It’s the final week of the Parks Floating Festival, and with it comes two new puzzles and two new rewards, both from Adventureland!
One puzzle features a quiz given to us by a talking parrot in front of a “pirate” ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean area of the secondary, fully-decorated island intended to represent the best of Adventurelands across the Disney Parks. (Careful: the squirrel question is a trick question!) The quiz resembles others given at previous floating festivals, such as the one given by the suit of armour during the Halloween floating festival. Once successfully completed, the quiz grants the Fuente de la Fortuna furniture item.
“Fuente de la Fortuna” translates to “Fountain of Fortune”, but if you’re thinking this looks more like a planter than a fountain, that’s because in real life, this once was an actual fountain, but it became a planter at its location in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World sometime during the early 2000s. Once upon a time, there were four fountains located in Adventureland in the area surrounding the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Each fountain represented one desire that a pirate might have: fortune, calm/serenity, beauty, and blue skies/fair weather. The Fuente de la Fortuna is located near what is now Tortuga Tavern beside “pirate stage”, where shows occasionally happen during park days and also at after dark events, such as Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween. As I said: originally, it was a real working fountain, as were the other three. Over time, however, in drought-prone Florida, all four fountains were turned into glorified planters. An unfortunate loss: I remember a time when, walking through Adventureland near Pirates, one could constantly hear the babble of falling water beneath the hurly burly of park goers and themed music. It made you feel as if you were actually near the sea, instead of land-locked in central Florida, which made this whole area more immersive. It is appropriate that you receive this item from a talking parrot, though: prior to 2006, guests were welcomed into the Pirates of the Caribbean queue by the “barker bird”. This was a heavily tattooed, peg-legged animatronic parrot known as Peg Leg Pete. Unfortunately, as with the fountains becoming planters. the “barker bird” likewise disappeared in the early 2000s (sometime around 2006), though he has reappeared, as of 2023, in some capacity at least: now known as “Rummy”, the bird is currently a featured animatronic at the pirate lounge known as the Beak and Barrel, adjacent to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction’s gift shop at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.
The second puzzle involves placing specific flowers in specific flower-plots located throughout the Adventureland area of the floating festival. Once completed, you will receive the Adventureland lamp post.
Not gonna lie: I was initially deeply disappointed with this item. You see, I was expecting a very different type of shield on this item, as I thought it was inspired by the lamp posts that flank the Adventureland Entrance at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (you know, since the Entrance is the one from there!):
Complete transparency: I placed this item, one on either side of my gorgeous WDW Adventureland Entrance, and then I complained for a couple of hours about how I wished they were actually park accurate. Well, it turns out they are park accurate, just not to the lamp posts in Florida! In July 2021, the shields on the lamp posts at Disneyland in Anaheim, California were “refreshed” as part of a series of cultural sensitivity changes. The inspiration for our current in-game lamp post can be seen on the right in the photo below (park photos pulled from the web and edited; used for entertainment and educational purposes; no copyright or trademark infringement intended nor implied):
While I remain disappointed, I am at least relieved to discover that this item is still park accurate from somewhere. They do look nice flanking the Adventureland Entrance:
I’m very excited to have my Adventureland build completed (at least for now). Before I start working on my interior builds recreating the Adventureland Tree House and the Beak and Barrel Tavern, I think I shall just sit and enjoy some sunsets and contemplate a pirate’s life for me….
