Here’s a great slide show of photos from the Gala Premiere of Disney’s The American Idol Experience including many shots I’ve not seen anywhere else. Also included are a few videos you may have seen before.

The gala premiere was attended by all seven previous American Idol Winners (David Cook, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia Barrino, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, Ruben Studdard, and Kelly Clarkson), Paula Abdul, Ryan Seacrest, and more than 20 other finalists from the shows history. (photos courtesy Disney)

The night started off with a celebrity motorcade…

Last night at the premiere of The American Idol Experience, Disney gave away the first ever ‘Dream Ticket’, which allows one lucky park guest a ‘fast pass’ to the front of the audition line for a future season of American Idol, and feted the attraction and the TV show the way only Disney can with tons of magical moments and great experiences for Idols, guests, and fans alike.

…and ended with all seven previous Idol winners on stage together with their new ‘Idol Awards’ that were presented tonight (and Seacrest too).

I want to tell you all about it, but unfortunately, I only have a few minutes today. So here’s a quick summary and a few of my favorite photos from the night. I promise there will be much more later.

In between there were tons of screaming fans…

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The set of The American Idol Experience.

I knew The American Idol Experience is in previews and I heard via a twitter from someone who had auditioned and made it into the 2pm show that there would be shows on Saturday, so I drove out to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios to sit in on three Saturday afternoon shows. I’m glad I did.

There is much to be happy with about the attraction, and, as always, a few rough edges that need to be cleaned up. But, hey, that’s what Soft Openings are for. Right?

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Note: I meant to post this on the 2nd, but it got lost in the shuffle somehow. So here it is now, even if a bit out of date.

The first photos of the next big attraction to open at Walt Disney World have hit the net. Snapped during a promotional photo session for Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney’s Hollywood Studios these photos review quite a bit. So avoid if you want to remain spoiler free. Thanks to OrlandoUnited for these great photos of the exterior and queue area.

It’s important to note that there are both fast pass and single rider queues. That was expected since filling every seat is crucial to maintaining a high capacity for this attraction. However, I think I’ll be requesting not to sit next to a stranger from the single rider line if I’m riding alone (for instance if I’m in a party of three and entered through the stand-by or fastpass queue). A close look at the ride vehicles reveals a shared bench with no divider. I wouldn’t want a stranger riding in the same car as me in the Haunted Mansion and it’s no different here. Who can have fun when you have to worry about pick pockets or other issues.

Btw, I hope it’s alright if I brag a little noting that I called the fact that the official name would be Toy Story Midway Mania last month. I don’t post a lot of rumors, but when I do, I try and have a reliable source.

Disney Cast Member previews are scheduled to begin today. Soft Openings for lucky guests should begin soon. Annual Passholder previews begin on the 10th and run through the 12th.

The Trademork blog saw a few new Disney trademarks fly across his radar and wondered if they meant new attractions for the Disneyland Resort.

On March 18, 2008, Disney Enterprises, Inc. filed to protect the trademark Luigi’s Flying Tires in relation to “amusement park services”. Mork suspects that Luigi’s Flying Tires will be what Disney previously announced as Luigi’s Roaming Tires, which is part of the new 12-acre Cars Land and the $1.1-billion makeover of California Adventure set to open in 2012.

According to the Los Angeles Times Travel Blog, Luigi’s Flying Tires is an update of Tomorrowland’s original Flying Saucers futuristic bumper-car ride. Instead of piloting a flying saucer, riders in the new Luigi ride will steer a big-rig truck tire through tilting towers of retreads. Luigi, of course, is the likeable co-star of the Disney-Pixar animated feature “Cars”.

Also registered were Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Radiator Springs Racers. (Link)

Yesterday the news featured a story about how Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be making some changes to the Primeval Whirl roller coaster that might prevent any future serious injury or deaths resulting from cast members being in off-limits places while the attraction is in motion.

It’s a two part fix. They’ll be making changes to the load/unloading platform in length and safety markings. But they’ll also be adding sensor pads to the ‘off-limits’ areas that will automatically “e-stop” the attraction should someone step on the pad.

I haven’t been on many Disney attractions recently, but those ’sensor pads’ seem to be appearing all over the place. At the Magic Kingdom I noticed Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Snow White all have them now. I’m sure there are more attractions I just didn’t ride. So it doesn’t surprise me that Disney has added them over at DAK too.

In the some of the dark rides, by which I mean darkly lit, it’s okay because you’re not really looking at the floor; but in Snow White and Splash Mountain it is fairly obvious when you see them and it does throw the theming off a bit. An observant guest can just avoid stepping on the pad since they’re pretty obvious.

I know they have the technology to build these sorts of sensors into the floor since it’s in use at at least one attraction at Disneyland. Plus they also have ‘infrared beams’ that also e-stop the attraction in use at various attractions (Spaceship Earth comes to mind). So I wonder why they’ve switched to these very obvious pads.

See: Orlando Sentinel story, MSNBC Story, Forbes story.

You can never really tell what a hurricane will do, it creates its own weather patterns. But for now, it appears that Katrina is taking a westerly path and will spare Orlando and the Disney World area any real damage. There have been no closures announced and as far as I know, everything remains open this weekend at the WDW Resort and other Orlando attractions.

[ttags: disney, disneyworld, wdw, disney+world, hurricane, themepark, theme+park, vacation ]

This has to be the worse rumor I’ve heard in a long time. Imagineer and creative force behind many current Disney Attractions, Bruce Gordon, has been let go from Walt Disney Imagineering. Even worse, this may signal the impending layoffs of most of WDI. So says Kevin Yee of MiceAge and so says at least a few other sources.

If this rumor is true, and most say it is, laying off Bruce Gordon, one of the very few left with direct ties to the original generation of Imagineers, is like saying you’re no longer conerned with maintaining any ties with Disney’s past. I dearly hope to hear this rumor isn’t true. Say it ain’t so Bob Iger. Tell us you have no intention of decimating another division that provides an important anchor to what it means to be the Walt Disney Company.

[ttags: disney, disneyland, bruce+gordon, brucegordon, wdi, imagineer, imaginerring, iger ]