All three rides can be held.
PP— This ride loads from a stationary position for everyone. They can hold it longer but they don’t like to hold it
too long, because the ships are suspended 17+ feet above the floor, so they do have to consider that sometimes clueless people do stupid things like attempting to get out. That said, I know they’ve held it for at least 45 seconds when I’ve been on it.
Pooh can also be held, for at least 30-45 secs., but I don’t know if there’s an upper limit.
HM— I don’t think there’s a hard limit. It’s probably up to the discretion of the lead CM working at that time. (Actually, that’s prob. true of any ride.) You might have to emphasize that you need it 100% stopped. They like to first slow it down— there’s two “slow” speeds ime, slightly slowed and crawling. For some reason I almost always have to tell them “No… I need it stopped all the way please, so I won’t
§fall.” Stand your ground and don’t take a step onto the walkway until it is stopped.
Also on HM you can take a wheelchair/
ECV all the way thru the line up to boarding. They will keep asking you if you can stand for a short time, or if you can walk a short distance… well, their short time is almost certainly longer than what you call a short time. You could be standing 10-15 mins, and walking at least 100-150 feet. If that’s too much for you, say so. Tell them you need to stay in the ECV, or can transfer to a standard wheelchair (assuming there’s someone there to push you).
You didn’t say what your difficulty is when boarding…. but if you have trouble stepping into the restricted space between the seat and the lap bar,
make sure you tell them you need the ADA ride vehicle.
- ADA cars have an extra “secret” door that opens so that someone in a wheelchair can transfer straight over from their wheelchair seat to the ride vehicle seat (sometimes with the help of a transfer board to bridge the gap.
- Even if you are able to walk a few steps, using the ADA vehicle means you can just turn around (facing away from the ride car) and sit your butt on the seat, then pivot your body to bring your legs inside.
- If you need your support person to be able to get out first to help you at the end of the ride, then you’ll get in first and slide over, so your support person can get in after you. If you can pivot out and stand with only a steadying arm from the CM, then you can get in last.
- Not all rides have ADA cars but a lot of them do (I’m not sure if HM has one or not) I’m pretty sure all of the Fantasyland attractions have them.
- Some boat rides you can stay in a wheelchair— basically any boat ride without drops. They should have loaners at the attraction. If you don’t want to ride in a wheelchair, then ask if they have the “transfer steps” or “bump steps”. These are steps that you sit on (at low chair height) then “bump your bum” down them to get in or bump your bum up to get out. (Think of how a toddler goes up & down steps on their butt).
§ I won’t ever try to get on HM again without the ride being completely stopped. I had a fall right next to the Omnimover with the walkway was slowed to a crawl. The CM had turned & didn’t see me right away. As the lap bar started to close, I screamed really loud & at the same time some people in line yelled too, and then the CM stopped the ride. They had to release the lap bar so DH could get back out and help me stand. The lead suddenly appeared and CM actually said to me, “You should’ve asked for the walkway to be stopped completely.” My DH spoke up and said “She did! You didn’t do it, you just slowed it way down instead. Then you turned back to loading more people. So she tried to hurry & get in… that’s how she fell.” The lead said something about reviewing the video… so they must record the loading area.
I had left my
scooter outside (I don’t anymore.) so they got a wheelchair to take me to it, and the lead gave us a few paper “skip the line” passes— one for HM and a couple for any other ride and she marked that they were good for the rest of our trip— which was very nice of her.
I had to go to First Aid to get the scrape on my leg cleaned and bandaged and to lay down for a bit, to calm down. It was
really scary. I know that they had to do an incident report while I was in First Aid. I think they had a GS manager come to talk to me too. Although that might’ve been later when we stopped at Town Hall. It was a really long time ago now… 17-18 years ago….
I don’t think we ended up trying to go on HM again.
{I’ll be back to edit this later & add more to it… right now, I’ve got to get some sleep
. }
