In the company I worked with, we just had a man inside the boat who walked it around the stage where it was supposed to go, while the Lilac Fairy made "look at this" gestures and gently brushed the "vines" out of the way, and the Prince dipped his hands in the "water" and made sort of "wow, I'm so amazed" gestures. Very simple. Naturally he had a concealed window so he could see where he was going and there was dry ice to make fog which added to the effect. The wings and a scrim which were painted to be the vines which had overgrown Aurora's castle over the hundred years slowly came in as the