Magic, Money, and the Middle East: Disney’s Record Quarter

Philip Hernandez (00:00.781)
From our studios this week in Los Angeles and Tampa, this is Green Tagged Theme Park in 30. I'm Philip and I'm joined as always by my cohost Scott Swenson of Scott Swenson Career Development. On Green Tagged, we break down the week's top theme park news and explain why it matters to professionals. And this week we are discussing the Disney earnings. They're so magical this

Scott (00:21.89)
Yep, I'm hearing that little sparkle of Tinkerbell in the background. Or maybe that's just you, Philip, I don't know. But it sounds as though we're gonna talk about some very exciting news from Disney.

Philip Hernandez (00:28.789)
I think.

Philip Hernandez (00:34.635)
It was so exciting. know, at these times, sometimes my like fanboy, you know, overcomes the skeptic that I have become in my old age, for sure, you there was almost nothing. You can't, you can point to almost nothing negative in this earnings report, which is very, pretty rare. I mean, for anyone. And the stock jumped. Yeah. I mean, especially with the, with what, but they've managed to turn every sector around and there's been positive news from every sector.

Scott (00:52.684)
And especially, quite honestly, especially for Disney recently, so...

Philip Hernandez (01:04.007)
And Wall Street seems to agree because the stock popped 7 % at the end of trading on the day of the earnings. And the quick recap here is that revenue is up 7%. know, Disney Plus added a million new subscribers and they raised prices. Their parks are up. And of course they announced the partnership with Moral for Disney Abu Dhabi. So, I mean, this was packed. Like this earnings call was like packed with all these elements. I thought we could go through

each segment and kind of discuss each segment as a segment, you know, and then we'll end, course, with the big stuff for our audience, which, of course, is the Disney park. But so streaming was the first segment up here. As I mentioned, it was up a little over a million, almost one point four million up at the time. And of course, that comes after they raised prices. They, of course, announced that they're doing the ESPN direct consumer launches in a few months. And also significantly the big

like nugget here for streaming is that they announce not only is engagement up, but churn is down and significantly. That's a direct quote from Iger on the call. And basically, you think about it, that's because they've been bundling all of these things together. So I was just talking to my neighbor like last night and it was like, he was saying that he was getting rid of cable because at this point, know, Disney Plus, you know, it's expensive, but it's not as expensive, you know, as cable used to be. But now you get,

Scott (02:28.034)
Right, right.

Philip Hernandez (02:31.475)
Max, Hulu, Disney Plus, and they're gonna roll out this ESPN, make it available to people with Disney Plus, so they can just add it as another bundle. It's integrated. And so now it's like there's less strain on them having to make too much new content for Disney Plus because now they have all this variety they can bundle. So again, we're back to the cable days.

Scott (02:53.964)
I was just gonna say, sounds kind of familiar, know, we've been saying it's the pendulum will swing back eventually, it's all bundled, it started as individuals, then it became bundled, and then it broke up into individuals again, and now we're back to bundling. And I think that, you I would love to say that it's human nature to make things easy. And so bundling, I don't know why they'd ever come away from bundling, but.

Philip Hernandez (03:16.077)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (03:19.8)
There's also, it's also human nature to try to find a bargain. And if you feel, you're, you know, if you've got a bundle and you only watch Disney Plus,

Philip Hernandez (03:23.405)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (03:29.57)
and none of that other stuff you really need, then after a while you go, well gosh, I wish I could just get Disney Plus and that way it would just be cheaper for me. So this pendulum is gonna go on and on forever and hopefully we'll be doing the show long enough to see it come back the other way again and we'll be able to say, see, told ya. it's that constant need for something new. It's that constant need for a new news cycle, a new

new fresh way of presenting stuff and we'll go from comfort to value and back to comfort and then back to value and it'll continue.

Philip Hernandez (04:10.893)
Well, approach, did outline the approach because at this point, Disney Plus has been profitable for a chunk and it's a big deal that it's become profitable because it was kind of weighing down the company. And even though there are still those critics that say that if Disney were to divest to Disney Plus or it was a separate company, that it would help the valuation of Disney because the parks are so profitable and Disney Plus is like less so.

There's still, know, this still chatter that goes around, but I think for the most part, people have realized it's part of their strategy, you know, the flywheel of Disney. So they get less pressure to divest than other companies like Comcast would. But he talked about the three-pronged approach, which first enrich the product with more content, which is what we talked about, Hulu integration, ESPN, that kind of stuff. Continued discipline cost management, which has become a theme with this just because of

rising costs for production across the world. But the third item is so fascinating, which is invest in local content in international markets. And this has been something that Netflix has taken the lead in doing, which is producing content in the countries it's aimed for. And then it has this weird effect of being picked up in other places. Cause you know, turns out that people are okay watching stuff like squid games and items that are not made for

just not in your language. So people are more okay with that than I guess maybe they thought. So Netflix has been doing this for a while. They've been moving content to other countries. That way they can target locals and also it's way cheaper. And I think maybe Disney is maybe considering that direction. They didn't say, but could be telling stories in other countries.

Scott (06:01.678)
There's also, just in the travels that I've done in the last couple of years, there's also a growing interest in what does Disney look like in our country? Or what does entertainment in general look like in our country? One of the things, for example, that the Saudis are doing is, and I think we experienced this when we were there, they're creating their entertainment sector.

so that it falls square in the lap of the Saudi citizens so that they can enjoy it and embrace it. But it's also going to be a great encouragement to bring people in from other countries. So, yeah, I think it's a very wise move. think we are past the point of...

Philip Hernandez (06:42.539)
Yep. Yep.

Scott (06:50.54)
Well, I think most of the world is past the point of being so terrified of other countries and recognizing that we are global community, that they are more, it doesn't bother them to watch, you know, a...

programming that may have been originally done in a different language but has been beautifully overdubbed and you know because it gives you a significantly more as you say Netflix has been doing this for years and some of the some of my favorite stuff on Netflix actually was produced in other countries or for other countries and It just makes it it gives you a much more robust selection to choose from

Philip Hernandez (07:22.659)
Mm-hmm.

Philip Hernandez (07:28.781)
Yes, I'd agree with that. And I think that's exactly what they are talking about. Plus, again, if it's cheaper, that means that they can get more of it. I mean, really, they can produce more. If they can keep the quality the same, which I think they've proven, Netflix has proven it's possible to do, then it is cheaper, then it gives them better reach. yeah. I'm sure they didn't want to say it like they were going to follow Netflix, but I think that's kind of what I took away. Yeah, that's what I take away from it.

Scott (07:36.366)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (07:43.213)
you

Scott (07:51.97)
I think it's what they're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, there's nothing wrong with that. Netflix has proven that it works. So why not?

Philip Hernandez (07:59.395)
Yeah. So this is actually a point I was going to say too when we got to parts of it. Do it now. makes sense. But what was interesting to me, you know, is that the parks were mentioned something like five times more than they have been previously. And part of that, yes, is of course, is the announcement with morale. But I think the other part of it is now that streaming is possible, they can turn away from it a little bit and kind of just refine it. And the thing is that with streaming, they're never going to be number one.

Like they're going to be maybe two, if not like three. And I mean, they just can't, they even can't outspend Netflix because that's Netflix's whole thing. And so they can't, I mean, they could if they wanted to outspend them, but the, know, the shareholders would like revolt, right? So, because their money is best spent on the parks. And so I think that's part of it too. It's like the thing they can be the best in the world at is the parks. It's not really Disney plus. And it's kind of like, okay to take.

you know, Netflix's lead potentially in some of that strategy. We're just kind of like, now that it's done, you can kind of move it aside and be like, okay, it's profitable now. So let's hopefully, and hopefully that does signal a refocus.

Scott (09:07.51)
Well, I mean, it's the difference between we're going to be number one in one industry or we're going to be number two or three in three or four industries. And it just depends on what your overall strategy is, your overall financial strategy. And they recognize that where they get the most bang for their buck is the parks right now.

Philip Hernandez (09:25.933)
Yep, yep. So.

Moving on to the movie segment of the business. So Thunderbolts opened number one worldwide and it has been the best reviewed Marvel film in years. And they did talk about their 2025 slate, Lilo and Stitch, Fantastic Four, Zootopia 2, Avatar, Fire and Ash. And Eiger said that their 2025 slate in his opinion was as strong as 2019. And the biggest part about this or to me the most interesting part about the movie segment was his discussion about.

changing their kind of like North Star from quantity to quality, basically. And he said that, Iger addressed the recent turbulence in Marvel's output and strategy going forward. He acknowledged that in the rush to feed streaming, we had to produce a lot more. We've also learned over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality. And he admitted that we lost a little focus by making too much, especially on the Disney Plus side.

and confirm that Marvel is now consolidating around fewer, better projects. You might ask,

Scott (10:32.194)
I would even go so far as to say safer projects, because if you look at it, these are all very safe and the whole 2025 slate, with the exception of Thunderbolts, the whole 2025 slate is pretty much proven commodities. And it's let's go back and do...

Philip Hernandez (10:35.971)
Mmm.

Those are all safe, yeah.

Scott (10:53.954)
Let's go back into a lively Loan Stitch. Let's go back and do yet another Fantastic Four, which has never really flown. Zootopia, let's do another Zootopia. That works. Avatar, that's huge. Let's go back and do that. Plus, that helps support the installations at the parks. So.

Philip Hernandez (11:10.817)
Yep, exactly. Yeah, I think it's good to hear though that they're saying we're back to focusing on quality and it's a little bit like annoying because we literally had the same discussion on the show previously about how like that they're kind of straying away from the quality and if Disney doesn't mean quality, what does it mean? You know, that's its thing and so.

Scott (11:30.094)
Right, right. Well, and I also think that this ties back to keeping the synergy between...

the movies and the parks and the streaming and the parks and the, know, Disney for so many years and actually kind of pioneered the concept of, you know, let's have multiple streams of where you can interact with our IP or interact with our product. And they had kind of away from that. They kind of became a bit siloed. And it sounds like, you know, based on what he's leading with, it sounds like the plan is to kind of shift back.

so that it's the product and you can experience it in the movies, can experience it streaming, you can experience it in the parks, and I think that's going to be beneficial for them because that's what made them, you know, put them at the top of their game to begin with.

Philip Hernandez (12:17.037)
Yeah, I wonder if the reason they had been doing the other titles or doing so many really was for Disney Plus. Like, is that the real reason or was it because they were trying to experiment, you know, with other types of content or because of the organization of the

Scott (12:19.607)
Hmm

Scott (12:27.66)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (12:33.152)
I think they were trying, even as he says here in the call, I think they were trying to fill a void of ours. They were trying to get as much out there because they didn't want, invest in Disney Plus where we have three movies that play all the time, like the very beginnings of Home Box Office before it was called HBO. It's...

I it was to fill, I really believe that it was to fill a certain void and I think that they saw it as, here's our opportunity for growth. So let's grow, but they grew in size, not necessarily in quality.

Philip Hernandez (13:13.857)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, let's move on. Let's see the next one. So sports, we talked about this a little bit, but in the sports segment, of course, they're looking at launching the ESPN direct to consumer product coming up pretty soon. But aside from that, the ESPN's primetime TV viewership was up 32 % in the 18 to 20 to 49 demographic, which actually is that that's

Scott (13:24.982)
Thank

Philip Hernandez (13:42.625)
That's huge, because that is like the golden. That's like the white rhino of demographics, right? Because that's where you have the those people that that segment, you know, the especially the young men who spend money on a bunch of stuff that they don't need. That segment is so hard to reach nowadays because they don't do they don't do it. Where else do they pay attention? know, podcasting really. And so that's a huge portion of it. And they said it made

Scott (13:44.504)
very big.

Scott (14:03.843)
Right.

Philip Hernandez (14:10.877)
ESPN's most watched Q2 in prime time ever. And sports revenue was up 20 % for that quarter because of that. Operating income fell a little bit though due to higher programming and production costs, which we talked about in the last earnings call where there's, you know, there's contracts need to renew and there's sports fees and whatnot that are getting in the way. But I think that's going to be balanced out. They're hoping with the influx, you know, adding the ESPN direct to consumer might add influxes, which will help offset some of those costs. So

So that's the only cloud we had so far was just higher programming and production costs. again, they already built into it. It's already kind of like a plan to offset that. again, it's.

Scott (14:49.494)
Right. They're acknowledging it and addressing it.

Philip Hernandez (14:52.971)
Yeah, so I think sports, anything else to add on that?

Scott (14:58.252)
No, I think that's great. I think you hit it, hit the nail on the head on that one.

Philip Hernandez (15:01.827)
So then now we get to the parks segment, which as I mentioned was the biggest part. There's a lot here, obviously. So on a macro sense, operating income was up 9 % and the US parks operating income in particular was up 13%. The record of invested capital set record highs for it. Well, Disney World bookings were up 4 % in Q3 and 7 % in Q4 year over year.

All these numbers are all positive. Like everything is positive on this chart. And I would say the only thing I'm gonna add here just for everyone to just remember, I mean, I just still have to be a skeptic, but just remember, this is the Q1 earnings, which means it's a lagging indicator. So we're looking at previous numbers. So this was like before the tariffs. This was before like all everything. And so we don't know how much any of that is gonna impact it. I think Disney, after you,

Scott (15:32.088)
Mm-hmm.

Philip Hernandez (15:59.555)
you know, we go through this, you'll see this is probably in the best position of anybody, you know, anywhere. So, but just keep that in mind, it is a lagging indicator. So they reiterated again, how they have 30 billion earmarked for Florida and California expansions. They talked about that per cap spending per guest is still elevated compared to the pre pandemic. And that's thanks to new offerings and pricey strategies. Of course, he threw in that they're trying to monitor affordability, which I think is not true based on my

my last few visits where you can't like, even with the annual pass, like you can't like step out without spending $50 on, you know, just whatever. So the only kind of dark spot in all of this is that Shanghai Disney Resort and other China exposed areas are seeing guests tighten their belts. And so you're seeing lower per guest spending, even as attendance levels are recovering. And so that also is a kind of an indicator. We knew that going in, right, we hadn't seen it in too many earnings reports yet, but we know that

the Chinese economy is in a tight spot right now and the government is trying to assist with that. But that is reflected here. And again, because this is a trailing indicator, we'll still see how it's going to impact, how the rest of the year is going to shake. could get worse, might get better, who knows. But overall, they say that global park demand remains robust and they're leveraging dynamic pricing and seasonal events and Gini plus, et cetera, et

Emphasize we already have more expansion projects underway domestically and around the world that at any other time in our history and I think that's actually true. I have so much stuff going out there and they did kind of adjust their a little bit of their their year-over-year projection a tiny bit saying that the parks results will likely end at the high end of the six to eight percent range given the current trends. So that was their only hint that things might be

a little shaky, but so they kind of adjusted their projections a little bit.

Philip Hernandez (18:05.357)
There's a lot there, of course they ended with the unveiling of Disney Abu Dhabi, which I wanna talk about, but let's save that. We'll do that next as its own kinda segment. based off all these earnings and all the numbers, what do you think, Scott?

Scott (18:21.656)
Well, mean, you we've talked a lot over the last couple of weeks about Universal and we've talked about, you know, their earnings calls and how that all looks. And we've talked about how they have.

The reason they've been able to do such massive expansions is because they basically just had money, they had cash flow and they didn't have to borrow any. I think that it's interesting that Iger specifically chose to say we're doing more expansions than at any time in our history, but not compared to any other parks say, I don't know, universal. So I think that it was very important for him, as with all these earning calls, hit the right political buttons

Philip Hernandez (18:40.355)
Yep. Yep.

Scott (19:03.876)
and to make certain that people recognize, you we're not just sitting on our, resting on our laurels, we're actually continuing to expand and continuing to grow. And it's true, you there's no argument that that is actually true. But I just found it, I found that a very interesting point to bring up, just to keep people aware that the parks are going to continue to grow and we'll see, you know, how that all.

how that all plays out. And then with the, you know, there's the new anniversary coming up, what is it, 70 at Disneyland? Right?

Philip Hernandez (19:39.275)
Yes, the 70th anniversary actually just started yesterday. I was there for a course. Of course I was there for opening night. and so we're what's, what's felt like 30,000 other people all crammed into main street, to, you know, to watch. had already seen the paint the night parade previously, cause I somehow managed to, to be there on preview night, even though I wasn't invited to the preview night, but I was like randomly there in the park. And so I got to see the paint the night float and the.

Scott (19:52.334)
Mm-hmm.

Philip Hernandez (20:07.905)
Return of Wondrous and I mean there's a lot planned for the 70th. I think more than there had been for other festivals and I was talking with some friends about it. I think that even just last month it was kind of almost hard to justify a price to Disneyland because so many things were down and then there's just no entertainment at night. was like, you're going around, you're like, back in 2019, you're like, back in my day there used to be shows at night.

and things called parades, you know, and, and so it finally feels like we're getting back to that sense where now we have Paint the Night happening twice a night. We have Fantasmic. There's Wondrous, which is probably one of the better fireworks shows from a narrative standpoint. You know, then there's the projection shows on the castle. There's all the seventh decoration. Walt, the Walt animatronic will be coming in July and putting that in there. They refurbished Small World. Um, you know, there's a, and then on DCA side, there's

the Pixar pals parade or cavalcade thing that runs throughout the afternoon. And then there's a new world of color and they have the openings, the pre-openings with the Muppets. And then they have the thing where you choose who's going to lead the, I mean, there's all, mean, there's a lot of live entertainment going.

Scott (21:22.958)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, and it sounds like, just based on what I've seen, that much of the 70th celebration is leaning heavily into the live entertainment side. You know, I think back to Walt Disney World doing 25th when they basically covered the castle. They made the castle. It was an installation versus a show.

And, you know, they and again, it was before what they wanted was they wanted something that you could see both day and night. And it was really before.

mapping, know, video mapping was a thing, a reasonable or an affordable thing. So they invested so much in covering the castle in foam, really, carved foam, which is what it was. But now that investment is in actual shows and experiences. So it's an interesting shift because I also think it's a more cost effective shift. You can offer significantly more reasons to experience the 70th, although I will

will say the merchandise sales for the 25th were pretty crazy because everybody wanted the maquette of the castle in its candy form. And that sold and continues to sell in the secondary market for quite a bit of money. I think it's interesting that the shift has happened and I think it makes real good sense considering where we are with our economy and what is available and what costs more and what costs less. So good investment.

Philip Hernandez (22:39.491)
Yeah.

Philip Hernandez (22:57.987)
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about that a little bit last week about the concept of, know, what, what can you do? And like sometimes like capital. And I think Disney is, is balancing these items out, right? You have, they do have planned large capital investments and they have kind of big projects on the horizon, but they're also doing those renovations that are important that I think people do forget about, know, like it's like, I, I, I see it when I go to the park and so I'm reminded, you know, but it's like,

Scott (23:21.688)
Mm-hmm.

Philip Hernandez (23:28.385)
really when we were there, like I said, just even last month, mean, like everything was like everything is down, you know, and you're like, my god. And so now it's like

Scott (23:33.762)
Right. Well, and they just had to make sure it was back for the 70th. So, you know, and let's be honest, they're renovating on this side of the world and they are building completely or we'll start very soon building completely on the other side of the world because we cannot finish the show. I mean, this is the elephant in the room. We got to talk about the Abu Dhabi announcement.

Philip Hernandez (23:38.211)
Exactly. I know it really.

Philip Hernandez (23:54.667)
Yeah, so I'm going to go very quick and then I need to give Scott the floors for this. So basically I'm sure everyone listening knows, but yes, Disney has basically Disney is licensing its IP. so Moral is going to fund fund and run the Disney Abu Dhabi. And Eiger said that there's roughly 500 million income qualified guests within four hours of this park. And

There's been, there's a lot of talk. It's going to be largely indoors. So I think I assume it's mostly indoors, but what they mean by that, it's going to be, Iger promised it'll be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati and Oasis of Extraordinary Disney Entertainment. That also reflects the culture and tastes of the region. he talks about that. It was kind of very obvious that there would need to be something there just because of the amount of people that are in that region. And because they're kind of missing that region, you know, that's the, if they put something there, then it's.

Disney is accessible to so many more people than any other kind of location. There's been a lot of speculation about why they chose that. There was supposedly an offer from Saudi to do it and it was like a blank check offer. But if you think about this, I think from a business standpoint, this makes the most sense. And it's one of those things, it's like Stephen King writes where he's like, know, conclusions to good stories should be surprising yet inevitable.

And I think to me, this is exactly it. This was surprising in that you read it and you were like, oh, but then it's inevitable because of all these factors. Like who else, what other partner could they go with that has experienced like Moral has really in that region, in any of the regions in that area. And if you look at where else they could have gone, like they could have gone, yeah, Mexico, Chile, they could have gone South Africa or any of those, but how many income qualified?

guests that could actually get into the park are there within those regions and I would say not 500 million. I mean, that's an enormous market of potential for this park. And then even with Saudi offering them what I heard was a blank check, like they just, know, however much you want. But you think about the brand reputation still has to be good for Disney and Moral has proven itself. Like Moral has made the best version of every brand that they have touched. When you think about it, mean, it's like

Philip Hernandez (26:14.273)
I think a lot of people harp on the low guess, but you're like, y'all, this is like the best SeaWorld in the world. Like stop, you know, stop hating.

Scott (26:22.542)
It's the best SeaWorld. the best Ferrari experience. It's the best Warner Brothers experience. And do not forget Yas Water World because it is an amazing water park. Probably my second favorite in the world. I mean, it's pretty breathtaking. And all of those have expansions going on as we speak. Some of them announced, some of them not. But all of them have expansions going on as we speak.

Philip Hernandez (26:25.867)
Yes? Yes?

Scott (26:50.21)
you know, I, when I was there, I actually said, I sincerely doubt that Disney will ever join in with the fun here because Disney, nine times out of 10, likes to be in full control and so does Merall. And, you know, just to, just to clarify, I know everybody knows this, but Merall actually is the owner of all the parks that I just mentioned. So SeaWorld, Ferrari, Warner Brothers, and Yas Waterworld. And they're all on the same island. And what a Disney inclusion on Yas Island is going

Philip Hernandez (27:02.435)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Philip Hernandez (27:16.589)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (27:20.154)
to mean is huge. I can't begin to explain how much this is going to be the tipping point for the success of Yas Island, in my opinion.

Philip Hernandez (27:34.381)
Yeah, yeah, I just want to finish with just, know, there's no, there's almost no negative in my mind on this in that like, it's not going to cost them anything. It's just going to make them money. They know again, that morale has a proven track record in that region and everything. So they know it's going to be quality. It's going to protect the brand, all that kind of stuff. So I think that's where I think the main thing that we saw, of course, was people talking about the regions and their laws and rights, especially concerning LGBTQ people.

and Scott wrote an article about that for Attractive Magazine. So I wanna let Scott discuss.

Scott (28:07.116)
Well, first of all, I would like to thank Attractions Magazine for coming to me because I feel as though I shared a very fair assessment. The purpose in writing the article was not to say, there are no problems, turn a blind eye. The purpose of writing the article was to say, do your research, do your homework, because what you think you know about that region and what I experienced while I was there, what I thought I knew before I got there and what actually happened there,

We're very

very different. you know, everybody has to make decisions on their own. Do they want to go to a country where there are certain laws in place? Do they want, I mean, to be completely honest, do they want to travel to different states within the U.S. where they know that certain laws are in place? I wanted to I wanted to create a sense of this was my experience while I was in UAE. Like I said, only there five months I lived. I did live on Yas Island, but I traveled

to Dubai and various other, I've traveled to Oman and various other parts of the region. I've also done work in Saudi. So it was just to kind of share with people my

boots on the ground observations and other people who have had boots on the ground there and have different experiences, I completely respect that. And I'm very eager, you know, I'd be very eager to hear what those were if they were differing from mine. But generally speaking, especially in regards to LGBTQ plus community, because that's what Attractions magazine asked me to write about. My experience there was a very welcoming one.

Scott (29:47.392)
I do know that trans people still have some challenges getting into the country, especially if they're coming to work, simply because the government does not necessarily recognize that trans is a thing. But again, they're not the only country, and they're certainly not the only state. So we're fighting that battle in the US right now as well.

We have to, and we also have to take into consideration, the other thing I brought up in the article many times is, UAE is a young country. It's slightly over 50 years old. And the changes and the way they have modified their government system and made it more welcoming to a much broader spectrum of people, even in 50 years, and most of it has happened in the last five to 10, is huge. It's huge.

And then you also have to take into consideration that only 10 % of the population is actually a Marathi. The other 90 % are expats. So it is really more of a melting ground than the United States is. It's more of a melting pot than the US is. And it is also changing their...

Philip Hernandez (30:48.93)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (31:01.004)
changing their conservative nature, changing their conservative policies. Right now they are kind of at a don't ask, don't tell, I will be honest, but they are not aggressively trying to seek out members of the LGBTQ plus community to haul them out into the streets and shoot them. And that is what some people believe. And to be completely honest, it's kind of what I was led to believe prior to living there. all I ask, all I ask you don't have to agree.

with the way they run their government. You don't have to agree with their laws. What I do ask is that you make your decisions based on what is happening now and what is really happening there, not some preconceived notion that is 5, 10, 15 years old, or that you...

take all of the Middle East, throw it into a bag, shake it up and think of it as the same country. Because although there are similarities, there are also radical differences in the way that they operate. you know, I know that there are some people who feel as though I was sharing propaganda in order to promote a Disney product. There's no point in me doing that because I am I am a member of the LGBTQ plus community, but I am not a member of I'm not on Disney payroll. So it serves no purpose for me to do that. I was just there to share my observation and to ask people to make sure

Philip Hernandez (32:07.489)
Yeah, exactly.

Scott (32:14.032)
that before you make your decisions, whether you're going to go or not, whether you're going to support it or not, you know, that's what free market is all about, you make those decisions. But please make them based on real facts, not preconceived notions, and then make the choice yourself. My job in that article was to just share my observation while living there for five months.

That's kind of the take I have on Disney and why they chose there. I think it's a super wise choice. I think it's going to be very beneficial for morale. I think it's going to be very beneficial for Disney because it is going to elevate their presence in that part of the world. They did do, when I was in Riyadh, they actually did a pop-up in Riyadh while I was there earlier this year.

Philip Hernandez (32:48.515)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (33:06.576)
And that was a unique experience. It was only there for a short period of time and then magically disappeared. So I thought perhaps it was going to be Saudi, where it was going to eventually happen. But no, they went with the UAE. And I think it's the right choice because Moral, as Philip said, is really, really good at handling other people's and making them or finding ways to find the parts of them that will appeal most to the Emirati market and make it unique to that part of the world.

Philip Hernandez (33:17.955)
Hmm.

Scott (33:36.496)
They've done it with Ferrari. They've done it with WB. They've done it with SeaWorld. And now it's time to do it with Disney. So I think that's going to be a very successful park. And quite honestly, I'm very excited to see it. Because just based on some of the initial imagery that we've seen, the idea of creating a castle that is unique to that part of the world, I think is going to be stellar. And it's...

Philip Hernandez (33:50.295)
Yeah, me too.

Scott (34:05.698)
We'll see how it all turns out. But anyway, that was the purpose in writing the article. That was the purpose. It was not to be propaganda in any way, shape or form. It was not meant to encourage people to go. It was just to encourage people to do your homework. So you're making decisions based on reality. So and speaking of reality, we are really over time. So so we're going to have to go. This has been yet another week of Green Tag Theme Park in 30. My name is Scott Swenson with Scott Swenson Creative Development. And on behalf of myself and my co-host, Philip Hernandez, with

Philip Hernandez (34:19.725)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Scott (34:35.662)
Gantem Lighting and Heart of the Attraction Network. This is Green Tag Theme Parking 30. We will see you next week.

Philip Hernandez (34:42.413)
or we're gonna see you in our Patreon where we're gonna discuss the earnings for Six Flags and United Parks because we didn't forget about them, we just put Disney first. So come see us in Patreon.

Scott (34:49.346)
And I want to talk a little bit about Harry Potter too, because I was in Chicago and experienced the new shop there. So if you want to hear a little bit about retail attainment, join us. Join us for our Patreon subscribers. Join one of our Patreon subscribers for Green Tagged Unhinged. See you next week!