Dec. 12, 2023
Universal Kids & Disneyland's 2024 Season Announcements

Announcements abound as attractions attempt to bolster 2024 sales and temper expectations. We'll discuss a select few: Universal Kids Resort, Disneyland After Dark, and Disneyland 2024 Events.
Announcements abound as attractions attempt to bolster 2024 sales and temper expectations. We'll discuss a select few: Universal Kids Resort, Disneyland After Dark, and Disneyland 2024 Events.
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Welcome back to another week of Green
Tag Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip
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and I'm joined as always by my
co host Scott Swinson and Scott Swinson Credit
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Development and Scott tis the season of
announcements, Tis it tis it is?
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Indeed, there are announcements a go
go. We're all getting we're all getting
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special you know, special presence.
I guess maybe this is the unwrapping of
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all the things. Well, I
was actually thinking, you know, I
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think you would know, coming from
your background, you know, this always
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happens. Of course, the Park's
always announced, you know, in a
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slew of things. But I feel
like this year it's especially critical because next
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year is not projected right now to
be a great year. You know,
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we'll see how it works out.
But it's all election years always tough,
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and then with the sentiment, consumer
sentiment and spending where it is, and
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you know, everybody is as we've
been saying for years, you know,
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next year, you know, twenty
twenty five is a year where people will
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get back and going and next year
is kind of the it's going to be
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a tough one and I think that's
making these announcements where it's like it steels
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like everyone everyone, if everyone has
something to announce, they're all trying to
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It seems to me like everybody,
every chain, every place is trying to
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remind you they're still going to be
here in next year, and the remind
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you they're going to be doing something
next year. Try and get early revenue
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in for next year, and also
try and set up twenty twenty five as
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a great year of openings. Well, it's also when you announce a new
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opening just before the winter holidays,
you know Christmas. Now. Granted,
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as we record this, we are
in the midst of Hanka already, but
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if you can do it before Christmas, you can actually also make it so
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that you can get season passes and
memberships to zoos and aquariums because there's something
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cool that is new that's coming up
next year. So they always want to
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be front of mind at this time
of year to say and next year,
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we've got this cool thing, or
in the near future, we've got this
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cool thing. And there is a
theory and I actually think there's something to
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it that says this actually does kind
of generate some additional season pass sales for
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the holiday season. Yes, I
would agree, and that is money that
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everyone's being on desperately need for next
year. So my point overall is there
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are a lot of announcements. I
have a few that I've kind of cherry
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picked here that I think there's something
interesting to them, but there are a
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lot more that we're not going to
go through. We just don't have the
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time to get to all of them. But I thought the first one we'd
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start off with is something that's been
that's been going around. Okay, I'm
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just gonna say it because this is
at least been going around my feed quite
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a bit. So we have the
name for the new Universal Park in Texas,
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and we've been following the story since
it was announced. You know,
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YadA YadA. We don't need to
go back over that, but basically they
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revealed that it's going to be called
Universal Kids Resort and it will gear the
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innovative storytelling to engage a young audience
with immersive themed lands featuring beloved characters and
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stories, family friendly attractions, interactive
shows, merchandise, fund and food options.
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It will also include a three hundred
room hotel. And there's a specific
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quote in here I wanted to kind
of get your take on Mollie Murphy,
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the president of Universal Creative, specifically
said Universal Kids Resort will inspire the unbridled
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creativity of kids through imagination, discovery, and most importantly, play. We're
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designing the resort so kids and families
can feel the thrill of being physically immersed
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in their most beloved stories and characters. My hot take is, why would
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you name why would you hamstring yourself
by calling this a kids resort when well,
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anyway that would be My hot take
was. I think that calling it
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a kid's resort is wrong. I
think that everything she said could be said
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of any Universal property. I don't
look at you know, do kids not
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go to Islands of Adventure or do
they not go to Universal regularly? It's
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thatt like, I didn't know that
the resorts weren't for kids. It could
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have pulled me so, but Scott
would think, well, the play thing
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is something you talk about a lot. Yeah. When they when they originally
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came out with this, with this
concept and they said it was going to
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be a more family friendly, they
weren't target it was family friendly verbiage versus
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you know, kid centric verbiage.
It's uh. I thought it was interesting
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because you know, at least in
Florida. Universal is kind of known as
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the bad boy of theme parks.
They are known for being the uh,
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the the one that pushes the envelope, the one that's a little bit edgier.
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Even during their day product, not
just during during Halloween Hornit's but even
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during their day product, they're just
a little bit edgier, a little bit
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more adult. They they pick up
ips that are that appeal to adults and
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not just children. So when they
came out with this, I thought it
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was very interesting. But let's look
at I mean, let's back off just
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a little bit and look at it
in a wider scope, because they've got
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another project that's happening in Las Vegas, which is very adult centric, and
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they make that very clear. To
me. It's sounds like they're they're looking
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at making it. They're trying to
mitigate any sort of guest frustration thinking,
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oh, great, there's going to
be a Universal Studios in Texas, but
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there's not. You know, it's
it's a different it's a different product.
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Or they're going to We're going to
go and experience Halloween Horonites in Las Vegas,
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but you're not. It's basically a
themed bar that does some seasonal activations,
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and I'm oversimplifying. It's a lot
more than that, but you know,
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it's not It is not another Universal
Park, and this is not another
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Universal Studios. The thing that I
find most interesting about the verbiage in the
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way that it's written is this sounds
like what you if you take off,
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if you really don't associate it with
anything Universal. It sounds like Legoland.
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Yeah, it sounds exactly like Lego
Land. That's that's an excellent point.
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Yeah, I didn't think, but
you're right, because it's all centered around
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play families played like interactive play with
families interesting, and you know, and
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maybe they're gonna, you know,
maybe they're gonna lean in heavy to some
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of the to some of the we'll
call it merchandise ips that they you know,
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I mean, let's face it,
that's what Lego Land is. There's
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no there's no denying that. There's
the theory behind Lego which is, you
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know, it spawns creativity and and
that's what they what they lean into.
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But to be completely honest, the
one thing every kid walks out of Lego
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Land with is legos. You know, it ties back to the to the
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key brand This sounds very much like
Universal's answer to Lego Land. Now,
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I'm not even saying that's a bad
thing. I'm not saying they're trying to
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trying to confuse the market. I
don't think they are. I think they
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have recognized, excuse me, that
there is a market for kid centric you
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know, we've said find the niche. What is the niche that's not being
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served? And Universal, although kids
do go to the Universal parks both in
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California and in Florida, they it's
not necessarily where the youngest families with young
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children. And keep in mind,
it's not the kids who make the decision
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whether to go to the parks or
not. It is usually the moms in
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the family. So moms of young
families will look at this and go,
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well, this sounds like a nice, wholesome, fun way that we can
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all get together as a family,
and Junior who is five and big brother
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who is seven, will have a
lovely time and we'll all have a great
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family time together. And I'm being
terribly stereotypical. But meanwhile, other members
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of the family are going, oh
god, it's going to be so lame.
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But it just depends on what their
ips are and how they embrace this
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idea of creativity and being a kid. I also think that by naming it
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Universal Kids Resort, you know exactly
what you're getting going in Yeah, you
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know, I mentioned it briefly earlier. It's all almost like it's almost like
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we don't want any guest comments that
say, where's you know, where are
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all the things that we've come to
expect from Universal? Where's the edginess?
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Because they're basically saying up front,
this is not edgy. The other thing
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that I thought was interesting is it
sounds a great deal, like give kids
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the world. It's yep, it
is, so I don't I don't really
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have a strong opinion one way or
the other on whether this is a good
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thing or a bad thing. I
don't want to assign that to it.
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I think it is interesting. I
think it is unique, and I think
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it is certainly going to be We're
gonna have to watch it closely because I
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think it's going to be an experiment
in how does Dizzy or how does Disney
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listen to me? How does the
Universal expand off of what they have been
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known for? And maybe that's exactly
the purpose of it, because if it's
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coming out. You know, if
they're talking about this that the Kids resort,
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and they're talking about the Vegas experience, and they're talking about the elements
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that they're adding to the parks,
it looks like they're maybe casting nets to
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see what else they can do to
either train an audience younger so that they
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will are ready to come to Universal
the big Universal parks, or it's an
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opportunity to say, you know what, we can't grow the market we have
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for thrills and movie EPs. How
can we grow our market in the younger
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demographics and families with younger children,
Or how can we grow the market in
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play and people who don't go to
theme parks but like scary stuff. So
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you know, they're all they're all
possibilities. I think it is a unique
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approach. I will say I wish
they had come up with something a little
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bit more clever than Universal Kids Resort, But it depends on how they play
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that. I mean, if they're
trying to make it a global village for
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children. The Universal Kids I think
is kind of a neat concept as long
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as you because it's got the double
on toons of the brand and then filling
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out, you know, people of
all ethnic backgrounds, which I think could
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be conceivably really cool. So I
don't know, I am I am curious.
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I find it interesting, But to
me, it sounds like Universal is
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is doing a Lego Land park.
Yeah. I think when it was originally
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announced, we did talk about the
similarities to it and other chains, you
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know, we were kind of like, how how are they going to differentiate
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themselves from it? And maybe their
answer is we're not, We're just trying
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to make our own version of it
exactly. But the problem is, I
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think it's a branding problem. To
your point, it's like Universal, you
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know what to expect with Lego Land, and you know what to expect with
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Disney. You know that they're going
to fake that they're much more favorable to
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families with young kids, you know, the stroller parking, and then you
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know that all that and especially with
Lego Land. So since you don't know
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what to expect with Universal, they
have to fix that ahead of time.
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And if they gave it a name
that was something else, you still wouldn't
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know. So they're trying to make
it more over to fix the branding program
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essentially, that's what you're saying,
right, Yeah, there mast making it
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very clear that nobody will mistake it
for a different universal property or mistake it
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for any other kid friendly, family
friendly property or product. Interesting, Well,
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okay, we shall see. So
next up, Disney announced their Disney
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After Dark twenty twenty four events.
Some of these are going to start going
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on sale next week or actually this
week, which to me was I guess
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not surprising, but you know,
it's just again what we talked about the
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top of the show, just trying
to bring in revenue before the end of
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the year. So of most know, there's a few things that are of
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most note to me. One was
that they're testing out a new theme,
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which is called Disney Channel Night,
and it's on March fifth and seventh,
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and again it's going to be this
is all an all new theme. It's
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going to be there's a high school
musical pep rally, there's a Phineas and
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Firm dance party. There's Camp Rock
karaoke, you can do the sail around
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with the sailing ship Columbus and enjoy
music from Descendants. There's photo backdrops from
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Lizzy McGuire, The Tita Girls,
the Teen Beach Movie. So what struck
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me about this is that it's I
think a theme we've been talking about a
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while, which is kind of Disney's
trying to balance a nostalgia with the new
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ips. I think this is a
you know Lizzie McGuire that I mean that
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Lizzie McGuire has not been around in
a while. And think there are so
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many things to this I think that
are just so interesting overall with all when
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you I think when you look in
the aggregate of Disney's announcements, it seems
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like they're getting further away from I
guess the stuff that the other parts do
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that like I wants the normal shoulder
seasons, but they're trying to invent their
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own events to counter the shoulder seasons
that are tied more vertically to their IP.
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And I think this is a great
example, you know, like they're
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they're bringing back Pride Night, sure, but like Disney Channel Night is something
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that's directly tied into Disney Plus and
having that subscription to be able to go
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back and watch these things. I
mean, it's like they're I think this
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type of thing I think we will
see more of in the future because I
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think this is exactly what they should
be doing, which is what they talked
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about doing years ago. Right,
this is a whole point that Disney Plus
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is to more vertically integrate with your
time. So if there's a way for
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them to celebrate some of the stuff
from the Disney Channel in the parks as
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a special event, I think that's
the ideal. And then I wouldn't be
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surprised if in the future, if
you had a Disney Plus subscription, you
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would get a discount code for the
Disney Channel Night event type of thing.
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I think that's that would be the
vertical integration. I think they've been looking
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for this whole time. But but
also it fits for that nostalgia, you
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know, you like, half of
these ips are not stuff for the kids.
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There's I feel like this is like
a millennial play well, and and
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millennials have what age kids now,
you know, I mean, let's let's
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be honest, millennials have young children. The first thing I want to point
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out is I want to point out
that this is disney Land versus Walt disney
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World. Disneyland is, although it
is an international destination, it is also
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a local theme park. So it
needs to have and and and is more
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set up to have these pop up
events that can be two nights long.
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There's no such thing in in in
Florida, there's no because people don't people
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aren't like the Yes, there's a
there's a local population that goes to the
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Walt Disney World resort, but Disneyland
is significantly more uh. It pulls significantly
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more from a local a local audience. So they're they're going to kind of
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become and we've seen it become these
the test market for some of these pop
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up things. They're gonna try it
for for two nights. And the fact
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that it's it's the fifth and the
seventh but not the sixth, that seems
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unusual to me too. But it
seems very much as a hometown park approach.
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So let's take that into consideration.
First, this is a disney Land,
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not a Disney uh of Disney worldwide
Disney resorts kind of thing. It's
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something they can probably only do at
Disneyland for two nights. They wouldn't be
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able to do it at Disney World
for any length of time longer than this.
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The second thing I want to point
out is, you know, we've
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talked about all of the streaming services, and Philip, you're the one who's
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been who's been uh championing this on
this show, and that is what they
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have as far as content, what
they have as far as you know,
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shows that are sitting in their vaults, Well, if you look at all
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of these, you're absolutely right.
This is young parents who are going to
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say, oh, I love these
and I want to introduce them to my
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kids so that the kids will go
back. It's bringing a whole new life
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to existing older material. You know, it's it's bringing out, it's it's
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reintroducing it to a younger audience.
And it's no different for Disney. They've
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done this for you know, with
with Back in Madday, back in the
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v the VHS release days where they
would take classic Disney films, bring them
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out, put them on video,
then put them back in the vaults for
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another seven years. So you had
to wait, so they just had to
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keep reintroducing. That's what they're now
starting to do. I think with the
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Disney Channel stuff, they're you know, they're they're reintroducing Phineas and Ferb and
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camp Rock and Lizzie McGuire u.
So it's one of those it's giving parents
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an opportunity to introduce to their children
the the the ips that they enjoyed when
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they were younger. And again,
Mickey and Minnie are still around, and
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they've been doing this since they opened, I mean since the forties. They've
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been doing this to reintroduce and reinvigorate
and find new and fresh ways. And
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you know, since the parks are
doing relatively well based on the calls that
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you know, the profit calls and
that we've seen and have been made,
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they're using the parks to an advantage
to basically usually usually Disney has used to
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saying we'll take the movies, we'll
lead with the movies, and then we'll
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have the parks be the follow up
in the additional revenue. This seems to
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be a flip flop of that,
where they're leading with the parks so that
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they can get more information or i'm
sorry, more traction with their streaming services.
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And I'm wondering if they're all I'm
hoping, because Disney's really smart this
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way, I'm hoping they're ready to
start tracking to see after this event if
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it does create a bump in viewership
for some of these existing products that are
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probably sitting a little bit sluggish right
now. I think it's also interesting to
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me to take a step back and
think about how they've been trying so hard
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to make streaming profitable. But you
know, really it's almost like, I
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think, to your point stuff like
this. You know, the streaming audience
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is so much larger than the audience
that we go to theme parks, and
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I think, I think, us
being in the industry, we often forget,
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you know, I say this when
people ask about horror. I'm like,
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the amount of people that are interested
in horror is far larger than the
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amount of people that would have ever
gone to a haunted house. Well,
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I mean, even in the organization, the name of the game is to
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increase that right and increase that share. Like the name of the game for
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Disney here is sure, yeah,
they don't they can't be losing so much
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money on streaming. But the name
of the game ultimately is to the parks
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are much more profitable. So it's
to invert those people into park viewers.
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Well, but I'm not even seeing
I'm not even saying that that only the
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people who go to the parks,
who go to these events are going to
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be the ones who will all of
a sudden have a a re reinvested interest
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in these older products just by advertising
it. Just the fact that we're talking
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about it. I'm sure at least
one listener has gone, I used to
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love Phineas and Ferb. I should
go. I should show that to my
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kids, you know, or or
Lizzie McGuire. Maybe I don't know.
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I don't know, but but yeah, I just think that they're looking at
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it as a way to get new
life. I mean, let's face it,
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they don't have to invest a dime
in production in these things. They're
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already done. They've been done for
years, you know. It's depending on
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what the agreements were with the with
the voice talent. Yes, they may
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still have to pay residuals on it, or they may have been bought out
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by now who knows, who knows, But it's it's a cheap it's it's
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a cheap way to reintroduce a product
that already exists. And again, playing
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off your assets, yep, yes, plan off the assets I think is
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another strong theme as well. So
anyway, tickets will go on sale for
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that event, in particular on the
twelfth, so just two days from now,
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and Pride Night is returning. Despite
its selling out last year, they
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did not increase the number of nights, so it's only going to still be
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a two night event again this year, which was an interesting move. They're
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bringing back Star Wars, of course, They're bringing back Sweethearts. Of course,
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the Sweethearts event was expanded, you
know, all that's typical. But
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they also did announce all of their
twenty twenty four event lineups for the Disneyland
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side, and again the list is
huge. There's plenty of great articles out
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there. I'm only pointing out specific
items that I think are relevant to the
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topics that we have discussed previously.
The first is that they're beginning Halloween a
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week early. Halloween time will begin
on August twenty third, which is a
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week earlier than last year, which
is exactly what we've talked about previously,
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the Halloween creep, and we I
think we floated the question even I think
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last time we talked about it,
which is how early is Disneyland going to
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push it? Because last year the
Walt Disney World resort started Mickey's Not So
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scare a Halloween party on August eleventh, and so and then and then you
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saw Universal last year for the first
time, and also very seemed very haphazardly
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announced their Taste of Terror preview event
as well to get in on the August
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fun. So I think this year
we could see that looking at this,
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looking at you know, Disneyland does
not normally do this, but looking at
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Disneyland moving it a whole week earlier, I could see you could potentially see
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Orlando start, as you know,
the first week in August. I would
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not find that unusual if they started
the first week in August with a Taste
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of Terror preview or with this,
and that's what they That's ultimately what the
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parks, all the parks want.
I'm sure they all want a full three
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months of fall fall activities because as
Scott, you know, you said,
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Halloween makes money. And if they
can spread that out to a ninety day
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period instead of just you know there, I mean, there's still plenty of
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attractions that are still only in October, but to set this precedent would impact
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the entire industry. You know,
it's not just Disney. Well, and
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I will say that this expansion for
the ones that are only in October,
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or even the events that start in
September, you know, mid to late
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September, this is actually a benefit. I know that there are there are
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some some bean counters who will be
sitting out going, oh my gosh,
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they're going to spend all their money
before we even open. But at the
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same time, you're not in direct
competition because they can all those avid halloweeners
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that want to get out there and
dive into this. They're going to be
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there in August and the first week
of September. So therefore, when you're
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e vent opens, it doesn't get
buried by the noise, you know,
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especially smaller attractions here in Florida there
in California, they it doesn't. It
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doesn't destroy or just literally, as
I said, bury the announcements of the
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smaller attractions that will start later.
It's it's sort of what you do in
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a good marketing campaign. I mean, you come up with here's our opening,
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here's our we'll call it the lag
punch. As as the attendant starts
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to go down or interest starts to
wane just a little bit, do something
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cool and it pops it back up. So if you look at that from
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an industry standpoint, you've got Disney
starting super early, then perhaps Universal following
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suit, and then the other more
independent haunted attractions are smaller parks who are
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doing Halloween events, then they can
be those additional bumps throughout the Halloween season.
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I don't see this as a bad
thing. I'm curious. I'm curious
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as I watch it. I'm curious
to see how early is too early?
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You know, when we hit when
we Happy Independence Day and tomorrow night we
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open up Halloween, is that going
to be too much for people? Is
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that going to be the breaking point
where people are like, this isn't even
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special anymore, This is just this
is just this is just Halloween all the
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time. So I don't know,
I don't I don't know whether we'll ever
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get to that point. We make
it to the point where we discover you
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can run a Halloween event year round. Well, well see see Vegas right
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exactly. Again, that's probably a
great opportunity for them to learn there,
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too, for for universal to learn
there. I just think I agree with
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you in that this is overall good
for the industry. You know, not
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everybody can do that. It's really
really just these these enormous staple events that
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can get away with this type of
thing. But it helps everybody, you
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know, to all of Scott's points, that does all that. But I
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would also argue that it. Next
year is going to be tough, and
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part of the reason election years are
tough is the amount of money that comes
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flooding into advertising, So it makes
it makes it much harder for smaller attractions
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to afford to do the campaigns they
normally do to get marketing dollars. So
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having a longer time is better.
And I think this is gonna this is
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gonna help everybody. Honestly, it's
gonna help the smaller attractions just as much
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because here in Socow, you know, they can kind of piggyback off of
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the penetration that Disney already has to
kind of piggyback off of that and say,
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Disney, Halloween time is here,
our event open. You know you
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can piggyback off of that. That's
going to be critical next year when you
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find that all of your advertising dollars
don't go nearly as far as they did
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the previous year. Well and when
and when out of school season, but's
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now up against Halloween season. I
think it's going to be a very interesting.
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It's gonna be very interesting. It's
there. They've basically eliminated shoulder season,
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which which I think is very brave, And we'll see how well in
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the goal. We'll see how well
itplies. I mean, I you know,
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I think it's a great idea if
it works. Of course, that's
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that could be said of anything.
I suppose, what idea if it works.
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So yeah, I again, we'll
just we'll just watch yep. The
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other things I wanted to point out
from their announcements was they're bringing back Season
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of the Force from April to June, and they've announced a new event called
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pixar Fest that is April twenty sixth
through August fourth. So essentially they're what
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I what I guess, what I'm
trying to illustrate with this is that it
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seems like they're definitely moving away from
doing a lot of stuff that is dependent
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on I guess outside culture, as
in like Halloween and and Chinese New Year
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and these things, and they're trying
to fill more of the time with stuff
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that is created by them that enforces
their IP right because you can you can
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have there's I guess, I guess, especially in the Solica region, there's
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quite a lot of competition for Chinese
a year, for example, you know,
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all the cultural institutions of a lot
a lot of people celebrate trans a
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year, but nobody celebrates pixar Fest
because it is it is is that they
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and again, everything we just talked
about with the Disney Channel Night applies,
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I think to these events, and
it's quite a long run if you look
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at these out you know, Season
of the Force and happening over at Disneyland
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Side and then pixar Fest April twenty
sixth through August fourth. That's a long
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run for a new festival. And
they also announced for pixar Fest specifically,
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there's gonna be a new parade called
Better Together, a Pixar palse Parade,
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and it's going to have characters that
have not previously appeared in the US,
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that only have appeared in China so
far. So again, I think it's
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just that same strategy as the Disney
Channel Night, but you know, on
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a bigger scale and just just more
trying to have reasons I think, to
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celebrate their IP and they're I guess
almost like their own spin on other stuff,
383
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right, I mean, while while
other basically while other people are doing
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Summerfest and then you know they're doing
all these they're tiny into the holidays.
385
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You know, Disney's trying say,
we're just gonna have Season of the Forest,
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and we're gonna have picks our Fest, and we're going to have,
387
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you know, our own version of
Halloween Time, which has almost become its
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own thing in and of itself.
And I think that's again, not many
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brands can do that, but I
think it's smart to tie it in that
390
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way. Yeah, they've got so
much, they've got so many assets.
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Once again, playing with your assets, use your assets the best of your
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best of your ability. They've got
so many to work with that this is
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just another example of doing that.
The one thing that I think is unique
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to me from a from an industry
person is it appears as though during the
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month of May they will be competing
with themselves because that's the there is a
396
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rather significant overlap of Season of the
Force and picks our Fest. Now,
397
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granted, if you're if you're a
tourist coming to to Disneyland UH and California
398
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Adventure, you're gonna do both parks
anyway, so you'll probably in the month
399
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of May, which again high vacation
time. It makes it so that gosh,
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you know I was gonna do I
was going to do Magic Kingdom one
401
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day, and then I was gonna
go do Universal Studios another, but they've
402
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.599
got these events, these short term
events that are going on in both places.
403
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So you know, maybe I'll park
op, I'll get a park copper.
404
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:15.920
To me, this is just a
ploy to get park coppers, which,
405
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again from a business standpoint, I
say it flippantly, but I don't
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mean it that's a bad thing.
I think that's you know, these are
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businesses, and when you make good, creative choices that help support your business
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goals, I mean that's what that's
what we do, and that's how how
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companies and parks survive and do and
do well. I will say that I
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like the idea of the the Better
together a Pixar Pal's celebration, even though
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00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:47.000
it's not truly a summer fest,
it is clearly a hey, we're out
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of school, let's have fun.
That's kind of the vibe. That's kind
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00:29:49.079 --> 00:29:52.519
of the vibe that it has.
And so I think that it's gonna it's
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gonna kick off, it's gonna kick
off their summer season, and h you
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know, there's gonna be that,
Like I said, there is going to
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be that overlap which will make it
so that parkoppers will be essential for the
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month of May. So while speaking
of essential, it is essential that if
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we're going to keep true to our
title, it is time for us to
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say goodbye for another week. So
on behalf of Philip Bernandez with Gantum Lighting
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00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.039
and how to Attraction Network, and
myself Scott Swinson and with Scott swentson creative
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00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:22.039
development. This is Green Tag Theme
Park in thirty and we'll see you next week
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00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:04.759
Welcome back to another week of Green
Tag Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip
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00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:07.839
and I'm joined as always by my
co host Scott Swinson and Scott Swinson Credit
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Development and Scott tis the season of
announcements, Tis it tis it is?
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Indeed, there are announcements a go
go. We're all getting we're all getting
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special you know, special presence.
I guess maybe this is the unwrapping of
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all the things. Well, I
was actually thinking, you know, I
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think you would know, coming from
your background, you know, this always
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happens. Of course, the Park's
always announced, you know, in a
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slew of things. But I feel
like this year it's especially critical because next
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year is not projected right now to
be a great year. You know,
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we'll see how it works out.
But it's all election years always tough,
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and then with the sentiment, consumer
sentiment and spending where it is, and
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you know, everybody is as we've
been saying for years, you know,
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next year, you know, twenty
twenty five is a year where people will
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get back and going and next year
is kind of the it's going to be
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a tough one and I think that's
making these announcements where it's like it steels
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like everyone everyone, if everyone has
something to announce, they're all trying to
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It seems to me like everybody,
every chain, every place is trying to
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remind you they're still going to be
here in next year, and the remind
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you they're going to be doing something
next year. Try and get early revenue
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in for next year, and also
try and set up twenty twenty five as
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a great year of openings. Well, it's also when you announce a new
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opening just before the winter holidays,
you know Christmas. Now. Granted,
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as we record this, we are
in the midst of Hanka already, but
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if you can do it before Christmas, you can actually also make it so
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that you can get season passes and
memberships to zoos and aquariums because there's something
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cool that is new that's coming up
next year. So they always want to
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be front of mind at this time
of year to say and next year,
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we've got this cool thing, or
in the near future, we've got this
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cool thing. And there is a
theory and I actually think there's something to
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it that says this actually does kind
of generate some additional season pass sales for
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the holiday season. Yes, I
would agree, and that is money that
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everyone's being on desperately need for next
year. So my point overall is there
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are a lot of announcements. I
have a few that I've kind of cherry
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picked here that I think there's something
interesting to them, but there are a
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lot more that we're not going to
go through. We just don't have the
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time to get to all of them. But I thought the first one we'd
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start off with is something that's been
that's been going around. Okay, I'm
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just gonna say it because this is
at least been going around my feed quite
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a bit. So we have the
name for the new Universal Park in Texas,
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and we've been following the story since
it was announced. You know,
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YadA YadA. We don't need to
go back over that, but basically they
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revealed that it's going to be called
Universal Kids Resort and it will gear the
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innovative storytelling to engage a young audience
with immersive themed lands featuring beloved characters and
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stories, family friendly attractions, interactive
shows, merchandise, fund and food options.
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It will also include a three hundred
room hotel. And there's a specific
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quote in here I wanted to kind
of get your take on Mollie Murphy,
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the president of Universal Creative, specifically
said Universal Kids Resort will inspire the unbridled
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creativity of kids through imagination, discovery, and most importantly, play. We're
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designing the resort so kids and families
can feel the thrill of being physically immersed
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in their most beloved stories and characters. My hot take is, why would
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you name why would you hamstring yourself
by calling this a kids resort when well,
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anyway that would be My hot take
was. I think that calling it
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a kid's resort is wrong. I
think that everything she said could be said
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of any Universal property. I don't
look at you know, do kids not
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go to Islands of Adventure or do
they not go to Universal regularly? It's
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thatt like, I didn't know that
the resorts weren't for kids. It could
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have pulled me so, but Scott
would think, well, the play thing
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is something you talk about a lot. Yeah. When they when they originally
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came out with this, with this
concept and they said it was going to
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be a more family friendly, they
weren't target it was family friendly verbiage versus
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you know, kid centric verbiage.
It's uh. I thought it was interesting
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because you know, at least in
Florida. Universal is kind of known as
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the bad boy of theme parks.
They are known for being the uh,
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the the one that pushes the envelope, the one that's a little bit edgier.
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Even during their day product, not
just during during Halloween Hornit's but even
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during their day product, they're just
a little bit edgier, a little bit
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more adult. They they pick up
ips that are that appeal to adults and
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not just children. So when they
came out with this, I thought it
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was very interesting. But let's look
at I mean, let's back off just
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a little bit and look at it
in a wider scope, because they've got
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another project that's happening in Las Vegas, which is very adult centric, and
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they make that very clear. To
me. It's sounds like they're they're looking
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at making it. They're trying to
mitigate any sort of guest frustration thinking,
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oh, great, there's going to
be a Universal Studios in Texas, but
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there's not. You know, it's
it's a different it's a different product.
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Or they're going to We're going to
go and experience Halloween Horonites in Las Vegas,
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but you're not. It's basically a
themed bar that does some seasonal activations,
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and I'm oversimplifying. It's a lot
more than that, but you know,
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it's not It is not another Universal
Park, and this is not another
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Universal Studios. The thing that I
find most interesting about the verbiage in the
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way that it's written is this sounds
like what you if you take off,
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if you really don't associate it with
anything Universal. It sounds like Legoland.
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Yeah, it sounds exactly like Lego
Land. That's that's an excellent point.
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Yeah, I didn't think, but
you're right, because it's all centered around
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play families played like interactive play with
families interesting, and you know, and
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maybe they're gonna, you know,
maybe they're gonna lean in heavy to some
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of the to some of the we'll
call it merchandise ips that they you know,
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I mean, let's face it,
that's what Lego Land is. There's
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no there's no denying that. There's
the theory behind Lego which is, you
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know, it spawns creativity and and
that's what they what they lean into.
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But to be completely honest, the
one thing every kid walks out of Lego
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Land with is legos. You know, it ties back to the to the
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key brand This sounds very much like
Universal's answer to Lego Land. Now,
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I'm not even saying that's a bad
thing. I'm not saying they're trying to
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trying to confuse the market. I
don't think they are. I think they
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have recognized, excuse me, that
there is a market for kid centric you
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know, we've said find the niche. What is the niche that's not being
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served? And Universal, although kids
do go to the Universal parks both in
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California and in Florida, they it's
not necessarily where the youngest families with young
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children. And keep in mind,
it's not the kids who make the decision
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whether to go to the parks or
not. It is usually the moms in
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the family. So moms of young
families will look at this and go,
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well, this sounds like a nice, wholesome, fun way that we can
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all get together as a family,
and Junior who is five and big brother
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who is seven, will have a
lovely time and we'll all have a great
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family time together. And I'm being
terribly stereotypical. But meanwhile, other members
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of the family are going, oh
god, it's going to be so lame.
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But it just depends on what their
ips are and how they embrace this
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idea of creativity and being a kid. I also think that by naming it
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Universal Kids Resort, you know exactly
what you're getting going in Yeah, you
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know, I mentioned it briefly earlier. It's all almost like it's almost like
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we don't want any guest comments that
say, where's you know, where are
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all the things that we've come to
expect from Universal? Where's the edginess?
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Because they're basically saying up front,
this is not edgy. The other thing
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that I thought was interesting is it
sounds a great deal, like give kids
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the world. It's yep, it
is, so I don't I don't really
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have a strong opinion one way or
the other on whether this is a good
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thing or a bad thing. I
don't want to assign that to it.
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I think it is interesting. I
think it is unique, and I think
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it is certainly going to be We're
gonna have to watch it closely because I
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think it's going to be an experiment
in how does Dizzy or how does Disney
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listen to me? How does the
Universal expand off of what they have been
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known for? And maybe that's exactly
the purpose of it, because if it's
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coming out. You know, if
they're talking about this that the Kids resort,
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and they're talking about the Vegas experience, and they're talking about the elements
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that they're adding to the parks,
it looks like they're maybe casting nets to
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see what else they can do to
either train an audience younger so that they
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will are ready to come to Universal
the big Universal parks, or it's an
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opportunity to say, you know what, we can't grow the market we have
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for thrills and movie EPs. How
can we grow our market in the younger
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demographics and families with younger children,
Or how can we grow the market in
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play and people who don't go to
theme parks but like scary stuff. So
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you know, they're all they're all
possibilities. I think it is a unique
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approach. I will say I wish
they had come up with something a little
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bit more clever than Universal Kids Resort, But it depends on how they play
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that. I mean, if they're
trying to make it a global village for
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children. The Universal Kids I think
is kind of a neat concept as long
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as you because it's got the double
on toons of the brand and then filling
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out, you know, people of
all ethnic backgrounds, which I think could
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be conceivably really cool. So I
don't know, I am I am curious.
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I find it interesting, But to
me, it sounds like Universal is
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is doing a Lego Land park.
Yeah. I think when it was originally
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announced, we did talk about the
similarities to it and other chains, you
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know, we were kind of like, how how are they going to differentiate
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themselves from it? And maybe their
answer is we're not, We're just trying
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to make our own version of it
exactly. But the problem is, I
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think it's a branding problem. To
your point, it's like Universal, you
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know what to expect with Lego Land, and you know what to expect with
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Disney. You know that they're going
to fake that they're much more favorable to
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families with young kids, you know, the stroller parking, and then you
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know that all that and especially with
Lego Land. So since you don't know
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what to expect with Universal, they
have to fix that ahead of time.
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And if they gave it a name
that was something else, you still wouldn't
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know. So they're trying to make
it more over to fix the branding program
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00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:09.759
essentially, that's what you're saying,
right, Yeah, there mast making it
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00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:15.919
very clear that nobody will mistake it
for a different universal property or mistake it
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for any other kid friendly, family
friendly property or product. Interesting, Well,
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00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:30.840
okay, we shall see. So
next up, Disney announced their Disney
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After Dark twenty twenty four events.
Some of these are going to start going
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on sale next week or actually this
week, which to me was I guess
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not surprising, but you know,
it's just again what we talked about the
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top of the show, just trying
to bring in revenue before the end of
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the year. So of most know, there's a few things that are of
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most note to me. One was
that they're testing out a new theme,
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which is called Disney Channel Night,
and it's on March fifth and seventh,
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and again it's going to be this
is all an all new theme. It's
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going to be there's a high school
musical pep rally, there's a Phineas and
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Firm dance party. There's Camp Rock
karaoke, you can do the sail around
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with the sailing ship Columbus and enjoy
music from Descendants. There's photo backdrops from
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Lizzy McGuire, The Tita Girls,
the Teen Beach Movie. So what struck
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me about this is that it's I
think a theme we've been talking about a
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while, which is kind of Disney's
trying to balance a nostalgia with the new
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ips. I think this is a
you know Lizzie McGuire that I mean that
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Lizzie McGuire has not been around in
a while. And think there are so
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many things to this I think that
are just so interesting overall with all when
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you I think when you look in
the aggregate of Disney's announcements, it seems
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like they're getting further away from I
guess the stuff that the other parts do
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that like I wants the normal shoulder
seasons, but they're trying to invent their
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own events to counter the shoulder seasons
that are tied more vertically to their IP.
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And I think this is a great
example, you know, like they're
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they're bringing back Pride Night, sure, but like Disney Channel Night is something
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that's directly tied into Disney Plus and
having that subscription to be able to go
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back and watch these things. I
mean, it's like they're I think this
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type of thing I think we will
see more of in the future because I
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think this is exactly what they should
be doing, which is what they talked
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about doing years ago. Right,
this is a whole point that Disney Plus
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is to more vertically integrate with your
time. So if there's a way for
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them to celebrate some of the stuff
from the Disney Channel in the parks as
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a special event, I think that's
the ideal. And then I wouldn't be
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surprised if in the future, if
you had a Disney Plus subscription, you
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would get a discount code for the
Disney Channel Night event type of thing.
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I think that's that would be the
vertical integration. I think they've been looking
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for this whole time. But but
also it fits for that nostalgia, you
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know, you like, half of
these ips are not stuff for the kids.
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There's I feel like this is like
a millennial play well, and and
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millennials have what age kids now,
you know, I mean, let's let's
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be honest, millennials have young children. The first thing I want to point
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out is I want to point out
that this is disney Land versus Walt disney
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World. Disneyland is, although it
is an international destination, it is also
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a local theme park. So it
needs to have and and and is more
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set up to have these pop up
events that can be two nights long.
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There's no such thing in in in
Florida, there's no because people don't people
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aren't like the Yes, there's a
there's a local population that goes to the
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Walt Disney World resort, but Disneyland
is significantly more uh. It pulls significantly
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more from a local a local audience. So they're they're going to kind of
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become and we've seen it become these
the test market for some of these pop
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up things. They're gonna try it
for for two nights. And the fact
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that it's it's the fifth and the
seventh but not the sixth, that seems
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unusual to me too. But it
seems very much as a hometown park approach.
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So let's take that into consideration.
First, this is a disney Land,
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not a Disney uh of Disney worldwide
Disney resorts kind of thing. It's
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something they can probably only do at
Disneyland for two nights. They wouldn't be
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able to do it at Disney World
for any length of time longer than this.
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The second thing I want to point
out is, you know, we've
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talked about all of the streaming services, and Philip, you're the one who's
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been who's been uh championing this on
this show, and that is what they
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have as far as content, what
they have as far as you know,
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shows that are sitting in their vaults, Well, if you look at all
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of these, you're absolutely right.
This is young parents who are going to
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say, oh, I love these
and I want to introduce them to my
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kids so that the kids will go
back. It's bringing a whole new life
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to existing older material. You know, it's it's bringing out, it's it's
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reintroducing it to a younger audience.
And it's no different for Disney. They've
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done this for you know, with
with Back in Madday, back in the
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v the VHS release days where they
would take classic Disney films, bring them
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out, put them on video,
then put them back in the vaults for
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another seven years. So you had
to wait, so they just had to
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keep reintroducing. That's what they're now
starting to do. I think with the
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Disney Channel stuff, they're you know, they're they're reintroducing Phineas and Ferb and
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camp Rock and Lizzie McGuire u.
So it's one of those it's giving parents
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an opportunity to introduce to their children
the the the ips that they enjoyed when
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they were younger. And again,
Mickey and Minnie are still around, and
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they've been doing this since they opened, I mean since the forties. They've
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been doing this to reintroduce and reinvigorate
and find new and fresh ways. And
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you know, since the parks are
doing relatively well based on the calls that
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you know, the profit calls and
that we've seen and have been made,
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they're using the parks to an advantage
to basically usually usually Disney has used to
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saying we'll take the movies, we'll
lead with the movies, and then we'll
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have the parks be the follow up
in the additional revenue. This seems to
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be a flip flop of that,
where they're leading with the parks so that
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they can get more information or i'm
sorry, more traction with their streaming services.
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And I'm wondering if they're all I'm
hoping, because Disney's really smart this
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way, I'm hoping they're ready to
start tracking to see after this event if
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it does create a bump in viewership
for some of these existing products that are
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probably sitting a little bit sluggish right
now. I think it's also interesting to
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me to take a step back and
think about how they've been trying so hard
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to make streaming profitable. But you
know, really it's almost like, I
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think, to your point stuff like
this. You know, the streaming audience
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is so much larger than the audience
that we go to theme parks, and
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I think, I think, us
being in the industry, we often forget,
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you know, I say this when
people ask about horror. I'm like,
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the amount of people that are interested
in horror is far larger than the
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amount of people that would have ever
gone to a haunted house. Well,
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I mean, even in the organization, the name of the game is to
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increase that right and increase that share. Like the name of the game for
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Disney here is sure, yeah,
they don't they can't be losing so much
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money on streaming. But the name
of the game ultimately is to the parks
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are much more profitable. So it's
to invert those people into park viewers.
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Well, but I'm not even seeing
I'm not even saying that that only the
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people who go to the parks,
who go to these events are going to
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be the ones who will all of
a sudden have a a re reinvested interest
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in these older products just by advertising
it. Just the fact that we're talking
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about it. I'm sure at least
one listener has gone, I used to
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love Phineas and Ferb. I should
go. I should show that to my
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kids, you know, or or
Lizzie McGuire. Maybe I don't know.
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I don't know, but but yeah, I just think that they're looking at
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it as a way to get new
life. I mean, let's face it,
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they don't have to invest a dime
in production in these things. They're
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already done. They've been done for
years, you know. It's depending on
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what the agreements were with the with
the voice talent. Yes, they may
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still have to pay residuals on it, or they may have been bought out
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by now who knows, who knows, But it's it's a cheap it's it's
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a cheap way to reintroduce a product
that already exists. And again, playing
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off your assets, yep, yes, plan off the assets I think is
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another strong theme as well. So
anyway, tickets will go on sale for
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that event, in particular on the
twelfth, so just two days from now,
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and Pride Night is returning. Despite
its selling out last year, they
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did not increase the number of nights, so it's only going to still be
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a two night event again this year, which was an interesting move. They're
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bringing back Star Wars, of course, They're bringing back Sweethearts. Of course,
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the Sweethearts event was expanded, you
know, all that's typical. But
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they also did announce all of their
twenty twenty four event lineups for the Disneyland
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side, and again the list is
huge. There's plenty of great articles out
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there. I'm only pointing out specific
items that I think are relevant to the
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topics that we have discussed previously.
The first is that they're beginning Halloween a
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week early. Halloween time will begin
on August twenty third, which is a
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week earlier than last year, which
is exactly what we've talked about previously,
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the Halloween creep, and we I
think we floated the question even I think
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last time we talked about it,
which is how early is Disneyland going to
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push it? Because last year the
Walt Disney World resort started Mickey's Not So
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scare a Halloween party on August eleventh, and so and then and then you
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saw Universal last year for the first
time, and also very seemed very haphazardly
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announced their Taste of Terror preview event
as well to get in on the August
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fun. So I think this year
we could see that looking at this,
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looking at you know, Disneyland does
not normally do this, but looking at
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Disneyland moving it a whole week earlier, I could see you could potentially see
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Orlando start, as you know,
the first week in August. I would
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not find that unusual if they started
the first week in August with a Taste
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of Terror preview or with this,
and that's what they That's ultimately what the
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parks, all the parks want.
I'm sure they all want a full three
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months of fall fall activities because as
Scott, you know, you said,
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Halloween makes money. And if they
can spread that out to a ninety day
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period instead of just you know there, I mean, there's still plenty of
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attractions that are still only in October, but to set this precedent would impact
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the entire industry. You know,
it's not just Disney. Well, and
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I will say that this expansion for
the ones that are only in October,
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or even the events that start in
September, you know, mid to late
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September, this is actually a benefit. I know that there are there are
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some some bean counters who will be
sitting out going, oh my gosh,
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they're going to spend all their money
before we even open. But at the
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same time, you're not in direct
competition because they can all those avid halloweeners
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that want to get out there and
dive into this. They're going to be
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there in August and the first week
of September. So therefore, when you're
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e vent opens, it doesn't get
buried by the noise, you know,
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especially smaller attractions here in Florida there
in California, they it doesn't. It
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doesn't destroy or just literally, as
I said, bury the announcements of the
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smaller attractions that will start later.
It's it's sort of what you do in
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a good marketing campaign. I mean, you come up with here's our opening,
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here's our we'll call it the lag
punch. As as the attendant starts
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to go down or interest starts to
wane just a little bit, do something
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cool and it pops it back up. So if you look at that from
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an industry standpoint, you've got Disney
starting super early, then perhaps Universal following
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suit, and then the other more
independent haunted attractions are smaller parks who are
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doing Halloween events, then they can
be those additional bumps throughout the Halloween season.
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I don't see this as a bad
thing. I'm curious. I'm curious
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as I watch it. I'm curious
to see how early is too early?
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You know, when we hit when
we Happy Independence Day and tomorrow night we
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open up Halloween, is that going
to be too much for people? Is
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that going to be the breaking point
where people are like, this isn't even
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special anymore, This is just this
is just this is just Halloween all the
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time. So I don't know,
I don't I don't know whether we'll ever
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get to that point. We make
it to the point where we discover you
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can run a Halloween event year round. Well, well see see Vegas right
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exactly. Again, that's probably a
great opportunity for them to learn there,
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too, for for universal to learn
there. I just think I agree with
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you in that this is overall good
for the industry. You know, not
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everybody can do that. It's really
really just these these enormous staple events that
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can get away with this type of
thing. But it helps everybody, you
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know, to all of Scott's points, that does all that. But I
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would also argue that it. Next
year is going to be tough, and
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part of the reason election years are
tough is the amount of money that comes
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flooding into advertising, So it makes
it makes it much harder for smaller attractions
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to afford to do the campaigns they
normally do to get marketing dollars. So
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having a longer time is better.
And I think this is gonna this is
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gonna help everybody. Honestly, it's
gonna help the smaller attractions just as much
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because here in Socow, you know, they can kind of piggyback off of
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the penetration that Disney already has to
kind of piggyback off of that and say,
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Disney, Halloween time is here,
our event open. You know you
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can piggyback off of that. That's
going to be critical next year when you
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find that all of your advertising dollars
don't go nearly as far as they did
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the previous year. Well and when
and when out of school season, but's
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now up against Halloween season. I
think it's going to be a very interesting.
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It's gonna be very interesting. It's
there. They've basically eliminated shoulder season,
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which which I think is very brave, And we'll see how well in
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the goal. We'll see how well
itplies. I mean, I you know,
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I think it's a great idea if
it works. Of course, that's
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that could be said of anything.
I suppose, what idea if it works.
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So yeah, I again, we'll
just we'll just watch yep. The
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other things I wanted to point out
from their announcements was they're bringing back Season
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of the Force from April to June, and they've announced a new event called
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pixar Fest that is April twenty sixth
through August fourth. So essentially they're what
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I what I guess, what I'm
trying to illustrate with this is that it
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seems like they're definitely moving away from
doing a lot of stuff that is dependent
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on I guess outside culture, as
in like Halloween and and Chinese New Year
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and these things, and they're trying
to fill more of the time with stuff
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that is created by them that enforces
their IP right because you can you can
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have there's I guess, I guess, especially in the Solica region, there's
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quite a lot of competition for Chinese
a year, for example, you know,
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all the cultural institutions of a lot
a lot of people celebrate trans a
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year, but nobody celebrates pixar Fest
because it is it is is that they
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and again, everything we just talked
about with the Disney Channel Night applies,
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I think to these events, and
it's quite a long run if you look
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at these out you know, Season
of the Force and happening over at Disneyland
375
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Side and then pixar Fest April twenty
sixth through August fourth. That's a long
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run for a new festival. And
they also announced for pixar Fest specifically,
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there's gonna be a new parade called
Better Together, a Pixar palse Parade,
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and it's going to have characters that
have not previously appeared in the US,
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that only have appeared in China so
far. So again, I think it's
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just that same strategy as the Disney
Channel Night, but you know, on
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a bigger scale and just just more
trying to have reasons I think, to
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celebrate their IP and they're I guess
almost like their own spin on other stuff,
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right, I mean, while while
other basically while other people are doing
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Summerfest and then you know they're doing
all these they're tiny into the holidays.
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You know, Disney's trying say,
we're just gonna have Season of the Forest,
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and we're gonna have picks our Fest, and we're going to have,
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you know, our own version of
Halloween Time, which has almost become its
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own thing in and of itself.
And I think that's again, not many
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brands can do that, but I
think it's smart to tie it in that
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way. Yeah, they've got so
much, they've got so many assets.
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Once again, playing with your assets, use your assets the best of your
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best of your ability. They've got
so many to work with that this is
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just another example of doing that.
The one thing that I think is unique
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to me from a from an industry
person is it appears as though during the
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month of May they will be competing
with themselves because that's the there is a
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rather significant overlap of Season of the
Force and picks our Fest. Now,
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00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:48.079
granted, if you're if you're a
tourist coming to to Disneyland UH and California
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Adventure, you're gonna do both parks
anyway, so you'll probably in the month
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00:28:52.839 --> 00:29:00.079
of May, which again high vacation
time. It makes it so that gosh,
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00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.880
you know I was gonna do I
was going to do Magic Kingdom one
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day, and then I was gonna
go do Universal Studios another, but they've
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00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.599
got these events, these short term
events that are going on in both places.
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00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:12.640
So you know, maybe I'll park
op, I'll get a park copper.
404
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:15.920
To me, this is just a
ploy to get park coppers, which,
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again from a business standpoint, I
say it flippantly, but I don't
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mean it that's a bad thing.
I think that's you know, these are
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businesses, and when you make good, creative choices that help support your business
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goals, I mean that's what that's
what we do, and that's how how
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companies and parks survive and do and
do well. I will say that I
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00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:41.400
like the idea of the the Better
together a Pixar Pal's celebration, even though
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it's not truly a summer fest,
it is clearly a hey, we're out
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of school, let's have fun.
That's kind of the vibe. That's kind
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of the vibe that it has.
And so I think that it's gonna it's
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gonna kick off, it's gonna kick
off their summer season, and h you
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00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:00.279
know, there's gonna be that,
Like I said, there is going to
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be that overlap which will make it
so that parkoppers will be essential for the
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00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:07.319
month of May. So while speaking
of essential, it is essential that if
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we're going to keep true to our
title, it is time for us to
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say goodbye for another week. So
on behalf of Philip Bernandez with Gantum Lighting
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00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.039
and how to Attraction Network, and
myself Scott Swinson and with Scott swentson creative
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00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:22.039
development. This is Green Tag Theme
Park in thirty and we'll see you next week











