Asia was expected to become the new theme park capital of the world—then the pandemic hit.  IAAPA Asia drew 7,000+ attendees to Shanghai, but is that enough to signal Asia’s tourism comeback? Philip reports from the show floor, including takeaways from Disney executive Jill Estorino’s keynote, where she credited young adult women with shaping the guest culture at Shanghai Disneyland—impacting everything from merchandise and mobile content creation to how F&B is presented across the park. Meanwhile, Legoland Shanghai, including its eight themed lands, 85 million bricks, and resort-wide creative choices, has set a new quality bar for IP-driven family parks in the region. With the Chinese park market projected to nearly double by 2028, we ask: Is the APAC surge real—and what lessons should operators everywhere take from Shanghai’s blend of detail, service, and social-savvy design? Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Hallmark is back with its Kansas City “Christmas Experience,” aiming to top last year’s 100,000-guest debut by doubling down on comfort-food tradition—workshops, red-carpet movie premieres, and even themed Marriott suites. Philip and Scott unpack how leaning into safe, repeatable rituals can turn a pop-up into a pilgrimage. Next, Meow Wolf launches Phenomenomaly, a summer-long loop of live dance, puppetry, and guest interaction inside its Las Vegas and Denver exhibitions—proof that adding performers keeps ticket-buyers coming back for a second trip, rather than treating the art as a one-and-done selfie stop. Finally, Chicago’s big museums roll out a multisensory slate—projection-mapped Himalayan “ghosts,” a Monet-Hokusai mash-up, Mars-rover missions, and 21-plus stargazing nights—showing how after-hours programming can drive per-cap growth without requiring permanent capital expenditures. Takeaway: Whether it’s Christmas nostalgia, locally led art, or adult evening events, operators have fresh levers to boost replayability and spend beyond peak season. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Universal is doubling down on pop-culture firepower with the enormously popular gaming IPs of Fallout and Five Nights at Freddy’s confirmed for this year's Halloween Horror Nights. They're also charging superfans $350 for “Premium Scream Night,” a ticketed dress rehearsal.  With massive IPs and superfans willing to pay premium prices just to attend a dress rehearsal, how can smaller attractions compete? Thirteenth Floor and Winchester Mystery House might have an answer with "Festival Fright Nights." The event will transform the labyrinthine Winchester Mystery House into a Halloween event with three haunted houses and entertainment. The key is the immersive storyline, which sets the event in 1924 and utilizes the mansion's backdrop and history, showing that smaller venues can out-maneuver giant budgets by weaponizing authenticity and location. Philip and Scott unpack what these parallel strategies signal about Halloween’s next arms race—premium previews, IP one-upmanship, and how regional haunts can lean into their unique assets instead of chasing billion-dollar licenses. Catch the gloves-off follow-up in Green Tagged Unhinged on Patreon.

The Louvre’s staff closed the world’s most-visited museum with a snap strike, blaming “untenable” crowding and a 20 % cut in state funding even as attendance soars. Philip and Scott pull three operating fixes every attraction can steal now—hard capacity caps, timed-entry tech, and reinvesting in on-site teams before adding the next wing—because a six-year master plan won’t save a gallery that melts down tomorrow. Across the Atlantic, Netflix unveiled its first Netflix House venues—permanent ticketed centers built around Wednesday, One Piece, Stranger Things, and Squid Game. The hosts explain why Netflix needs brick-and-mortar revenue as YouTube does to streaming what streaming once did to cable, and what that means for parks that suddenly share a lane with a $200 billion content giant. Bottom line: cultural icons must treat capacity as an asset while digital titans rush to monetize IP in the real world—collision is coming. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Disney and Universal just opened Hollywood’s first heavyweight copyright war against Midjourney, arguing the AI was trained on “countless stolen works.” Philip and Scott debate the case and what it means if your park’s creative team. Then Disney drops a fresh study valuing its U.S. parks at nearly $67 billion and 400,000 jobs, a powerful flex to hedge against future political turmoil. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon. 

Six Flags and Cedar Fair’s $8 billion mash-up, Herschend’s shopping spree, and Falcon’s Beyond devouring Oceaneering are just the opening salvo in a consolidation wave now squeezing most regional parks into four corporate camps. But deal-making is only the first of five seismic shifts Philip and Scott unpack this week. They probe why per-guest spending keeps climbing even as attendance flattens, how velvet-rope up-charges like Disneyland’s $400 Premier Pass and Six Flags’ $162-a-month Flash Pass are normalizing class tiers, and why every operator—from Universal’s Fan Fest Nights to SeaWorld’s Coasters After Dark—now treats shoulder-season festivals as its loyalty engine. The hosts also tackle staffing’s post-pandemic “cool-down” and ask whether AI-driven scheduling and on-site dorms finally solve the labor puzzle. Think you’ve already future-proofed your park? These five trends say otherwise. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

Herschend finalized its acquisition of Palace Entertainment’s 24 U.S. attractions with a $1.1 billion leveraged loan—and vows 2025 will be a “listening year” before sprinkling Dollywood-style cinnamon bread and “Heartspitality” across Kennywood, Lake Compounce, and 47 other properties. Meanwhile, Six Flags fired every park president overnight, favoring a regional management model instead of a local one. We unpack whether family culture can outshine heavy debt, how a headless org might finally smash Six Flags’ notorious silos, and why both moves reshape the post-merger map where just four companies now control most regional parks. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.

"The Great Reset," Six Flags' new strategic plan, aims to reach 58 million in annual attendance and $3.8 billion in revenue by 2028. The 88-slide presentation boils down to one thing: a better product makes more money. The plan gives concrete examples of what industry professionals have known for decades—improving the guest experience means guests will want to come back and spend more, convert to annual passes, bring their friends, and grow market penetration. And Six Flags has laid out an excellent plan, complete with benchmarks, examples, and research. But - can the newly merged mega-chain deliver? It sounds simple, but executing doesn't always work out. Plus: why Falcon’s Beyond buying Oceaneering tips the turnkey arms race, and what IAAPA’s board thinks about staffing, storms, and tariffs. Tune in—then catch the gloves-off debate in Green Tagged Unhinged on Patreon.

Disney’s stock jumped 7 % after a blockbuster Q2— streaming gained a million subs, Thunderbolts opened #1 worldwide, domestic park profit climbed 13 %, and Bob Iger unveiled the first “authentically Disney, distinctly Emirati” Disney park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island. Philip and Scott unpack why Disney is leaning into the parks (finally), Disney's new quality-over-quantity pledge, and debate whether the glowing numbers are a trailing indicator before tariffs, weather, and China headwinds bite; and examine how licensing to Miral lets Disney tap 500 million potential guests without spending a dime of cap-ex. Plus, Scott shares on-the-ground LGBTQ insights from living in the UAE—and what other operators can learn from Disney’s risk calculus. Hear the Six Flags and United Parks earnings showdown (and Chicago’s new Harry Potter retail-tainment) in this week’s Unhinged on Patreon.

Six Flags/Cedar Fair’s first post-merger casualty is Six Flags America, erasing 70 full-time and 700 seasonal jobs and $3.5 million in local tax revenue—freeing capital for “marquee” investments elsewhere. At the same time, Marriott’s Gaylord resorts are turning their glass atriums into mini-comic-cons with a DC-branded summer slate, headlined by a 17,500-sq-ft lantern trail of 24-ft heroes, to lure families who might skip a theme-park trip. Philip and Scott ask whether strategic portfolio pruning and shoulder-season IP pivots are the new survival play as rising rates have already killed Sacramento’s planned $300 million Elk Grove zoo. Listen for the implications—and catch the gloves-off bonus chat on Patreon.