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The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

15 bytes added, 03:48, 10 March 2018
/* Attraction History */
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an attraction located in [[Fantasyland]].
==Attraction History==
The idea of a dark ride based on Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise began in the late 1970s. Following the popularity of the Winnie the Pooh movies, Imagineers began to make plans for a Winnie the Pooh attraction to be added to Disneyland's Fantasyland. In fact Disneyland's 1976 long range master plan noted that "a new dark ride type attraction, possibly a Pooh theme with 900/hour capacity would be added near Casey, Jr." <ref name= "hill"> http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2003/08/04/168.aspx#sthash.3HtXHepG.dpuf </ref>. With Fantasyland scheduled to go under a significant renovation soon, and it was assumed that the Winnie the Pooh dark ride would be added then. When Disneyland's Fantasyland re-opened in 1983 however, there was no Winnie the Pooh ride present.
Although the attraction was not built, the idea of a Winnie the Pooh dark ride was not dead. In the late 1980s, Imagineers once again began making plans for a Disneyland Pooh ride. This time , the attraction was going to be located in Disneyland's Mickey's Toontown Fair. The new Winnie the Pooh ride would have allowed guests to travel through what were deemed the three best scenes in the movies in a spinable honeypot <ref> https://books.google.com/books?id=XqaWtV6Om1sC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=1970s+Disneyland+Winnie+the+Pooh+attraction&source=bl&ots=IS3Z7p_e-P&sig=wo0q7AUXQ9ZSGIrA-wxJeQXLLPw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY8-Sl2ovKAhUJPCYKHdsoAf4Q6AEITzAM#v=onepage&q=1970s%20Disneyland%20Winnie%20the%20Pooh%20attraction&f=false </ref>. Once again however, the attraction never came to fruition, as the location earmarked for the Pooh attraction would instead become home to Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. <ref> http://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-20/news/ol-18247_1_toon-spin </ref>
Several years after the last attempt at a Winnie the Pooh dark ride, Imagineers once again pitched the idea. This time, they wanted to build the attraction in Walt Disney World. Although Walt Disney World's [[Fantasyland ]] had enough space to build the new attraction, it was eventually decided to replace that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride would be replaced, and reuse its show buildingreused. Although an official reason for this decision was never given, it has been widely accepted that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was chosen for replacement due to the fact that Pooh would be a more marketable character than Mr. Toad <ref> http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/mtwr.htm </ref>. Despite Mr. Toad fan protests (as well as some bad publicity) <ref> https://www.math.miami.edu/~jam/toad/ow/ow971218.html </ref> Disney closed Mr. Toad's Wild Ride on September 7, 1998 <ref> http://allears.net/tp/mk/toad.htm </ref>. Mr. Toad's show building and ride structure were then reused, and on June 5, 1999 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh officially opened <ref> http://allears.net/tp/mk/mk_pooh.htm </ref>.
On November 23, 2010 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was given a new interactive queue. Sections in the new queue included: Tigger’s Bouncy Place, Rabbit’s Garden, Eeyore’s Gloomy Place and Pooh’s Hunny Hives <ref> http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/11/behind-the-scenes-the-many-adventures-of-winnie-the-pooh-at-magic-kingdom-park/ </ref>. At this time, the large tree that serves as Pooh's house was relocated from the recently closed [[Pooh's Playful Spot]] to the entrance of the queue <ref> http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/the-many-adventures-of-winnie-the-pooh/news/29apr2010-pooh's-playful-spot-tree-now-installed-in-the-many-adventures-of-winnie-the-pooh-queue.htm </ref>. Almost as soon as the new queue was installed, Disney decided to close Tigger's Bouncy Place due to safety concerns. In January 2011, the area reopened with new bounce pads and a softer surrounding area <ref> http://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/23/tiggers-bouncy-place-opens-at-winnie-the-pooh/ </ref>. Eventually however, Disney decided to do away with the pads altogether and in March the area was walled off for refurbishment <ref> http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/pooh-queue-rumor-tigger-bounce-spot-to-be-removed.684076/page-7 </ref>. That area remained closed until it was later repurposed for a Pooh meet and greet.