Staggs says Fantasyland Expansion plans being reworked

[NBT]

Disney is redrawing the sweeping Fantasyland expansion plans it laid out last year, even as bulldozers clear land for the project inside the Magic Kingdom.

With the revisions, begun under new Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs, designers are attempting to rebalance the plans, which initially tilted heavily towards young girls by emphasizing attractions and experiences built around Disney’s stable of animated-movie princesses.

“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.

The Fantasyland expansion is a critically important project for Disney. The Magic Kingdom, the busiest theme park in the world, now draws more than 17 million visitors a year and needs added capacity to ease pressure on crowds inside the park. The project, billed as the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history, also comes as Disney World faces heightened competition from Universal Orlando, where the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter has drawn rave reviews — and enormous crowds — since opening in June.

Staggs declined to discuss specific changes to the Fantasyland plans, saying Disney would unveil them “in due course.”

The original plans called for a lavish indoor ride based on the movie The Little Mermaid, a trio of interactive princess character-greeting areas, an elaborately themed Beauty and the Beast restaurant, an expanded Dumbo attraction for young children, and a vaguely defined fairies-themed area.

Staggs said much of what was included in the original plans will be incorporated into the final product and that the changes are “improving it on the margin.” He characterized the revisions as part of any creative project’s natural evolution. As an example, Disney cited Hong Kong Disneyland, where early blueprints included an area dubbed “Glacier Peak” that was eventually replaced with a section themed around the company’s Toy Story film franchise.

“Our process is always iterative and always goes through changes as it goes along,” said Staggs, who was the Walt Disney Co.’s chief financial officer when he switched places with parks-and-resorts chief Jay Rasulo at the start of this year. Staggs added: “I believe one of my most important jobs is to make sure that I’m enabling and challenging our creative process to create the best possible result.”

Disney first announced the Fantasyland expansion plans 11 months ago, with Rasulo personally unveiling them during a convention in Anaheim, Calif., for a company-sponsored, $75-a-year fan club. Staggs is now running the theme-park division and Rasulo is CFO following an executive shuffle orchestrated by Disney President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger.

The Fantasyland construction is well underway: Yellow backhoes and mountains of dirt are visible behind temporary construction walls erected inside the Magic Kingdom.

But rumors have been building for weeks that changes were afoot, fueled by reports from a pair of well-known Disney bloggers, Jim Hill of Jim Hill Media and Al Lutz of MiceAge.com.

Company followers say there have been two pivotal developments since the Fantasyland plans were first announced: Staggs was installed as head of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and Universal opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Staggs, who has three young sons, is said to have expressed concerns that the initial plans for Fantasyland were too narrowly tailored to girls. The Wizarding World, meanwhile, has delivered impressive early returns for Universal Orlando since formally opening June 18.

The more than $200 million addition to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park powered the resort to a 2 percent attendance gain during the second quarter, its first quarterly increase in two years. Attendance at Disney World sank 2 percent during a similar period.

“I think Harry Potter helped” push Disney executives to revisit their approach with Fantasyland, said Lutz, of MiceAge.com. “I think it had an influence to say, ‘Hey, this is something that can be done on this level, and it’s not at a Disney property.’ “

Staggs said Wizarding World has not been a factor in Disney’s Fantasyland plans. “I don’t see evidence that somehow that has changed anyone’s direction or made them think differently,” he said.

But he said Disney is trying to broaden the project’s overall appeal. For instance, plans for three interactive princess meet-and-greets — where children could dance with Cinderella, celebrate Sleeping Beauty’s 16th birthday or play a role in a story with Belle of Beauty and the Beast — are being altered.

“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.”

Staggs said planners are also reviewing the Fantasyland expansion with an eye toward blending “aspirational rides” — rides that offer thrills or tension — with attractions designed for guests of all ages. And he said they want to ensure that the additions are flexible and can be updated or adapted over time.

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.

Staggs said none of the changes should be interpreted as an indictment of the original Fantasyland expansion plans.

“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.”

I'm REALLY beginning to like Staggs since he's taken over. I was a little weary when I first heard the news of him switching since he was the money guy taking over for the Parks, but he's proven to do a good job so far and he comes off to really care about the parks as well, which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for Rasulo.

 

[Rockclimber]

I am going to have a positive mindset on the changes. With the exception of Dinoland, the Tiki Room update and SGE, Disney has been faithfull in delivering quality. But I am going to hold judgement until it opens.

My only concern is Staggs background. I hope he doesn't put on his former CFO glasses and look at everything through the checkbook. Even though he said in the article that the cost of the project will not "materially change, you can read in a few paragraphs above that it is an ever evolving project. So this is what scares me a little.

 

[Figment632]

Hmm I seem to have been vindicated what do all you non believers think now?

 

[Uncleromulus]

I'm fascinated that Universal had only a 2% increase in attendance after the Potter thing opened.

 

[nytimez]

I'm fascinated that Universal had only a 2% increase in attendance after the Potter thing opened.

No, they had a 2 percent increase for the second quarter overall. Potter wasn't open for most of the second quarter, only the very end. The more telling numbers will be third quarter.

 

[Figment632]

No, they had a 2 percent increase for the second quarter overall. Potter wasn't open for most of the second quarter, only the very end. The more telling numbers will be third quarter.

They will be big!

 

[nytimez]

They will be big!

I have no doubt about that... I saw one estimate that said they had a 30-40 percent jump in July attendance at IoA, year-on-year.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Ah--but can it LAST????????

 

[Disneyman_10]

I am liking the fact that Disney is trying to incorporate both genders, but I would like for the boys for everything not to be about pirates and for the girls not just be princesses and fairies.

 

[nytimez]

Ah--but can it LAST????????

Will it sustain 30-40 percent increases in attendance? Absolutely not. Will the 2012 and beyond numbers look a whole lot better than the 2009 and prior ones, thanks to Potter? Absolutely.

I've never read a Potter book and have little interest in the films, but this is clearly a franchise with staying power. Harry Potter first hit the best-seller lists in the late 90s -- it's already proven that it's going to stick around.

 

[TinyDancer]

I'm anxious to see what changes will be made.

 

[Disco]

The entire boy vs. girl thing is really just trivial. Frankly, on the whole, the MK is much more boy centric so adding a little more girlish themeing could balance it out. However, what makes the (mostly) current themeing work is that it is fine or even fun for EVERYONE (girls, boys and even adults) to ride or visit ALL the attractions.
Case in point, over 10 years ago being a young adult I felt perfectly fine to visit every attraction in the MK. All the FL rides, no problem. Any of the shows, sure. Run around in the playgrounds, knock yourself out.
My next visit, a few years later, I find myself waiting in line at Ariel's grotto not knowing what it was. Get near the front of the line and I find out I'm waiting to sit in Ariel's lap to have a picture taken. It was a devastating blow to me to feel compelled to leave the line for an attraction at WDW. I would have felt completely uncomfortable meeting with a "supposedly" 15yo half naked girl and was afraid of getting the creepy old guy stare from everyone. Not to mention *** was I waiting in line to see a character?! They're not attractions they're supposed to wander around and give you Hi-Fives.
It's OK to have orderly lines to meet characters around the park but to use up real-estate and to build attractions for them is wrong in my mind. Now with the FL renovation (they're not fooling me it's not an expansion) like 15% of the park will be off limits to me as a single adult (which I’m not anymore but it's just to drive the point home). That's insane!
So when they close the Speed Way down next year and 10 years later decide to "expand" Tomorrow Land with a bunch of interactive meet and greets, 30% of the park will be off limits to me. During this time all the other parks are doing the same thing and I'm completely jipped out of my Disney experience.
Meet and Greets discriminate period! Whether you don’t like the character in question, or it’s too girlish or you’re an adult and have no interest, they just plain discriminate. Start dedicating large chunks of the parks to these biased areas and it’s a disaster.
They should have more characters “wandering” the parks and or have them in ride building queues so you can have multiple copies of the same character so everyone has a chance to meet them. That way there won’t be mob scenes every time someone in a costume walks by.
For example, have a Mickey Mouse wandering Adventure Land while another one works the line in Space Mountain and another in Mickey’s Philharmonic. It’s not frickin rocket science…
I wouldn’t wait in line to see Ariel but if I was in line at the LM and she was working the queue and she slapped me on the butt when I walked by, that would sort of be cool.
OK, I’m done ranting.

 

[skiingfast]

Isn't saying that having more characters wandering around, saying that each days attendance needs to be cut in half. Back to the amounts it was when characters did that? When getting a picture or autograph was a much rarer things because they could not stop to take time with you? Would it be better if hundreds of people waiting in line in the meet and greets are better standing a in clumps in the pathways?