Successful Second Gates: A Case Study

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From our studios in Tampa and Orlando. This is Green Tag Theme Park at

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thirty. I'm Philip and I'm joined
as always by my co host Scott Swinson,

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Scott Swinson cred of Development. We're
both in the same place, Scott,

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because I'm here for the opening,
the official opening of Halloween season,

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I thought we could show absolutely,
Yeah, you're over. You're over on

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the other side of the I four
corridor and I'm in Tampa. And for

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those of you who don't know,
Florida, I four is the really the

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only way, one of the only
ways to get from one side of the

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state to the other that doesn't require
you to go through a thousand, teeny

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tiny towns, and so therefore it
is if anything goes wrong on that highway,

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which happens pretty much on a daily
basis, the traffic just you know,

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basically stops. So what should take
an hour in ten minutes to get

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between the two cities sometimes can take
upwards of four hours just the way it

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is. So anyway, that's why
we're still using our own independent studios to

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do the show, as opposed to
trying to actually sit in the same room,

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which we have only done. I
think maybe three times since we started

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the show. Yeah, I know, once a year, it's our yearly

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retreat. It is what it is. Uh So, Yeah, Halloween season

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has officially begun, despite that it's
still August, but Halloween events are already

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open. I attended to this weekend. I attended the opening of Making Sense

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of Scary Halloween Party on August tenth, and then the Taste of Terror event,

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which we talked about last time.
It was just kind of announced at

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the Orlando Just to put this into
perspective for the old guy, can you

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let's go back several years. Could
you ever imagine that in August we would

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be saying, okay, how Aunt
season has started in the theme park world

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and no, no, mm hmmmm. Well, I think it's also we

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talked about this all the time,
but it's like I think it clearly the

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way it's developed culturally here in America, it's like as a second gate versus

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Christmas, which is, you know, everyone expects it to be included.

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So it I think the money is
really what's pushing it. But remember in

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the beginning though, but you know, back in the day, and Scott

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members is more so than I do. But I remember the stories, but

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you know, more experienced than I
like to say. But remember when nobody

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wanted to do Halloween because it was
such a distraction because you have to bring

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everything out and set it up,
and like the time between Christmas, everyone

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was like, we have to set
up for Christmas. We don't have time

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for Halloween, and nobody even cares, and we have to bring everything out

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on stage. It can't just sit
on stage. And now walking around Universal

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to go and to taste a terror, there's trusses up, there's whole props

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and stages that are just sitting there. There. There's the big buses just

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there in the scare zone and they
put up a little sign here and there

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pardon our dust. Okay, But
I mean clearly it's changed so much,

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not only in the timeline, but
also in what is acceptable to be just

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on a state. When you hit
the nail on the head, follow the

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cash. I mean, that's that's
exactly why those of us who started,

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you know, when I started doing
when I started doing theme park Haunt in

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Florida, it was, oh gosh, what were they celebrating then? Ten

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years, fifteen years, something like
that, and it was it was still

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considered to be the the controversial moment
where you had to you couldn't impact the

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day product for the Halloween product simply
because nobody, nobody wanted to see stuff

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for Halloween in August and even September, or even during the day running,

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during the run of the event,
and so but now because of the revenue

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that it generates, because of the
attendance, the extra attendance that it generates

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when you can basically, you know, as you said, Philip, when

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you can basically get two days of
admission out of one day, yet just

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kind of have to make you have
to make those decisions based on that kind

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of profitability. And I know you've
heard me say this before, and I

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just this is just proof beyond proof. If you are an attraction of any

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kind and you're not doing something for
Halloween, it doesn't have to start in

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August, but if you're not doing
something for the Halloween season, you're leaving

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money on the table. And the
big parks, you know, both Universal

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and Disney, are proving this over
and over and over again. The smaller

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parks are recognizing it, although they
may not have the extended seasons, but

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even that, even my smaller clients
are starting to expand further and further into

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September. So yeah, yeah,
I agree, and especially you can tell

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with the impact of the day on
the day product. I mean that is

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something I was. I'm continually surprised
every year at how much the parks are

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willing to impact the day product.
And it's exactly for that reason. It's

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because it's basically two I'm sure when
they're in the meetings they're saying, well,

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it's it's it's a whole separate day's
admission. So it's really two events.

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So it's like, you know,
you have to you have to be

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able to do two days in one
day, like the not so Scary Halloween

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Party. The Magic Kingdom closes at
six pm, fully, you know,

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and then at seven pm to midnight
is the event, and you know,

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I mean stuff is impacting. It's
quite heavy, I think impact on the

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day guests and even at Universal having
that of having I was shocked at the

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amount of of setup that it's just
out right now just sitting in the way

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on a couple of things to think
about. You know, back when I

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went to because I went to I
went to well, Disney World the second

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year it was open, So what
was at seventy four something like that.

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I don't know, but I remember
as a kid, uh that Magic Kingdom

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this time of year, during the
summer was open until midnight on Fridays and

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Saturdays. And so basically what they've
done is they're keeping the same hours that

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they used to have, but now
they're getting two admissions for it. Again.

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Yeah, good, good business planning. I also think that the what

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was considered, like with the universal
model that you're talking about, what was

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considered as a negative impact on the
day guest is now considered marketing for the

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nighttime event because people come during the
day and they go, oh, I

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want to see what that does,
and oh, I want to see how

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cool that is, and oh,
all right, well I'll get the second

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ticket if it's available. If the
event is not sold out, you know,

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it has flipped the importance of the
day product versus the night product during

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pretty much now through the end of
the year. Yeah. Well, on

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that note, let's dive into some
of the details about We'll Go Starry with

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Mickeys. So, yeah, Mickey's
not a scary Halloween party. It opened,

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as I said, on August tenth, and the biggest thing to me

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was truly how packed it was.
It was absolutely Again, I think the

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overall thing is that this finally feels
like a full second Gate. It feels

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like this is a regular day at
the park. It doesn't have any of

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the lower crowd nonsense, or even
really lower entertainment. I think there's about

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equal amount of entertainment as if you
were to go during the day. It's

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incredible. It was packed. And
I checked the schedule after drag out back.

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Every date in August is now sold
out, and it's kind of creeping.

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You can see the sellout dates kind
of creeping towards September, and of

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course Halloween's already sold out, but
I guess they're creeping from the early adapters

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want to make sure they get in
and see it, and the ones who

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are the Halloween traditionalists are buying as
close to Halloween as they can. Pretty

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soon they'll meet in the middle of
September and it will be completely sold out.

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Uh yeah, I would be curious. I would be curious to see

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if on some days the Halloween the
not so scary attendance would actually exceed the

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day daytime attendance, especially considering what
the weather's doing right now and because you

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can still and correct me if I'm
wrong, but you can still experience pretty

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much all of the attractions you want
to experience during the Halloween event. Correct,

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everybody's open, so you know you're
getting You're getting all the day product

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if that's what you want to do, but you're doing it after the sun

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goes down or as the sun is
going down, and so, I it

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would not surprise me. And I
have no data to back this up.

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I have no there's probably really no
way of even getting this data without actually

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working for Disney. But I would
guess that there are going to be days

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in August and even September where the
Halloween gate, the Halloween clicks of the

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turnstile exceeds the quote unquote daytime gate, simply because it's it's a more comfortable

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time. And especially you know now
that we're going through here in Florida,

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especially the heat warnings and all that. Yeah, i'd absolutely go at night,

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especially if I kids. Yeah,
I think especially if you're going to

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buy a day ticket already. You
know, I think for the pass holders

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it's a little bit of a different
thing. But I agree with all that.

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I think that we're gonna see more
and more dates sell out. But

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I think what surprised me was how
many people they are really pushing. I

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mean, it is really you know, well, to put it in perspective,

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in twenty nineteen, before the pandemic, they debuted a multi night ticket

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where you could basically was a season
pass for the not So Scary Halloween Party.

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And obviously that has not come back
this year, and I don't think

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it's going to. I don't think
they been needed, and that just kind

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of shows you the difference in the
demand for this product. And I agree

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with the heat, you know,
that was something I was like, something

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on the creature comforts I thought,
just just the overall theme here that I'm

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a little surprised about. We'll get
to this a bit later in the Q

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three earnings, but I'm sure everyone
listening has already heard that the parks division

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for Disney is doing well while the
rest of the company is doing poorly.

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But it's interesting to me that they're
making all their money off the parks,

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but it doesn't seem like the park
experience has improved very much. And we

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talked, I mean, you know, a lot of people have been saying

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this, and I Ger's kind of
said that, you know, changing it

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in blah blah blahs on our priority. But it really is not good right

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now because of the heat. I
mean truly, the like when they say

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the numbers are or not where they
should be because the heat. I mean,

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and they're not even trying, in
my opinion, they're not really trying

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to improve the creature comforts at all. I mean, there's there's no like,

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there's just you should have water refill
stations. You should even if you're

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giving out water to I mean,
really you need to make sure people are

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cool and hydrated. And it's just
not a thing. I mean, making

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people stand out on the parade route
and the insanity that that is and not

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trying to moderate the crowd at all. And and they're not being water anywhere,

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like you know, having ninety minute
outside weight lines for the characters,

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and you know, it's just it
was not a great experience from a from

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a creature comfort standpoint for that event. And so I definitely can see where

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all this is coming. And yet
it's selling out. And yet it's selling

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out, Yeah, and it reminds
me of well, I'm curious. I

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think we've as we've talked about next
year, we will see the proof and

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then putting will be next year and
we'll see when that should be our equalization

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point. It will be the point
where you know whether or not we recover

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from the recession and wherever that goes. But people will need to be more

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competitive next year, and I'll we'll
see if you know, if this trend

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line continues where the parks are not
are having their attendance dip once Halloween Christmas

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are over, there's not a there's
not a nighttime draw, So you're gonna

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have two quarters potentially of poor attendance
in MK that could be very bad.

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And you know, I'm like,
you need to fix this. Treat your

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company. It tides time to become
more competitive where I mean Universal has water

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refil stations everywhere, with with the
coke refill stations. I mean they have

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indoor I mean you know, really
really it is difficult. It is like

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a commitment. And that was just
at night. I mean I can't imagine

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well and you know, for that
one to your point, and I know

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this is happening with some of my
clients on a on a much smaller level,

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but they're they're using it's it's it's
become almost the retail model. You

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know, it used to be that
that retail would say, we make we

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make bank for quarter number one,
in quarter number four, we make it

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so that we can survive the first
quarter of the following year by the Christmas

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season. And I think parks are
now recognizing they can they can coast because

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there really isn't nobody's really found a
a an absolute successful model for Q one

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and even into Q two other than
summer h to get people to come out

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to their parks. So you know, they're going to make as much bank

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as they can in the Halloween and
Christmas season. And yes, I now

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put that together as the holiday season. The holiday season is not is not

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Thanksgiving through the through New Year's.
It is now and summer is now August

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and Dember it's it's it's the second
roughly the second half of the year.

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Yep, yep. And you're just
hoping to and I mean, I'm sure

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that's what the is because just like
to your point, they're trying to get

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to have some extra revenue to get
through those first three quarters and then you

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know they're going to open the new
stuff to start bringing people. You know,

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I don't know, I'm just the
other thing that really surprised me again

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just looking at the trends over time, is just the amount of exclusive items

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that are only available to purchase during
the event hours, which is getting I'm

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in good more power to them,
in my opinion, it's getting out of

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hand. There are twenty four exclusive
food items that it's a lot of food

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items only for that time period.
Now there's the exclusive popcorn bucket, which

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this year is the Mayor's car,
which is already you can buy it for

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twenty eight dollars. It's on eBay
for seventy dollars right now. Already they

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limited purchase per person. They have
multiple merch items. We're talking a spirit

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jersey just for the party, a
hat just for the party, a pin

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just for the party, an ornament
just for the party. You know,

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there's all there's a whole collection of
stuff that's for the party. And there's

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even an exclusive, separate dessert party
for the fireworks that happen during the event.

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So it's a great strategy. And
i mean we've talked about this as

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well for merchandising for your but they're
really leaning into hitting it from every direction

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and making it where these items are
collector editions essentially because you have to have

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a party ticket order by them.
And then even just that has become an

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activity, as I learned, is
just getting in line to buy the popcorn

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bucket that's only available during the party. And what's interesting is, you know

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a lot of this A lot of
the reason for this is at least in

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my opinion, from my limited perspective. But but I do have a good

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I do have a pretty decent finger
on the pulse as to how this can

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happen from a business standpoint as well, there have been some major technological changes

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as well as far as like printing
and the ability to recreate and and create

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things in small small numbers or small
earn numbers at a at a cost effective

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price. You know they can,
they can because part of the reason that

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this didn't happen in the past,
or didn't happen as much in the past,

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is because in order to get things
at a at a price point that

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a wholesale price point that you can
make a profit off of, you have

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to order. You used to have
to order huge numbers because it was a

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gigantic setup fee. There was the
manufacturing cost. More I know that.

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You know, now you can with
things like Vista Print, you can have

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your own You can have your own
T shirt done for twelve bucks, which

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means that Vista Print is may is
creating it for five which means, you

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know, because they just take your
image, put it into the computer.

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The computer prints that. There's no
setup charge, there's no nothing. That's

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what's happening here. We're seeing that
that cost effectiveness, and then the parks

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are able to say, well,
yeah, we can, we can if

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we if we order I'm using really
low numbers just because math is not my

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thing, but we start with five
hundred pieces, and if we go ahead

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and sell all those out, we
can order another five hundred pieces when we

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get down to three hundred. You
know, when we've sold three hundred,

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we can order another five hundred and
have them there before the two hundred cell.

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It's technology. The technology is making
it so that these limited edition things

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can be significantly more profitable and practical
as far as food items go. I

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think that is the smartest thing they
could possibly do. I you know,

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you think it's getting out of hand
now. I did not experience it personally,

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but on paper, that makes total
sense because you can always take those

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exclusive food items and find other ways
to repurpose ingredients, you know that sort

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of thing. The popcorn bucket,
popcorn buckets for Disney, that's the new

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that is the new hot collectible,
you know. I can I can remember

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back when Magic Kingdom uh hosed down
the Castle Pink for one of their anniversaries

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and there was a hot hot spot
there or the hot item. There was

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the resin maquette of the of the
castle and there were people were calling each

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other. This was before everybody was
completely connected on their phones with social media,

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but people were were. There were
there were call centers that you could

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call in and go such and such. A store in Magic Kingdom has ten

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of them, and people would just
run around the park to try to get

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them. You know. So it's
nothing new for Disney to do these these

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limited edition things. And back then
they actually created the limited edition. They

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created the buzz around them so that
people were talking about them. But you

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know, this is this is taking
technology that makes it easier to reply because

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when they say limited, do they
say limited to how many? Or limited

253
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in time? Yeah, that's the
interesting thing about these is that it's limited

254
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in time, and I think that's
almost like a new wave of doing it

255
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right, because who knows how many
they actually printed, you know, I'm

256
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not sure. I mean, people
think that the popcorn buckets are going to

257
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sell out, but the thing that
makes it limited is that you can only

258
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purchase it during correct the event.
And I think that that's an interesting especially

259
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for attractions. That's an interesting way
to do it because you don't have to

260
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commit to a number. You can
just say during the event, and you

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can bring it back for the event
next year if you don't put a date

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on it, like the popcorn buckets
not dated, so they could they could

263
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bring it back next year if it
doesn't sound Yeah, I now, in

264
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this particular case, it's going to
be. It's gonna be gone. It's

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gonna be gone. And what they'll
do is they'll just stop printing them so

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that the last weekend or stop making
them, and then the last weekend they'll

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they will sell out and everybody will
be got. We'll say, oh darn,

268
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I should have been here earlier.
And what did that do? It

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drives earlier ticket sales for next year? Yeah, for August. Yeah,

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Yeah, it's it's brilliant. I
mean again, I mean these are such.

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This is a masterclass right in making
a second gate and creating a sentiment

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yes for everything, all these things
great sense of urgency. And I will

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just say, I don't know if
this is anecdotal or not, probably is,

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but I have put out pieces of
content for some of this, you

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know, and that is a sentiment
that I keep seeing over and over that

276
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people are commenting on the videos and
that that is the sentiment that I see

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in the videos I put out in
that there's a sense of urgency to get

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to the event, to get some
of the exclusive items, not just to

279
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see the entertainment. You know,
everyone wants to see the Jack Skellington puppet,

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which is really it is really good, and the Centers and Sisters show.

281
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But it's also the urgency of all
these exclusive items. And you could

282
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hear it even I mean when I
stood there and just washed people exit the

283
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park, and you know the SAD
members are like tonight sold out because you

284
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know you hear people as are exiting
ask can I go, what's this?

285
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What's happening? They're like, it's
a sole out event. You can try

286
00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:22.519
again in September. I mean,
you're just just saying over and over and

287
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over. I mean, it really
is that tipping point that you're looking for

288
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that and quite honestly, you know, there's I would guess there's a recognizable

289
00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:34.839
percentage that are people who are going
who don't even go to spend the night

290
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.640
to see the shows. They go, pick up all the exclusive merchandise they're

291
00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:42.160
allowed to pick up, take it
back, put it on eBay at twice

292
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the price, and you know they're
using it as a way to generate revenue,

293
00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:52.000
or more accurately, what they'll probably
do is as we get closer to

294
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Halloween, then they'll put it up
on eBay. Yeah, it's already,

295
00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:00.440
it's already on there. I've seen
them already on there for well so twenty

296
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:04.599
eight purchase price, but about seventy
so about twice, yeah, about twice.

297
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And but you know what, people
will buy it, because there's plenty

298
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of people that have made that even
asked me to pick them up, a

299
00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:15.720
lot of people ask me to get
them the bucket. And then there's people

300
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that are in even other countries that
want it, that are willing to pay

301
00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:22.039
for it. If you look at
it, you know, seventy bucks plus

302
00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:26.799
shipping is still cheaper than flying to
Orlando and buying a ticket. So yeah,

303
00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:32.799
yeah, yeah, it's anyway,
these are all good takeaways. I

304
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.240
just to recap so that everyone understands
the scope of it. I wanted to

305
00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:38.559
kind of go through just very briefly, the entertainment. Just as I mentioned

306
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earlier, the overall takeaway is that
it has become a full event. I

307
00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:48.200
think that's the That is the key
here is that this is able to become

308
00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:52.160
a second Gate because it is truly
a second gate, because it has the

309
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:55.759
breadth of entertainment that makes that That's
why they're able to shove so many people

310
00:22:55.839 --> 00:23:00.640
in there and have everyone And the
big thing that I've heard get it again

311
00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:04.680
and I've pulled people, you know, I do these Instagram polls with a

312
00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:08.880
lot of the in my private channels
and whatnot, and I pulled a lot

313
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of people, and it seems like
a lot of people. If you're going

314
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to attend, you almost attend multiple
times. And it's because there is so

315
00:23:15.799 --> 00:23:19.240
much to do that you can't actually
get it all done. I think that's

316
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the other key is, you know, every all these things take time,

317
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:26.599
waiting for the merch, waiting for
the food, you know, doing this

318
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and so it's just they've put enough
in there so that it encourages multiple visits.

319
00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:37.960
But to summarize, there's the stage
show, which in my opinion,

320
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:41.839
is the best piece of entertainment,
hands down, that any park has done

321
00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:45.960
in this region. The Hocus Focus
stage show is phenomenal. It's always been

322
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:51.000
phenomenal. It received awards, it's
fairly good. That happens three times a

323
00:23:51.160 --> 00:23:56.519
night now and it'll go up to
four in September and October. But again

324
00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:03.839
again, every people I saw multiple
people who just sat there the entire night.

325
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.039
They just sat there and watched.
That's all they did. They didn't

326
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:11.279
move. They just sat in one
spot and watched the stage show multiple times

327
00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:14.559
and then just turned their head to
look at the fireworks and turn their head

328
00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:18.400
again to look at the parade.
And you know, there's a lot of

329
00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.160
tripods that were you know, I
forgot. I didn't realize tripods are allowed

330
00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:26.519
in the in the park nowadays,
But that was interesting. But anyway,

331
00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:32.000
there's also the special fireworks just for
Halloween, and the big thing there is

332
00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:37.240
that there's the Jack, the ten
foot tall Jack Skellington puppet that's puppeteered,

333
00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:40.559
which does look phenomenal, but that's
kind of the mainstay. So it is

334
00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:44.079
a truly unique show. It's not
just the same barrework show, but there

335
00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:48.279
it's a separate, unique show.
There's the Booty You Parade, which has

336
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:52.920
not had a refresh in many a
year, but they kind of added characters

337
00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:57.000
to it and taken them away here
and there to kind of give people something.

338
00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:03.279
So there's that parade that happens twice
nightly. There's also three ride overlays

339
00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:07.759
this year. There's the Spaceship Earth, the Tea Party has an overlay.

340
00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:11.319
There's a third one, but there's
right overlays are very light right overlays,

341
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.559
but not as much as we had
in twenty nineteen, back in the day,

342
00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:19.200
right when we had pirates that would
actually come out in parts of the

343
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:23.000
Caribbean and do special appearances. We
don't have that back yet. But there's

344
00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:27.240
walk in photo ops that are scattered
throughout the spaces that is separate from the

345
00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:33.440
character meets. There are character meets
with characters in their Halloween costumes that separate

346
00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.279
from the photo ops. There's also
roaming characters. Then there's the treat trails,

347
00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:41.720
which is the thing you know where
you go through and you get you

348
00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:45.759
have give you a trick or treat
bag and you go through the treat trails

349
00:25:45.799 --> 00:25:48.599
and trick or treat for candy.
This year, they are portioned out.

350
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.279
There are actual scoops that are portion
controlled and you put the portions in so

351
00:25:53.480 --> 00:26:00.480
every every serving is the same amount
of candy, which is interesting this year.

352
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.319
Uh. And then and then obviously
the buying these inclusive items and the

353
00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:07.400
exclusive things, that is a lot. And that's on top of all the

354
00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:11.240
rides that are normally there. So
you can see now why you're gonna have

355
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:15.319
to sacrifice something unless you're going to
go multiple nights. And then you know,

356
00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:18.000
if you buy the dessert party,
that's like two hours out of your

357
00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:22.200
night. So you know, seven
to midnight plus an extra hour for shopping

358
00:26:23.319 --> 00:26:27.039
seems like a long time, but
it is not. If it's it's not

359
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:32.079
if Jack and Sally, it's ninety
minutes, which it was all night.

360
00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:36.359
And then you know, so you
take take a photo that takes thirty minutes,

361
00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:37.680
you see Jack and Sally, that's
ninety minutes. You wait for the

362
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:42.400
parade and the stage show. That's
your evening, right, So, yeah,

363
00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:45.400
I was gonna ask Philip did you
did you take any time out of

364
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:52.039
your night to ride any of the
attractions? Oh no, there's no.

365
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:53.960
That's why it's a second gate.
That's why it's a viable second gate.

366
00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:59.000
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And
then tron you know, I mean it's

367
00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:02.319
there now, I mean so and
the other small thing knows for logistics just

368
00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:06.759
because we're all right people here,
they don't allow mobile ordering and they don't

369
00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:11.119
allow some of the fast past options
or any of that, so which actually

370
00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:14.559
almost makes it a better experience because
you know, the lines are the lines.

371
00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:18.440
It's kind of back to the old
days of like you just get in

372
00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:22.240
the line and get your food.
That's how it works, right period,

373
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:30.079
because the park's technically closed, right. So yeah, soo we've been going

374
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:30.839
on for a while. I want
to get to the Taste of Terror event

375
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:36.359
because I thought that was very interesting. So Taste of Terror we talked about

376
00:27:36.359 --> 00:27:38.680
this last time, new event Universal
is doing. All it is is it's

377
00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:44.359
a two hour all you can eat
and drink preview of some and not all

378
00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:48.119
of the food items for Halloween Horror
Nights. It was just announced and then

379
00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.880
and then the event is like it
was just announced like the first of the

380
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.839
month or something, and then the
event started around the same time as not

381
00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:59.680
So Scary, So it was about
like two weeks notice, or less than

382
00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:03.559
two weeks notice. It started as
originally it was one hundred and sixty dollars

383
00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:08.599
per person for the two hour time
and it was no other options. It

384
00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:14.319
was just one sixty and it included
alcohol. There was a lot of blowback

385
00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:17.480
with that apparently, and I guess
the demand was not where it should have

386
00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:21.200
been. So they did a bunch
of things after the fact. So they

387
00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:22.920
sold a bunch of tickets. They
sold tickets at one sixty, and then

388
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:27.839
afterwards they changed the price so the
alcohol version became one hundred and thirty six,

389
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:33.799
and they added an option for non
alcoholic which was eighty dollars, and

390
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:41.200
then they also changed around a few
of the offerings a little bit, and

391
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.680
so what's inside and the photo op
and whatnot. But so I think the

392
00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:48.759
overall thing is that this is it
was clearly a test, and they did

393
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.599
cut a lot of days. I
think they probably cut cut it down to

394
00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:55.839
half days. It was eleven,
I think eleven days and they cut it

395
00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:00.400
down to half ish. When I
went, there were so many people,

396
00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:03.920
there was not enough seating, so
they actually had to like bring out actively

397
00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.279
more cocktail tables to give people places
to stand and eat because it was too

398
00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:11.839
full, and just you could tell
logistics were rough. You know, a

399
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:15.440
lot of people missed the photop because
they didn't realize it was a photo op,

400
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:18.720
and the photoop person left, so
people leaving couldn't get their photo.

401
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:23.359
And you know, there was confusion
about the souvenir cup, and you know,

402
00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:26.599
there was non alcoholic and alcoholic,
and people were all confused. But

403
00:29:26.759 --> 00:29:30.160
overall, I thought that it was
a good event and it probably is gonna

404
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:38.279
continue in some fashion because I heard
that that's going to be where they're going

405
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:44.359
to do the media the media perception, so they're basically going to have to

406
00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:47.440
set it up any way for the
media. They're just now trying to sell

407
00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:51.559
extra tickets to it. And let
me tell you, seventy five percent of

408
00:29:51.640 --> 00:29:53.759
the people who were there with me
that I was there were content creators of

409
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some kind. They bought the tickets
just to make content, and they're not

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big enough to qualify f for media, so they are essentially selling the same

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thing that media that wheel I don't
know, real or whatever, larger working

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media get for free. They get
this eighty dollar ticket, but now they

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can sell it to people who have
smaller channels and make them pay for it

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and they still but they still get
to do it, which makes them feel

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special. And they brought in full
sets to put the food on, so

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it had the atmosphere that The biggest
thing. I think Scott will appreciate this.

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The biggest thing was I would have
Essentially, you're even at the minimum.

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You're paying eighty dollars for a buffet, which is expensive in Orlando,

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and I would have liked to see
characters and have some sort of entertain the

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00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:38.119
tie in. Yeah, I think
that makes total sense. You know.

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The idea here is you've got those
content creators who can now who now have

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00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:47.720
to spend eighty bucks to get the
full media experience, but they get it

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before the big media. They now
get it. They now get it before

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the big media. So if I
were, if I were a very active

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00:30:53.640 --> 00:30:59.119
content creator, I would absolutely have
been there because it would have meant that

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I could have gotten the up on
the local TV networks or a jump on

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00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:07.759
the larger content creators because I got
to see it and taste it and try

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00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:10.240
it first, I'm glad to see
if they're testing it. I'm hoping that

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00:31:10.279 --> 00:31:11.519
it works out, and I completely
agree. I think that if you add

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00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:21.160
a live entertainment component, it will
make it significantly more pleasurable because it can

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00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:23.039
be distracting. You can have you
know, you can use live entertainment to

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00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:27.359
help distract if anything goes awry.
Speaking of going awry, we have gone

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over our thirty minute limit, so
I'm going to I'm going to once again

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00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:37.880
thank you all for watching and listening
and ask you please share a Green Tag

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00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:41.880
Team Park In thirty with anybody in
the industry who you feel might be interested,

436
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:45.200
might be able to pull something away
from our shows. We try to

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00:31:45.240 --> 00:31:48.440
do our takeaways as best we can, and this whole show has been about

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00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:52.440
how early Halloween can actually start.
So here we are in the middle of

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00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:56.480
summer celebrating Halloween, which I'm used
to because I'm used to putting it up.

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00:31:56.519 --> 00:31:59.759
But it's now open to the guests. On behalf of Philip Fernandez and

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00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:01.720
my Scott swentson. This is Green
Tag Gleen Park in thirty and we will

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00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:02.920
see you next week.