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The American Idol Experience

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Sledge was lucky enough to take a A.P. Backstage Tour of AI this morning. He sent me a text saying that the stage looks incredible and that overall it looked neat. He also said that they are planning to open the attraction on Valentine's Day next year. I'm sure he'll share more of his experience when he signs on here later.
 
Jason and I took the short tour this morning. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures or video, but we got to see the audition rooms and the producer's room which I guess is the second step in the audition process. They took us in to where the main show is and the stage looked just like the one on the show, smaller of course, but other than that it was identical. It really looked great... much better than what I expected. Of course all the seats of the keypad so you can vote for your favorite singer.

And they will be having passholder previews for any of you interested in that.
 
I went to passholder preview as well. We learned a lot of stuff. If you want to try out for the show, you will be able to sign up online three months in advance. They are going to pick 18 people a day to compete in six different shows (and two back ups), and the finale show will be all the winners for the day.

Each show will be 20 minutes, and the finale will be a 40 minute show. There will be judges, but their opinion doesn't really matter. It's just the audience vote that determines who wins.

There will be 113 songs to choose from. There will not be any repeated songs during any shows of the day, so it's best to schedule an early audition time so you can get your pick of song.

And, I was there today, and someone was filming in the queue area. He might have been a past contestant on AI. He had very bushy, curly brown hair. (I don't watch the show.)
 
That was Justin from the first season. He is filming the queue/pre-show video.

There is no way in hell they are going to be able to find 18 GOOD people a week that want to perform and spend that much of their day involved with the show. That's 126 people a week that have to be good and invest most of their day at the park in the AIE. I'm sure there will be Cast Member plants to fill any empty spots.

I had the lady confirm that the finale will be shown on the screen outside for those that could not make it into the theatre. She only mentioned the finale though, so the way I interpreted it was that the other shows would not be shown.
 
I have a feeling this attraction will just be another one of those "not even worth checking the wait time" attractions, not just for me, but for most people. This sounds really just not Disney-ish and not exciting to me. For people that like the show, that's great, but will this attraction really bring in the crowds, and as Sledge said, the talent??
 
I love the stage, but am still not sure about this. I think it's cool though. I am just glad to see more stuff that's not just pixar, not that I dont mind new pixar attractions.
 
So let me get this straight, has anyone been inside the attraction to review it at all, or is it still closed??
 
We'll have a review by February 7th. That is our day to "officially" preview it, but hopefully we can catch a Soft Opening before. I'm guessing the "official previews" will be closer to the final show than the Soft Openings.
 
After two preliminary shows and one finale, I'm still on the fence. It was better than I thought it would be, but not as good as I was hoping for. The set is very, very nice as I've said before. The videos are a bit corny, especially Jordan Sparks. During each three shows there was a different combination of judges. I saw 7 different judges in just the three shows I was there for.

I'll elaborate on everything in the AI update I'll post (tons of pictures), but there are a few little things they need to tweak before the Grand Opening.