Tom Staggs confirms to the Orlando Sentinel that there will be changes to the previously announced Fantasyland plans

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs has confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that there will be changes to the previously announced Fantasyland plans. We understand that The Little Mermaid attraction, the Beauty and the Beast area (with the Be Our Guest restaurant), and the changes to The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh queue area are currently all that will proceed without changes. All the remaining areas are being re-considered and will likely not proceed as they were originally presented.

http://thedailydisney.com/blog/2010/08/disney-parks-chief-fantasyland-expansion-plans-are-being-redrawn/

“We took a hard look at it amongst a number of us and said, ‘Can we make the appeal broader? Can we make it even better?’ “ Staggs said during an interview this week with the Orlando Sentinel.

“One of the things that I thought the early design did fantastically was delivered on that princess experience. And that does tend to skew towards girls. … We’ve kept that intact — not exactly, necessarily, the way it was presented, but that appeal is there,” Staggs said. “I think we’ve added some things that aren’t just princess-focused, and that’s a good positive.”

“We had a number of different people look at it and say, ‘Is it accomplishing what we want to from a guest experience standpoint? Is it accomplishing that in a way that is operationally great? Is it as broad as it can be in its appeal?’” he said. “The answer is, it largely did. But we thought we could continue to play with it and make it better.”

The revisions are not expected to substantially alter the construction timetable; most of the Fantasyland additions are still scheduled to open in 2012 and 2013. Staggs said the project’s price tag will “not materially” change with the revisions, though a slight increase is likely because of certain additions. He would not provide specific figures.

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