June 11, 2024

Universal Tests ‘Premium Scream Night’

Universal is testing a ‘Premium Scream Night’ package that allows guests to ‘preview’ Halloween Horror Nights the night before opening – will it perform better than Taste of Terror, and can smaller attractions try something similar?

Universal is testing a ‘Premium Scream Night’ package that allows guests to ‘preview’ Halloween Horror Nights the night before opening – will it perform better than Taste of Terror, and can smaller attractions try something similar? Also, Saudi Arabia expands its tourist bubble with its first gender-inclusive wave pool; Illuminarium Las Vegas introduces a show inspired by Hasbro’s Lite-Brite; and why ‘Disney Dreams That Soar’ is the best thing to happen to Disney Springs in years.

SOURCES

WEBVTT

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This time. Well, I'm in
Los Angeles, like Scott, you're you're

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near the Natural Bridge caverns right working
on a project. Then, yes,

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yes, I'm in I'm actually in
New bron Fulls, Texas, which is

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just outside of San Antonio. Well, excellent. So this is Green Tag

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Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip. Obviously you've heard Scott. Scott is

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here joining me every as always every
week to discuss the top theme park news

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and why it matters to you.
This week, we're going to be looking

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at some of the stories that we
missed from the previous week because we last

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week we covered the big IAPA Expo
Asia and that was a kind of a

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special episode we dug into that,
so we missed the news next last week,

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which we're going to catch up on
this week. Plus, Scott and

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I have both been traveling clearly,
and we have been a little bit you

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know, in the weeds working and
not as much you know, in the

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clouds thinking. So so we're just
gonna which is a much nicer way of

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saying, we've been bleary eyed and
stupid for the last couple of weeks.

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So anyway, this is our catch
up episode and it's it'll be kind of

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a patchwork. So so, as
I mentioned, so I was traveling,

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I was at the Midwest Haunters Convention, which apparently broke records this year for

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the most attended of this show to
date. Last year was the previous record

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holder. So it seems to have
been going on an up trend, which

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I think, you know, it's
an interesting backdrop to understanding that it is

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June and this is the Chicago area
and the Chicago area, you know,

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I think it. You know,
we have in Los Angeles, we have

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Midsommer scream and I think that people
kind of accept that the So Cal culture

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is very open to Halloween and spooky
and year round blah blah blah. You

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know, but this is Chicago.
It's a different market, it's a different

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thing, and I think it's it's
encouraging to all of us that it has

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such a big turnout. And in
speaking with the vendors and the other you

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know folks, industry folks there,
it seems like the majority of the people

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were kind of split. So they
think, you know, about fifty percent

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or more were people that really were
just locals that almost just walked in,

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you know, to see Halloween decorations
and kind of you know do stuff,

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so not haunters at all, which
I think is all encouraging, and it

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gives us a backdrop to our first
big news story, which is from Universal.

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Universal might be trying to tap in
maybe to this this market. We'll

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see, because they announced their first
ever Halloween horron Night's Premium Scream Night,

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which happens on August twenty ninth,
and we're just you can read the news

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article, but just to break it
down very briefly, what it is is

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this is the night before opening,
so it's August twenty ninth, it's a

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Thursday. It is three hundred and
fifty dollars marketed online, and basically what

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it includes is a limited entry,
so they're going to limit the attendees so

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that it's less crowds, but you
get to experience the entire event. The

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ten hunt houses the five scare zones, and then you get all you can

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care to enjoy selection of specific items
that are you know, menu items for

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the event. So to me,
it sounds like they took the rip tour

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and they took out the guided portion
and instead limited the amount of people in

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the park overall and they just said, here, we're gonna let you have

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this. There are some talk about
the logistics. You know, we don't

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know what it's going to be like
obviously yet, but they're talking about doing

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staggered times so the houses. Not
all the houses will be open the entire

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night, some will be only open
for certain hours. And of course,

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when I hear that, I think
that means you're moving actors from house to

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house so you can run less of
a staff. I'm going to guess.

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I'm going to guess even I'm going
to be even more not even nefarious,

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I'm going to be even more speculative
here, because I think all they've done

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is they've monetized their dress rehearsal.
I don't think they're necessarily moving actors from

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house to house. I'm going to
say they're moving directors from house to house.

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They're moving staff. They're moving senior
staff or senior leadership from house to

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house so that they can actually get
beta test or see what it looks like

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with an audience. Because, let's
face it, with any haunted attraction,

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and I'm sorry, if you've ever
worked with me before, you've me say

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this, but any haunted attraction is
not complete until it gets its final cast

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member, and that is the audience, so the guests who walk through.

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So my guess is they have found
a way to uh to monetize their their

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dress rehearsal, which is you know, when you've got a brand like like

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Halloween, hornites that people are you
know, it has such an avid fan

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base, just like you know,
just like you were saying about about Midwest,

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when there's so many people who are
eager to experience Halloween, why why

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not, you know, why not
charge the money for it? Now?

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Are people going to be disappointed?
We don't know that. I don't think

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even if they are, I don't
think they'll say anything simply because they did

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get to be the first to see
it, and we know how many people

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want that to happen. They they
are chomping at the bit. I also

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think it's setting them up for some
heavy duty return visitation because they can say,

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well, we saw this just before
it opened, and so when we

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go back in three weeks, we'll
see how it's changed. We know Hant

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fans, we know the Haunt fanboys
and fangirls, and that's one of the

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situations where they can say, yeah, we saw it and it's so much

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better now, or gosh, why
did they change that? Or they move

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that vase from that table to that
table. You know how crazy they can

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be. So I think it's just
I think it is playing into the fan

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base. I think it is since
it is only one night, you know,

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it's one of those they're gonna do
it anyway. And even if they

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even if they sell eight tickets,
which I know is not gonna be the

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case, it's going to sell out, but it's it's just additional, additional

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revenue. So it makes sense to
me. The price, the price seems

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a little stiff. But then we
were talking before we started, before we

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started recording that it's roughly comparable to
the rip tour plus the ticket and the

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only thing they take out is the
tour gut. Well, that's exactly it.

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The pricing to me, because for
an rip tour, you do get

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walked, you know, you get
guided. Yeah, you still have a

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line, but for the most part, the ip tours stagger, so so

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like really, I mean, you
don't you don't wait that long because they're

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staggered. You know, they they
go, they alternate which houses they go

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to, and they take you in
an order. So it's to me,

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it's like, what do they mean
by reduced crowds? You know how,

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I guess we'll see. We'll see, we'll end up seeing, like because

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if you end up waiting thirty minutes
for each house, I would not say

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that's worth it, because then you've
spent half an hour, you spent five

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hours, six hours in line,
and you paid much more. I don't,

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I don't know. I also agree
with you it's definitely monetizing addresshearsal because

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I believe this is their friends and
family night, and so I'm wondering,

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are you going to be there with
all the friends and family, and then

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they're also trying to sell you know, additional capacity. I just I don't

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know why they chose that amount for
the price, because to me, you

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could have I mean, because a
regular ticket is eighty dollars or in that

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range, right, so, or
sometimes less on sale or whatever. So

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you're talking I don't even know,
like four to five times the cost to

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just show up one night and get
a little bit extra food, that is,

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I don't know. I mean,
I guess we'll see, right,

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I mean, what happens with this
event will tell us all and last year

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they test marketed the Culinary pre Tiar
basically, and yeah, so last year

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that was one hundred and sixty and
all it was was eating for two hours,

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right, But they didn't sell it
very well. Clearly that didn't work,

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and they changed the price halfway through
and they had to like refund a

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bunch of people differences, and some
people didn't get refunded and didn't get alerted

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that the price had been changed,
and so it really was it was a

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mess, Like that was a mess
last year, and this is already proving

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to be a mess a little bit
because on social media they've been advertising it

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as three hundred and twenty five,
but the website it's three hundred and fifty.

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So not not a great start.
Yeah, I think I think the

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important thing to recognize here though is
on a on a positive side, whether

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it's whether it turns into a cluster
or not, on a positive side,

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the fact that it is the end
of the last you know, the last

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weekend of August and all of and
they're celebrating and they're starting their Halloween event

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then, so there's clearly a demand. And I think every you know,

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I know that like for example,
Bush Gardens. Hollow Scream in Tampa is

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starting their September I believe it's September
sixth or seventh. Yeah, so it's

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early. It's thirty one days.
That's more than twice what we used to

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do back when, you know,
ten years ago when I was there,

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So it's it is continuing to expand. The popularity for Halloween is continuing to

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expand. I think we're getting closer
and closer to the point where eventually there

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will be a theme park that is
nothing but horror based and open year round.

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I think we're I think we're getting
there because we're proving that the market

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is there. We're proving that just
to get in first, or this may

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or may not prove that. I
guess, depending on its success, just

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to get in first is worth three
to five times what you'd pay on a

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normal basis. So I think there
are some takeaways for the audience. I

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agree with those. I'm not sure
about how soon we'd see the year round

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horor I mean, obviously Universal is
working on that in Vegas, so we

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don't know what it's going to actually
be like when it opens. But I

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would say for takeaways for people listening, like we have said this, but

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this just reinforces how stuff is creeping
into August, and with Mickey's not so

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scary starting on August ninth this year, you know, that's really we're trying

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to make it three months. And
if the theme parks can anchor Halloween to

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August, September and October, that
gives all of the smaller independent people a

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little bit of ammunition to maybe try
and creep up earlier or at least Saturdays

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or high demand days, or really
looking your schedule in that way. I

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think it gives you the the ammunition
to that. I'm not sure if a

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brand, you know, if you
don't have as big of a brand as

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Universal, if it would work to
do a monetize your Vans and Family Knight

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in this way, But it doesn't
mean you can't try it, and you

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might try it at a much more
reasonable price point. Or maybe maybe you

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could invert it and say that you're
going to do a half price tickets but

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only to your biggest fans you know
that are subscribed to your newsletter, or

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you know, you might be able
to invert it, you know, as

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a way of rewarding super fans in
a way if you don't have a brand

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like this. I mean, to
me, this really feels like a cash

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grab. I think it would be
detrimental to smaller You know, if you

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had an independent facility in your normal
ticket price is twenty dollars and you charged

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one hundred dollars to show up on
the dress rehearsal, I think that would

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not be I don't think that would
work. But I think you might take

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the concept of rewarding super fans and
seeing if you can incorporate them into the

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dress rehearsal so they could kind of
meet, even hang out with friends of

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the cast and whatnot. I think
that could be powerful. I think I

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would do it as a as a
content creator bonus to help generate early early

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social media, early online presence,
early content. Yeah, I agree with

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you, but I think I think
what's really important here to recognize is over

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and above the fact that it shows
Halloween Is is continuing to be more and

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more popular. I also think the
reason they continue to get earlier and earlier

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is out of demand. So if
you're an independent haunt and you're not selling

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out every night, do not expand
expand your your uh, your your operation.

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Do not expand your your operational evenings. If you are fully selling out

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every single night like Halloween, horror
nights like like Mickey's Not So Scary,

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then yes, absolutely creep earlier and
earlier and earlier. But if you aren't

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selling out, there is absolutely no
point to dilute that across, to dilute

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your fan base across more nights,
because that's just going to hurt your profit

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margin. So I think the real
important thing is expand with demand, Expand

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with the because you have to,
you have no choice. That's the that's

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the recommendation I would give. Okay, okay, Well, our next story

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is not at all related to Halloween, so it's going to get back to

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the normal world here. We talked
back to our regular show, right,

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not that uh. We talked a
while back about the concept of tourist bubbles

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and creating spaces where you need to
be more accepting of other cultures if you

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want their tourism. We talked about
that in the context of a few countries,

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but also Japan, and since then
more articles have come out about the

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backlash that's getting even stronger actually now
during the summer about in Japan. But

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this is this story is not in
Japan just it's it's just related to that

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concept. But the first gender inclusive
waypool in Saudi Arabia is now open and

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a quote here from the press release
says that Cyan Water Park proudly stands as

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the first water park in the Kingdom
to offer an inclusive in water experience,

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welcoming men, women and children together
in a wavepool, ADG said in the

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press release. The document continues that
supported by both government and the local community,

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this change has assisted in promoting tourism. Although there has been a mix

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of opinions from visitors, the majority
have been very positive. So it sounds

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similar, I think to what we
talk about where you're always going to have

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that pushback, but kind of carving
out a place where you know the culture,

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the cultural lines are a little more
lenient can help with tourism. But

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Scott, as someone who has worked
nearby, what is your perspective on this,

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well, I think this is I
think this is proof that the Kingdom

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of Saudi Arabia is serious about expanding
their tourism base. I think it shows

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that they are willing to not only
create environments like this, but also to

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show the world that they are not
nearly as as rigid and harsh as so

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many people believe that they are.
The other thing that I find interesting about

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this is, let's just put this
into perspective. Keep in mind that women

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could not drive, could not legally
drive automobiles in until twenty sixteen. So

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this is a gigantic step forward.
This is a gigantic step forward. It

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may seem like it may seem like, well, okay, yeah, they're

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letting men and women in a wave
pool, a big deal, but it

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is a big deal. This is
like, you know, going back to

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the times of desegregation here in the
United States, of allowing people different ethnic

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backgrounds into the same pool. You
know, we think we wouldn't even think

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that was an issue today, but
that of either it wasn't long ago either.

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That's true, but this is of
that magnitude, and I think it's

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important to recognize that. And again
from our point of views as attractions professionals,

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I think this, beyond any shadow
of a doubt, proves that that

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the KSA, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, is serious. They're in it

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to win it, They're they're willing
to to I won't say soften their rules,

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but create as Philip. Philip was
saying that tourist bubble, so that

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they don't have to They're not asking
people to change their their beliefs. You

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are not required to go into this
wavepool. But they are offering it so

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that people who do not have the
same segregation of men and women as part

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of their as part of their faith, they can come to Saudi Arabia and

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have an amazing time. And I
will say, the amount of the amount

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of work that's happening in Saudi is
overwhelming. It is. Yeah, it's

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it's really breathtaking as and I've you
know, even even though I've done one

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project there, I have I have
received in the past, uh probably two

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weeks, I have received two RFPs
to requests for proposals to do additional work

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there, and uh so it's they're
serious. GIA is a large organization and

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they are putting their money where their
mouth is and they're moving things quickly so

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that people around the world can recognize
that Saudi Arabia, whether it be Riad

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or Jetta or wherever, is a
valid place to consider, especially for European

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tourists, because you know, for
us in the US, it's a heck

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of a flight. Trust me,
I've done it a couple of times.

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But for people closer by, it
is certainly a viable option. And I

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will tell you that when I was
there working and when I was there watching

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other people from other expats from outside
the country or other tourists from outside the

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country, the Saudi people were very
kind treated us all beautifully, and so

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I think that this is certainly something
to keep an eye on when it comes

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to a brand new or not brand
new, but certainly majorly expanding tourism base.

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So keep an eye on it.
That that was actually my as well.

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Biggest takeaway. It's just that it
uh, you know, well,

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we hear a lot about the workwaying
to the area, and we always wonder

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how much of it's going to materialize. Things like this, I think really

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show they're willing to put do the
hard work of making an area, you

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know, amenable to tourism, because
that that's a big it's a big it's

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a big hurdle. I think for
attracting inter national guests is really just understanding

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how to you know, how lenient
to be with the culture. I mean,

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that's something I think we could work
on. I've said multiple times in

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America of just you know, not
even having you know, bilingual signs in

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our airport. Is some things like
that really are are are big big piece

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of this. But yeah, and
I just I think that, you know,

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it's it's easy. It's easy for
for a country that has as much

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wealth as Saudi ray Uae or whatever. It's easy for them to build the

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things. The challenging thing is to
create a culture where people who aren't necessarily

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in line with their religious or political
beliefs feel comfortable to come. That's the

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hard part. And to me,
this is a gigantic step forward for Kingdom

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of Saudi Arabia. Okay, all
right, to move it on, O

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move back over to the US.
We're going to talk about a new event

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happening in Las Vegas. Inspired by
Hasbro's Lightbright. Hasbro and Secret Location,

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a Toronto based Emmy Award winning content
studio, have partnered to launch Lightbright Worlds

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of Wonder, an all new immersive
show at the Illuminarium, Las Vegas.

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The sixty minute experience combines the nostalgic
delight of Light Bright with cutting technology designed

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to inspire childlike wonder, creativity and
fun for kids adults. Alike and it

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basically it's a sixty minute cinematic interactive
show with twelve activations in a digital play

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space, retail cinematic worlds and hosts
that TAKEI guess that host it whatnot.

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So it already launched. It launched
last week, so there's starting to be

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a little bit more information out about
it. And the pictures look pretty cool.

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I mean, this looks like a
pretty fun experience, and it just

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reminds me, you know, the
a few things we talked a long while

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back about, you know, Scott
saying how the nostalgia brands were kind of

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coming back and Hasbro's move, But
it reminds me overall of how the brands,

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how much more brands are looking to
do real life experiences. I mean,

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we you know, we've we've talked
about that for a few years.

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I think we've seen them go up
and down as interest comes and goes.

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But stuff like this, even this
is semi related but not a new storm

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we talked about, but just related
is you know, something like the lions

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Gate Studio is partnering with a Haunted
House production team to put together a Haunted

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house for Midsummer Scream. So I
mean just these little things about like these

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brands looking at creating experiences. You
know, I think we're seeing it more

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and more, and I think it
used to be relegated to like the convention

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stuff, and now it's like creeping
out into more sustainable activations. I think,

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well, so, Philip, have
you experienced iluminarium. It knows I

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haven't. So the thing I like
about this particular story is I think this

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is exactly the right direction for Illuminarium
to go. The fact that you know,

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not only are they bringing in a
known brand and a a retro brand

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that appeals to a multiple multiple generations. Quite honestly, it's also providing a

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little bit more structure. When I
did illuminaumy, when I did Illuminatory,

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I can't even say it now.
When I did Illuminarium in the past,

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it lacked structure. It was technologically
beautiful, it was amazing, but it

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wasn't There wasn't as much actually to
do as as the in my opinion,

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the price tag said you should be
able to do so by including by including

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interactive spaces, by including a storyline
narrative. To me, it provides some

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structure that was lacking from the previous
illuminarium experience that I had, and and

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doing it with a brand like light
Bright just makes total sense. It At

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first, when I first read it, I was like, well, that's

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weird because you've got high tech projection
doing low tech pixelated light Bright. And

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then you see some of the images
and you're like, ooh no, this

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works beautifully. This is gorgeous,
and it ties into a name that certainly

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a large large swath of the population
in the US recognize as as light Bright

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and Hasbro, and it makes it
also more family friendly and more I don't

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I don't even want to say kid
friendly, because there are plenty of grown

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ups who enjoyed playing with their light
Bright. I was one of them,

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and so you know, taking plastic
pegs and sticking them through black construction paper.

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It's it's a memory that a certain
generation has, and I think this

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is just the next generation to help
not only the light Bright brand, but

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also help the illuminarium brand. So
I think this could be a very wise

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move and I would love to see
this. This is I didn't think about

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that lack of structure, but now
that I can see that, because to

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me, I think Illuminari well,
I had not been illuminarium. But it

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seemed to me to be similar to
the team lab experiences in Japan or you

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know, where you have something that's
like projection map, like they're leading with

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projection mapping, they're leading with pixel
type of stuff. And yeah, I

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can see how, you know,
if you again, if you're not providing

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a direction for the guests or a
way to interact, then just kind of

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it's almost like a museum basically,
you know. And so I can see

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how adding a narrative into it,
or at least adding something interactive or a

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through line to it, giving its
structure, you know, would really improve

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the experience absolutely, And it's basically
what it does is for in my in

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my opinion, the illuminary illuminary see, I still can't say it the illuminary

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experience. The No No that I
had was leading with technology. It was

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beautiful technology, It was wonderfully done, It was incredibly rendered, but it

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lacked it lacked structure and focus.
And it sounds like this is going to

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solve a lot of those problems.
Well, hopefully one of us will get

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to see it one yep, if
Scott can figure out how to get Yeah,

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I can't order an Uber now because
I won't be able to say I

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need to go to illumin They'll know
happens all the time. Okay, they

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always know, all right. So
our next story, Disney Dreams That Soar

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the Drone Show is now open at
Disney Springs at in Orlando. Let's see.

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This is eight hundred drones that fly
through the air during a ten minute

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show which Walt disney worlders were at. Visitors canjoy for limited time, limited

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time, limited time this summer.
Disney Springs doesn't charge admission, and Disney

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Dreams That Sore is a great choice
for guests looking for free things to do

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at Disney World. So that's the
gist of it. I would recommend someone

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go watch a video because it it's
one of those things where you know it

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doesn't well, I'm not sure it
sounds to me, it didn't sound that

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exciting, but then you see it
and you're like, wow, this is

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you know, this is great.
It really is what we've been talking about.

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Where as the technology for drones advances, you know, what they're able

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to create in the sky is really
so much more durable or I don't want

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to say, I think just we've
talked about the whole fireworks thing before,

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and so I don't want to say
this is like a replacement fireworks, but

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I think this is a good augmentation
to these things because it can be done

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every night and there's less cost.
You know, you're shooting fireworks up,

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they're consuming, they're gone, whatnot. It's very expensive to do fireworks.

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So this is something you can do
in different sized spaces with a lot with

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different safety regulations where you're not having
to you know, worry about the ash

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and host stuff down and it can
be repeated. And also we've already heard

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reports obviously this opened, you know, almost two weeks ago, and we've

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heard reports already that it's making Disney
Springs absolutely packed with people for this,

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which should be no surprise because any
anything for you at Disney and you just,

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you know, just the people swarm
in. So I can confirm those

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reports because I've seen it, and
I actually I actually went over while I

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was doing work for SeaWorld putting in
their new sea line and auto presentation,

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and the it is, it is
the best thing that has happened to Disney

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Springs. Now, am I going
to sit here and say it's the most

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incredible Disney produced sky show. No, I'm not going to say that.

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However, I will say it is
the best one I ever have seen without

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having to buy a ticket for anything. And I will also say that because

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of the nature of drones, obviously
they are susceptible just like fireworks to a

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certain extent, but are they are
susceptible to wind and weather And in doing

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something that relies on eight hundred drones, they have they have handled it in

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such a such an intelligent way from
my from my perspective. First off,

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the let's talk about the show first, and then we'll talk about the ramifications

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for for Disney Springs, because it's
it's huge, that's the huge part.

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But from the show itself, they
the reason that they're testing it here is

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from what I've heard anecdotally, is
that this way they can test it so

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that they won't have guests be upset
if it goes down because of wind or

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weather or whatever. Hurricane season.
They're yeah, they all blow, you

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know, they end up in Lake
Buena Vista, they end up, you

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know, two towns over look it's
Winterhaven. But the idea here is they

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have created what I think is a
beautiful show. They have handled a lot

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of the challenges that I think drone
shows have, and that is that most

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drone shows that I've seen prior to
this are just so incredibly slow moving that

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there's nothing exciting about them. But
what this show does is they've changed that

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that dynamic because they actually take all
the drones, fly them up into the

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sky, and then through programming,
zip the light around in circles and it's

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incredible. There's one whole section that's
Guardians of the Galaxy that is basically just

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a suspended rectangle that has shadows of
the characters dancing in front of it,

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So it's a dance party that's all
done in shadow in negative space. Super

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cool, really really fun. So
now let's talk about the operations here at

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Disney Springs, because it has made
Disney Springs busier than I have ever ever

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ever seen it. The restaurants are
packed, the shops are packed, and

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what's happening is because they do two
shows. Or when I went, they

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were doing two shows a night,
the nine o'clock show. I got there

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at eight o'clock, I pulled into
the Orange Garage. I was sent so

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they enter. Everybody who wants to
stand along the along the water which is

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the basic place to view it.
They enter everybody in one location. If

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you know Disney Springs, it's between
Cirqu and House of Blues, so everybody

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enters there and you fill in all
along the waterway, all the way back

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down, all the way back down
to the balloon ride, and the only

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exit is through the balloon ride or
next to the balloon ride, so it's

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one way in, one way out, so they can then get they can

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then clean up and get the next
group in. The restaurants on the water

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side have were filled packed to the
gills. Two of them even had their

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patios were a thirty five dollars thirty
five dollars per person cover charge to sit

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on the patio and enjoy food and
watch the drone show. So it is

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already generating revenue for the restaurants who
happen to be lucky enough to be between

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Cirque and the balloon in that area. As you exit, it's fascinating to

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me because they are they literally have
so many operations people there telling you if

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you want to continue to enjoy your
night, please go to the left as

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you exit, which takes you back
through the old back towards the boat house

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on all that side, and if
you're going to if you're going to exit,

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00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:07.319
they send you straight back to the
garage, so they really for nine

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00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:11.519
minutes. You do have to get
there at least an hour before it starts.

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If you want to have some sort
of decent seating, I will say

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that if you plan to go in
or not even seating standing standing room,

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00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:22.359
I will say that if you are
planning to go, there is no bad

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00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:27.440
angle for it in that space between
one and the other. If you're like

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00:30:27.480 --> 00:30:30.599
me and want to get out ahead
of the crowd, head all the way

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00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:34.279
down to the balloon, don't stop
and linger thinking, oh, this is

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00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:37.440
going to be the best spot.
It's not. It doesn't matter because one

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00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:40.880
of the things they've done with the
drones is they actually, instead of doing

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00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:42.960
a whole bunch of two dimensional stuff, the majority of it is three dimensional,

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and so like, for example,
when the uphouse appears, the uphouse

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00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:53.160
floats up and then it turns,
so you actually get a three dimensional experience

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00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:56.359
of that. One other thing that
I think is really super cool about the

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00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:00.200
show, and that is instead of
having it be dark and then all of

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00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:04.200
a sudden, all the drones turn
on and it says moment the music starts

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00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:08.039
slow and you see them fly out
and sort of twinkle like stars floating out

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00:31:08.039 --> 00:31:12.319
over the water. And it's a
perfect location because it's still difficult to fly

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00:31:12.440 --> 00:31:17.799
drones over humans because they still drop
out, so flying out over the water,

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00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:19.480
you just see them kind of go
in and take their places, and

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00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:25.119
then it goes dark and then the
show starts, so it's it's really it's

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00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:29.200
really quite a magical show and I
strongly recommend it. Boy have I ran

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00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:33.039
Yeah, sorry, were we wereasing
drones? I just I thought it was

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00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:36.240
a great drone show. Let me
put it this way, it's a best

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00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.720
free drone show I've ever seen,
and it's a great way to bring people

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00:31:38.839 --> 00:31:42.359
to Disney Springs and reinvigorate that like
they've been trying to do for so many

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00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:48.000
years with different attractions there. So
hopefully we have reinvigorated your love of the

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00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:52.079
theme park and attraction industry for this
week. We will be back again next

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00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.079
week. Until next time on behalf
of Philip Bernandez and myself Scott Swinson.

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00:31:56.200 --> 00:32:00.039
This is Green Tag Theme Park in
thirty and we will see you in a thick