Oct. 7, 2024

Universal's Fan Fest and Dark Harbor: The Future of Hard-Ticketed Events?

Could Universal's Fan Fest Nights Define the Future of Hard-Ticketed Events at theme parks? Plus, a deep dive into the revitalization of Dark Harbor.

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Could Universal's Fan Fest Nights Define the Future of Hard-Ticketed Events? Joining Star Trek, Back to the Future, and Dungeons & Dragons are anime experiences from One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen, expanding Universal’s reach into mainstream and niche fandoms. These additions leverage the studio’s scenic expertise and offer fans unique, interactive content. Universal’s "immersive pop-up" event strategy could shift theme parks' operations. Plus, a deep dive into the revitalization of Dark Harbor, with its larger footprint, modernized approach, and efforts to broaden Halloween’s appeal to a wider audience.

Listen to weekly bonus episodes on our patreon.

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From our studios this week in Los Angeles and Tampa.

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This is Green Tag Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip

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and I'm joined as always on my coast Scott Swinson

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of Scott Swinson Created Development. It's got We are back

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home for a brief restpit and you are in between hurricanes.

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And we're getting ready, getting ready for Hurricane Milton yay.

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So yeah, it's funny because I just noticed the lighting

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looks different, and I'm trying to figure out why the

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lighting looks It's because I've already boarded up the windows

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in my office, so there's that. But anyway, we have

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no idea what's going to happen. But you know, at

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this point, I've got the boards, I've got the screws,

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and I've got a drill. So let's just go ahead

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and do it. But you know, fingers crossed, Fingers crossed.

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We'll hope it doesn't completely disrupt the Haunt season here

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in Florida. Maybe we'll talk about that next week to

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see what happened, because you know, between the theme parks

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and the independent Haunters and you know, the zoos and

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the aquariums, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The one

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two punch of the of He and Milton could be

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could be really detrimental to our Haunt season. But we'll see,

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we'll see what happens.

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We will see. Yeah, there will be a story that

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we will we will come back to, I'm sure, because

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you know, especially with the one two punch is really

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what's gonna make it difficult for a lot of people

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who haven't finished setting back up. And then you know, yeah,

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we'll see how far anyway that is next week's Yeah.

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Because again it's all just it's all just guess work.

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Now we know what one hurricane did, but what does

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what do two hurricanes do? And we'll answer that question

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on a future episode.

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So today we will start off with the fan Fest details.

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So Universal Hollywood gave us more details about the fan

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fest event that we have talked about previously that they

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announced and they this is pretty smart. They actually announced

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it during La Comic Con, which if I think if

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anyone had any doubt as to the market that they

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are going after the fact that they announced it at

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La Comic come on, guys, I don't know if I

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would to let them do that if I were all

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a comic color, but you know, that's what it is. So, oh,

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they announced it.

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I think it's a win win situation. I think it's

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great for the con as well.

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Yeah, to work in with them. Yeah, I think we'll see.

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I mean, it's just like it's just like Ayappa.

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When any park has a big announcement to do, if

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they can do it at Ayappa, they do it at

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Ayappa and and Ayappa. It just kind of bases their

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attendance on what who who's announcing what? You know.

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Yeah, So they announced quite a few additions to what

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they already had planned, so we'll just run through pretty quickly.

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So they announced that they're going to feature two anime

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fandom favorites, One Piece and Jiu Jitsu Kaisen, and that

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the event will kick off on Friday, April twenty fifth

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and continue through May eighteenth, which is almost a month

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for its first run, which is pretty decent. I mean,

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I mean, I think now we're we look at Horn

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Nights and we're like, oh, it's three you know, it's

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two and whatever month, and it's almost almost three if

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you know, Disney's almost three months. So this is a

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pretty good initial start off. If we think back to

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like Pride Nights. They're just two individual nights, so I

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think it's a pretty good initial run for this. And

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they say here that in addition to recently announced news

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that the USS Enterprise d from Star Trek the Next

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Generation would be featured as part of the fan Fest nights,

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Universal said that the actual bridge set piece featured in

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the third and final season of Star Trek Picard would

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be a major component of the experience, inviting guests and

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fans to enjoy unique opportunities see it as part of

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its only world one piece in Jujusu Kaizen will join

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the previously announced experiences including Star Trek, Back to the

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Future in Dungeons and Dragons, as well as new experience

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as debut within theme park's magical Wizarding World of Harry

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Potter Land. So they they the late especially, it's just

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kind of goes through the different fandoms and blah blah blah.

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They don't really give specifics as to what you're actually

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going to be able to do. The only few specifics

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they talk about is the wizym World of Harry Potter,

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where you're gonna be able to step into the theme

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park's immersive land to engage in new magical experiences from

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encountering magical creatures including a Niffler and more. And then

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they mentioned the bridge and they mentioned the specific people

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from the animes you will see, so you'll see like

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ug from jiu Jitsu Kaisen. So still a lot of elements,

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but that's standard, that's literally. I mean, they're not gonna

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give away the entire event beforehand, and probably a lot

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of it is not even decided or cleared with the

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IP houses or built yet, you know, in a lot

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of cases. So it's really there's a lot going on there.

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But I think it is a lot of things we've

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been talking about, right, expansion into anime IP which we've

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talked about previously, but that's really a much larger game here.

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It's expanding the overall market. And as Scott has mentioned

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for epic, it's the same strategy of appealing to niche fandoms,

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you know, whereas one piece in Jujitsu Kaizen are very

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wildly popped. More people watch those animes than go to

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theme parks like hands down, so they're very popular. But

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then when you get into the Star Trek Picard and

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you get into some of the more little niche items

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like the D and D. I mean, that's not as

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as widespread. I'm actually I'm not too sure, but I

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mean this whole idea of mixing niche audiences together into

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a fan fest thing is something that Scott had talked

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about for for the epic.

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Well, this is to me, this is almost like doing

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pop up in a park. Yeah, these are these are

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pop up experiences in a theme park. And I think

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that it's interesting because, you know, despite the fact that

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you know, the whole anime world does have a huge,

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a huge following, don't having having been to gen Con,

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don't don't leave Dungeons and Dragons out there in the

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cold because gen Con was bigger than any anime convention

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I've ever seen. The gaming the whole gaming world is

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just over the top. Now, granted there is there is

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overlap in that world, just like there's overlap with To me,

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it's kind of like the gen Con mentality. What they're

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doing is they're bringing these ips in that people want

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to live, that people want to learn, and they're they're

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bringing them in in a way that is, they don't

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have to build an entire new land or world. They

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have to in essence do pop ups and they can.

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It's also kind of smart because to me it also

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it might just be they're doing a little bit of

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research and development here to see what sticks. You know, say,

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for example, if a Niffler is just because you mentioned Nifler,

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if Niffler is a huge success and is easy to operate,

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Niffler may be may become a regular offering for the

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Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If one piece just blows

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them out of the water, one piece may be included

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as a realm in the next park. There's there's all

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kinds of there's all kinds of benefits to approaching this way.

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Uh sorry, go ahead.

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I was gonna say, I think what you're saying about

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that it's really smart. Like the mix of fandoms is

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pretty ingenious in how it is almost replicating the you know,

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classic thing park mentality of like family something for everybody.

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This mix of these putting together, Like like you said,

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the Niffler and those items, like they already have the

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Harry Potter audience because they have the Wizdom World there,

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so we're going to add an extra thing in there

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for that, and then you get the new people with

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the anime, and then you get some of the older generations.

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I think with some of the older and D and

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D is a whole different play like you mentioned D

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and D anime or they're they're different, so it's different,

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but also the age groups it's reaching, right, Like forty

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two percent of gen Z Americans watch anime weekly. It

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was a result from a twenty twenty four Polygon survey.

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I mean, so that's a like these are markets they

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don't necessarily reach too much of, you know, the gen

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Z market normally. So I think that that's yes, I

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think all placing all of these ips together in this

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way is very smart because it's something for everybody of

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different of cross generational stuff, right.

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And one piece, you know, one piece is perfect because

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not with the with the live action that was on

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streaming of One Piece, which also brought it to a

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whole nother audience. Yeah, I think what they're doing. I

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think what they're doing is they're they're as you've said,

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they're looking at the numbers and go, you know what,

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if we can bring in even if we can just

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bring in just the star Trek folks, that will bring

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back people of a certain age and it may not

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have it's it may not be as currently hot, but

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it's got it's got depth as far as generation after

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generation after generation. You know, I there are people, there

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are people older than me who watched the original series,

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and there are people younger than me who are who

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are watching Lower Decks and the and the animated stuff

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that's going on now and loving every moment of it.

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So don't Yeah, the the Star Trek Star Trek Universe

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may not necessarily be the hottest thing right now, but

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it but the roots go very deep, yes, So it'll

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be interesting to see how that plays out.

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I also like how they're they're really leaning into it.

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In my opinion, what makes Universal and these types of

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events at theme parks differentiated because so they're bringing in

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like a set, a piece of real set from that thing,

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which is something the only Universal can do, right because

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they have it. And then that used to be the

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basis of Universal in the past, yep, exactly. They used

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to say ride the movies, that was the whole that

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was the whole marketing campaign and and to and they've

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kind of moved away from that now, and I think

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it's really exciting. I mean, one of one of the

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coolest and again I keep harping back to Star Trek,

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but one of the coolest Star Trek things I ever

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did was in Vegas when they did the Star Trek experience.

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Was it the Hilton I remember that, Oh my god,

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and you actually got transported to the bridge of the

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Enterprise from next Gen Yep. It was absolutely breathtaking, the

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most amazing experience based on an IP that I've ever had, yep.

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And so if they could do something similar to that

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with the production value of that, but you know, you know,

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let I mean enough, you've got to keep through put

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in mind. But it's not like they're here's the thing.

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It leans into all their strengths. Like there they know

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how to build sets and how to move people through

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things fast. From Horranites, right, they have access to elements

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from the studio portion that other people won't have access to.

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And then even when you look at their choice of anime, Jiujitsu,

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Kaisen and One Piece are both ips they have worked

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with heavily in Japan. You know, even for Halloween Hornites.

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They're doing a whole episode that is only going to

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air in Halloween Horonites at usj for Jujitsu, Kaisen and

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One piece has been in their parades before. They've built

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parade floats for one piece, so it's not they you know,

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they know how to represent these characters.

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Yeah, these are I mean even though they they these

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are not necessarily ips they own because they don't, but

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these are ips that they are familiar with and know

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how to how to work with. So that's kind of cool.

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Yeah, So I think all those things are in their favor.

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So I have increasingly high hopes for this event as

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something that could, as we talked about previously, potentially be

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the future.

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Well and as a pup as a pop up experience.

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You know that it has a fuse, so you know,

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will is the bridge of season three of Picard? Is

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that a full time draw? No, But if it's concentrated

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into a two month event or a one month event,

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hell yeah, that'll You know, we've been talking about what

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is the next shoulder season, and I think that's what

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they're experimenting.

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With exactly exactly. Okay, So changing now, shifting over back

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shifting to the UK. Previously it was announced that Universal

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was considering putting a park in the UK, and we

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have a sort of an update from that. Basically, what

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we heard this past week is that the plans for

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a Universal studios resort and theme park near Bedford have

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entered a period of quiet as the company negotiates with

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the government, but so far there are no red flags

236
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to prevent the Bedford Borough City Council supporting the theme park.

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According to a meeting, they said, and basically there's an

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article that goes more into it and explaining the process

239
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about it. But essentially now is the part where they're negotiating,

240
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like who's going to pay for the infrastructure, what type

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of investments need to be made in order to handle capacity,

242
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Where would the things, where would all those lines of

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stuff fall, you know, and it's all like closed to comment.

244
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So I think this kind of sound like a like

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a you're kind of like we had been talking about previously,

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where like well like we stopped hearing anything about it.

247
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So this seems like a push by everyone to say

248
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you're not supposed to be hearing anything about it because

249
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we're still negotiating. But it could happen and there's nothing

250
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crazy wrong with it. I think that's what they're saying.

251
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Yeah, to me, this is actually this is to me,

252
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this makes the most sense. This is this is actually

253
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a really no news is good news at this point. Yeah,

254
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because if they because one of the things that they

255
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are talking about, I'm sure is what is what infrastructure

256
00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:04.080
needs to happen with roads to handle the crowds, what

257
00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:08.399
infrastructure needs to happen with lodging and hotels. And if

258
00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:11.759
this information were public, then there could be a lot

259
00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:15.279
of people who could get a lot of people who

260
00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.759
aren't qualified would say, oh, here's a get rich quick scheme.

261
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Let's go ahead and throw all of our investment in here,

262
00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:25.000
and that would be actually detrimental to the whole experience

263
00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.919
because if they're trying to get rich quick, it's gonna fail.

264
00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:32.120
So hopefully they're part of that behind closed doors negotiation

265
00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:38.879
is with hoteliers and you know, the all of the

266
00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:42.480
support stuff that they need to surround a park because

267
00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:44.039
i mean, let's face it, you know, I keep looking

268
00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:48.440
at Orlando. Orlando was swamp until Disney and now it's

269
00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:53.480
it's there's actually more. There's more outside of the parks

270
00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:55.759
than there is inside the parks, and all that is

271
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because of the parks.

272
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So yeah, I agree it Also I think it's kind

273
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of funny again the master pr scheme at Universal is

274
00:15:06.919 --> 00:15:09.919
pretty good because they've managed to stay in the news

275
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every week.

276
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Even by saying, hey, that England Park. Nothing's happening, but

277
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that's okay.

278
00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:20.000
Yeah, that's okay, that's how it's supposed to work, and

279
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:25.440
we're like, okay, I guess so, but yeah, so I guess. Well,

280
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.279
we don't know. They didn't set really they didn't really

281
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disclose a timeline, which again they wouldn't because these negotiations

282
00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:33.240
can take a very long time.

283
00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:33.960
I e.

284
00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.639
Disne Land forward, right, so we gotta just sit back

285
00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:40.600
and wait and see what updates come down the pipeline.

286
00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.399
Yeah, what's gonna I'm guessing what's gonna happen is once

287
00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:45.360
these have gone through, they're not going to come out

288
00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.399
and say, hey, guess what, we've made agreements to make

289
00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.519
fifteen new roads and put three more exits on a

290
00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:53.960
major highway. They're not going to talk about that. They're

291
00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:55.840
gonna come out and talk about the cool stuff that's

292
00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:58.960
probably already done, but they can't really announce it and

293
00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:03.039
announce stuff that is going to fuel the fires of

294
00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:08.039
attendance until they get this other stuff worked out so

295
00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:09.919
that they don't have any problems and don't have any

296
00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:13.759
issues and they don't have pushback from the locals, et cetera,

297
00:16:13.799 --> 00:16:14.519
et cetera, et cetera.

298
00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:20.799
Yep, precisely. Okay, moving back to the US now, it

299
00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:24.440
is still hot season. I know it's been it's been. God,

300
00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:27.200
it feels like it's been EON's already.

301
00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:29.240
But it's like you go to everything, so you know,

302
00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:31.639
where where was Philip this.

303
00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:36.279
Week So Philip this weekend. I made it back from

304
00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:39.639
Orlando back to Los Angeles for the weekend, which is

305
00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:42.279
why I'm still here. Before I set out for Asia

306
00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:46.360
on Monday, and I had the chance this weekend to

307
00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.960
experience Dark Harbor and Eleijanna Hayrid, which are both produced

308
00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:53.039
by thirteen four Entertainment Group. And I saw some of

309
00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:55.759
our great friends and some listeners at the Dark Harbor

310
00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.080
experience last night, which was great to run into everybody there.

311
00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:04.799
And let me tell you it is I have so

312
00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:08.240
many conflicting thoughts on this event because it is so

313
00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:11.799
interesting when you think about the history and just how

314
00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:15.599
it all works together. But first kind of just the

315
00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.480
lay of the land. So it is a I would

316
00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.000
describe it more as a festival, you know, it feels

317
00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:25.960
like a very large festival to me. It's a much

318
00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:30.119
larger footprint in my opinion than the previous Dark Harbor

319
00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:34.480
event that happened four years ago. It was the last

320
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:38.039
time of it, and it has a lot of different

321
00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:43.119
entertainment options from different items like mush together. So you

322
00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:46.519
do have mazes, classic mazes. There are five of them

323
00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:49.559
classic mazes. Three are on the ship itself and two

324
00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:53.119
are outside kind of in that the whatever it's called

325
00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.000
the harbor area that's outside in front of the ship.

326
00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:56.519
And so what they do is they kind of like

327
00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.440
close off that entire harbor area in front of the ship,

328
00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:01.880
and then they that's where they kind of build the

329
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:06.079
festival area. And then parking there's preferred parking that's like

330
00:18:06.119 --> 00:18:09.400
in the nearby park, and then there is general parking,

331
00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:13.440
which is in a structure down more downtown, which they

332
00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:15.720
then have a shuttle service that runs back and forth.

333
00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:18.279
So and they are moving a lot of people. I

334
00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:20.839
mean we're talking. I wouldn't be surprised if this event

335
00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:23.880
saw over one hundred thousand attendees in the run of

336
00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:27.240
the event. I mean, it's a lot, it is. That's

337
00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:29.680
what I mean when I say it feels like a festival.

338
00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:32.680
So you do have these haunts, but then you have

339
00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:37.640
this the big main area which has carnival rides and

340
00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:40.039
there are full rides here, so you have the swings,

341
00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:42.960
the classic swings, but you also have other rides. There's

342
00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:46.960
an enormous amount of food options just everywhere, and they

343
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:52.519
feel very you know, festival or you know where you

344
00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:55.079
have like the meat that's on sticks and that's out

345
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:57.319
in the big ovens and it's all you know, all there.

346
00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:59.079
You can see and smell everything. So you have all

347
00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.799
those as well. You also have what I would loosely

348
00:19:02.839 --> 00:19:06.000
call a scare zones areas. You know, there are zones.

349
00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:10.000
There's plenty of zones that's just food and festival atmosphere,

350
00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:13.640
but there are a few that are more scare zone esque,

351
00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:16.160
where you have pieces of ships and you have a

352
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:19.319
voodoo and you have characters that wander around in the

353
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:24.160
outside part. There's also two stages. There's a very large

354
00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:28.880
main stage which is where the first show, the kind

355
00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:32.119
of the kickoff done. It's called Maiden's Voyage that's done

356
00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:35.200
at eight to eight. That happens there with the Icon

357
00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:38.880
characters and the Captain. That's also where the last kind

358
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.960
of final goodbye happens, and then throughout the night it

359
00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:45.839
is activated with different performers, but there's a DJ there constantly,

360
00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:48.880
so that stage is constantly activated. It just sometimes there's

361
00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:51.599
live performers and sometimes it's just the DJ. But this

362
00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:54.759
is a large stage. We're talking three level stage with

363
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.119
trussing and full lighting kit and then the side has

364
00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:05.559
full projection mapped screens that kind of allow the visuals

365
00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:08.440
to extend onto that. So that's kind of happening with

366
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.960
music that's going on the entire time. And then the

367
00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.400
second stage is where they do the performers. They have

368
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:16.839
aerial lists, they have fire dancers, they kind of have

369
00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:18.920
those performers on that stage, and then there's also a

370
00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:21.960
whole slider area that does when they do slider shows

371
00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.519
twice nightly, and they do the fire performances four times

372
00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:28.400
I think four times four or maybe more times nightly,

373
00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:31.480
could be six times, I'm not sure, for every half hour.

374
00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:33.480
Basically stuff goes on over there, and then you have

375
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.359
the main stage. So this is what I mean, what

376
00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:38.480
I'm like. So there's the festal food, there's the games,

377
00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:43.880
there's also the stages and more than like music DM

378
00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.240
type of stuff going on. There's the fire dancers and

379
00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:49.960
that stuff on their stage, but then there's also all

380
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:52.839
of the VIP experiences that add on to that. So

381
00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:57.160
this year they opened up sections of the ship where

382
00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:03.000
they have one that's like a spirit's that has as

383
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:05.880
you walk around the bar, there's placards, and there's there's

384
00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:09.119
areas that explain the connection between the icons and the

385
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:11.359
ship and give you more of a history of the

386
00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:15.160
spirits that roam there. And there's little themed performances that

387
00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.359
happen kind of a ad hoc with the actors that

388
00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:21.920
wander around with the cocktail zone, and then you can

389
00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:25.119
even go down into the engine room that is lit

390
00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:27.799
up and filled with BGM and there are bars in

391
00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:29.920
the engine room and you can walk through with a

392
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:35.319
drink and the creepiness and experience that. And then there's

393
00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:39.480
a there's a summoning experience, which is kind of like

394
00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:44.119
an actor driven more individualized up you know, upcharge experience

395
00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:46.680
that you can go through that happens on the ship

396
00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:48.960
as well. So it's like the ship doesn't just have

397
00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:52.359
the mazes, it has the at least these two bars,

398
00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:56.200
plus the summoning experience, and then there's also the observation

399
00:21:56.279 --> 00:21:58.000
deck which you can go on, which is another bar

400
00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:01.000
which is kind of closed off. And then they still

401
00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.680
have the cabanas from previously that you can rent out,

402
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:08.880
so you have levels I guess of access that you

403
00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:13.279
can pay for in addition to the regular festival vibe.

404
00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:18.400
So it really it's hard for me to really put

405
00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:21.359
one box label on it because it does draw from

406
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:25.880
so many different genres. Right the cabanas even, I mean,

407
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:28.400
that's more like a classic music festival thing, you know,

408
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:29.519
or you know where.

409
00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:31.359
You're a water park or a water park.

410
00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:34.000
Yeah, it's really you know, and they have the Captain's

411
00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:37.480
VIP lounge and plus all of the all of them.

412
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:41.000
But I believe three of the mazes do have hidden

413
00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:43.960
bars as well. Still, so there's even more. So there's

414
00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.000
so many levels of different type of entertainment that you

415
00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.680
could really explore all around the experience. So the reason

416
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.400
I want to explain all that is because it truly

417
00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:57.880
is a full night experience. Because I arrived when the

418
00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:01.720
event began at seven and Amy like walked me in,

419
00:23:01.880 --> 00:23:04.200
so I was like we did, like, I mean, we

420
00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:06.960
really were like we were there some folk, you know,

421
00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:09.000
we know some folks, but We were there, you know,

422
00:23:09.079 --> 00:23:13.079
to get started, and we had the VIP pass and

423
00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:17.359
all we did was go to the five Houses of

424
00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:21.480
five mazes and we watched fifteen minutes of the Slider

425
00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:25.000
show and we watched the opening ceremony and that took

426
00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:28.680
us until midnight, with one bathroom break. That took us

427
00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:31.680
to midnight. So and that was with the VIP passes.

428
00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:33.079
I mean, so this is this is this is a

429
00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:36.799
full night, right, this is a full like a full

430
00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:41.079
night experience. And we still did not even see the

431
00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:42.519
two of the hidden I only saw one of the

432
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:44.680
secret bars. We didn't see the other two. We didn't

433
00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:46.839
see the VIP area, and there's a lot of areas

434
00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:49.599
that we didn't even get to experience. But we did

435
00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:53.440
catch the end show. So it is uh, I mean,

436
00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:55.519
you can spend a full night there, you know. That.

437
00:23:55.640 --> 00:24:00.920
Being said, the lines were I think there's no way

438
00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:03.519
in an event this size to avoid lines, right. What

439
00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:06.119
I what I noticed is that they made the effort

440
00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:10.319
to pull the lines outside instead of in the ship. Right,

441
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:14.279
so when you're queueing, you're queuing outside and then at

442
00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:17.640
least you can hear the music and see the fire

443
00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:19.519
and all of the like lighting and all that.

444
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:21.279
So at least you're not you're not out of the

445
00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:22.759
experience when you're waiting in.

446
00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:26.839
Queue, yes, correct, yeah, but you are still waiting, and

447
00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:28.640
it does get a little gnarly, you know in some

448
00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:30.640
of those areas because the lines, you know, you know

449
00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:33.960
how it is like so the this happens at universal two,

450
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:36.599
which I you know, got grumpet them out to so

451
00:24:36.839 --> 00:24:39.200
but so if you're in the VIP line, you know,

452
00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:42.519
like it backs up right out past the line queue.

453
00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:45.400
So then you're you know kind of like it starts

454
00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:48.039
to bleed over into other areas. So you're like standing

455
00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:50.519
in this amorphous line and people are like confused. I mean,

456
00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:53.160
there's a little bit of that. But also with the

457
00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:54.160
amount of people say.

458
00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:57.359
This is Dark Harbor coming back the first time, So yes,

459
00:24:57.680 --> 00:24:59.839
there is there is a learning curve here, you know,

460
00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:03.839
there is a learning curve. And again, I know some

461
00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:05.880
of our friends are listening because they are regular listeners,

462
00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:08.119
and they comment to us all the time having not

463
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:11.920
experienced it. You know, I'm sure that they are looking

464
00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:14.599
at this going, oh my gosh, we've got we've got

465
00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:17.079
all these lines and all these issues and this is

466
00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:20.680
but it's great information. It's great fodder to continue to

467
00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:23.799
improve the experience. You know. One of the things, one

468
00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.839
of the things that that I was hired to do

469
00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:30.960
for a theme park chain, which I cannot disclose because

470
00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:33.440
they ended up not doing it, but one of the

471
00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:38.319
things that they were trying to reduce the focus on

472
00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:43.319
the haunted attractions, on the haunts themselves, and create realms

473
00:25:43.880 --> 00:25:46.720
instead of haunts. There were still haunts, but each realm

474
00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:48.480
would have its own walk through experience, it would have

475
00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:50.759
its own dining experience, it would have its own show experience,

476
00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:54.079
it would have its own merchandise interactive merchandise experience, and

477
00:25:54.119 --> 00:25:56.440
it would have its own roaming characters. So just by

478
00:25:56.519 --> 00:25:59.920
entering the realm, you got the story of that you know,

479
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:04.680
ip or or or character or whatever. You know. Maybe

480
00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:06.599
that's something that that it sounds like they could maybe

481
00:26:06.599 --> 00:26:09.240
look into so that they could create that illusion of

482
00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:12.599
lines that aren't really lines. Does that make sense, you know?

483
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:14.000
It's it's one of those things like when you go

484
00:26:14.039 --> 00:26:17.880
to when I go to Wizarding World of Harry Potter,

485
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:22.960
for example, here in Florida, I'm I have more fun

486
00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:27.480
in the queue itself than on the actual ride because

487
00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:28.920
I get to see all the Easter eggs and all

488
00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:31.799
the nerdy little stuff. Now, I realize that is expensive

489
00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:37.359
as hell to try to implement, but but I'm sure, knowing,

490
00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:40.160
knowing the people that are involved with this, I am

491
00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:42.200
sure that they are doing exactly what we're talking about.

492
00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:45.039
They're looking at it and evaluating it, going, oh my gosh,

493
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:48.240
yeah we've got If we've got If vip line is

494
00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:52.240
extending past what we have set up for vip line,

495
00:26:52.680 --> 00:26:56.319
it's either an internal operation in the Haunt or we

496
00:26:56.359 --> 00:26:59.960
need more queuing, we need more stanchions. You know, it's

497
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:02.119
it's all that stuff and you don't know it's I'll

498
00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:04.400
tell you it's it's a great problem to have.

499
00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:08.039
Quite honestly, that means that there's That means it's popular, right,

500
00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:10.000
I mean that's and that's really a desire.

501
00:27:10.119 --> 00:27:12.359
That means that they're and and if they're you know,

502
00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:14.599
and I'm sure there are, because again I've known these

503
00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:17.440
people for a very long time, super smart, they're looking

504
00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:20.200
at it going, we don't want any sort of negative

505
00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:23.119
stuff out front, and if there is, we need to

506
00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:25.359
be able to deal with it so that when people

507
00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:28.920
get here they don't experience what has been what any

508
00:27:28.920 --> 00:27:30.079
negativity has been sent?

509
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:32.920
Yep, and I will say a lot of the So

510
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:38.640
what's interesting to me is that this does It's what's

511
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:41.240
what's so interesting. I think again the common fan will

512
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:44.279
have no idea, But to me, this felt like a

513
00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:47.519
modern version of Dark Harbor. So this isn't the Dark

514
00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:49.599
Harbor from four years ago, you know, it's a more

515
00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:52.440
modern version, which to everything that we've been talking about,

516
00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:56.039
the show means again there's more to do that is

517
00:27:56.079 --> 00:27:58.519
not just the haunt focus, so that somebody who didn't

518
00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:00.440
want it. If you don't want want to go through

519
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:02.240
the haunts, you really don't have to because you have

520
00:28:02.279 --> 00:28:04.680
all the bars, you have the other experiences, you have

521
00:28:04.759 --> 00:28:07.160
the music stages, you have all these things. And that's

522
00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:11.079
a relatively modern viewpoint for something that is a haunted

523
00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:14.480
house event in essence. And also a lot of little

524
00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:18.160
things like remember these are not the same producers, right,

525
00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:23.480
and then also the props and the fabrication was not usable.

526
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:26.519
They talked about this during some of their presentations, but

527
00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:29.119
a lot of the props have been ransacked, you know,

528
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:32.240
and wasn't locked up properly and wasn't stored properly, and

529
00:28:32.279 --> 00:28:34.519
so essentially, what they had to do, which is such

530
00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:38.680
a weird thing, is they had to everything most of

531
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:40.920
the stuff except I think for one maze, but most

532
00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:43.559
of it is new, so four mazes plus all the

533
00:28:43.559 --> 00:28:45.319
other stuff is all new. But they had to make

534
00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:48.559
it look like it was from the old event. And

535
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:52.000
these are different producers from who produced the previous event,

536
00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:54.960
so they did not like they even had vendor contracts

537
00:28:55.079 --> 00:28:58.480
or staffing anything. They didn't have anything, no assets, no anything,

538
00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:00.880
you know, and so they're having to re I.

539
00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:02.720
Guess My question is though, why would they have to

540
00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:04.279
make it look like it was from the old event.

541
00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:07.559
Well, I think that's part of the continuity, right, It's

542
00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:10.240
like you want it, it needs to feel like Dark Harbor,

543
00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:14.640
but it it's modern version of it. So main like,

544
00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:16.279
you still have the captain, you know, still have the

545
00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:18.640
IP characters, but they look a little different, you know,

546
00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:20.839
a little more modern, but they you know, you still

547
00:29:20.839 --> 00:29:22.440
have to have the captains that it's Dark Harbor. I think

548
00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:23.680
that's what they're trying to do well.

549
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:26.359
And a perfect, perfect example of this is I just

550
00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:30.880
saw images from the Halloween event at Warner Brothers World

551
00:29:31.079 --> 00:29:36.079
in in Abu Dhabi and the Hannah Barbara characters when

552
00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:39.200
they get made up into their Halloween they are not

553
00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:42.960
the traditional Hannah Barbara characters that we have seen that

554
00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:46.640
I've grown up with. They are the more modern take.

555
00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.160
You know, if you think about it, this this sort

556
00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:54.279
of more modern version has happened in well cartoons. You know,

557
00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:57.599
there's there's there's modern versions of every Scooby Doo character

558
00:29:57.680 --> 00:30:04.240
that ever existed. There's modern versions of of the Flintstones

559
00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:07.720
and all of that. So I'm not sure that it's

560
00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:09.640
necessarily a bad thing, And I think it's kind of

561
00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:12.680
a wise choice. If you don't have all the old assets,

562
00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:15.119
if you don't have access to all the old designs,

563
00:30:15.839 --> 00:30:17.880
you've got to make a creative choice. And it sounds

564
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:19.839
like that's what they did. Now Again, I have to

565
00:30:19.880 --> 00:30:22.000
say I was not there. I wish I was, because

566
00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:23.359
it would have been fun to hang out with y'all.

567
00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:29.839
But the uh, the idea of recognizing the reality of

568
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:32.960
we don't have all those assets and then making a

569
00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:37.680
creative choice to explain why it doesn't look the same,

570
00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:39.400
I think is a great idea.

571
00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:42.480
Yeah, And I just want to underscore too, I don't

572
00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:47.480
I don't think that I think the regular guest arrived

573
00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:49.920
and felt like it was Dark Harbor. I heard nothing

574
00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:52.319
but positive stuff from the guests in line and all

575
00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:54.359
that stuff. So I think that that's all to their

576
00:30:54.680 --> 00:30:57.160
to their benefit. But I mean for us as professionals,

577
00:30:57.200 --> 00:30:59.200
I just want to I do want to give them

578
00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:03.039
credit for it the feet to pull that off, because essentially,

579
00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:05.880
you are it's a weird thing to be in where

580
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:08.079
you're like trying to say, what would Dark Harbor be

581
00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:10.759
like in twenty twenty four, you know, for your like,

582
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:13.720
how are we modernizing this but also making sure that

583
00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:16.799
people still recognize it, but also making sure that the

584
00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:19.559
logistics are in place because it's a massive amount of

585
00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:22.880
people and I mean there's so many, Like it's just

586
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:24.960
and you know, it's a weird thing because like you're

587
00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:27.440
not really going to get credit for it. That's the thing, right,

588
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:29.000
you know exactly it's a new event.

589
00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:32.160
Yeah, exactly, You've got here's the bottom line, and you

590
00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:34.559
just you just addressed it. Here's the bottom line. When

591
00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:36.559
you said you heard nothing but positive people were having

592
00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:39.000
a good time. That's what it's really all about. Are

593
00:31:39.079 --> 00:31:41.920
people having fun, whether they have come back from Dark

594
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:43.440
Harbor in the past or they have no idea what

595
00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:47.079
Dark Harbor is. Are they having fun? And it sounds

596
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:50.000
like no matter what they wanted to do, they were

597
00:31:50.039 --> 00:31:52.000
having a good time. Yes, there are some crowd issues

598
00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:55.279
that you can certainly they can certainly continue to build upon.

599
00:31:55.319 --> 00:31:57.119
But you know what, that's true of every event on

600
00:31:57.200 --> 00:32:01.039
the planet right now. So there's always to be crowd

601
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:04.440
crowd issues, whether it's too many or too few, So

602
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:07.920
you know that's all going to happen. Obviously, we've got

603
00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:10.400
so much that we didn't get to on our notes,

604
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:12.799
which is why I would encourage each and every one

605
00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:16.920
of you to join us on what we call Green

606
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:20.640
Tag Unhinged. I think that's official now, which is the

607
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:26.480
Patreon bonus content that we continue to do because I

608
00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:29.960
know already where we're going to start there because this

609
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:31.519
show's over and has been for about two and a

610
00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:35.920
half minutes, so on behalf of Philipernandez with Attraction Network

611
00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:38.319
and Gantum Lighting, and myself Scott Swinson with the Scott

612
00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:40.359
Swinson Creative Development. This is Green Tag Theme Park in

613
00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:42.200
thirty and we'll see you next week.