The experience: bouncing with Tigger
The trick: a deceptive ride element hidden in plain sight
Kids don’t care about stunning theme park innovations. All they want is fun. Imagineers allowed for this during the construction of Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. In fact, the most straightforward request is the one that required years of research.
During the ride and most Pooh Corner adventures, Tigger loves to bounce. He’s a happy cat (well, tiger) who jumps up and down when he’s having a great time. When Disney quizzed kids about what they wanted most in a Winnie the Pooh ride, the survey results were emphatic. Kids wanted to bounce along with Tigger!
Let's pause and think for a moment. Have you ever been on a ride that bounced? I mean one that intentionally had a bouncing element on a flat surface. Drop tower rides don't count! The answer is no, because Imagineers had to invent it for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. Park planners are on record as saying that they could have built the ride several years sooner if not for this addition. Eventually, they used a bit of trickery.
When you enter the Bouncing Room as it’s called, your honey pot will start to go up and down in tandem with Tigger. Should you pay attention to the rest of the set here, you’ll notice something strange. The entire area is moving in tandem. It’s a kind of bounce house where the movements onscreen mirror the movements of the ride cart AND the floor. It’s a cheat! The floor, not the cart, is providing the bounce!
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