When I was fourteen years old, I hit a hurdle running track and tore my ACL and meniscus. I wound up having a second surgery just after my eighteenth birthday to correct some residual issues and remove one of the screws. Since then I have been an Ultimate Frisbee player, a soccer player, a marathoner, and a Zumba® instructor. My friends and parents still worry about my bad knee, and I do too, but for the most part I can do anything I want. Except bowling and miniature golf. I know what you’re thinking, “Bowling? Miniature golf? Really?” There is something about that tiny twist that my knee just doesn’t like. Recently however, in typical Chelsea fashion, I decided to ignore my knee and go play mini golf with Jay, Robert, and Victoria at Fantasia Gardens.
Walt Disney World actually has two different mini golf locations with a total of four courses. Fantasia Gardens is over near the Swan and Dolphin Resorts and Winter Summerland is fittingly over by Blizzard Beach. We decided to do Fantasia Gardens. The Gardens Course is “The Hippo-est Golf in Town” and is themed around some of the musical numbers of the 1940 Fantasia film. The Fairways Course is an actual miniature golf course in that it is built like a normal golf course on a smaller scale, complete with sand traps and water hazards. Naturally we picked the Gardens Course.
One of the problems with ignoring my knee is I just get worse as I go because it starts to hurt, whereas people usually get better the longer they play. So when I almost got a hole in one on the first hole, Jay protested, “I thought you said you were bad at this!” “I am. Give it time.”
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Each hole has a plaque shaped like a book with the name of the musical number the hole is associated with and a poem. Most of them have either special or musical effects that are set off when you successfully make the shot. Five of Fantasia’s seven musical segments are represented, although a character from one of the missing two shows up as well.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
[/lgc_column]The first three holes are based around the Tocatta and Fugue segment of Fantasia. The first hole has a trumpet looking thing that you shoot into. It works best if you hit it really hard so it goes through the back part of the serpentine and comes down directly at the hole. Victoria and I both managed this, but Robert and Jay didn’t hit quite as hard so theirs came down another way. The second hole makes a U shape and is scattered with musical note obstacles. None of us did very well here, and the couple behind us asked if we minded if they went around us. I’m happy they did, there were four of us and we were taking a while.
#1 Tocatta and Fugue
The third hole involves hitting the ball up a hill so it falls down a set of xylophone stairs. I managed it on the first try and so did Robert, though neither of us got a hole in one. I think Jay overshot big time and his bounced right off the course, so he just started over. Victoria somehow managed to get hers to land on the ledge on the inside of the U and she just moved it to the green.
The fourth hole is the beginning of the Nutcracker Suite. I always have a hard time remembering it’s in Fantasia since I just associate it with the Care Bears. The hole splits in two and you have to try to get the ball in the only open flower to the left. Everyone except Victoria hit it the wrong way first. The fifth hole is still part of the Nutcracker, and you apparently want to hit it while the mushroom is up so when it lowers the ball goes with it. Everyone but me managed to get that one right. I wonder if I would have done better if I hadn’t gone first so I could watch how they did it, but probably not. The sixth hole is sort of boring compared to the rest of them, it once again involves hitting up and around a hill like the third hole, but it’s not as steep. That being said, it still took me six strokes to get it in.
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Apparently he does better when he holds Duffy.
[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]The seventh hole has a spinning snowflake instead of the traditional windmill you usually see on a mini golf course. I thought I would be clever and try to go around, but my ball bounced back almost to the start so on my second stroke I tried going through the snowflake. To my shock it actually worked.[/lgc_column]
Robert and Victoria inside Mount Olympus.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]The eighth hole starts the Pastoral Symphony inside Mt. Olympus. It is a super easy hole and everyone got a hole in one! Except Jay. When you walk down through the mountain to the end, it sets off a lighting effect and Chernobog appears on the wall.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
Chernabog appears.
[/lgc_column]The ninth hole looks super simple as it is a straight away towards a faun statue, but there are hills to either side to make it more difficult. Everyone did really well here except me, I have much more luck with difficult shots than I do actually aiming and putting. We were also starting to get a bit of a backup behind us and I was feeling rushed. I was really happy when Victoria suggested we let everyone go around us.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]The tenth hole is a trick. Bacchus is dumping a barrel full of wine and you have to get it past him. You once again have to hit it up a U shaped hill, but there are two ways down and obstacles in the way. Thankfully if the ball starts to roll back down there’s a notch in the hill that catches it and sends it to the far end of the area around the hole.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
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See the purple ball just past the yellow strip of sidewalk?
Robert putting.
[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]The eleventh hole begins the Dance of the Hours segment, which is the one everyone remembers from Fantasia with the dancing hippos and alligators. It’s a serpentine stretch with topiary ostriches on either side. I was disappointed when I realized the topiaries were fake. The twelfth would appear to be easy. It’s a gator with an open mouth holding a hippo ballerina, so all you have to do is get it in the gator’s mouth. Well some genius decided to put the wheelchair access point directly behind the gator so I overshot and wound up on the sidewalk. I was the only one who got it through the gator on the first try, so it still turned out okay.
Another hippo ballerina stands atop the thirteenth hole. There’s a revolving door underneath so you have to time your shot correctly to get it through.[/lgc_column]Even timed correctly, after I distracted him the first time and he had to wait for it to line up again, Jay hit the door and his bounced back. So it took him four shots while the rest of us got it in two.
The fourteenth hole involves getting the ball into a narrow opening underneath an elephant statue. Victoria and Robert made it through, Jay and I both bounced ours off and had to go around. The elephant trumpets as the ball goes under her, and she sprays water when it goes in the hole. Jay was standing in exactly the right spot, but sadly he moved before Robert sank his shot. The fifteenth hole is the last one for the Dance of the Hours and the only obstacle is getting the ball over a series of fountain jets, but the jets are not really strong enough to knock the ball off course.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]The final three holes are dedicated to my favorite Fantasia segment The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Sorcerer Mickey is my favorite Mouse! For hole sixteen you have to shoot around a long curve where the brooms are posed to strike at any moment. [/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
[/lgc_column]Jay somehow overshot his onto the sidewalk and it bounced back in at the wheelchair entrance. “You couldn’t have done that if you tried!” Robert said, laughing at him. The secret of this hole is that the brooms are triggered by someone walking underneath them to pour water on the turf. Jay had been walking down the courses half the day instead of on the sidewalk, but of course this was the one time he took the sidewalk. Robert had been planning on racing down the sidewalk to try to get him soaked, but no such luck.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]The seventeenth hole is my favorite since it has the Sorcerer Mickey statue. You can tell people have tried to climb up there because this is the only hill on the course with a gate around it. The downward slope of the hill is divided in two so you want to be on the right side to land near the hole. Of course everyone but Victoria went down the left.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]
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[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]The final hole is Yensid, the Sorcerer. Did you know Yensid is Disney spelled backwards? I’m still not sure if that was clever or lazy on Disney’s part. Like most miniature golf courses, it’s basically a guaranteed hole in one and you can’t get your ball back afterwards. [/lgc_column]
Jay somehow still managed to make it into a two shot as his got stuck on the outside of the whirlpool.
Victoria tallied up our scores. Not surprisingly, I was in last place, although I’m still not sure how Jay beat me by three strokes. Robert placed first with Victoria behind him. Duffy had zero strokes, so I think he was the real winner. We returned our clubs and started heading towards the car. Victoria wanted to go over and play Winter Summerland next, but I told her I didn’t think my knee could take another round. I wish we could have, it was so much more fun than I anticipated.
Cost: $14.91 per person, but an annual pass gets you 15% off.
Duration: 1-2 hours. We were there about an hour and a half.
Value: Lots of fun to do once in a while. There are probably cheaper mini golf courses in Orlando, but none of them have Disney characters!
Add Ons: You can get a second round for 50% off on the same day.
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