years!

 

[Tetonman]

A really good tip from elsewhere on this board:

If you think dark rides will scare your children, take them on It's a Small Small World as your first ride of the day. That way, the will understand that rides can be dark, yet fun. Also a small flashlight is a good thing to have handy for the little ones.

We've taught our 2 yr old DS, that his magic flashlight tells spooky guys to "Go Home!" (and he really believes it works)...

 

[BevS97]

that flashlight tip is a great one, we got a light up Pooh Bear and it only worked in the dark, so it meant that Katie was actually keen to go into dark rides so she could use it (hence Spaceship Earth being one of her favorites). Prior to that, she had been quite nervous of the darker rides.

I also agree with Its a Small World - after scaring Katie on The Cat in the Hat, she wouldn't go on any rides at all, she was just not interested, but I made her go on Its a small world - I don't really believe in forcing kids to go on a ride, but I knew ISAW was ok and I thought she needed to have a positive experience. Turned out she loved it, and we had to go on it over and over again, which was perhaps not the result I wsa looking for!!!

Bev