June 6, 2023
SeaWorld Abu Dhabi Opens
SeaWorld Abu Dhabi Opened in May, and Scott was there to bear witness. Also this week: Fiesta Village Reopens at Knott's Berry Farm, the final night of Splash Mountain saw wait times of 260 minutes, and Six Flags Great Adventure will implement...
SeaWorld Abu Dhabi Opened in May, and Scott was there to bear witness. Also this week: Fiesta Village Reopens at Knott's Berry Farm, the final night of Splash Mountain saw wait times of 260 minutes, and Six Flags Great Adventure will implement Amazon's Just Walk Out technology.
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From our studios in Los Angeles and
Tampa. Yay, back in the US,
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Back in the US. Yes,
back back in the US with my
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with my funky background um and my
better microphone, and life is good.
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I'm back home green Tag. This
is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty made
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in America. And this week we're
going to start off talking about the week
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Next week, I don't know where
we'll be well sistic, We'll start off
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talking about the opening of CEA World
Abu Dhabi. It opened on May twenty
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third, and it's the first Sea
World facility outside the US. It occupies
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five floors and covers one hundred and
eighty three thousand square feet square meters sorry,
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featuring eight themed zones, live shows, and more than fifteen rides and
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experiences, including the indoor to outdoor
Manta Coaster and Scott You were present at
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the opening, obviously where Abu Dhabi, weren't you? Yes, As a
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matter of fact, I was,
and now that it is open, I
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for those of you who haven't figured
it out, um, I was actually
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part of the installation team, working
with a live in our payment group and
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some of the animal presentations, and
I have to I have to start by
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saying, I am not an official
spokesperson for ceworld Yass Island Abu Dhabi,
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um, but it has been we
have been given the okay to mention that
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we have. Those of us who
did work on the project did work on
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the project, and so that's why
I was there for the last five months.
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And I was a fill in to
be honest, I was not part
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of the pre deployment. But unfortunately
the person who had in my position before
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was unable to um go to the
UAE for almost six months and so um,
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so I ended up taking that over
and and became the producer through an
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outside company. So uh, it's
been. It was an amazing experience.
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And I can tell you that this
this park. You know, every time
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a new park opens in the UAE, it always sets new standards, new
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bars, new uniquenesses. They love
biggest, fastest, best, newest,
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all that kinds of stuff, and
um, this but this park really delivers.
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And I'm saying this based on no
no internal information, no you know,
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insider info, but based on what
any guests who were to visit the
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park now could see. UM,
they will see that this is not only
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an amazing park because of its you
know, largest three hundred and sixty degree
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led screen and the content that that
fills that in the one Ocean Hub,
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or the the largest aquarium, which
is again five stories tall, and you
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can explore that by going down five
stories below. And you can even guests
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for an up charge, can even
actually go into the habitat um with breathable
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a breathing device, a helmet,
a breathing helmet um. It's it's incredible,
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It's got the mantic poster. It's
so much fun. It is,
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and it's interesting because it's right across
the street from Ferrari World, and Ferrari
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World has of course Formula Rosso which
is the fastest, and flying aces,
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which is my favorite, and so
but the thing about Manta is it is
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incredibly unique. It is not particularly
high, but it is long, It
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has three launches, It has a
lot of different elements that are super fun.
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And of course the real stars of
the show are the animals that call
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s World Yes Island at home.
And you know, I'm I'm incredibly proud
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to have been part of the team
that worked on both the Dolphin presentation,
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the Sea Lion presentation, as well
as a lot of the atmosphere shows.
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I directed none of them. I
was more of the I was more on
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the producer role, but it was
it was great to work with a phenomenal
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team to put together some really exciting
and what have so far proven to be
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very popular presentations and elements. So
if you have the opportunity to check out
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this park, I strongly recommend it, not necessarily because of the Sea World
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brand, not because I worked on
it, not because it's the newest park
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in Abu Dhabi, but it has
done some things that I think are going
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to be game changers for the industry. So it is really designed to be
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a park that you take time to
discover. There are hidden corners, there
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is a there's a gaming element that
takes place through the entire park. There
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are, in my humble opinions,
some really wonderful shows and presentations. There
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are. There's an amazing collection of
animals and you will see them in a
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way that you've never seen them before. And the more you explore, the
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richer the experience becomes. So like
similar to what Warner Brothers World did for
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the Warner Brothers brand, this park
has done for the Sea World brand.
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It has made it richer it has
made it. There are significantly more hidden
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corners, and the more time you
take, the more you will get out
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of it. So I think that's
really what's going to set Sea World as
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island I would apart. Yeah,
I'm going to put some links in the
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show notes to several different articles that
cover this, you know. I opposite
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a great roundup of ten things they
thought was how it was impactful, and
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everyone's kind of been covering it.
I thought the technology was one of the
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most interesting components, and I'm wondering, I guess for our listeners, like,
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do you think this is going to
change anything? You know, as
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in like I look at it,
and I think that definitely the bar has
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been raised. But you know,
not just in the theming and in the
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environment outside, but also in the
technology integration into the park itself. It's
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kind of that leap frog concept that
we talk about quite frequently about how,
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you know, we spent so long
developing here in the US. You know,
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yeah, we we have the older
parks, but they're older, and
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then this is a brand new park. And what would you do if you
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could build a brand new park,
you know, from ground up, like
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epic? Right? Yeah, I
think that the advantage, you know,
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and part of the reason just in
general, with parks that are going up
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in the UAE, parks that are
going up in Saudi parts, that are
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parks that are going up in areas
that have not necessarily been known as theme
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park meccas. They don't have to
undo anything. They can take all of
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the learnings from all the other parks
and build it that way. To begin
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with, the other thing that I
think is incredibly smart about parks in the
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UAE is now, especially in Abu
Dhabi, they're not just being built for
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today's audiences. They're being built for
audiences that they are trying to entice.
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They are being built for the audiences
yet to come. So they're not being
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built small. You'll walk through some
of these cues and you'll go, oh
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my god, they can never fill
these cues. And you know, I
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think you've heard me say that in
regards to other parks in the area.
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But they're planning so that when all
of a sudden, Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
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UAE, Middle East, whatever,
whenever, that switch gets flipped and
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the audiences from around the world start
flooding in. And don't misunderstand me,
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even though there aren't that many Americans, there aren't that many folks from the
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US going there for vacation, that
does not mean there are not people going
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there for vacation, tons of Europeans, tons of Russians, tons of Indians,
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tons of I mean you have to
recognize, and you've heard me say
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this before, the UAE and Abu
Dhabi specifically Abu Dhabi specifically, somewhere between
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eighty and ninety percent of the population
are expats. They're from other places in
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the world. So it is a
very unique international vibe that I think is
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just going to help things in the
long run. But specifically about the Sea
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World Park, I think what they've
done is they've found ways to add those
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newest, biggest, bestest, fastest, most different in ways that are fully
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integrated in the Sea World story.
And I think that is the real that's
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the real game changer. And for
those of you who know my career,
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you know that I worked for Sea
World Parks and Entertainment for over twenty years
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at Bush Gardens in Tampa. So
for me to come back to the brand
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as an outside contractor is very exciting. It's very exciting because I'm now seeing
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in this park. And again,
whether I had worked on the project or
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not, had I just been there
for the opening, had I just been
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there for the first week of operation, these are all things that I would
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have seen that it has taken the
standards of the SeaWorld parks entertainment parks and
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elevated them to a level that they've
never really been at before. So it's
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gonna it's gonna set the tone I
think, for parks back in the in
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the domestic parks as well as other
competitive competitive parks. So it's a it's
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a unique it's a unique experience,
and I would I'm very proud to have
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been a part of it, and
I will be even more thrilled to go
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back and experienced it as a guest
after it's been open for a while.
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Yeah, I think that's I hear. I've heard that a lot about the
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quality of the park. But then
at the same time, it's almost like
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a lot of the US correspondents are
saying, but there's hardly anybody there and
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blah blah blah. And I think
of it as this is an extremely long
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term view, like this is like
a ten twenty year plan, and it's
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very similar. I think of it, like very similar to the stories that
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are coming out about people leaving the
San Francisco and New York and DC area
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because of the cost of living and
whatnot and going into the places like Austin
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and those cities are like at a
crossroads where they're looking at. You know,
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the time to build housing is almost
ten years before you need it,
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because then Tampa's going through the same
thing. Then it's all built, it's
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all there, and you know,
of course, as we know, the
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problem is, you know, once
you are a homeowner, then you have
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the perverse incentive. You don't want
more houses to be built because it impacts
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is the quality of your you know
that it impacts your investment directly. But
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if you head that off by planning
for whole zones to be condos and multi
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use stuff ten years in advance or
whatnot, then you're going to have the
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capacity. It's kind of like betting
that that capacity is eventually going to get
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there. And that's what I think
this. You know, I think that
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they have the patients. You know
that it's not like here where stuff changes
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every four years. You know,
they have the patients, they have the
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stability, and they have the money
to wait ten or twenty years, you
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know. Well. And that said, I would strongly recommend if you want
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to check out all of these incredible
parks, do it now. I mean,
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as we've already, as we've already
seen in the news, the Bollywood
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Park in Dubai, which is you
know, forty minutes from where I was
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living, is gone and gone for
good. Now. There is a lot
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of discussion that it will be rethemed
and reopened, etc. But when I
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went to Motion Gate, which is
right next door, again very very empty,
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and I think what the Abu Dhabi
Parks with the as Island Parks have
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recognized is you cannot do a year
round theme park that is outdoors in that
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part of the world. It is
just it's painful to be outside. Well,
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so okay, all right, Well, coming back to the US.
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Something that I've been going to that
I went to maybe not around the same
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time, I guess, as Scott
was coming home or whatnot. Fiesta Village
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has reopened at Nottsbury Farm in California. The revamped area now features new merchandise,
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new quick service restaurants, and live
entertainment such as mariachi bands playing on
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the festival stage. Bob Baker,
Maryonnet's performing with puppets and bands, really
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focusing on Mexican and Hispanic culture at
night and during the day. So basically
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I think the biggest things is they
rethemed the area. They opened a new
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restaurant called Kassa California, and they
have now kind of three stages that are
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smaller stages that are kind of scattered
around it. So if you think of
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it, it's like a plaza and
then if you imagine, there's the Cassa
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California, and then the back of
the building there's like the Mary nat stage,
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and then there's the plaza, and
then scattered throughout the plaza the three
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stages. So the idea is at
night they do a little bit like a
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cavalcade that kind of comes in and
wraps around the plaza, and then the
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characters go on to the three scattered
stages and they perform the same show,
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but it's performed simultaneously on the three
stages. And what that allows them to
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do is basically then turned the plaza
into almost like a I don't like an
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inverse of a black box, you
know, where like the show's performing around
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the audience, with the audience is
allowed to stand all and so they can
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fill that entire square, so you
know, it's a lot more people can
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watch it at the same time,
So I thought that was to me.
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To me, the most interesting pieces
were the new restaurant and that performance style
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of show, and then the projection
mapping where they brought in projection mapping,
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their projection mapping on top of Montezumas
Revenge, which isn't open yet, but
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they're projection mapping on top of it, and they have some pyro that happens.
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So that to me was the most
interesting piece, which is where they
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were taking this relatively tight space and
they are using the smaller stages that are
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broken up in a combination of production
mapping in pyro to really activate the entire
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space. That to me was the
most interesting. And then the other thing,
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the new restaurant really is just a
Chipotle rip off, but I think
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that it's going to perform really well
because it's really just a build your own
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burrito or a bowl and that's it. But their guac is incredible, and
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I think it's going to be just
successful. I mean, it's just it's
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a really it's like those type of
things. I think are really good ideas.
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It's like, sometimes you don't need
to reinvent the wheel at your theme
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park restaurant. You just need to
do Chipotle and it will do well.
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And I went to the preview and
then I went back for a media day
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with a friend as a plus one, and the line was maybe an hour.
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And this is just a build a
bowl, so it's not I mean,
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there's it's gonna be popular, and
it's already popular. So so I
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thought it was just a very good
example of kind of revamping this space and
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trying to pull people. Again,
no, ghost Town is the thing they're
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at, not and so that's kind
of where everything has been centered, and
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I think pulling people out of that
area is advantageous, and then coming up
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with ways to multi use these spaces
throughout the day. You know, again,
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again we've seen this at Disney at
the parks forevert, right, But
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I like, I like smaller attractions
and smaller places doing it in ways that
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work for them, you know,
doing a smaller prediction mapping on top of
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Montzuma's Revenge. I think that's great
and it adds that little bit of that
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little bit of something that can transition, and I love the idea just conceptually.
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No, Unfortunately I haven't had a
chance to see it, but I
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love the concept of taking smaller stages
and utilizing them to work together to create
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something much larger that has not only
not only is a great way to use
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space, but it also takes traditional
performance and makes it atmospheric in its own
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way, so it becomes it becomes
even more immersive because the stages are all
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around you, you know, it's
it's sort of the same excitement, the
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same vibe that you get when you
go to a music festival, you know,
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when you've got multiple music stages and
you can bop around from stage to
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stage to stage. Even though even
those times, those transition periods where your
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focus is not necessarily on the stage, the energy, the energy in the
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area is elevated and it makes it
so much more fun um And that seems
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to make total sense, especially when
you're when you're celebrating Hispanic culture. So
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I think that's really neat. And
they do have a transition phase that are
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different shows during the day versus during
the night, and they use the stages
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for different moments at the storyteller moment
on one of them, so they allows
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them to have breakout areas almost that
are kind of you know, and these
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are not when I say stages,
these are really more like like the stages
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you have in black boxes that are
really just black boxes that are stacked on
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top of on top of the black
They are literal black boxes. Is they're
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they're okay, they're black boxes that
were painted brown. So got it.
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So they are really cost effectives,
I want to say. So it's it's
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a very cost effective way of doing
that. And they do bring in a
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good variety. I mean, they
had they have the spirit performers, they
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have, they have Mariachi's, so
they kind of have tried to make it
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more like a variety show really to
do exactly I think they're trying to do
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exactly what you're saying. It's gott
They're trying to make it immersive, atmospheric,
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and instead of having a like a
long linear story, they're they're like,
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here's a I think eleven or twelve
minute show is what we clocked it
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at. But it's more like,
you know, three three minute like a
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one one Mariachi dance, you know
that happens, and then one puppet dance
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and then one you know, so
it's they're more of like a variety show
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and that way it's more atmospheric.
Yeah. Yeah, it's what it's what
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we used to call sideshow scheduling,
where you you have you have smaller acts
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that go in rotation, so it
when in the guests minds, they're put
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together into a much longer experience.
So my question for you, Philip is
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do you feel that they are targeting
the local Hispanic community or do you feel
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that they're celebrating the Hispanic culture for
people who are not part of the thing
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that they're targeting the local community.
I think that and I'm not sure if
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it's like a if what they're trying
to do is like target the local community
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and kind of be like, this
is your area over here now, you
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know, and that kind of freeze
up and ghost Town for the you know,
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because the ghost towns I think the
more iconic thing. If you were
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coming and you'd never been there,
you'd want to make sure you get to
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ghost Town. But you wouldn't necessarily
an outside a visiting person for their one
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day at Notts wouldn't necessarily need to
go to Fiesta Village, right. I
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wouldn't say that I would be like
you need to get on ghost Riding to
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go to ghost Town. Need like
you need to go to the mind Riding
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to go to Barry Tales, Like
there are so many other things I think
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that would take that top billing.
So I think in that way it's smart.
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They're kind of like saying, here's
a hangout area for the people that
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are local, that love that this
is their culture, and then you know
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that's kind of separate from the ghost
town stuff. So cool. Yeah,
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it sounds like a great plan.
And now I just want guacamole. Oh
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it was so good. So I
actually we went back with and we got
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a tasting card because they're doing a
summer Night's tasting card and I was like,
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the GLUAWC has to be on this
tasting card and it was not,
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and I was I was. I
was pretty disappointed because we really I was
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like, I was like, there
are two things I want from not today.
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I want a funnel cake and I
want guacamole. So they know how
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good it is, they know that
people will pay extra even with the taste
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halfway to get it was. It
was sad, but oh gosh, all
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right. So also happening over here
on this side. The last night of
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Splash Mountain. Slash Mountain closed on
May thirtieth, And I only mentioned this
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not because it's necessarily big news,
but just because I was there on the
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thirty if we went there to kind
of observe what was going on, so
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I saw it firsthand. And it
was one of those, I want to
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say, maybe like only at a
Disney Park in America type of situations where
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they had to close the line an
hour before part closing because it was two
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hundred and sixty minutes two six zero
was the wait time for the end,
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and they allowed people to wait until
the last boat went through, like kind
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of hang out on the observation deck
and there. I mean, there's so
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many there's a documentary that's already out
about that final day of Flash Mountains,
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and it's it's just one of these
things where you know, never really underestimate
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kind of the power of the fans
when they care about something that's been here
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for thirty years. But it's a
it was it was. Yeah, it's
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just intense and just you know,
allowing for that moment to happen to kind
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of like a send off ceremony where
you're you're turning the bridge into an observation
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deck where you let people just stand
and watch people go through and kind of
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make into like a mini event.
So yeah, well, and Disney,
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you know, we've talked about this
many times on the show before. Disney
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is the master of taking things that
aren't events and making them ava and and
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this is this is a perfect This
is a perfect example. You know,
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this this goes back. I can
remember excuse me, I could remember here
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in Florida during one of the anniversaries
where they they turned the castle pink and
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there were there were people literally um
get breaking out into violent fights over the
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maquette of the of the Castle in
pink because they only had so many of
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them and it wasn't even limited edition, as they just couldn't produce enough of
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them so that everybody could get their
um their moment in time. This is
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also the company that when Main Street
Electrical Parade went away, they sold the
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individual bulbs from the main Street Electrical
Parade, which then came back. So
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you know, it's it's one of
those situations where if you have fans and
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this this just proves this really is
more of a proof of brand than it
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is of anything else when you have
enough people who are so committed to the
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brand to wait two hundred and sixty
minutes to go on the last ride of
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Splash Mountain, and then if they
weren't on the last if they weren't on
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the last car, to stand on
the bridge for the remainder of the time
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it took for the rest of the
people to go through. I mean,
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that's just that's just brilliant brand control
and certainly and certainly a way to And
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it doesn't happen overnight, obviously,
but it shows that somewhere. No matter
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what you want to say about Disney, and goodness knows, we've we've set
305
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our piece on this show many a
time. But no matter what you want
306
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to say about Disney, it is
clear that they're doing something exactly right for
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their fans, for their key fans, and they are giving them those little
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moments, those special moments, and
moments like this which cost them absolutely zero
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dollars of some extra labor to keep
the park open later. I get it.
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But still those moments where you know
all the people that were standing on
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the bridge will be able to go
and tell their children and their grandchildren I
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was there for the very last boat
that went through on splash mats exactly right.
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And as many people have pointed out
on Twitter and various things, what's
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funny so funny about this is it's
not like the Riots changing. It's gonna
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it's literally it's gonna be the same
water, like when it opens back up,
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It'll be the same little water,
same color. It's gonna it's it's
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just the you know, just the
theme means changing, which is which is
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00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:21.200
a sou Yeah so funny? Um
so oh anyway, moving on here,
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uh, six Flags Rate Adventure is
going to implement Amazons Just walk Out technology
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in June. Six Flags will be
the first theme park operator to introduce Amazon's
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just walk Out technology beginning Thursday.
The system allows guests to quickly and conveniently
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grab their desired items without having to
wait in long lines. Six Flags will
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first implement the grab and go system
in its Jackson, New Jersey location,
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and we'll roll out the same process
for the six Flags Magic Mountain located here
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in Valencia and some stats from here. They say that they're hoping that this
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could improve retail sales by ten percent
if we hit those numbers, and we
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will be able to implement the technology
in our other parks and ultimately replace all
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vending machines. I kind of feel
like that we're going to replace more than
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vending machines with this, but he
probably didn't want to say that. They
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added that the total processing time if
if a person just wanted to grab a
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drink, could amount to less than
one minute, versus if they were waiting
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previously for vending machine, it would
be up to six minutes. So these
333
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are I think this is brilliant actually, and I think these are the small
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tweaks that we were just talking about
in the last last episode about the trends
335
00:23:25.480 --> 00:23:29.880
in good uses of technology making things
more efficient. And I've used these just
336
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walkout systems and they do. They
are very very easy. And you know
337
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Disney again, Disney already has a
version of this that is a little bit
338
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more cumbersome, right because you have
to at the Disney ones, you have
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to you can do it on your
phone where it's basically mobile checkout, but
340
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with your phone, so you know, the plus side is you can do
341
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any item with that, but the
negative side is, you know, you
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you have to still go to a
person to check you out and potentially remove
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a theft tag off a thing or
whatnot. But this is a system that
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is different where you you know,
you walk up, when you enter,
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you tap your credit card right,
and then when you exit, you just
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walk out. You don't have to
like see a clerk or anything, you
347
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know, So it's fundamentally different than
the mobile checkout. It really truly is
348
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you just tap a card, you
walk in, then you walk out and
349
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you're done. So when you when
you tap the card and walk in,
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what identifies you and the merchandise that
you take out? Good question? Is
351
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it facial? Is it facial recognition? Is it? Do you do you
352
00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:33.799
have an additional band? Do you
need to tap the same card as you
353
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leave? How does that work?
Great question? I'm unsure. Personally,
354
00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:41.960
I'm unsure it. I'm sure it's
a combination of those items. I think
355
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would think it would be a facial
a facial thing of some kind will just
356
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:48.720
detect who you are. Yeah,
because I've seen so the ones that I've
357
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seen in airports, for example,
to just walk out in airports, it's
358
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:56.480
biometric. Um they'll do a finger
scan or um or facial recognition. Facial
359
00:24:56.519 --> 00:25:00.720
recognition is being used at all of
the Morale parks in Abu Dhabi right now.
360
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And basically what you do is when
you come in or if you're a
361
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passholder, your your credit card either
can be on file if you're a passolder,
362
00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:14.839
or you can add it to your
file, and then all you have
363
00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:17.119
to do. You still have to
go through all of the other things.
364
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The only difference is when you get
up to the register, you just look
365
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into the screen and you're done.
So yeah, I find it very interesting
366
00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:30.400
that a theme park is a theme
park like six Flags is rolling this out.
367
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I find it interesting for a couple
of reasons. Yes, it is
368
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going to reduce the number of vending
machines that they need. It's also going
369
00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:41.000
to help them with their staffing challenges
because this is going to cost jobs.
370
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Let's be realistic, this is going
to cost jobs, which at this point
371
00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:52.119
is fine because they can't staff for
what they need anyway. So you know
372
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that's not me being doom and gloom
and naysayer. The other thing that I
373
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think we also have to take into
consideration is, you know, I'm hoping
374
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that it really will will increase their
their sales by ten percent. It will
375
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also it will also reduce their theft
because if if the you know, if
376
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it's a tap and go, and
then it will recognize me as Scott has
377
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um you know something as has my
has my creepy little bear, as as
378
00:26:21.079 --> 00:26:23.680
merchandise. When I walk out,
whether I want to pay for it or
379
00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.000
I'm trying to steal it, it's
still going to charge my credit card.
380
00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:32.240
So you know, the whole idea
of magic bands at Disney was originally as
381
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:36.319
a theft prevention, as a loss
prevention, um, and then they packaged
382
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it as a guest service. Um. So And again I'm not saying there's
383
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anything wrong with that. UM.
I'm not promoting I'm not promoting theft.
384
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So so I'm curious. We need
to follow this and see what see how
385
00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:53.599
this continues, because the concept is
I think really strong. I think it's
386
00:26:53.599 --> 00:26:56.599
going to take people a little bit
of time to get used to, and
387
00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:00.359
I think parents are going to really
have to watch their kids. Yeah oh
388
00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:07.200
yeah no, but I definitely this
is exactly the thing. I think in
389
00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:08.880
the short term, this is one
of those short term things that I think
390
00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:12.960
will be adopted, I think will
be successful and then hopefully adopted very quickly
391
00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:18.920
because of all those reasons, and
just because I can I can see immediately
392
00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:23.240
how especially here at the California Parks, how it will increase sales, because
393
00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:29.319
there have been many, many moments
that I've had where I have not wanted
394
00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:33.319
to wait to get a bottle of
water or an energy drink or whatnot,
395
00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.920
just because because of the staffing challenge. It's a compounding issue because I've been
396
00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:44.759
at this fix Flags before and there's
been one kid operating a line for checkout
397
00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:47.240
and it has been thirty minutes,
and it's just not worth it at that
398
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:49.200
point. You know that the time
is it's a three dollar beverage. It's
399
00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:52.759
not worth thirty minutes to wait for
it, you know, it's just not
400
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:56.400
So I think these things are going
to roll out pretty quickly and then from
401
00:27:56.440 --> 00:28:02.839
there it's gonna hopefully it'll it'll get
more advanced or spiral. But yeah,
402
00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:07.759
So it's It's interesting because one of
the one of the organizations that I have
403
00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:10.920
worked for before, and I have
nothing to do with this announcement, but
404
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:18.640
has just announce they're going cash free
and basically even for those people who aren't
405
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:22.119
comfortable using Apple Pay or anything like
that, you can actually now at the
406
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:27.599
front of the park when you go
in either either insert cash or attach a
407
00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:32.359
credit card to a debit card that
you can then use throughout the zoo.
408
00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:37.079
The the Indian Apple is Zoo,
so they and they're also going they're also
409
00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:44.440
going cash free for their ticket app
so you have to either use kiosks out
410
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.160
front or pre order your tickets and
then just go straight on in. So
411
00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:52.839
I'm curious to see how the audience, how quickly the audiences and the guests
412
00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:56.440
are going to adapt to it.
I'm curious to see how quickly they're going
413
00:28:56.480 --> 00:29:00.960
to embrace it. And I'm also
curious to see how many um sort of
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00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:06.920
guest guest services folks are going to
be needed during the transitions to help people
415
00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.440
understand what's going on and why you
can't, you know, just walk up
416
00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:15.039
and PLoP down cash or plug in
your card. You have to go over
417
00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:18.440
here to a kiosky get that done
first. I'm curious. I don't,
418
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:19.759
like I said, I think it's
a great piece of technology. I think
419
00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:25.960
it's a great installation of it,
and I'm just I'm curious to see how
420
00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:29.119
the transition's going to work. That's
all. The last I wanted to mention.
421
00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:32.480
Right here under the wires were in
This was actually brought up to me
422
00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:37.799
by a listener, and it's when
we talked about the Disney axing there like
423
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.799
Nona and also the Star Cruiser.
Something that was brought up to me as
424
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:48.319
a possible reason for that is basically
them wanting to write off some of the
425
00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:53.119
expenses of the and and the kind
of the evidence they pointed to was was
426
00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:56.440
this coverage which we didn't talk about, which was that they're taking a one
427
00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:00.920
point five billion right off for titles
that they're removing from Disney Plus. So
428
00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:07.039
they're basically very they vary unceremoniously and
just pretty caught a lot of people off
429
00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:11.640
guard that they removed many titles,
dozens of titles from Disney Plus and Hulu
430
00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:15.039
at the end of May, and
they're filing with the SEC at one point
431
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:21.359
five billion write off charge basically for
losses incurred for that for not being able
432
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.319
to use the product or whatnot,
even though they had already produced it,
433
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:27.079
and they just say basically made it
and then just removed it and are trying
434
00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:30.880
to take a right off for that. And there's the listener pointed out that
435
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.960
that's that could be part of the
reason for the timing of the star Cruiser
436
00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:37.599
being now because of the fiscal the
way the fiscal years line up, So
437
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:41.799
I want to bring that up.
Oh that's very interesting. Yeah, that's
438
00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.400
very interesting. Well, speaking of
interesting, UM, you know we have
439
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:52.079
we've talked a lot about our new
YouTube channel for Green Tag and UM we
440
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:55.799
are continuing to add content to it. In fact, just before we started
441
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:59.759
recording this particular show, UM,
I sent what I call one Day for
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00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.039
Parks at Yas Island. UM.
It's a short video that I put together
443
00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:06.720
my last day when I was in
Abu Dhabi, and it gives you sort
444
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.960
of a dim sum of the U
the four different theme parks on Yas Island.
445
00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:14.839
It's only about twelve thirteen minutes,
so I know that's long for some
446
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.319
of you, but it's shorter than
this show. So anyway, go to
447
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:22.599
go to our I know Phillips going
shut up, Scott, shut up.
448
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:26.200
No, but go to go to
Green Tag Show dot com and you can
449
00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.680
also go that will link you straight
to our our YouTube channel. Check it
450
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:33.119
out. It should be there very
very shortly. And if it's not,
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00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.319
UM, just send an email to
Philip so On behalf of Fernandez and myself
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00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:41.279
Scott Swins and this is green Tag
Theme Park in thirty and we will see
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00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:41.400
you next week.
1
00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:06.120
From our studios in Los Angeles and
Tampa. Yay, back in the US,
2
00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:09.160
Back in the US. Yes,
back back in the US with my
3
00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:13.400
with my funky background um and my
better microphone, and life is good.
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00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:16.839
I'm back home green Tag. This
is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty made
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00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:21.280
in America. And this week we're
going to start off talking about the week
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Next week, I don't know where
we'll be well sistic, We'll start off
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talking about the opening of CEA World
Abu Dhabi. It opened on May twenty
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third, and it's the first Sea
World facility outside the US. It occupies
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five floors and covers one hundred and
eighty three thousand square feet square meters sorry,
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featuring eight themed zones, live shows, and more than fifteen rides and
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experiences, including the indoor to outdoor
Manta Coaster and Scott You were present at
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the opening, obviously where Abu Dhabi, weren't you? Yes, As a
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matter of fact, I was,
and now that it is open, I
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for those of you who haven't figured
it out, um, I was actually
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part of the installation team, working
with a live in our payment group and
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some of the animal presentations, and
I have to I have to start by
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saying, I am not an official
spokesperson for ceworld Yass Island Abu Dhabi,
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um, but it has been we
have been given the okay to mention that
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we have. Those of us who
did work on the project did work on
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the project, and so that's why
I was there for the last five months.
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And I was a fill in to
be honest, I was not part
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of the pre deployment. But unfortunately
the person who had in my position before
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was unable to um go to the
UAE for almost six months and so um,
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so I ended up taking that over
and and became the producer through an
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outside company. So uh, it's
been. It was an amazing experience.
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And I can tell you that this
this park. You know, every time
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a new park opens in the UAE, it always sets new standards, new
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bars, new uniquenesses. They love
biggest, fastest, best, newest,
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all that kinds of stuff, and
um, this but this park really delivers.
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And I'm saying this based on no
no internal information, no you know,
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insider info, but based on what
any guests who were to visit the
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park now could see. UM,
they will see that this is not only
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an amazing park because of its you
know, largest three hundred and sixty degree
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led screen and the content that that
fills that in the one Ocean Hub,
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or the the largest aquarium, which
is again five stories tall, and you
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can explore that by going down five
stories below. And you can even guests
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for an up charge, can even
actually go into the habitat um with breathable
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a breathing device, a helmet,
a breathing helmet um. It's it's incredible,
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It's got the mantic poster. It's
so much fun. It is,
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and it's interesting because it's right across
the street from Ferrari World, and Ferrari
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World has of course Formula Rosso which
is the fastest, and flying aces,
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which is my favorite, and so
but the thing about Manta is it is
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incredibly unique. It is not particularly
high, but it is long, It
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has three launches, It has a
lot of different elements that are super fun.
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And of course the real stars of
the show are the animals that call
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s World Yes Island at home.
And you know, I'm I'm incredibly proud
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to have been part of the team
that worked on both the Dolphin presentation,
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the Sea Lion presentation, as well
as a lot of the atmosphere shows.
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I directed none of them. I
was more of the I was more on
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the producer role, but it was
it was great to work with a phenomenal
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team to put together some really exciting
and what have so far proven to be
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very popular presentations and elements. So
if you have the opportunity to check out
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this park, I strongly recommend it, not necessarily because of the Sea World
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brand, not because I worked on
it, not because it's the newest park
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in Abu Dhabi, but it has
done some things that I think are going
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to be game changers for the industry. So it is really designed to be
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a park that you take time to
discover. There are hidden corners, there
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is a there's a gaming element that
takes place through the entire park. There
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are, in my humble opinions,
some really wonderful shows and presentations. There
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are. There's an amazing collection of
animals and you will see them in a
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way that you've never seen them before. And the more you explore, the
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richer the experience becomes. So like
similar to what Warner Brothers World did for
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the Warner Brothers brand, this park
has done for the Sea World brand.
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It has made it richer it has
made it. There are significantly more hidden
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corners, and the more time you
take, the more you will get out
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of it. So I think that's
really what's going to set Sea World as
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island I would apart. Yeah,
I'm going to put some links in the
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show notes to several different articles that
cover this, you know. I opposite
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a great roundup of ten things they
thought was how it was impactful, and
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everyone's kind of been covering it.
I thought the technology was one of the
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most interesting components, and I'm wondering, I guess for our listeners, like,
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do you think this is going to
change anything? You know, as
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in like I look at it,
and I think that definitely the bar has
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been raised. But you know,
not just in the theming and in the
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environment outside, but also in the
technology integration into the park itself. It's
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kind of that leap frog concept that
we talk about quite frequently about how,
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you know, we spent so long
developing here in the US. You know,
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yeah, we we have the older
parks, but they're older, and
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then this is a brand new park. And what would you do if you
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could build a brand new park,
you know, from ground up, like
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epic? Right? Yeah, I
think that the advantage, you know,
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and part of the reason just in
general, with parks that are going up
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in the UAE, parks that are
going up in Saudi parts, that are
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parks that are going up in areas
that have not necessarily been known as theme
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park meccas. They don't have to
undo anything. They can take all of
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the learnings from all the other parks
and build it that way. To begin
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with, the other thing that I
think is incredibly smart about parks in the
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UAE is now, especially in Abu
Dhabi, they're not just being built for
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today's audiences. They're being built for
audiences that they are trying to entice.
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They are being built for the audiences
yet to come. So they're not being
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built small. You'll walk through some
of these cues and you'll go, oh
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my god, they can never fill
these cues. And you know, I
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think you've heard me say that in
regards to other parks in the area.
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But they're planning so that when all
of a sudden, Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
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UAE, Middle East, whatever,
whenever, that switch gets flipped and
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the audiences from around the world start
flooding in. And don't misunderstand me,
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even though there aren't that many Americans, there aren't that many folks from the
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US going there for vacation, that
does not mean there are not people going
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there for vacation, tons of Europeans, tons of Russians, tons of Indians,
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tons of I mean you have to
recognize, and you've heard me say
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this before, the UAE and Abu
Dhabi specifically Abu Dhabi specifically, somewhere between
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eighty and ninety percent of the population
are expats. They're from other places in
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the world. So it is a
very unique international vibe that I think is
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just going to help things in the
long run. But specifically about the Sea
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World Park, I think what they've
done is they've found ways to add those
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newest, biggest, bestest, fastest, most different in ways that are fully
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integrated in the Sea World story.
And I think that is the real that's
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the real game changer. And for
those of you who know my career,
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you know that I worked for Sea
World Parks and Entertainment for over twenty years
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at Bush Gardens in Tampa. So
for me to come back to the brand
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00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:09.759
as an outside contractor is very exciting. It's very exciting because I'm now seeing
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in this park. And again,
whether I had worked on the project or
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not, had I just been there
for the opening, had I just been
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there for the first week of operation, these are all things that I would
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have seen that it has taken the
standards of the SeaWorld parks entertainment parks and
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elevated them to a level that they've
never really been at before. So it's
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gonna it's gonna set the tone I
think, for parks back in the in
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the domestic parks as well as other
competitive competitive parks. So it's a it's
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a unique it's a unique experience,
and I would I'm very proud to have
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been a part of it, and
I will be even more thrilled to go
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back and experienced it as a guest
after it's been open for a while.
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Yeah, I think that's I hear. I've heard that a lot about the
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quality of the park. But then
at the same time, it's almost like
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a lot of the US correspondents are
saying, but there's hardly anybody there and
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blah blah blah. And I think
of it as this is an extremely long
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term view, like this is like
a ten twenty year plan, and it's
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very similar. I think of it, like very similar to the stories that
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are coming out about people leaving the
San Francisco and New York and DC area
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because of the cost of living and
whatnot and going into the places like Austin
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and those cities are like at a
crossroads where they're looking at. You know,
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the time to build housing is almost
ten years before you need it,
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because then Tampa's going through the same
thing. Then it's all built, it's
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all there, and you know,
of course, as we know, the
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problem is, you know, once
you are a homeowner, then you have
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00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:41.200
the perverse incentive. You don't want
more houses to be built because it impacts
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00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:46.799
is the quality of your you know
that it impacts your investment directly. But
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if you head that off by planning
for whole zones to be condos and multi
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00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:54.000
use stuff ten years in advance or
whatnot, then you're going to have the
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00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:58.639
capacity. It's kind of like betting
that that capacity is eventually going to get
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there. And that's what I think
this. You know, I think that
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00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.080
they have the patients. You know
that it's not like here where stuff changes
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00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:07.080
every four years. You know,
they have the patients, they have the
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00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:09.279
stability, and they have the money
to wait ten or twenty years, you
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00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.799
know. Well. And that said, I would strongly recommend if you want
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to check out all of these incredible
parks, do it now. I mean,
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as we've already, as we've already
seen in the news, the Bollywood
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Park in Dubai, which is you
know, forty minutes from where I was
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living, is gone and gone for
good. Now. There is a lot
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of discussion that it will be rethemed
and reopened, etc. But when I
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went to Motion Gate, which is
right next door, again very very empty,
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and I think what the Abu Dhabi
Parks with the as Island Parks have
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recognized is you cannot do a year
round theme park that is outdoors in that
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part of the world. It is
just it's painful to be outside. Well,
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so okay, all right, Well, coming back to the US.
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Something that I've been going to that
I went to maybe not around the same
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time, I guess, as Scott
was coming home or whatnot. Fiesta Village
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has reopened at Nottsbury Farm in California. The revamped area now features new merchandise,
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new quick service restaurants, and live
entertainment such as mariachi bands playing on
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the festival stage. Bob Baker,
Maryonnet's performing with puppets and bands, really
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focusing on Mexican and Hispanic culture at
night and during the day. So basically
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I think the biggest things is they
rethemed the area. They opened a new
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restaurant called Kassa California, and they
have now kind of three stages that are
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smaller stages that are kind of scattered
around it. So if you think of
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it, it's like a plaza and
then if you imagine, there's the Cassa
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California, and then the back of
the building there's like the Mary nat stage,
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and then there's the plaza, and
then scattered throughout the plaza the three
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stages. So the idea is at
night they do a little bit like a
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cavalcade that kind of comes in and
wraps around the plaza, and then the
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characters go on to the three scattered
stages and they perform the same show,
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but it's performed simultaneously on the three
stages. And what that allows them to
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do is basically then turned the plaza
into almost like a I don't like an
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inverse of a black box, you
know, where like the show's performing around
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the audience, with the audience is
allowed to stand all and so they can
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fill that entire square, so you
know, it's a lot more people can
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watch it at the same time,
So I thought that was to me.
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To me, the most interesting pieces
were the new restaurant and that performance style
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of show, and then the projection
mapping where they brought in projection mapping,
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their projection mapping on top of Montezumas
Revenge, which isn't open yet, but
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they're projection mapping on top of it, and they have some pyro that happens.
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So that to me was the most
interesting piece, which is where they
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were taking this relatively tight space and
they are using the smaller stages that are
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broken up in a combination of production
mapping in pyro to really activate the entire
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space. That to me was the
most interesting. And then the other thing,
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the new restaurant really is just a
Chipotle rip off, but I think
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that it's going to perform really well
because it's really just a build your own
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burrito or a bowl and that's it. But their guac is incredible, and
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I think it's going to be just
successful. I mean, it's just it's
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a really it's like those type of
things. I think are really good ideas.
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It's like, sometimes you don't need
to reinvent the wheel at your theme
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park restaurant. You just need to
do Chipotle and it will do well.
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And I went to the preview and
then I went back for a media day
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with a friend as a plus one, and the line was maybe an hour.
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And this is just a build a
bowl, so it's not I mean,
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there's it's gonna be popular, and
it's already popular. So so I
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thought it was just a very good
example of kind of revamping this space and
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trying to pull people. Again,
no, ghost Town is the thing they're
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at, not and so that's kind
of where everything has been centered, and
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I think pulling people out of that
area is advantageous, and then coming up
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with ways to multi use these spaces
throughout the day. You know, again,
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again we've seen this at Disney at
the parks forevert, right, But
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I like, I like smaller attractions
and smaller places doing it in ways that
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work for them, you know,
doing a smaller prediction mapping on top of
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Montzuma's Revenge. I think that's great
and it adds that little bit of that
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little bit of something that can transition, and I love the idea just conceptually.
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No, Unfortunately I haven't had a
chance to see it, but I
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love the concept of taking smaller stages
and utilizing them to work together to create
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something much larger that has not only
not only is a great way to use
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space, but it also takes traditional
performance and makes it atmospheric in its own
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way, so it becomes it becomes
even more immersive because the stages are all
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around you, you know, it's
it's sort of the same excitement, the
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same vibe that you get when you
go to a music festival, you know,
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when you've got multiple music stages and
you can bop around from stage to
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stage to stage. Even though even
those times, those transition periods where your
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focus is not necessarily on the stage, the energy, the energy in the
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area is elevated and it makes it
so much more fun um And that seems
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to make total sense, especially when
you're when you're celebrating Hispanic culture. So
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I think that's really neat. And
they do have a transition phase that are
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different shows during the day versus during
the night, and they use the stages
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for different moments at the storyteller moment
on one of them, so they allows
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them to have breakout areas almost that
are kind of you know, and these
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are not when I say stages,
these are really more like like the stages
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you have in black boxes that are
really just black boxes that are stacked on
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top of on top of the black
They are literal black boxes. Is they're
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they're okay, they're black boxes that
were painted brown. So got it.
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So they are really cost effectives,
I want to say. So it's it's
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a very cost effective way of doing
that. And they do bring in a
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good variety. I mean, they
had they have the spirit performers, they
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have, they have Mariachi's, so
they kind of have tried to make it
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more like a variety show really to
do exactly I think they're trying to do
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exactly what you're saying. It's gott
They're trying to make it immersive, atmospheric,
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and instead of having a like a
long linear story, they're they're like,
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here's a I think eleven or twelve
minute show is what we clocked it
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at. But it's more like,
you know, three three minute like a
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one one Mariachi dance, you know
that happens, and then one puppet dance
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and then one you know, so
it's they're more of like a variety show
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and that way it's more atmospheric.
Yeah. Yeah, it's what it's what
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we used to call sideshow scheduling,
where you you have you have smaller acts
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that go in rotation, so it
when in the guests minds, they're put
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together into a much longer experience.
So my question for you, Philip is
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do you feel that they are targeting
the local Hispanic community or do you feel
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that they're celebrating the Hispanic culture for
people who are not part of the thing
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that they're targeting the local community.
I think that and I'm not sure if
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it's like a if what they're trying
to do is like target the local community
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and kind of be like, this
is your area over here now, you
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know, and that kind of freeze
up and ghost Town for the you know,
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because the ghost towns I think the
more iconic thing. If you were
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coming and you'd never been there,
you'd want to make sure you get to
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ghost Town. But you wouldn't necessarily
an outside a visiting person for their one
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day at Notts wouldn't necessarily need to
go to Fiesta Village, right. I
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wouldn't say that I would be like
you need to get on ghost Riding to
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go to ghost Town. Need like
you need to go to the mind Riding
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to go to Barry Tales, Like
there are so many other things I think
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that would take that top billing.
So I think in that way it's smart.
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They're kind of like saying, here's
a hangout area for the people that
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are local, that love that this
is their culture, and then you know
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that's kind of separate from the ghost
town stuff. So cool. Yeah,
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it sounds like a great plan.
And now I just want guacamole. Oh
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it was so good. So I
actually we went back with and we got
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a tasting card because they're doing a
summer Night's tasting card and I was like,
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the GLUAWC has to be on this
tasting card and it was not,
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and I was I was. I
was pretty disappointed because we really I was
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like, I was like, there
are two things I want from not today.
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I want a funnel cake and I
want guacamole. So they know how
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good it is, they know that
people will pay extra even with the taste
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halfway to get it was. It
was sad, but oh gosh, all
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right. So also happening over here
on this side. The last night of
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Splash Mountain. Slash Mountain closed on
May thirtieth, And I only mentioned this
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not because it's necessarily big news,
but just because I was there on the
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thirty if we went there to kind
of observe what was going on, so
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I saw it firsthand. And it
was one of those, I want to
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say, maybe like only at a
Disney Park in America type of situations where
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they had to close the line an
hour before part closing because it was two
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hundred and sixty minutes two six zero
was the wait time for the end,
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and they allowed people to wait until
the last boat went through, like kind
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of hang out on the observation deck
and there. I mean, there's so
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many there's a documentary that's already out
about that final day of Flash Mountains,
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and it's it's just one of these
things where you know, never really underestimate
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kind of the power of the fans
when they care about something that's been here
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for thirty years. But it's a
it was it was. Yeah, it's
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just intense and just you know,
allowing for that moment to happen to kind
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of like a send off ceremony where
you're you're turning the bridge into an observation
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deck where you let people just stand
and watch people go through and kind of
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make into like a mini event.
So yeah, well, and Disney,
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you know, we've talked about this
many times on the show before. Disney
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is the master of taking things that
aren't events and making them ava and and
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this is this is a perfect This
is a perfect example. You know,
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this this goes back. I can
remember excuse me, I could remember here
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in Florida during one of the anniversaries
where they they turned the castle pink and
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there were there were people literally um
get breaking out into violent fights over the
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maquette of the of the Castle in
pink because they only had so many of
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them and it wasn't even limited edition, as they just couldn't produce enough of
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them so that everybody could get their
um their moment in time. This is
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also the company that when Main Street
Electrical Parade went away, they sold the
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individual bulbs from the main Street Electrical
Parade, which then came back. So
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you know, it's it's one of
those situations where if you have fans and
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this this just proves this really is
more of a proof of brand than it
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is of anything else when you have
enough people who are so committed to the
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brand to wait two hundred and sixty
minutes to go on the last ride of
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Splash Mountain, and then if they
weren't on the last if they weren't on
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the last car, to stand on
the bridge for the remainder of the time
301
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it took for the rest of the
people to go through. I mean,
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that's just that's just brilliant brand control
and certainly and certainly a way to And
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it doesn't happen overnight, obviously,
but it shows that somewhere. No matter
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what you want to say about Disney, and goodness knows, we've we've set
305
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our piece on this show many a
time. But no matter what you want
306
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to say about Disney, it is
clear that they're doing something exactly right for
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their fans, for their key fans, and they are giving them those little
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moments, those special moments, and
moments like this which cost them absolutely zero
309
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dollars of some extra labor to keep
the park open later. I get it.
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But still those moments where you know
all the people that were standing on
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the bridge will be able to go
and tell their children and their grandchildren I
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was there for the very last boat
that went through on splash mats exactly right.
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And as many people have pointed out
on Twitter and various things, what's
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funny so funny about this is it's
not like the Riots changing. It's gonna
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it's literally it's gonna be the same
water, like when it opens back up,
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It'll be the same little water,
same color. It's gonna it's it's
317
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just the you know, just the
theme means changing, which is which is
318
00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:21.200
a sou Yeah so funny? Um
so oh anyway, moving on here,
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uh, six Flags Rate Adventure is
going to implement Amazons Just walk Out technology
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in June. Six Flags will be
the first theme park operator to introduce Amazon's
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just walk Out technology beginning Thursday.
The system allows guests to quickly and conveniently
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grab their desired items without having to
wait in long lines. Six Flags will
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first implement the grab and go system
in its Jackson, New Jersey location,
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and we'll roll out the same process
for the six Flags Magic Mountain located here
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in Valencia and some stats from here. They say that they're hoping that this
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could improve retail sales by ten percent
if we hit those numbers, and we
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will be able to implement the technology
in our other parks and ultimately replace all
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vending machines. I kind of feel
like that we're going to replace more than
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vending machines with this, but he
probably didn't want to say that. They
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added that the total processing time if
if a person just wanted to grab a
331
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drink, could amount to less than
one minute, versus if they were waiting
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previously for vending machine, it would
be up to six minutes. So these
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are I think this is brilliant actually, and I think these are the small
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tweaks that we were just talking about
in the last last episode about the trends
335
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in good uses of technology making things
more efficient. And I've used these just
336
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walkout systems and they do. They
are very very easy. And you know
337
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Disney again, Disney already has a
version of this that is a little bit
338
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more cumbersome, right because you have
to at the Disney ones, you have
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to you can do it on your
phone where it's basically mobile checkout, but
340
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with your phone, so you know, the plus side is you can do
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any item with that, but the
negative side is, you know, you
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you have to still go to a
person to check you out and potentially remove
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a theft tag off a thing or
whatnot. But this is a system that
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is different where you you know,
you walk up, when you enter,
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you tap your credit card right,
and then when you exit, you just
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walk out. You don't have to
like see a clerk or anything, you
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know, So it's fundamentally different than
the mobile checkout. It really truly is
348
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you just tap a card, you
walk in, then you walk out and
349
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you're done. So when you when
you tap the card and walk in,
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what identifies you and the merchandise that
you take out? Good question? Is
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it facial? Is it facial recognition? Is it? Do you do you
352
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have an additional band? Do you
need to tap the same card as you
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leave? How does that work?
Great question? I'm unsure. Personally,
354
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I'm unsure it. I'm sure it's
a combination of those items. I think
355
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would think it would be a facial
a facial thing of some kind will just
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detect who you are. Yeah,
because I've seen so the ones that I've
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seen in airports, for example,
to just walk out in airports, it's
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biometric. Um they'll do a finger
scan or um or facial recognition. Facial
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recognition is being used at all of
the Morale parks in Abu Dhabi right now.
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And basically what you do is when
you come in or if you're a
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passholder, your your credit card either
can be on file if you're a passolder,
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or you can add it to your
file, and then all you have
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to do. You still have to
go through all of the other things.
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The only difference is when you get
up to the register, you just look
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into the screen and you're done.
So yeah, I find it very interesting
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that a theme park is a theme
park like six Flags is rolling this out.
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I find it interesting for a couple
of reasons. Yes, it is
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going to reduce the number of vending
machines that they need. It's also going
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to help them with their staffing challenges
because this is going to cost jobs.
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Let's be realistic, this is going
to cost jobs, which at this point
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is fine because they can't staff for
what they need anyway. So you know
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that's not me being doom and gloom
and naysayer. The other thing that I
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think we also have to take into
consideration is, you know, I'm hoping
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that it really will will increase their
their sales by ten percent. It will
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also it will also reduce their theft
because if if the you know, if
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it's a tap and go, and
then it will recognize me as Scott has
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um you know something as has my
has my creepy little bear, as as
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merchandise. When I walk out,
whether I want to pay for it or
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I'm trying to steal it, it's
still going to charge my credit card.
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So you know, the whole idea
of magic bands at Disney was originally as
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a theft prevention, as a loss
prevention, um, and then they packaged
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it as a guest service. Um. So And again I'm not saying there's
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anything wrong with that. UM.
I'm not promoting I'm not promoting theft.
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So so I'm curious. We need
to follow this and see what see how
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this continues, because the concept is
I think really strong. I think it's
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going to take people a little bit
of time to get used to, and
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I think parents are going to really
have to watch their kids. Yeah oh
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yeah no, but I definitely this
is exactly the thing. I think in
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the short term, this is one
of those short term things that I think
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will be adopted, I think will
be successful and then hopefully adopted very quickly
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because of all those reasons, and
just because I can I can see immediately
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how especially here at the California Parks, how it will increase sales, because
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there have been many, many moments
that I've had where I have not wanted
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to wait to get a bottle of
water or an energy drink or whatnot,
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just because because of the staffing challenge. It's a compounding issue because I've been
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at this fix Flags before and there's
been one kid operating a line for checkout
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and it has been thirty minutes,
and it's just not worth it at that
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point. You know that the time
is it's a three dollar beverage. It's
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00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:52.759
not worth thirty minutes to wait for
it, you know, it's just not
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So I think these things are going
to roll out pretty quickly and then from
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00:27:56.440 --> 00:28:02.839
there it's gonna hopefully it'll it'll get
more advanced or spiral. But yeah,
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00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:07.759
So it's It's interesting because one of
the one of the organizations that I have
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worked for before, and I have
nothing to do with this announcement, but
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has just announce they're going cash free
and basically even for those people who aren't
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comfortable using Apple Pay or anything like
that, you can actually now at the
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front of the park when you go
in either either insert cash or attach a
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credit card to a debit card that
you can then use throughout the zoo.
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The the Indian Apple is Zoo,
so they and they're also going they're also
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going cash free for their ticket app
so you have to either use kiosks out
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front or pre order your tickets and
then just go straight on in. So
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I'm curious to see how the audience, how quickly the audiences and the guests
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are going to adapt to it.
I'm curious to see how quickly they're going
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to embrace it. And I'm also
curious to see how many um sort of
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guest guest services folks are going to
be needed during the transitions to help people
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00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.440
understand what's going on and why you
can't, you know, just walk up
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and PLoP down cash or plug in
your card. You have to go over
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00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:18.440
here to a kiosky get that done
first. I'm curious. I don't,
418
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:19.759
like I said, I think it's
a great piece of technology. I think
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it's a great installation of it,
and I'm just I'm curious to see how
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the transition's going to work. That's
all. The last I wanted to mention.
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00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:32.480
Right here under the wires were in
This was actually brought up to me
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by a listener, and it's when
we talked about the Disney axing there like
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Nona and also the Star Cruiser.
Something that was brought up to me as
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a possible reason for that is basically
them wanting to write off some of the
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00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:53.119
expenses of the and and the kind
of the evidence they pointed to was was
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00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:56.440
this coverage which we didn't talk about, which was that they're taking a one
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00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:00.920
point five billion right off for titles
that they're removing from Disney Plus. So
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00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:07.039
they're basically very they vary unceremoniously and
just pretty caught a lot of people off
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00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:11.640
guard that they removed many titles,
dozens of titles from Disney Plus and Hulu
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00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:15.039
at the end of May, and
they're filing with the SEC at one point
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00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:21.359
five billion write off charge basically for
losses incurred for that for not being able
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00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.319
to use the product or whatnot,
even though they had already produced it,
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00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:27.079
and they just say basically made it
and then just removed it and are trying
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00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:30.880
to take a right off for that. And there's the listener pointed out that
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00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.960
that's that could be part of the
reason for the timing of the star Cruiser
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00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:37.599
being now because of the fiscal the
way the fiscal years line up, So
437
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:41.799
I want to bring that up.
Oh that's very interesting. Yeah, that's
438
00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.400
very interesting. Well, speaking of
interesting, UM, you know we have
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00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:52.079
we've talked a lot about our new
YouTube channel for Green Tag and UM we
440
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:55.799
are continuing to add content to it. In fact, just before we started
441
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:59.759
recording this particular show, UM,
I sent what I call one Day for
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00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.039
Parks at Yas Island. UM.
It's a short video that I put together
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00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:06.720
my last day when I was in
Abu Dhabi, and it gives you sort
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00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.960
of a dim sum of the U
the four different theme parks on Yas Island.
445
00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:14.839
It's only about twelve thirteen minutes,
so I know that's long for some
446
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.319
of you, but it's shorter than
this show. So anyway, go to
447
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:22.599
go to our I know Phillips going
shut up, Scott, shut up.
448
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:26.200
No, but go to go to
Green Tag Show dot com and you can
449
00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.680
also go that will link you straight
to our our YouTube channel. Check it
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00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:33.119
out. It should be there very
very shortly. And if it's not,
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00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.319
UM, just send an email to
Philip so On behalf of Fernandez and myself
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00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:41.279
Scott Swins and this is green Tag
Theme Park in thirty and we will see
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00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:41.400
you next week.
