Good day and welcome to the United Parks & Resorts First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one, on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Stroud from investor relations. Please go ahead. Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to United Parks & Resorts First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being webcast and recorded. A press release was issued this morning and is available on our investor relations website at www.unitedparksinvestors.com. Replay information for this call can be found in the press release and will be available on our website following the call. Joining me this morning are Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Mikolaichik, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning, we will review our first quarter financial results, and then we will open the call to your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those forward-looking statements, including those identified in the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk factors may be updated from time to time and will be included in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, on the call, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures and other financial metrics such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. More information regarding our forward-looking statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is included in our earnings release available on our website and can also be found in our filings with the SEC. Now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Marc Swanson. Marc? Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report another quarter of strong financial results. Results in the first quarter were negatively impacted by the timing of Easter and spring break holidays moving into the second quarter this year compared to being in the first quarter last year. The shift of Easter and spring break from the first quarter to the second quarter also impacted admissions per capita and in-park per capita as peak operating days that usually come with higher relative pricing and guest spending also shifted from the first quarter to the second quarter this year as compared to prior year. Despite the negative calendar shift, in-park per capita spending increased 1.1% during the first quarter to a record level and has now grown for 19 of the last 20 quarters. First quarter results were also impacted by certain timing-related impacts that resulted in over $5 million more of certain expenses being recorded in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. We are also pleased to report that April 2025 attendance was up 8.1% compared to April of 2024. As we look ahead to the remainder of the year, we are excited about the significant investments we have made across our parks and business, including the incredible lineup of new one-of-a-kind rides and attractions, popular events, improved in-park venues, and other offerings across our parks. We are also encouraged by the 2025 bookings for our Discovery Cove property, our 2025 group bookings, and our 2025 international ticket sales, all of which are running ahead of 2024. With approximately 75% of our historical attendance and revenue opportunity still ahead of us as of April 30th, 2025, we continue to expect new records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA in 2025. We strongly believe we have a clear opportunity to drive substantially more attendance and total per capita spending and have high confidence in our ability to continue to deliver operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. Finally, I want to thank our ambassadors for their ongoing efforts as we prepare for what we anticipate will be another busy summer season. For 2025, we have an exciting lineup of new rides, attractions, events, and new and improved in-park venues and offerings with something new and exciting across our parks. Our new rides and attractions include the following. SeaWorld San Diego debuted Jewels of the Sea in March, an immersive new aquarium experience featuring multiple galleries, including one of the largest jelly cylinders in the country and an engaging multimedia component. The park also announced the reinvention of Journey to Atlantis, San Diego's first coaster, which will honor the beloved original while introducing new storytelling and thrill elements. SeaWorld San Antonio launched Rescue Jr. in March, an all-new kid-friendly realm celebrating animal rescue. The area features themed rides, interactive play zones, and a water play area designed for young adventurers. Sesame Place Philadelphia kicked off its 45th birthday celebration in April, offering guests birthday-themed fun all spring and summer. Fan-favorite entertainment has been refreshed with a celebratory twist, including the return of the popular Sesame Street Birthday Parade. SeaWorld Orlando opened Expedition Odyssey on May 9th, a groundbreaking family-friendly attraction that blends thematic storytelling with ride technology to transport guests on an unforgettable journey from the top of the world to the ocean's depths. The remaining new attractions include the following. Busch Gardens Williamsburg will open The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf's Revenge, the longest family inverted coaster in North America, which will take riders through over 2,500 ft of track at speeds up to 40 mi per hour. Water Country USA will open High Tide Harbor, an all-new multi-level water play structure designed for families to explore together. This exciting area features over 100 interactive water elements, including cannons, sprayers, and tipping fountains, ensuring endless fun for kids of all ages. With vibrant and dynamic water activities, High Tide Harbor promises to be the ultimate family-friendly destination for staying cool. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will open Wild Oasis, an all-new realm featuring the sights and sounds of the rainforest, a newly reimagined drop tower featuring digital and sound effects, an interactive water play wonderland, a multi-level climbing canopy, and an all-new multi-species animal habitat for up-close encounters. Now, let me give a brief update on just some of our strategic initiatives. First, on hotels, our work and discussions continue. We have nothing new to report today, but continue to work through various options and with various potential partners. We are excited about the prospect of integrating branded hotels into our parks and the expected positive benefits. Second, on real estate, as we have discussed, we own over 2,000 acres of valuable real estate in desirable locations, including approximately 400 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to our parks, including significant developmental land in Orlando. We continue to have discussions with various potential partners as we explore ways to unlock the value of this very valuable real estate. We do not believe that the public markets have or are appropriately giving credit to these attractive and valuable 100% owned real estate assets. Third, on sponsorships, we have been actively working over the past several months on various sponsorship opportunities that leverage our valuable assets and customer database. As a reminder, we have over 21 million annual visitors across our park portfolio, and the average length of stay is over six hours. In recent years, we have not pursued nor had meaningful sponsorship partnerships. Clearly, we have been missing this opportunity. Starting late last year, we formalized a partnership with a third-party group and dedicated internal resources to pursuing this opportunity. Since then, we have had meaningful discussions with several potential sponsors and expect to have exciting announcements in the coming months. The reception from potential sponsors has been good, given our annual visitation, the demographic we attract, and related opportunities to target these guests through our CRM database and other methods. We expect these opportunities will exceed $20 million over time and high margin revenue, of which we expect to realize mid to high single- digits in 2025. Fourth, on international, we continue discussions with multiple partners on this front in various geographies and look forward to sharing more with you in the near future. Fifth, on IP partnerships, we continue our active discussions with various partners to bring their globally recognized IP to our parks via new rides, attractions, and/or other exciting activations. Finally, on our other initiatives, including park enhancements, technology investments, CRM, and mobile app, among other things, all are moving forward, and we expect will help drive growth and financial improvements over the coming quarters and years. Very excited about the significant investments we are making and the many initiatives we have underway across our business that we expect will improve the guest experience, allow us to generate more revenue, and make us a more efficient and more profitable enterprise. We are building an even stronger and more resilient business that we are confident and expect will deliver improved operational and financial results and meaningful increases in shareholder value. Let me briefly comment on our balance sheet, which continues to be strong. On March 31st, 2025, net total leverage ratio is 3.1 x, and we had approximately $764 million of total available liquidity, including approximately $76 million of cash on the balance sheet in advance of us starting our summer season, where we generate a majority of our cash flow. The strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. During the first quarter, we repurchased 100,000 shares for an aggregate total of approximately $4.6 million. We know buybacks are on the mind of many of our investors, and while we do not have anything specific to announce today, I can tell you that our board strongly believes our shares are materially undervalued and that purchasing our shares at or near current levels is an extraordinary opportunity. I can also tell you that the board is working through various governance and other considerations and should have something to announce in the coming weeks. I would add, from the management team, we have significant confidence in our business and our prospects, and along with the board, believe strongly that our shares are materially undervalued. Finally, while we recognize there has been economic uncertainty in recent weeks, and while this may or may not continue going forward, I want to remind you all that we have a proven and time-tested resilient business model and offer a great value proposition to our guests. As a reminder, approximately 90% of our guests come from the United States, and the majority are within driving distance to our parks. Based on the seasonal nature of our business, we have approximately 75% of our attendance and revenue opportunities still ahead of us as of April 30th, 2025, which, along with the coming opening of more of a ride attraction and event lineup and all the initiatives that we have underway, give us continued confidence in our ability to achieve new records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2025. With that, Jim will now discuss our financial results in more detail. Jim. Thank you, Marc, and good morning, everyone. During the first quarter, we generated total revenue of $286.9 million, a decrease of $10.5 million or 3.5% when compared to the first quarter of 2024. The decrease in total revenue was primarily a result of decreases in admissions per capita and attendance, partially offset by an increase in in-park per capita spending. Attendance was negatively impacted by an unfavorable calendar shift, with the later timing of Easter and spring break holidays when compared to the prior year. Attendance for the first quarter of 2025 decreased by approximately 59,000 guests or 1.7% when compared to the prior year quarter. The decrease in attendance was primarily due to Easter shifting into the second quarter compared to the prior year. The Easter shift impact was approximately 140,000 guests, which, adjusting for this impact, attendance would have increased by approximately 2%. We look at the year-to-date attendance through April, we're seeing approximately 1.3% growth on a fiscal basis and greater than that on a day-for-day basis, indicating a healthy start to the year. In the first quarter of 2025, total revenue per capita decreased 1.8%, admission per capita decreased 4.2%, and in-park per capita spending increased 1.1%. Admission per capita decreased primarily due to the impact of the admissions product mix and lower realized pricing on certain admissions products, due in part to the shift of peak visitation days from the first quarter to the second quarter. In-park per capita spending increased primarily due to the impact of increased volume for certain in-park offerings when compared to the first quarter of 2024. Operating expenses decreased $3.6 million or 2.2% when compared to the first quarter of 2024. The decrease in operating expenses is primarily due to a $4.6 million decrease in certain non-cash adjustments when compared to the prior year quarter. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased $3.7 million or 7.8% compared to the first quarter of 2024. The decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses is primarily due to a $3 million decrease in third-party consulting costs, including approximately $2.1 million of non-recurring costs for strategic initiatives when compared to the prior year quarter. We reported a net loss of $16.1 million for the first quarter compared to a net loss of $11.2 million in the first quarter of 2024. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $67.4 million, a decrease of $11.7 million when compared to the first quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA declined due to a decrease in revenues from the calendar shifts previously mentioned, the timing of certain expenses, and decreases in add-back expenses used to calculate adjusted EBITDA relative to the prior year quarter. More specifically, first quarter results were negatively impacted by certain timing-related impacts that resulted in over $5 million of expenses being recorded in the first quarter of 2025 as compared to the first quarter of 2024. These expenses related to approximately $3 million of costs that impacted the first quarter this year that generally impacted future periods in the prior year, and approximately $2 million of expense increase this year versus prior year due to credits in prior years that were not repeated this year. Now turning to our balance sheet, our March 31, 2025 net total leverage ratio is 3.1 x, and we had approximately $764 million in total available liquidity, including approximately $76 million of cash on the balance sheet. This strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. During the first quarter, we repurchased 100,000 shares for an aggregate total of approximately $4.6 million. As Marc said, and I'll reiterate, we believe our shares are undervalued and attractively priced at current levels and beyond. Our deferred revenue balance as of the end of March was $195.9 million. Deferred revenue decreased approximately 6.7% when compared to March of 2024. As a reminder, our deferred revenue balance contains a number of products, including ticketing, vacation packages, annual and season passes, and ancillary products. In March 2025, our pass base, including all pass products, was down approximately 2% compared to March 2024, although we are pleased that we are seeing realized price increases on our premium pass products compared to the prior year. We believe we have our best pass benefits program ever, which we expect will drive additional increases in pass sales and a strong pass base for this year, especially now that we are in the peak advertising and selling season. We spent $56.9 million on CapEx in the first quarter of 2025, of which approximately $49.9 million was on core CapEx and approximately $7.1 million on expansion and/or ROI projects. For 2025, we expect to spend approximately $175-$200 million on core CapEx and approximately $50 million of CapEx on growth and ROI projects. Now let me turn the call back over to Marc, who will share some final thoughts. Yeah, thanks, Jim. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the first quarter of 2025, we came to the aid of 205 animals in need. Over our history, we have helped over 42,000 animals, including bottle-nosed dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. We're certainly excited about 2025 with the exciting lineup of new rides, attractions, and events, some of which have already opened, with the remainder scheduled to open before the summer. I want to thank our ambassadors for their dedication and commitment as we prepare for what we believe will be an exciting and busy summer season. We continue to believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful long-term growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results, which we expect will lead to meaningfully increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. If you have further questions, you may re-enter the queue. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Steve Wieczynski with Stifel. Please go ahead. Yeah, hey guys, good morning. Marc, I want to ask about, you know, how you guys are thinking about, you know, the rest of the year. You obviously mentioned you're kind of still expecting that record in terms of revenues and EBITDA, but if we think about the first quarter EBITDA loss being probably a little bit more than expected, some of that's due to cost timing, I understand, but can you help us think about, you know, bridging, getting from that first quarter loss to over, you know, let's call it $725-$730 million in EBITDA, whatever number you want to think about? You know, look, I understand you noted advanced bookings remain strong, but, you know, you've got Epic opening in the next couple of days, uncertainty around the consumer. You know, just wondering maybe, you know, give a little bit more color around what gives you guys so much confidence in kind of getting, you know, into those records, you know, into that record territory. Thanks. Sure, Steve, I can take that question. I think the first thing I would point to is the performance in April, and that was strong. You heard Jim mention attendance was up over 8% on a fiscal basis. It was actually up more than that on a day-to-day basis, which on day-to-day, you know, kind of lines up like days. If you look year-to-date at the end of April, on a day-to-day basis, our attendance is up over 3%. That's kind of how we gauge the attendance. We look at it, you know, line up to like days at the end of April, year-to-date, up over 3%. If you kind of carry that 3% forward the rest of the year, you know, if we're able to do that, you can kind of do the resulting math. If we were to grow attendance 3% for the full year, you can do the math on what that drives. I think that's certainly one thing I would point to. This is ahead of the new rides and attractions that are largely, you know, in some of our parks still to come. Some have opened, obviously, and we've seen, I think we've been pleased with what we've seen, but we still have new things to come, new rides and attractions. We have some other new elements coming in other parts of our parks as well, whether it's new entertainment, more Aqua Glow events, for example, that type of thing. We also, you know, without getting into specifics, I think we saw a little bit better performance on the admissions per capita in April than what the quarter showed, and there's some strategies in place to hopefully get that to a better spot, right? We do not like being down where we were in Q1. We know that was influenced, obviously, in part by the timing of Easter and spring break and things like that. You know, we certainly recognize there's opportunity to do better there, and we have some plans to do that. We still have our peak pass and, you know, pass selling season, you know, ahead of us, or we're kind of just starting that now, as Jim mentioned. Finally, you know, just really the opportunity that we believe having Epic in town is going to bring more people to Orlando. We have talked about this, and we like the idea of compelling and good assets coming to the area, which we think is going to drive more people here. We need to take advantage of that. We view that as an opportunity and something we have been working on for some time to do that, obviously, and we have our own strategies. If you look at like the ride we just opened here in Orlando, it is Expedition Odyssey. It is a very cool experience. It has an animal component to it that is, you know, again, differentiated from what you would see at Universal, and that's something that we'll continue to point out to people. We have some other things coming as well. Last, I guess, just a couple of things I hit on. The sponsorship opportunity I talked about in my prepared remarks, you know, we've been pleased with the reception we've received from people that we've been talking to. We think, again, that's mid to high single-digits here in 2025. Then the cost work that I'm sure Jim will talk about more in some of these questions, but, you know, if you look at our cost performance in Q1, especially when you look at the costs we use to calculate adjusted EBITDA, I think we've done a good job of managing those costs, and that's something that we'll continue to do. A very long way of saying, I think if you kind of put all those numbers together, that gets you to those records. Obviously, 75% of the year to go, so still a long way to go. We'll, you know, we'll update you in August to see if we're still on pace to do that, but that's kind of how we're thinking about it. Okay, Marc, that's really good color. I really appreciate that. If we could dig into April, maybe a little bit more. You talked about the 8% increase in attendance. Obviously, the first quarter had the negative impact from Easter and spring break. Just wondering if you could break down maybe how much April benefited from that. Also just trying to understand if, through April, through May, in terms of customer spend, once they're inside the parks, have you guys seen any material change in terms of folks pulling back or spending less? I assume you haven't had to use any kind of discounting tactics to get people into the parks because I think, Marc, you said April, your attendance per caps were actually up. I just want to make sure I have all that stuff kind of right. Yeah, let me help you a little bit, Steve. First, just I think what I said on the admissions per caps is that they were better in April. I would not imply that they were positive, but they were not down what they were in the quarter. You know, we got to, when we report Q2, we will have a lot more on that because per caps can, you know, move around a little bit within the quarter given some of the timing of certain adjustments related to like deferred revenue and things like that. Really, I think probably the simplest way to explain this maybe is the April performance that we saw on kind of a day-to-day basis was, I think, more than what the Easter benefit was, right? So we not only got the Easter benefit, but I think we got more attendance on top of that as well. That gives us some optimism that not only did we benefit as we expected from the timing of Easter, but we had some additional attendance on top of that. Hopefully that helps you there. Our next question comes—sorry, go ahead. Okay, hopefully I got it all, Steve. If not, we'll catch up. Thank you. Question, please. Our next question comes from James Hardiman with Citig roup. Please go ahead. Hi, this is Sean Wagner on for James Hardiman. I guess just one really quick follow-up on all of that. I guess what did April revenue—you've kind of given us what admissions per caps looked like in April. Did in-park per caps, were they similar to 1 Q? Or I guess how does the year-to-date or April revenue look like compared to last year? Yeah, I mean, again, and these are preliminary revenue numbers because kind of as I was pointing out on the prior question, we do tend to look at these things more on a quarterly basis, especially with admissions revenue given some of the shifting that can go on. I think what I can tell you is on in-park per cap, in-park per cap was positive for April. Maybe the part of Steve's question that I didn't get to that I should have was, you know, had we seen any, you know, pullback in the per cap in April. In-park per cap was up in April. Okay. Are there any other calendar-related comparisons we should be thinking about for the rest of the year? Are operating days expected to be relatively flat this year, or do you get some back because of adverse weather last year? I think full year is roughly flat. I think we've got a couple of trades still between some of the quarters, but when you look at the full year, it relatively flattens out. Yeah, to your point, we'll pick up, like he said, some weather days later in the year because we had some pretty meaningful closures last year around Hurricane Milton in Q4. Our next question comes from Arpiné Kocharyan with UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. You know, some competitors in the market have talked about a little bit weaker international sales in Q1 and going into Q2. And it sounded like you are not seeing that. You're seeing that up year over year, which is great. Could you maybe talk a little bit about the dynamic you're seeing? Did you see any change in behavior kind of as you progressed through the quarter, given kind of some of the macro developments? I think you had cited previously international sales growth being up mid-single- digits. Toay's release mentions up year- over- year. It does not say mid-single- digit, just an update to that number if you have it. And then on group bookings, you were also, I think, running ahead of last year, I think, up double- digit if I'm not mistaken. It seems like you're still up year- over- year, but just how much, if you could update that, that would be great. Thank you. Yeah, let me comment a little bit on international. The ticket sales international are up, you know, I'd say low single-digits. So, and you know, just keep in mind, while that's good, don't get me wrong, you know, we don't rely as much on international attendance as maybe people think we do. You know, last year, I think it was right around 6% or 7% of our total attendance. If you go back to pre-COVID, it was about 10% of our total attendance. So as that market, you know, perhaps softens, like you said, like a lot of people have been saying, you know, not ideal, but I don't think it has as big of an impact for us given that we generally don't have international as much of our attendance. And candidly, we weren't probably optimizing that attendance to begin with and for a variety of reasons. I think we've made some changes there to hopefully do a better job of servicing and getting more international visitation. We'll keep monitoring that going forward. On the group business, we feel good about the group category, and I think there continues to be opportunities with the team working on that to continue to grow that. Great, great. Just one quick housekeeping, if I may, just to follow up on the $5 million of expenses that moved into Q1. Could you just clarify which quarter they moved out of into Q1? I think you said future quarters. Just trying to understand from a modeling perspective how to think about Q2 - Q4. Thank you. Oh, yeah, the largest portion was some annual maintenance that we do. We typically have been doing that in Q4. We chose to move some of that maintenance into Q1 just given that seasonally, January and February are slower periods. To expect some of the maintenance that we typically do towards the end of the year, we've pulled that forward and got it done at the beginning of the year. The rest were really just odds and ends and some marketing shifts and changes, some marketing that moved from late last year into the beginning of this year, really around our preparation and production that we were doing on the marketing side, getting ready for the summer season. We're excited about the marketing that we have on some of it on the prepaid side and some expenses that we've already incurred ahead of the marketing that we're doing for the busy season in the summer. Our next question comes from Brandt Montour with Barclays. Please go ahead. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. So just maybe thinking about weather, you know, you guys cited some pretty strong, solid April trends. Was that against a normal weather backdrop in April? And then when you look at the rest of the year outside of the hurricanes, remind us what assumptions you're making about weather that underpin the commentary about record revenue and EBITDA? Yeah, I think for April, we had slight weather negative. We did not call it out because it was not a huge number, but there was a slight negative weather impact mainly at our park in Williamsburg. Then, look, for the rest of the year, I think the way to think about it is we had Hurricane Milton last year. We talked a lot about that. We had some other hurricanes as well. You know, our thought is, you know, hopefully we do not have something like Milton again or the others. Certainly not having those would, you know, you can do the math. You can do the math on those. We are expecting kind of more normalized weather. That is how we take our projections and we try to look at kind of more normal weather patterns. That would be our assumption that we are not going to have, you know, quite the things that we had last year. We will have to wait and see. Obviously, a long way to go to hurricane season is just starting here shortly, but we will keep you posted. Okay, that is helpful. Thanks for that, Marc. A follow-up would be about Epic. I know you guys are probably monitoring closely what they are doing over at Epic with regards to tickets and marketing. You know, I think there was a thought that they were going to, you know, not have it as open to locals in year one. They opened it to locals, you know, not too, well, a bit a while back earlier this year. You know, at this point, you know, do you think that there's still a chance that the way that they structured the Epic tickets in this first year could be somewhat of a benefit, or is that maybe not so much the case anymore? Look, I mean, I think what I would, I mean, we're focused on our park, right? I think the benefit is really more people coming to the market. To the extent they bring more people to the market, we have our strategies and our methods for bringing those people to our parks. That's the opportunity that we keep talking about. Having the Expedition Odyssey opening in Orlando recently is exciting. It's differentiated, like I said, having some other things that we haven't announced yet coming in Orlando as well are exciting also when we're able to talk a little bit more about them. We'll focus on our value proposition, our compelling product. I'm sure they have lots of different strategies. You know, who knows if they'll adjust them throughout the year, but we're going to focus on doing the things that, you know, have worked for us over a 50-year history here in Orlando. We have a number of ways we can target people and adjust them as necessary. The next question comes from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Hey guys, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Marc, I was hoping maybe we could talk a little bit about kind of mix of customer and, you know, I know you mentioned that you're, I think you mentioned your pass base down to at the end of the quarter. So, I mean, does that imply that you guys are seeing a higher mix of kind of first-timers? And is that, you know, a reasonable expectation going through the year maybe compared to prior years? Is there any way to kind of think about that, especially relative to, you know, admissions per cap? Yeah, what I would say, I think in, you know, kind of the first three, four months here, we've been, you know, probably seeing more people from, you know, markets that, you know, are driving in versus local. And that would kind of make sense with having a pass base that's slightly down. I will say the pass holders we do have, though, which is still a lot, obviously, they're visiting more times, right? That in and of itself, as you guys know, just puts downward pressure on the per cap because they're coming more. We like that revenue trade, right? We want people to come as many times as they can because, you know, hopefully they're spending when they come. That will be a dynamic that, you know, we'll monitor throughout the year. I think we also did some things in the first quarter to attract, like you said, maybe some more single-day or multi-day type tickets, probably left some money on the table there, to be honest, and learned from that. I think we have some opportunities to and have adjusted some of that pricing kind of going forward or ways that we do that. Okay. Thanks, Marc. As a follow-up, just kind of circling back to the hotel, I know you said there's not really any news to report, but is there something, you know, bigger that you guys are waiting on? Is there any kind of like deadline? I mean, I'm just trying to get a sense as to whether you would characterize this as like an extended bake-off or whether, you know, there's just a lot going on and you guys are waiting for something, you know, more specific with one party or another. I think the simplest maybe way I can think about it is we have quite a bit of land, right, as I mentioned, and it's in, you know, locations that are attractive to people and there's a lot of ways you could use that land, right? One of the ways would be hotels. One of the ways could be housing, rides, attractions, you know, all sorts of things. There are a lot of different ways to structure even just the value of that land, the underlying value of that land, you know, like with lease packs and things like that. When you start talking hotel and you start talking land, using that land, we just want to make sure that we get into the best structure that is, you know, best for our shareholders and best for the company. I think those discussions have taken some time. I think there are also different ways to think about that and different people proposing different things. You're obviously familiar with the makeup of our board being, you know, almost 50% owned by private equity. I can tell you that they get a number of inbounds on this exact topic of land valuation and how to think about that, whether it's hotels or other uses of that land or other ways to monetize that land. The next question comes from Thomas Yeh with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Thanks so much. Just one more on Epic. Is there any early signs or tea leaves on seeing incremental traffic into the market? And are you expecting to run promos or tweak your selling strategy in any way to try to capture that opportunity? Maybe just if you're kind of assuming it helps or hurts at the margin in terms of what's embedded in your expectations would be helpful. Thomas, I don't know that I have seen anything specific. I can tell you that, you know, we expect more people will come. I certainly, you know, again, that's what the opportunity is a good one because it's a good park. It's a, you know, a strong new attraction in the market that should bring more people and give us the opportunity to pick off visitation like we've talked about quite a bit. Again, without getting into anything too competitive, look, we have a lot of different ways we can attract people and no different than in other years where we test and optimize different things we do, different offers, different, you know, ticket packages, whatever it may be. I think that'll always be something we do and it can be market by market, park by park, depending on what we're seeing. Okay, understood. And then just as a follow-up, some pretty helpful color on the sponsorship revenue ramp. I believe your in-park revs currently do include some small licensing revenues, I think like for Abu Dhabi, for example. Has that been a net tailwind year- over- year? Just any update on how that's contributing to your in-park per cap number would be helpful. Thank you. Yeah, I can help you on that. What I probably should have said is, you know, at the moment, you know, that sponsorship revenue, the large, large majority of that would still be ahead of us. That is not, you know, in the Q1 numbers. Abu Dhabi is largely, you know, I think in line or a little bit higher than prior years, but I would not say that's a material increase or anything like that. You know, maybe over time it will continue to build, but I think for now, you know, it's not a material increase. Our next question comes from Lizzie Dove with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Hi there. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to ask, I guess, about the kind of cost impact around Epic. You know, have you seen any kind of pressure in terms of labor? You know, I think the wages are a little higher than yours. Any wage pressure that you've seen or anticipation for kind of higher marketing spend or more events that you're putting on in Orlando that might pressure costs a little bit? Yeah, we had planned for some labor increases for minimum wage across several different markets, not just Epic. We've also seen some pricing in the marketplace specific in Orlando in relation to the question that you're asking. However, we've been very good at managing that from an hourly standpoint, and I think we've been very good at matching the forecasting on our attendance against what we need to do on the labor side to ensure that we've got the right guest experience. Through Q1, I think how we've managed that labor and the cost there, I think, has been extremely solid. We've chewed through most of the increase in cost from any marginal rate increases and anything that we've seen from competitive forces. I'd say that's gone pretty well. Got it. Thank you. On the marketing side, we had planned to increase some expense on marketing. I mentioned it earlier, and both, I think, Marc and myself mentioned it in our comments that we plan to keep marketing relatively flat, but we have just redeployed it strategically across several different markets to make sure that it was impactful in the places that we wanted at the right times for when we wanted it. That is why you saw some spending that I mentioned coming out of last year in the first quarter and some prepaid that we put on the balance sheet with respect to some production that we have planned to put against some media spots that we have coming into our bigger selling season. The two questions, you have to think labor and marketing are on track, and we have been very strategic about how we are using it in the right spots. Got it. I just want to follow up on the buyback. I know you said it sounds like there's an announcement coming, but the pace is a little bit slower than might have expected in the first quarter with the market performance. Just curious, you know, high level, how you think about, you know, comfortability with leverage, whether you'd be willing to kind of tick up a little bit from where you are here or just how you think about capital allocation and buybacks. Sure. You can refer to my comments, like you said, that I made earlier on that. I think, as always, we work very closely with the board on use of cash and what's the most, you know, highest return to shareholders. We'll continue to do that. I don't have any specific comments on what that means for leverage or anything like that. I mean, we're comfortable where our leverage ratio is now, not to say we're going to be comfortable at a different level, higher or lower, right? It really just comes down to what is the best way we can return cash to shareholders. I would also, you know, point out we're going to be entering, you know, kind of our peak cash, you know, earning season here in Q2 and Q3. That'll obviously be a benefit to cash building throughout the year. More to come on that, as I said, hopefully in the coming weeks. Yeah, and just a reminder too, it doesn't necessarily need to be a leverage thing given what Marc said from a free cash flow standpoint, but that's obviously something given our balance sheet that we could entertain. I think it's important also to remember as you look back at sort of the last year, our share count is down 9 million shares from this time last year. When you think about the earnings power across that share base with 14% less shares, we're happy with what we're doing from a performance standpoint and where we're headed and what Marc has laid out sort of as a projection for the remainder of the year. If you think about it in the context of potentially even more downward pressure on that share count, that earnings power spread across an even lower balance is pretty attractive. Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Marc Swanson for any closing remarks. Thank you, Dorwin. On behalf of Jim and the rest of the management team at United Parks & Resorts, I want to thank you for joining us this morning. As you heard today, we are confident in our long-term strategy, which we believe will drive improved operating and financial results and long-term value for stakeholders. Thank you, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.