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Okay, from our studios this week in Los Angeles and Tampa.
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This is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty. I'm Philip
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and I'm joined as always on my cost Scott Swinson
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of Scott Swinson Creed Development. We are well, I'm at
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least a little jet lag because I just got back
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from Asia. But and you're just about push through. You
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just got back and you're just about to leave. Yes,
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my plane leaves in two hours. So here we go, guys,
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Welcome to October. So I told Scott we're going to
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record a little bit early because it is clear that
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the winner for this week's news I even me seeing
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the rest of it, is definitely going to be the
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announcement of the opening date for Epic Universe, which is the.
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Universe you're talking about with these these I know nothing
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about these, right.
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Well, it's that's okay, because we will. We will inform
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you by reading the press living under a rock apparently. So.
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So Epic Universe is opening May twenty second, twenty twenty five.
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That is less than a year away, and they Universal
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is sent out a press release. I'll read pieces of it,
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but most of it's some blob lah. But let's see
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Universal Orlando Resorts highly anticipated fourth theme park, fourth th park,
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sorry sorry, Epic Universe will officially open on May twenty second,
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unlocking the portals to five astounding worlds that will bring
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to life extraordinary adventures that go beyond guess wildest imaginations.
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You know. Also at the Universe is the most ambitious
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theme park Universal Destinations and Experiences has ever created and
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will be the next game changer for theme park entertainment.
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With a total of more than fifty incredible experiences that
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range from groundbreaking attractions, to breathtaking entertainment, to incredibly themed
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dining and shopping, and so much more. Epic Universe will
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present a level of theme park immersion and innovation that
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is unmatched across five themed worlds, and they explain more
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about what we are. We've talked about all this. There's
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a quote in here from Karen Irving that says, this
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is such a pittle moment for our destination. We're thrilled
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to welcome guests. With the addition of this spectacular new
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theme park, our guests will embark on an unforgetable vacation experience.
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I think that's key vacation experience with a key with
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a week's worth of thrills. That's also key. That will
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be nothing short of epic. Okay, we've talked about previously
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all the different announcements, so I don't think we need
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to really delve into what each land is because we've
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already talked about that. I think the biggest piece about
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this is the ticket like options I guess that will
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released as part of this. So interestingly enough, they are
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going to allow annual pass holders to purchase single day
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tickets to Epic Universe before they go on sale to
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the general public starting October twenty fourth, and then the
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rest of the tickets will so it's weird. So basically
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they're doing like a phased ticket option, and they have
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not announced any of the other phases except for this
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first phase. And in this first phase, you starting October
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twenty second, you can purchase three day, four day, or
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five day ticket packages and no matter which one you choose,
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it includes one day of Epic. So if you buy
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five days, you get one day at Epic. If you
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buy three days, you get one day at Epic. So
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that's the package they currently have now they have not
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announced other details of other ticket packages at all. And
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then on October twenty fourth, if you are an annual
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pass holder, like a current active annual pass holder, and
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just a note for that too, like apparently the Universal
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clarified later that your pass has to be like activated
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as in it has you have to have been to
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one of theme parks before October twenty fourth, So you
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have to like.
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Buy your pass now and go, go, go go.
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Yeah, I think that's what they're Yeah, that's kind of
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what they're saying. But then October twenty fourth, you can
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purchase a single day ticket to Epic without needing to
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purchase multiple days for the other parks, so that the
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only ticket stuff we have now it's just.
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You have to buy. You have to buy a multiple package,
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whether it's a multiple ticket package or a season pass
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in order to get a single day to Epic.
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Unless you live in the UK or Latin America, where
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they have separate options that are more like vacation packages.
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So those wouldn't be a single day, would they?
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No? No, correct, Yeah, So that's what we got it is.
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So first of all, I mean, I haven't put this
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out on social media, which I was funny, but I
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don't think it's going to be ready to open I mean,
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we've talked about this. It will open, but like, will
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the entire park be open? I don't think so. And
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only forty percent of people that I pull online think
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that it will be fully open according to like everything
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they've announced, So it doesn't seem like the majority of
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people think it's going to be, you know, fully open,
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at least that I know in my spheres of industry
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people think it's going to be fully open. And then
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I do think it's really throwing people a bone. I mean,
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I think that they, to my knowledge, they hadn't talked
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about allowing passolders to purchase the single day tickets before,
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so I think that was a surprise and that's definitely
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throwing a bone to their fan base in Florida.
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So of course, yeah, it's it's interesting. I'm I'm curious
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because I'm hearing the same rumblings that you're hearing, Philip,
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and that is that if it is fully open, it
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will be a miraculous push to the to the finish line.
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But at the same time, there's a couple of different
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things that I think are interesting here. Yes, I think
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the ticketing is interesting, but not surprising. I mean, they'd
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already talked about they'd already talked about the possibility of that,
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or at least I had heard rumblings of the possibility
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of that prior to this. I will say I give
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them credit for basically controlling the news media, because they've
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been beautifully dropping things all along. And this is obviously,
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you know, one of the bigger ones that it's it's
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not just information about the park, but they now have
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an opening date, so it gives people time to who
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want to travel here, time to make those plans and
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to get here. I guess my question is, even if
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it's not fully open, does it matter because there are
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enough people out there who want to be the first
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of the first to go in there, and whether it
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is fully operational or not, they want to get in there.
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They want to see what they can see, They want
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to experience what they can experience, because you know those
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people are going to go back later anyway. So and
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I'm I'm guessing, let me put it this way, if
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I were in control of leaking information, which I'm not,
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but if I were in control of leaking information from
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this project, I would actually start leaking that it might
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not be fully completed so that you can make it
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an opening year or an opening year and a half,
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as opposed to trying to cram everybody and disappointing everyone
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in the first you know, the first month or so. So,
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I think because some people are going to say, well,
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it's not quite open yet, let's wait until so and
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so opens, or let's wait until such and such opens.
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Yeah, it it does seem like this announcement is basically,
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like I think, to your point to to basically because
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they did hint that they didn't even say in the
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press release that like other ticket options will be available
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at a later date, like resident tickets, express passes, single,
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you know, multi day ticket options, how many of those
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will be available, you know, like we don't know, right,
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it depends on demand and all that ticket sales. Right,
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But it does seem like they're trying to put a
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stake in the ground so that people can plan their vacations.
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And that's why I think even she said it, like
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you know, a week long you know trip or whatever.
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I think they're they're they're basically, especially having like UK options,
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like they're really trying to be like here's the date,
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plan your summer holiday, plan your or whatever, you know,
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book your ticket, packages. It's I think it sounds like
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it's more for people that are not locals that are
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going to be coming that they want to encourage people
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coming from other places and they know that you need
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time to book accommodations, remember, or maybe they're just hoping
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that people will book and they'll have a better idea
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of the international demand or something.
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I don't Well, they're finally and they're finally in a
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position where they can go toe to toe with Disney.
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You know, Disney has always been the come to Disney,
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stay at Disney, eat, sleep, drink Disney, and then go home.
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That's always been the Disney model. They want every dollar
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that you spend when you come to when you come
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to Florida, if you're visiting at Disney Park and staying
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on Disney property, all of that money they want to
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go to Disney. They don't want it to go anywhere else.
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Universal with this fourth park, the three and a half park,
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With this fourth park, they now have the ability to
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command a full week. There's no question that it will
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take a full week for guests who are visiting from
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out of town to experience all of the things that
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Universal has to offer. So my guess is yes, they
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are targeting right now with this announcement, if I were
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going to interpret it, they're targeting two separate two separate entities,
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or two separate groups of potential guests. One are the
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diehard fans who are probably already universally as you say,
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throwing a bone to the fan base. One of the
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one group is already the people who are committed and
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just want to get in the park. They just want
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to be the first to say and the first one
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is to post, and the content creators to be able
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to go in and say here, I am an epic
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universe and bah bah blah blah. Quite honestly, they won't
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even you won't even hear much ripple of well, such
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and such is not open yet, as they can get
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some of the key things open. Just to be the
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first to experience those key things, people are gonna spend.
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Are gonna spend top dollar for that. They're gonna spend
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top dollar, even if it involves buying a multi day
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pass for the other parks. You know, that three day ticket.
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I'm gonna guess, maybe I'm wrong, but that three day
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ticket they're going to sell out of relative quickly, forcing
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people to do the four and five days, and there
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are going to be people we know them. We know
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these these fan people, we know them. They are going to,
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uh say, I don't care what I have to spend,
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I'm just gonna I'm just gonna buy it and be
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there in the first you know, the first month that
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it's open, so that I can say I was there
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when and and that's great. I mean, that's that's super cool.
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They're also targeting the international visitor, like you say, and
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and that is because international visitors have a tendency, generally speaking,
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to spend more money on holidays than locals do. So
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they can get the hotel right the hotel reservations at
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you know, all of the universal hotels, they can get
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the people who you know, these people don't take holidays
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every three or four times a year. They take them
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maybe once a year, maybe once every three year. But
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when they go, they go for a longer time and
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they spend more money. So it makes total sense that
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you would target that market as well. The one thing
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that I think people I don't think people have necessarily
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taken into consideration, and I'm not quite sure how it's
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going to work. Maybe you know, epics not connected to
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the rest of the properties.
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Yeah, epic.
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You have to actually take a bus that takes you
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off property to go back on property to be part
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of that experience, and I'm curious to see how that
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is going to be detrimental to the overall guest experience.
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I don't think it's going to matter for the first
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I would say, three to five years. But after that,
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I'm wondering if people are gona say, oh, we'll just
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drive over. Oh wait a minute, let's go to something
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on international drive or something like that. I don't know,
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we'll see.
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Yeah, I think that that's way. There's so much that
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Universal could plan to maybe mitigate some of that, but
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I think it's going to be especially.
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Perhaps it's buying all the property between.
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Yeah, maybe, I mean, you know, I think we'll just
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a lot of that will just have to see based
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on their strategy. For the international visitors, because they're, you know,
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the locals, it won't matter. But the people that are
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visiting obviously that the infrastructure and the transportation between parks
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matters a lot more to people they don't have cars
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and aren't familiar with the area so well.
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It also drives people to stay in the hotel. That's
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that's correct, correct.
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I think that's another big thing too, right, It's like, well,
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it's just easier, which has always been Disney's whole thing.
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That's why they have a whole like city, you know,
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because it's so you know, to us, it's easy to
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get from Disney Universal, but Disney has made it difficult
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for people that don't know the area and can't drive
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and you know, don't know how to naviate around.
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You know.