Fantasy Springs & The End of Food Festivals

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In Bangkok, Thailand, and uh
and Tampa, Florida, and in the

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United States. This is green tag
them Park in thirty. I'm Philip,

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but I'm joined by my co host
Scott Swinston and Scott Swinston Creative Development.

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We're here for another week. I'm
here getting ready for Ayapa Asia. I

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just came over from from Japan and
I have been drinking a little bit,

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so good. We'll see how this
show. It's late for me. It's

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in the evening. See I should
I should just have a mimosa or something

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going on here because it's early for
me. It's it's morning. Oh gosh,

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Well, let's our first story.
Is gonna be a little bit of

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a well yeah, yeah, Like
I don't know, let's news ean more

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like on I guess on the like
a in person reporting type of thing.

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So I was in Japan previously and
I was able to get into one of

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the previews or fantasy springs, and
this was not a like press thing or

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whatever. I just was like there
and I was like watching to see if

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the land would open for a testing
day. And then it did, and

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of course, and the tickets were
sold out, and it took me a

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while to figure out how to get
in. I ended up having to get

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one from our hotel concierge, which
was really nice to them. Shout out

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to them, thank you for making
that miracle happen, and so I was

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able to get into the park and
check out the Fantasy Springs area. I

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did record a full walkthrough of the
area that I did for a Trash's magazine,

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so if you're interested, we'll put
that in the show notes. I

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wanted more, though, talk a
little bit less about like the guest side

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of things. You can hear my
like, I guess guest side in that

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video. If you want to watch
it, or you can watch it there,

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that'll be your fanboy fanboy Philip moment. Yes, yeah, it's really

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fanboy. I sound so positive,
so positive. Wow, if you want

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to know what that's for you,
I'm not sure it was. It was.

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It was crazy. I need to
watch that. I've never I don't

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know, I've never seen that side. I was so happy. I was,

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genuinely, and looking back on it
now, I'm like, I wish

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I could be like that all the
time skipping through the area, I was,

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well, you can't, there's too
many people to be skipping, but

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I was trying to walk fast.
So I think you know, of course,

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well know Fanacy Springs. It's the
largest largest expansion at Tokyo DisneySea into

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the to date. And you know, it has the areas for Peter Pan,

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it has h it has Aarndell whatnot. I think it has the the

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actual Fantasy Spring area. There's a
new hotel, there's a lot, there's

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four rides there, there's two restaurants, there's quick service. It's you know,

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it's a big area. Especially the
four rides are ones that are unique

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to that area, and the Arundel
area are also you know, more unique

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areas that aren't aren't at all the
other properties. So it's definitely a very

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highly anticipated area. I will say
it is beautiful. It's absolutely it is

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beautiful. There's no I mean,
you know, we all knew gonna beautiful

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it is. It is a gorgeous
land. I didn't get to try any

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of the rides because there is even
on the test days, there was a

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reservation system that it's going to be
very similar to how it's going to work,

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and you know what, that's one
of my I don't want to say

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criticisms, but it, you know, as usual, it's it's all about

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them trying to manage how the uh
the guests are going to experience the land,

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and I think, yeah, anyway, I'll get into it into my

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main point. But anyway, I
think my biggest the biggest criticism that I

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have that I've I spoke to a
lot of the locals there and a few

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of the other people that were around
and just tried to get a sense of

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what people thought about it versus what
I was thinking about it or not.

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And I think the biggest criticism that
from the locals that I think I didn't

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realize at first, and then the
more I thought about it, the more

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I totally agree with it, is
that it is kind of a land that,

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even though it is beautiful, you
can tell that it was kind of

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evied basically, and I think the
locals can tell too. And this is

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one of those weird traps, which
is that like, in my opinion,

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Tokyo DisneySea is the most beautiful theme
park in the world. It is absolutely

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stunning. Every like every every there
are it's there are words, you know,

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really do not do justice to Tokyo
Disney c But we all know the

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story about how it you know,
wasn't created by Disney. It's not you

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know, it's not a Disney owned
property, and how the budget was really

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extended because it was more of a
government you know, local holding type of

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thing and more of an investment.
I think you can tell in this land

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that they were going at it from
more of a recovery mindset, so more

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of a like, we need this
to make money, you know, not

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like we need this to be the
best thing in the world. We need

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it to make money. And you
can tell on like the little things I

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think, like especially like the there
are some iconic areas there, but just

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the elevations, for example, I
think a big, a big piece of

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Tokyo dineysee is that, like the
elevations are gorgeous, and you don't see

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that in the parks because it's expensive, right, But like the elevations where

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you know, you go into the
you know, where you can get on

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the journally journey to the center of
the Earth and the twenty thousand leagues and

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twenty thousand league rides. You know, you have the Nautilus there, and

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you have this the little bay cove, and you have literally three stories and

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you can stand there at the top
of the cove and you can see all

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three stories and you can see people
on all three of them at the same

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time. You can see the Nautilus
down you can, and so you get

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this landscape that you feel it because
you have these these layers and this death

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to it. And then you randomly
have a ship, you know, just

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completely just sailing through, you know, taking guests from one from a port

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together and they're just randomly sailing through
this mysterious island. I mean, those

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are the most and that is not
anywhere in Fantasy Springs. Everything is one

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level and it's built more like the
America can weigh I guess, which is

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like it's it's flatter. It's not
like the Floridaway. Maybe it's like it's

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flatter and you know, you yes, you know when you go into Arundel,

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there's you know, there's castles,
and there's you know, there's quote

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unquote two stories, but they're all
using force perspective basically, and you know,

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they're they're making it appear as if
the you know, it's two stories,

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but it's not really two stories,
you know, and so it's and

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the locals can tell we'll call it
California. We'll call it the California adventure

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approach. Yeah, that's what it
reminds me of. It's very so yeah,

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so I think that I think you
can tell it's very flat, right,

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It's very it's lacking that depth,
it's lacking that budget basically, And

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after talking to a lot of people
more about it and some of the local

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reporters, it seems like this has
been a trend going on, you know,

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post pandemic, to try and make
it the park is a whole more

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profitable. And a few other things
to note on this is they're not selling

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park hoppers or multi day tickets whatsoever
at all. The only thing you can

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buy when you are there is a
one park, one day ticket, and

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you just have you just have to
buy one any for each park any day

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you want to go. So there's
that, and then a lot of other

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little things like the uh for the
for the Fancy Springs land. You know,

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you can try and get into the
lottery system to get in, or

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you can pay to get in with
the Premiere access, or you can get

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a guaranteed entry with the vacation packages, which start at like three thousand dollars

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a night, you know, and
for Japan right now, for the conversion,

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that is horrendously expensive. I mean
that is like you could spend three

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thousand dollars that would probably get you
a month, maybe maybe two months,

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maybe even three months of an airbnb, but it's you know, one night

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just to get guaranteed entry. And
so you can you can really when you

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when you're look at all these things
together, you can really see how they're

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trying, you like, make it
make you know, really look at it

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more of a when are we going
to see our return on this land kind

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of a thing versus you know,
I guess the long term investment that the

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original ethos of the park was.
But yeah, that's my well, and

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it sounds like to me, and
again I have not seen it and and

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I have not even visited Disney c
However I do. I have seen quite

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a bit of it, and you're
absolutely right, Philip, even from the

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photographs that I've seen, it is
it is world building to a whole new

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level. It is tied so much
to the sea, which this area is

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less tied. Yes, to me, it sounds like what they did to

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Epcot. Again, being being in
Florida, Epcot originally had very little character

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presence, It had very little traditional
Disney ip when it first opened. It

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was focused significantly more on a good
story, which was, you know,

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the world and the and the different
the different countries around the world. To

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me, from what i've from what
you've said, what from what I've read,

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and from what I've seen, Fantasy
Springs is the we'll call it the

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Disneyfying of of disney C. It
is a way to bring in more of

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the iconic characters that don't necessarily tie
to the sea themed sea theme, and

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I think that's partially what the locals
are fighting against. They were so good.

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Disney C was so good at their
storytelling when they first started and creating

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these multi level, immersive worlds that
when you say, okay, now we

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have to wait. People people love
Peter Pan or people love people love Frozen,

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we got to throw that in there. Somehow, it it becomes I

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won't call it an overlay, that's
that's not fair, but it becomes more

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focused on that that ornament versus the
entire Christmas Tree. It becomes more focused

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on that element versus the overarching theme. And when people have fallen in love

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with that overarching theme. The same
thing happened at Epcot when all of a

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sudden, you know, even though
even though frozen at Epcot, the frozen

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ride experience is a significantly more fun
experience and attraction. And you know,

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people who didn't know the original with
the trolls and all that. But even

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when that changed, there was a
huge outcry saying, you know, you're

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you're trying to put in something that
is is simply there to make a buck

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as opposed to trying to tell the
original story or stick with the original concept.

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So I think they're suffering a little
bit from that. So no matter

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how good it is, you know, there's always going to be that initial

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guest response, that knee jerk guest
response of well, yes, but it's

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not what you set out to do, and it's not what I fall in

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love with. Given time, you
know, the the uh we'll call we'll

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call them the little girls of Arundel
will be you know, enamored with it

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and won't couldn't care less, and
they'll bring their children and and it will

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have been forgotten that there was ever
this this division, or this this different

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route, this different augmentation of the
initial brand. Anytime there is change.

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That's what's going to happen. So
you know that that that's to be understood,

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and you know it's it's also Disney
C opened when Philip, do you

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remember because I don't, I don't. I know you're going to look.

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But anyway, there's there's also you
know, the opening of a park and

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the expansion of a park has different
pockets, different depths to pockets. Anyway,

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two thousand and one, you know, even two thousand and one,

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so you're not very over twenty years
ago. Well part but yeah, well

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generally speaking it is, but two
thousand and one is still over twenty years

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ago. So you know, the
the finances, pre COVID, there's a

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lot of issues that you have to
put in there. So it sounds to

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me, just anecdotally from what I've
heard, from what I've read, it

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sounds to me that they are trying
to get there. They're listening to their

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guests in that and probably more their
tourism guests than their local guests. But

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they're listening to their guest saying,
Okay, we need more, we need

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more recognizable characters for the for the
munchkins. You know, this is this

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is in the theme park world.
You know, you've often heard me say

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stroller mom's rule of the world.
So this is stroller moms saying, yes,

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but we need a place where we
can see, you know, on

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a aelsa. We need a place
where a tinker bell can fly. We

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need a place where you know,
all these different elements that that we want

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to share with our children, because
because, let's face it, in families,

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moms make the decisions. So that's
what it sounds like to me.

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I can't guarantee that that is indeed
the case, but it sounds like from

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what you've told me and from what
I've seen, it sounds like a valid

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effort, but still not to the
depth and level of the original installation.

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Yeah, yeah, I agree with
all. I'm not trying to say it's

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necessarily bad or not. I'm just
I think I've just kind of document and

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report on it. It does to
me seem like I agree overall with the

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thesis of the locals that it is
kind of ev and I will say that,

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like all that being said, it
it's not worse, you know than

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the US parks, So I think
it might be one of those things where

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it's like good enough considering the post
COVID era where you need to you know,

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budgets are tighter right now for expansions
because people are still recovering, especially

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in Asia. We talked about that. So I think that must I mean,

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I think if you were to take
this land and PLoP it down,

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you know, into an American park, people would love it and they wouldn't

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even notice. I think it's it's
it's really just because of the context of

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you know, you can you know, you're like, oh, a bridge

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over water, you know, but
the locals are like, well, how

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this how this could have been done? Is you know you could walk under

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the You have two levels and the
bridge is a separate level and you can

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walk under it. And you're like, well, I mean like, I

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mean like, well, to be
honest, to be honest to American tourists.

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American tourists may prefer it because they
won't have to climb as much.

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So who knows, you know,
it depends on what you're used to,

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It depends on what your style is. I think that you know, when

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things change, that's when we always
have the biggest either positive or negative reaction,

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because they recognize the change as things
stick around. As I mentioned,

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earlier. Nobody will remember it the
controversy of the addition or the change,

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just like it happened with Epcot.
Yeah. Well, also very briefly on

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that is just also at DISNEYC is
their food festival, which I just thought

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was interesting, just to touch on
very very briefly, because it is done.

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It's the same concept in that it's
a food festival, you know,

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but it's pretty different in that there's
really not that it's not like it's in

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just one area and there's really not
there's maybe like five or six dishes.

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It's not a very lo large thing. And I'm not sure if that's more

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successful or not, because it seemed
like at least two of the dishes always

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had a line, one of which
was always half an hour, and it

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was clearly the best item, because
obviously I tried all of them because that's

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how I am. And then if
you just consider the conversion rate too,

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I mean each item is about like
four to five dollars. I'm not sure.

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I think it's still pretty expensive for
Japanese standards, but you know,

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not crazy, you know. And
so it was just a little bit of

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a different approach where it's less items
and a little bit you know, tighter

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in that way, so that everyone
could try everything if they wanted to,

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in a in a you know,
in a in a short amount of time,

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and less of a crazy sticker shock. But there is no passport or

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anything, you know, just buy
what you want. Well, and I'm

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going to make a statement here that
I think is going to probably make somebody

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very angry, but I think food
festivals are dead. Tis the season of

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food festivals here in the US,
and I have been to many parks over

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the last month that are all having
food festivals. And I will say there

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are two main problems with food festivals, and it sounds as though the one

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at Disney c Is has at least
addressed. I won't say answered or found

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the solution, but the number one
problem is, as you mentioned, the

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number one problem is cost, you
say, four to five bucks per item.

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And in the US, what I
have been experiencing is anywhere from twelve

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to twenty. Yeah, yeah,
twelve to twenty. I haven't seen much.

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I haven't seen much lower than ten. In fact, I've seen nothing

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lower than ten. I think some
of the items and these are nine dollars

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for you know, like a dessert
or a main item, but you know,

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the drink not in San Diego,
not in San Diego, so there's

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that problem. And number two,
I think that instead of because the you

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know, because the bloom is off
the rods, the of really focusing on

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creating those signature dishes that are wonderful
and unique that people want to actually wait

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in queue for one of the one
of the parks I went to, I

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referred to it as nachos around the
world because it was basically some form of

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chip with something that was my favorite
was the Irish nachos, which is potato

248
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chips covered in corn, beef and
pickled cabbage. And first of all,

249
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that doesn't even sound good, but
secondly it's it doesn't even sound Irish,

250
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so you know, it's it's those
americanizations of Irish foods. And I would

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say that, you know, maybe
this is just an old guy being crotchety,

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but I'm looking at the kiosks that
have been set up for these festivals

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that are sitting empty there there they
have you know, they have workers there,

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usually two per kiosk and zero Q. So between the pricing and the

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uniqueness, I won't even say the
quality the uniqueness of the product, it's

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not enough to make a food festival. So based on what I'm seeing this

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year here in the States, I'm
going to say that unless you can overcome

258
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and create something that people that is
so unique, people want to experience,

259
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have to experience, it's it's sort
of the it's sort of the being in

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Florida. I call it the Florida
State Fair. Every year at the Florida

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State Fair, there is some food
truck that comes up with something that is

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so outlandish. You know, things
in the past have been like the Krispy

263
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Kreme hamburger or the deep Fried Oreos
years and years ago, or something that

264
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you have to come up with something
that is so out lange that people can't

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get it anywhere else. They have
to come and experience the event. I

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will also see that I've also seen
that the the entertainment offerings surrounding these festivals

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are reduced. They're still there and
the quality is still there, there's just

268
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less of them. So based and
again this is anecdotal, I'm sure that

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somebody can you know, comment and
say, well our park made blah blah

270
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blah blah blah, But anecdotally looking
at them, there's empty Kiosks, the

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prices are too high, and the
uniqueness of the items being offered are really

272
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not that No, nobody really wants
poke bowl nachos. I agree with you

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on everything. I really. I
think that right now, you know,

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now that we're back, like we
said, we're normalizing, you know,

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you're I think consumers are looking back
and they're kind of looking like, well,

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what's the value here? Convince us
that we need to like why would

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we go buy all this stuff in
the park? Like what like why you

278
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know, I mean, instead of
enjoying the park, you're standing in lines

279
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and waiting for food, like you
could just go to a street vendor or

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go to There's so many food festivals
that are just better food festivals anywhere in

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any city anywhere. And I think
that that's always been my I mean when

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I was at the Disneyland one before
I went left for Asia, we didn't

283
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even buy anything because we would prefer
to go to the restaurants because it has

284
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better food and it's cheaper, and
you can, you know, you can

285
00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:03.640
buy a whole meal for like eighteen
dollars, you know, like an actual

286
00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:08.599
like meal, you know, like
like a I think I got the the

287
00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:12.440
uh, smothered burrito, I think
for something like eighteen dollars, and I

288
00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:17.279
mean that was a much better value
than buying like two or three small portions.

289
00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:21.240
But but yeah, what I noticed
about the one at Disney C is

290
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that the items are cheaper, uh. And the main signature item was the

291
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one that everyone was waiting for,
which is a sweet potato Sunday, which

292
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I do, which it was.
It was incredible, and it was one

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of those things where the sweet potatoes
were shaped like Mickey's, so they had

294
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like cut out sweet potatoes to be
like Minky's and then bake them and then

295
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put them in a Sunday with like
light chie and syrup and it was crazy

296
00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:49.000
and it was delicious. And all
the other items though, were done in

297
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a way where they were still good. They had like roasted carrots, you

298
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know, with chutney and whatnot,
but like it only had one person each

299
00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:00.319
booth because all of them were really
easy to play, so like the roast

300
00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:03.880
potatoes were already preplayed and they would
just hand them to you. And then

301
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the drink cart was you know,
like in Asia they have a lot of

302
00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:10.839
like like fruit drinks, you know, whatever, like a hort chatta,

303
00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:14.119
but an Asian version. But so
they had like the stuff at the bottom

304
00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.799
and they would just fill it with
the soda or at the alcohol, and

305
00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:21.519
so one person can man the boot
right, So it's very quick and easy,

306
00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:26.200
and so it moves faster and it's
cheaper. That's what I noticed.

307
00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:30.480
Those are the things I know,
but the ones dieas yep. But uh

308
00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:37.160
okay, let's see really another really
quick thing. Really, I'm just I'm

309
00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:40.559
just confused by it to just get
Scott to take on it really quick.

310
00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:44.519
But Halloween Hornites in Orlando has announced
their first five mazes. We know that

311
00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:48.000
they are going to do ten houses, and they've announced that the first five

312
00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:55.559
already. All five are original ips. Personally, I always love the original

313
00:21:55.720 --> 00:22:00.279
stories houses. I think that they're
always very creative, and I think these

314
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:06.319
are actually very creative actually, and
they seem to me to touch on all

315
00:22:06.359 --> 00:22:08.759
the fandoms, which I think is
an I just if you look at this,

316
00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:11.400
you're like, oh, this is
smart. Whoever put this together is

317
00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:15.680
smart. You know, you get
the triplets of terror, which is I

318
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:21.680
would say they're tapping into the American
horror story type thing. Monstrous is coming

319
00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:26.799
from Hollywood, which is finally something
that's tapping into a culture, you know,

320
00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.920
that's the Latin American culture, which
is great. Good on them,

321
00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.359
excellent idea. They have the museum, which I've it's been a while since

322
00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.119
I've seen anything inside of a museum, which is great because you know,

323
00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:41.519
you know, just and then the
candy factory and the Goblin's Feast is kind

324
00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:45.279
of like a lark being gone wrong
type of thing. So I think,

325
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.759
I think the ideas are great.
What's interesting to me, I'm not I

326
00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:52.200
want to get to Scott's perspective,
is this is very unusual. They have

327
00:22:52.400 --> 00:23:00.319
never led with original stories before.
And also the announcement like series is way

328
00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:04.920
off. Like the way they've been
doing it previously the last several years is

329
00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:10.279
like one house a week or something
like that, and they dropped all five

330
00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:14.720
in like a little more than a
week, and they're all original. So

331
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:18.039
it's just it's really strange. I'm
like, I'm just doing this to stay

332
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:22.440
in the news. I mean,
what's going on well, Universal, And

333
00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:25.400
this is my own opinion, but
from what I've seen, Universal is really

334
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.160
noisy right now when it comes to
the news, between Epic and the New

335
00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:33.720
Family Park and so they have to
them. Yeah, correct, but they

336
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.599
that's because they want to be one
hundred percent in the forefront. And we've

337
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:41.440
learned that news cycles are significantly shorter
than they used to be, so they

338
00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:45.400
have to keep throwing stuff out to
continue to be top of mind. This.

339
00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:48.640
You know, you say they've never
done this before, but this was

340
00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:52.680
an approach that they did years and
years ago. Everything old is new again.

341
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.680
It's cycling back. They used to
lead as you as you said,

342
00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:00.359
they used to lead completely with their
IP stories, uh than their I phunts.

343
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:03.960
They were like, let's get that
out in front. I think what's

344
00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:07.400
happened is, you know, people
are like, yeah, the i ps

345
00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:15.279
have for some reason either not lived
up to our expectations or don't show a

346
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.680
lack of creativity. So now so
now the pendulum has swung back and they're

347
00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.000
they're back to the non I PA
haunts. I will say, I agree

348
00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.160
with you. I'm so excited to
see the monsters of Latin America. I

349
00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.759
think that is I think that is
great. It's tapping into a market that

350
00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:33.279
is that they have that they've dabbled
in before. Is it what's the what's

351
00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:40.880
the what's the female character that lives
in the lake that takes children. Yes,

352
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.079
yes, they've done they did they
did that. They did that years

353
00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:47.920
ago, and now they're coming back
and coming back with a much more,

354
00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:52.200
much more, much more robust approach, at least from a visual standpoint.

355
00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:55.400
But you know, you said,
we haven't seen a museum in a while,

356
00:24:55.799 --> 00:25:00.640
so that's come back. Uh,
sweet sweet Chop candy. Fact,

357
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:03.119
they did one of those. And
the only reason I noticed because I wrote

358
00:25:03.160 --> 00:25:06.880
it. But they did one of
those in San Antonio a few years ago

359
00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:11.720
or two years ago at SeaWorld,
and so that's coming back last year.

360
00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:14.440
So they've just expanded it into a
house, which is fine. It must

361
00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:18.279
have been that. I mean,
that's great, it's but I will say

362
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:19.599
the thing I like about it is
it's showing a great deal of variety.

363
00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:25.119
But to your but to your your
point originally is why now? Why so

364
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:30.039
much? To me, it's I
won't call it desperation, but let's call

365
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.559
it a desire to stay in the
news throughout the short media cycle. Because

366
00:25:33.640 --> 00:25:37.200
if you look at it, you
know they're announcing there there, and it

367
00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:45.759
looks like it's pretty well orchestrated throughout
the entire universal media empire is that we'll

368
00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:48.960
get we'll get a notice about something
from Epic, and then we'll get a

369
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:52.680
notice about something from the Family Park, and then we'll get a notice about

370
00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:56.359
Halloween horonites, and then we'll get
a note. You know, I haven't

371
00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:57.720
heard, I haven't heard a whole
lot about the Vegas project, but we'll

372
00:25:57.799 --> 00:26:03.599
we'll we'll see that shortly, I'm
sure. But I think the idea here

373
00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:10.200
is there is so much and universal
is so noisy right now in the media

374
00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:11.839
that they have to make certain that
when they announce things, they have to

375
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:15.880
be enough to cut through that noise. And to me, that's why they've

376
00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:22.400
done this. It has gone back
to the pendulum has swung back, I

377
00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:29.160
guess, is really the my take
on it. And I think that it's,

378
00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:30.119
you know, I think it's a
good thing. I think it's they

379
00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:33.759
have to find they have to find
new ways, and if they can't find

380
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.599
new ways, they have to find
old ways that people have forgotten. So

381
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.160
and that's that's what it seems like
to me, is that they've the pendulum

382
00:26:41.160 --> 00:26:44.400
has just swung back now to the
non eyepiece, and then when they get

383
00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:47.119
closer because the non eyepiece the people
who are, you know, looking for

384
00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:51.119
long lead are people who are into
the haunt industry, people who really love

385
00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:56.359
credit attraction. They're going to be
much more passionate about the non intellectual property.

386
00:26:56.359 --> 00:27:00.000
They're going to be more more passionate
about the new, unique stuff that

387
00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:06.680
is cool and focused only that you
can only experience at Halloween Horonites. So

388
00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:10.440
that's what these are. And then
when they get closer, that's when you

389
00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:15.640
get the more casual Halloween or or
Halloween Hornites guests, what I call what

390
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:19.000
I call the beer drinking crowd.
They're the ones who are going to care

391
00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:23.559
more about the oh what movie can
I go and experience now? So yeah,

392
00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:27.960
to me, it makes sense.
I can see the point about the

393
00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:33.119
different audiences. You know, I
do think though, it feels like they

394
00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:36.960
tried to walk a middle ground.
But I'm not sure it worked for them,

395
00:27:37.079 --> 00:27:41.920
if that's the thing, Because the
first announcement they made, everyone picked

396
00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:48.319
it up national news everywhere, and
then it was like they waited a day,

397
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:51.839
and then it's like they dropped it
out like every other day and you're

398
00:27:51.880 --> 00:27:53.960
not going to get in another national
news story for all the other ones.

399
00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:59.119
But what the Haunters were doing obviously
all the haunt media. The hant media

400
00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:02.640
makes a video for everything, you
know, but the national news is only

401
00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:04.480
gonna do one, you know.
And so I was like to me,

402
00:28:04.599 --> 00:28:08.000
it's like, well, if you
if the goal was to get the national

403
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.039
news, you should have just put
all five out at once for the national

404
00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:15.160
news. Then just let the haunters
do whatever they're gonna do, you know.

405
00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.279
But I don't know, I don't
know. It just it was it

406
00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:22.559
was, Yeah, these houses are
targeted to the haunters. These houses are

407
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:25.519
targeted to the haunt media. Well, I guess in this case they did

408
00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:29.839
get both, Like they got all
the national news stories because everyone picked up

409
00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:32.759
at least the first house, and
then they also got the haunters because the

410
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:36.400
haunters then made like five videos.
They're gonna make one for each house,

411
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:38.160
right, Hey, we're talking about
it. Yeah, yeah, so we're

412
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:41.680
talking about it. Let's jump I
work. Since we're getting so close to

413
00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:45.279
time, let's jump to the last
one, which is something I just wanted

414
00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:51.160
to mention that came out this week. So there is a YouTuber called Jenny

415
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:57.440
Nicholson. She made a video,
a glorious video this week called the spectacular

416
00:28:57.480 --> 00:29:00.599
failure of the Star Wars Hotel,
and it kind of has cut the Internet

417
00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:07.039
by storm this week. It is
four hours, so we're talking like two

418
00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:11.160
movies here, and it already has
four point seven million views, and it

419
00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:15.480
has been picked up by national news
all around talking about it. And I

420
00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:18.720
haven't made it through the entire thing, but it is an excellent video,

421
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:22.839
and I really suggest our audience go
and watch at least pieces of it,

422
00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:25.640
because there was so much that I
didn't know, and this is like,

423
00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:30.200
I'm in it and I didn't know
just her ability to put it. It's

424
00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:34.720
so well reported and documented, just
really understanding the history of this project,

425
00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:40.839
and to me, the most interesting
pieces have been what you know, what

426
00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:44.440
Disney said about it and how they
really couldn't figure out how to market it

427
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:47.400
to the right people or who it
was for, or how that, and

428
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:51.920
she plays all you know, you'll
see the commercials that Disney deleted and all

429
00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:53.359
this and all that. You'll see
all these little bits in there. I

430
00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:57.720
think the marketing section is most interesting
section, but I think it's very especially

431
00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:02.480
for our audience. I think you
guys would enjoy just seeing the larger picture

432
00:30:02.519 --> 00:30:07.519
and having someone put it together for
you this you know, five decade long

433
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:11.440
story or whatever it's and it's excellent. And I also think it's it's really

434
00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:15.640
funny in our age that you know, almost five million people are going to

435
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:19.880
have watched something for just you know, it's already been closed and now they're

436
00:30:19.880 --> 00:30:23.079
going to watch four hours on it. I don't know, it's just it's

437
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:26.759
heartening, right because we're always talking
about how, oh they're not going to

438
00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:30.680
watch anything, blah blah, and
here's like a four hour documentary about this

439
00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:33.400
thing that never going to get to
see. It doesn't matter, but everyone's

440
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:36.400
going to watch it. I don't
know. I find it hard well,

441
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:37.559
and I think, you know,
more more people are going to see this

442
00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:42.559
video than actually experienced the Oh yes, it's way more. Yeah, yeah,

443
00:30:42.599 --> 00:30:45.440
but I think, but I think
what's important for us and what's important

444
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:48.640
for viewers, And it's really something
that we touched on sort of anecdotally when

445
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:51.880
it first opened, and that was
who is going to go to this?

446
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:56.440
Who is the audience? And clearly
Disney never figured it out either, who

447
00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:00.480
knows, but but for our audiences, as you say, Philip, it's

448
00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:03.039
very important. I've just started watching
it. Philip, just made me aware

449
00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:06.920
of it, and I've just started
to dive in and I'm curious to see,

450
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:11.720
you know, what the takes are
and what the uniqueness of it is.

451
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:18.880
Obviously, it shows that content creators
do have power, and it shows

452
00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:25.319
that from even the top line brief
that I've looked through it that marketing for

453
00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:30.039
major parks has not quite picked up
on how to make things work within the

454
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:34.680
new realm in the new world of
media, which is clearly the independent content

455
00:31:34.720 --> 00:31:41.119
creator. So hopefully all the independent
content creators are watching these two content creators,

456
00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:45.319
and hopefully you'll continue to do so. And the next time you get

457
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:48.960
a chance to do that is next
week because we're out of time, so

458
00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:52.519
on behalf of Philip Bernandez We've on
an Attraction Network and Gantum Lighting and myself

459
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:56.400
Scott Swinston with Scott Swinson Creative Development. This is Green Tag Theme Park in

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00:31:56.519 --> 00:32:00.079
thirty and we will see you next
week. S