Fantasia Gardens: A Symphony of Magic!
Introduction
You come to Animal Kingdom, hearing for months of a great new ride coming right behind Expedition: Everest. People have been talking for years about Beastly Kingdome; now we have the next best thing. On the front page of your map you see “NEW!” in the starburst in the corner of the page, and a large piece of concept art for a new ride, the one you’re about to experience. It says “Fantasia Gardens”.
Fantasia Gardens was a proposed project Disneyland’s Fantasyland, and was later proposed for Beastly Kingdome. Although you can see this name and some concepts from the ride in the mini-golf course of the same name, the ride was never built, and now I’m going to attempt to recreate it in the way I see fit. All of your favorite scenes are here, yet the dinosaur piece (The Rite of Spring) has a much lesser role than the rest of the pieces, as dinosaurs are already featured in the park. Also, the Ave Maria at the end of “Night on Bald Mountain” is cut, mostly because it doesn’t fit into the ride, and partly because it’s too religious.
This ride takes place both inside and outside of a show building, and the ride experience is different in the day and the night. Here, I’ll explain the nighttime lighting. So here we go, onto the queue!
The Queue
You find your way through the back of E:E and find a dense forest of ivies and ferns. There are many flowers amidst the shrubbery; mostly pastel colors. Suddenly, there is a small plaza. The floor turns from simulated dirt to tan tiling, with magical sparkles imbedded into them. Have you stumbled upon an ancient garden? No, that can’t be! It can’t be ancient… because it’s so well manicured… but who would go back here into the jungle to trim hedges? You make the assumption that the garden is magical and is never in need of trimming. There are 1 or 2 ODVs in the little plaza, and a large fountain in the center. It’s the fountain found in California Adventure, Toon Studios in DLP, and other places. It’s the statue of Sorcerer Mickey controlling the water on a small ledge with brooms on either side of him. The fountain is lit in clean yet warm yellowish-white light.
But what draws your eye is the circle of Greek pillars around you. They have soft (yet dynamic) lighting on them in the nighttime, and in between them are swirly topiaries lit in green. 2 pillars have a beam going across them. On top of the thin beam is the word “F A N T A S I A” in the same thin, black lettering as the iconic title is spelt on VHS and DVD releases. It’s lit from the bottom, and that creates a very cool lighting effect on the letters. Under the lettering is the thin tan stone slab that it’s resting on, and carved into it is the word “G A R D E N S”. Thus, the ride’s name is “Fantasia Gardens”. You go through the archway created by the slab and 2 pillars and read the warning plaque on it’s own little pillar just beyond the archway. It says:
“Fantasia Gardens is a Boat Ride featuring special effects such as strobe lights, periods of darkness and other lighting effects, sights, smells and a symphony of sounds. You will also encounter fast portions, sudden stops, and roller coaster-like portions not normally found in water rides. If you have trouble with…”
“Wow,” you think to yourself, “Roller coaster sections on a boat ride? Wonder what that’ll be like…”. You move through the queue and find even more delightful fountains, some with statues, some just large jets of water. There’s even a section of jumping fountains in a thin part of the queue. There are ivy-covered walls of tan brick, little walk-through gazebos, and murals of what’s to come on the walls and the ceilings of the murals. The whole queue is lit up, slowly turning from white lighting to colored lighting, adjusting your eyes to the light of the upcoming ride.
Load
You come to a large river, with a wall behind it covered with vines. Chiseled into the wall is an abstract scene of music notes and musical symbols. On your left is a large golden door which also has musical scenes carved into it. The doors open periodically to let 2 boats though into the loading area. You are led through the air gates and get into your boats. They seat 8 and look like the dark yellow and pink equivalent of gondolas. There’s one major difference, though: There are large speakers in the back of and in front of the boat. There are also speakers on either side of your headrest. If you knew any better, you’d also marvel at the roller coaster track on the bottom of your boat, certainly not the classic guide rail of a normal water ride. But why would you look under the boat? A large bar comes down and the doorways that you entered the boat from close. You’re on you’re way to the main section of the gardens!
Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
You go up a small waterfall that acts as your first main lifthill. As you go up it, a harp starts to play as you hear the “Pixie dust chimes” playing. It’s your first signal that this garden is filled with musical magic. You reach the peak of the waterfall and gently move into a small pond. It’s roughly shaped like a G-Cleft, which is a nice inside joke for music people. There are trees and shrubbery surrounding the pond, yet all seems dark. Everything seems quiet until…
Tap Tap Tap…
The conductor readies his orchestra, and the first bar plays. The music is accompanied by streams of water that dance to the music, Toccata & Fugue in D minor (think Fantasmic!). They change colors to match the rhythm and beat of the song, and the trees and shrubbery change in dancing lights to accompany the fountains. Sometimes, you even see the shadow of a musical instrument in the trees! The sound system of your boat is demonstrated in this piece, and you almost feel the rhythm of the music in your boat. The percussion beats are accompanied by orange water domes, pulsing with blue lights and sprays of water. Red streams represent the strings, and the turn from red to green to pink. The woodwinds have sets of shooting, short water jets turning from purple to yellow, and every color in between! In the trees you see the animated shadows of these instruments projected into the leaves in different colors, from the blowing of the French horn to the pl__________g of a viola. The music plays you out of the area as you float over from the pond and up another waterfall, this one changing colors to match the music. You crest the waterfall as the sounds of Toccata & Fugue melt away and you enter a new musical world…
Dance of the Hours
You crest over this waterfall and Dance of the Hours starts playing. You go down an unconventional water ride semi-drop. Here, the “drop” is a short, curvy (as in left-to-right-to-left) river that splashes down into the first scene of Dance of the Hours This scene features the Greco-roman style columns in the queue, swirly topiaries, and fountains of various shapes and sizes. You are first presented with the dawn, the ostriches. The whole area is lit quite brightly in yellows and oranges as you come across the big birds. There are 2 large hedge walls to your right, with a fairly large gap in between them. The gap is like a stage for the ostriches, which twirl back and forth on their tippy-toes through the small opening. What you don’t see is the turn-around sending the ostriches back through the path, mostly because it’s blocked by the hedge walls. Several yellow/orange streams shoot between the hedge walls, making a sort of a curtain that disappears as you come close to the ostriches’ “stage”. There are smaller fountains in these same colors in the area.
As you turn the corner, you come to the hippos. The scene is lit a bit less brightly, with reds and pinks being the major colors. They twirl around in place, slowly yet surely. One is even hidden in the hedges when they part and the large beast is lit up and twirls directly toward your boat! The fountains found here are all red/pink, and they mostly consist of 2 streams twirling to create a double helix (like the shape of DNA).
You enter the next area only to find a… well it kind of looks like a roman garden shed. Picture this: it’s a small, yet long building that kind of looks like a long gazebo (picture an ornate version of the HM canopy/tent). It has no walls, just 4-6 pillars holding it up and a triangle roof. It’s a small structure, but it’s quite pretty. The only problem is that, well, instead of walls, the little structure has 4 sheets indigo/violet of water cascading down the sides of the roof, creating 4 walls. And you’re about to go right through the first one. As you brace yourself for a watery impact, the wall of water stops flowing, letting you pass through to the other side. As you breathe a sigh of relief, you gently float through the water gazebo. On all 3 sides of you are large sheets of indigo/violet water. There are lights everywhere slowly going on and off, and as you wind through the passageway, you become slightly disoriented. The 2nd water wall stops flowing and you are greeted on the other side by an elephant that sticks it’s trunk out at you. In the daytime, you would be sprayed by this graceful pachyderm.
You go through another curve. The coloring is dark blue and green, and an alligator AA dances. There are short blue/green fountains that greet you as you go to the “Chaos” scene.
As you round the scene’s final bend, splashes of color changing water abound (during the day, the splashes get you wet). The water splashes in a variety of colors, in fact, they’re all of the previous colors from all of the scenes! The Ostriches and Elephants spin in circles together, and in the middle of them are large color changing fountains, changing from yellow/indigo/orange/violet. In the finale, Ben Ali Gator is seen spinning Hyacinth Hippo around on a single finger, while red/green/pink/blue water jets surround them. You go up another little waterfall and see little water jets following you up the waterfall. As the music comes to a culmination, the fountains flash in all of the colors of the rainbow and more. Finally, the final crash of music ends the piece and the fountains stop, the colors turn to a steady dark, dark blue, and you crest the waterfall. You go down a very small drop and make it to another musical piece…
The Nutcracker Suite
You pass by an area densely populated by shrubs, trees, and bushes. They shake just a little bit in the daytime, and if you listen closely enough, you can hear giggling. At night, though, they sparkle, as if fairies of nature are enchanting them. You turn to see a little island surrounded by plant life. It feels as if you’ve been given special permission to see what was about to happen. The little sandbar-like island suddenly lights up in red and the dancing mushrooms pop out of the ground! They form a circle, and the littlest one, Hop Low, spins in his own little circle in the center (Just a little bit behind the big guys, of course!). When the dance ends, the mushrooms pop back into their places and the lights go off.
Next, you slowly float through a pond lit gently by yellow and orange lights. Under the water, you can see a golden fish swimming around gracefully, through seaweed and other underwater plant life. Slow, graceful music plays. You move on and see a sort of curtain made with a layer of moss. The curtain parts off to the side and you enter the dark little alcove. It seems dark, yet the music is light and airy. Then, you see fairies (in sparkly pixie-dust-trail-created-by-LEDs form) swirl around you and open a door into the show building.
The moss curtain closes and you see the wonder of the fairies changing summer into fall (P.S. the building is in “eternal afternoon”). The flowers around you close and fairies are all around. In a little pool of water joined to the river you ride on, a fairy is on a little leaf that fell from the bare tree next to her. Then, as you continue to move forward you enter a slightly more dark room. Suddenly, strobe lights begin to flash. Gigantic zeotropes spin in the ceiling and give the illusion that leaves are falling.
You continue on and turn a corner and see the whole scene decked out in snow. Disco ball lighting make snowflakes in the sky, as fairies add frost to trees (there’s a cool lighting effect here), freeze water (by skating on it), and stand on giant snowflakes hanging from the snow-filled ceiling. The room has an icy blue glow to it. You continue to move through the scene as the music culminates. You move up a waterfall in a dark passage filled with snowflake projections.
The Pastoral Symphony
As the finale of The Nutcracker Suite comes to a close, the snowflake projections in the little hill you go up quickly turn off and in their place are stylized pink clouds. You exit the passageway and now no longer feel like you’re floating on water. It feels like you’re floating… on air! (Psst…. This is due to the roller coaster track underneath the boats!) Here, the waterway dries up and re-circulates to another part of the ride. You float forwards and past a beautiful vista of the sun setting in Olympus Mountain, where the Greek mythological creatures play. To your left, you are greeted by a little black Pegasus horse flying amidst the clouds. You turn and pass by a cupid/centaur (those are fauns, right?) blowing into a horn and sitting on a Greek pedestal. He toots the horn with so much excitement that he nearly leans off the side of the column!!
All around are the colors of the sunset, reds and yellows and pinks and greens, and the (fake) gardens here look positively heavenly. You manage to witness a male centaur walking hand in hand (or is that hoof-in-hoof?) with a female centaurette. Many more baby Pegasus’s fly around, and they lead you to the wine god, Bacchus. He comes into view as your round a corner. The jolly god is on the top of a miniature hill, and his large barrels and his glass is over flooding with wine! It floods down the hill like a waterfall and you get swept away in the resulting river! You once again hit the water (now wine), and go down a slight windy river, past more pastoral scenery. You come to an abrupt halt as over you, you see Zeus, throwing lightning bolts into the water in jest. As he throws a bolt into the water, there’s a similar effect as on PotC, yet here the splashes are less “splashy” and more streamlined, and when they hit, they create a shock in the water and a “BUZZ!” sound effect. The little black Pegasus from earlier in the ride flies over you one last time as lightning bolts are thrust into the water. You start to ascend a large hill as the music comes to a crescendo, but the lightning bolts follow you up the lift.
The Rite of Spring
The lightning bolts flash into the water as you go up the lift with greater force, and each one increases with intensity; the flash and the splash is greater each time. Finally there’s a huge splash (you may get wet!) and the room turns a dark red. The music immediately turns into The Rite of Spring. You finally make it to the top of this waterfall and you take a short dip right into the water. Right after you hit the water, you seemingly go right up another hill, this one not very steep, but long and curvy. The lift is powered by the roller coaster track, so you don’t feel the clunky movement of most lifts. The room is very humid, there are a couple of wilted plants in some places, but other than that, the only scenery seen is a slightly lit mural of a flat, barren landscape. The room is very dark and foreboding other than that. The music playing creates an element of anticipation. There are infrequent flashes of lightning lighting the room, and even then you can’t make out much. As you move along, you see red-hot jets of steam randomly spring up around you and making you jump. Soon, though, you can almost make out the light at the end of the tunnel: A final lift, lit dimly in blue can be seen in the distance, but the rest of the room is pitch black. The lightning flashes become more frequent now, and suddenly you hear a loud roar! Lit up in the lightning flashes is a massive tyrannosaurus which leans into the side of the boat and roars!! You quickly make your way to the lift, and the blue light at the end of it goes out!
Night on Bald Mountain
The song of the same name starts playing, and the water you’re floating on suddenly turns blood red. The black rockwork on either side of you is dimly lit in yellow light. You crest the top of the final lift and enter a large room that looks like the top of a mountain in the dead of a starless night. Projections of demon-like creatures follow you along the black walls, and lava spurts from the cracks, narrowly avoiding you. There’s a geyser of lava shooting up in a little alcove of bright yellow light, with demons dancing around it. Suddenly, on your right, a blast of real fire shoots up out of the rockwork! The music suddenly becomes even more demented, and to your left you see a gigantic AA of Chrenabog!!!!
He gives you a demonic smile as his eyes glow a sinister egg yellow and steam vents all around him shoot up into the ceiling. You grind to a halt (but without the horrible grinding sound) as the demon stretches out his wings. He gestures his hands up, and summons a large group of projected demons into the sky. Next, he gestures his hands toward the boat, then down a path that you hadn’t seen before. It’s another short lift! When will the insanity end?? You lift off the water and, on the water coaster mechanism, you glide up the pathway. He silently laughs to himself as you are forced up this lift. There’s a suspense as you don’t quite know what’s around the bend, and you hope for the best. There’s a short roller coaster drop, then your boat starts careening through a little passageway in the mountain. You smash into a water screen of ghosts and demons, and start to coast across the ground.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Night on Bald Mountain suddenly merges with the chaos scene of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. You turn into a corridor of deep blue and at the end of it you see Mickey holding onto the spell book for dear life. He screams “HEEEELP!!” as you wave up and down the track and segway into the 2nd coaster portion. You enter a huge room and see the spiral of blue lines, track water and general chaos into the center of the room, which is basically a deep blue pit. You spiral around the room at high speeds and lights follow you, making crazy blue patterns and generally disorienting you. You fall through the pit in the center of the room and go along curves in the track, and along every curve there’s an affect somehow involving water. Along one turn there’s a wall of broomsticks similar to the ones in the mini-golf. They throw their buckets and water splashes over you! You turn again and you’re faced with a broom splashing water directly in your face! Good thing it’s only a smoke ring and a couple of lighting effects! There’s a well that you pass by, and it’s over flowing with water, the bucket broken off the rope and floating beside the boat! You drop into a room full of giant bubbles & real bubbles and you see Mickey in one bubble and the hat in another! You swerve through bunny hops and general fastness when you reach a dark corridor. As you dash into the darkness, a giant tidal wave lights up! There’s a great cymbal crash! You narrowly avoid that one and come across another one! Crash! Wave, Crash! Wave, Crash! You crash right into the last one and get sprayed with water! You run right through the break run and on either side of you are giant walls of water!
Yensid, the sorcerer, is lit with a spotlight at the end of the run, and he is seen parting the waters. As you brake, a huge splash of water appears in front of you, as if kicked up by the hull of your boat! You finally slow down and float through a corridor. There’s a shadow on the wall, and you see Yensid placing the sparkling hat on Mickey’s head. Awww! Quite a bit different than the movie, huh? You slowly move into the finale room and see Mickey on a giant cliff-thing conducting the waters to dance. All around you are fountains of varying shapes and sizes moving to the music just as they moved in the first scene, changing colors and sizes. There are giant splashes of water that splash against the cliff, changing colors. The ceiling is a planetarium dome, filled with stars that sparkle in time to the music. The room is a refreshing and cool blue and you feel wind whipping through your hair.
You turn one last corner and come to the ride’s “Kiss Goodnight”: the water tunnel. 2 brooms are holding buckets dumping 2 strong streams of water across from each other, so they create a sort of archway. You can see that the tunnel of water extends far from the brooms. Picture the old tunnel from Poseidon’s, Fury, only color-changing. You move into the tunnel and you realize that you’re onto a 3rd roller coaster track portion! You swiftly move through a curve in the tunnel and you burst through a door and you find yourself outside again. There are a couple more fountains along your way to the unload dock, and the song concludes as you dock. There’s a tremendous amount of applause as the unload dock’s lights turn slowly on (remember, you’re riding at night!) and you exit. You walk through the relatively quiet walkway and come upon a little alcove with a projection of the orchestra cleaning up for the night. On your opposite side, you see the conductor's podium, and Mickey runs onto it. He says:
Mickey: (tugging on his coat tails) Hey! Mr. Conductor? Sir?
Conductor: Hm? Oh!
Mickey: Ha! Congratulations, sir!
Conductor:Congratulations to you, Mickey.
Mickey: Gee, thanks! So long! I'll be seein' ya!
Conductor: Goodbye... (to us) and goodbye to you, too!
(they resume putting things away)
...and you enter the giftshop, done up in a Greco-roman style. Among things you can buy are plushes of your favorite fantasia characters (The animals in DotH, Lo High, The little black Pegasus, Mickey, etc.), plus t-shirts, hats, and ride pictures (remember the flashing at the drop in The Rite of Spring?).
ALTERNATIVE ENDING!!!
After Yensid parts the waters, you go directly into the "Finale" scene. Right after it, you pass by a corridor with the shadow of Yensid taking his hat back. You then go into the water tunnel.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this concert, and I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay at the Walt Dinsey World Resort, Where Dreams Come True! I’m happy to answer any and all questions, suggestions and other things. I didn’t see the movie before writing this, so tell me if I missed something important. Thanks again!
I like how you would sail seamlessly in and out of the show building. One thing that I think would be neat is the part where Yensid parts the waters - I can imagine something along the lines of the water tunnel at Poseidon's Fury over in Islands of Adventure (that is, before they cheapened that effect and got rid of the jets 
