The Little Mermaid; Ariel's Adventure: Anyone who has seen the latest mockups and plans for this big budget E Ticket family attraction would understandably question whether or not it was going forward in this tough economic climate. But the truth is that it is all still right on track and on schedule for 2011.
The version of this new E-Ticket proposed for Walt Disney World's tired Fantasyland was originally postponed back in the fall, and then put further into the deep freeze just after Christmas by Orlando executives. The Orlando team's aversion to adding the expensive Little Mermaid any time soon might be where some of the rumors of its delay in Anaheim have been coming from. But the DCA version of Little Mermaid, which might end up being the only version available anywhere for the next decade, will begin its construction in April. (Yes, more walls!)
The budget on this one was allowed to swell to over 100 Million, and it's held there, as John Lasseter and everyone involved in the DCA makeover is adamant that the park needs a big, musical, animatronic family attraction of the type that Disneyland made famous back in the 1960's. While the creation of the set pieces and animatronics will be underway up in Imagineering's facilities in Tujunga and Glendale, the construction of the facility itself will be going full steam at DCA this summer. The current timeline has this mega-attraction with its attached water playground and lavishly themed building opening in June, 2011. This will be the same time that the current Ariel's Grotto restaurant across the boardwalk reopens as a Victorian themed "Princess Palace" character dining restaurant.
