It’s Magic Music Days right now at Walt Disney World, which means one thing: I had high hopes for the American Idol Experience finale tonight! After all, with singers and choirs galore in the kingdom, surely great singers would be at Idol. My first thought: anyone hoping for an easier shot at the Golden Ticket should avoid the Magic Music Days season. Who needs the stiff competition? But the reality didn’t live up to the fear – the crop of singers was no better than usual, and may in fact have been a bit more juvenile than usual. Maybe the reality is that Magic Music Days is the BEST time to audition?
Today’s finale show had five contestants. Some days they apparently struggle to find enough singers for the “regular” shows, and it’s quite common for the audience at those regular shows to be anemic at best. No one is making any noise about closing the attraction that I’ve heard, but at the same time, I would be surprised if it lasted many years in this incarnation.
Do you make it a priority to see this show when you visit DHS? Do you think it will last?
Honestly, I don’t even understand why the show is at DHS. It’s a FOX show, not an ABC show. I have better things to do than waste park time watching other people try to sing, especially since I won’t watch the show at home.
I’ve talked with people (including a few who used to work Idol) about how this is a horrible attraction.
It’s not that bad of an idea, it’s kind of like a classier karaoke bar. But there’s a lot of limiting factors here.
1. You need a lot of people per day who want to sing in front of other people. There’s a small section of the population who actually want to do this (even though you see THOUSANDS waiting to audition for the real american idol) in the parks.
2. You need people willing to give up most of their day for this attraction. You’re at Disney, you want to go ride rides and do lots of things. Unfortunately, you can audition for this, which takes a while, and if you go on, you have to still be around and plan around being there for the final show. For most people, this takes up lots of valuable time when they are trying to get in as much Disney as possible, or may possibly conflict with dining reservations they booked 6 months in advance.
3. The grand prize (a golden ticket fastpass for American Idol), appeals to very few. Even if you like singing, there’s not a huge amount of people in Studios every day who are really competitive about getting that.
4. (IMO), it’s in the Studios, which, to a lot of people, is a half-day park. Or it’s a park where you spend hours waiting in line for the few rides there (I’m looking at you, TSMM and RNRC).
5. I also believe cast members (who would be more likely to do this) are not allowed to participate. But I’m not sure, because me and everyone I know has better things to do than American Idol.
Of course, it’s better than Sounds Dangerous.
I’ll be honest…when Disney announced this attraction, I already felt the franchise was coming down from it’s peak. Then I thought “Maybe they’ll just do a quick and cheap theatre experience, something to open up that old Superstar TV space.” But they sank all sorts of money into the stage, and infrastructure, and I just felt the park was lassoing itself to a dying franchise to try and gin up tween interest.
Just gut the AI and Sounds Dangerous theatres and put SOMETHING WORTHWHILE there, already. Disney backed the wrong horse, but it’s salvageable. They’ve got some prime park real estate there, just use it. Warbling park-goers doesn’t do it for many people…get something GOOD.
What a waste of time and money! It’s just a phase. They should have put in obviously popular theme attractions such as Monsters inc rollercoaster, Ratatouille water ride, or some other E ticket ride. Afterall DHS has such a limited space for expansion. Need to get rid of Sounds Dangerous, and The tram ride. And make room for the Radiator Springs!
This should have opened five or six years ago….
I definitely agree with what Katie had to say…if you’re competing in this, it takes out a huge chunk of your day. People arent there for the American Idol attraction, they are there for the park itself. While it is a good idea in theory, I cant see it lasting for long time.
Being from Ohio, I’ve only been to WDW once since this attraction has been open and my family and I passed on watching it. Not a fan of the show… but my disinterest comes from wanting to have a top notch experience at DHS. Karaoke is not in my plans at WDW. Gut it and SD and put in a special effects walk-thru.
My daughter auditioned and did the show. It took 2 hours out of our day and I prayed she wouldn’t win because the final show coincided with our dinner reservations (no, she didn’t win!)
I think one of the things that can save this “attraction” is to lower the age minimum and open it up to more people. This is Disney afterall and I know 10 year olds who can sing. The other option if they want to keep an AI experience is to make it like Madame Tussauds has; have animatronic judges, guests sing a karaoke song in a SMALL venue. This opens up the building for expansion while still giving AI lovers a place to perform.
We watch the show at home and saw it for the first time at HS in October. I thought it was great! Not sure how it will do now that so much is changing with Idol this year. My family and I enjoyed it and would do it again.
Magic Music Days: No Big Effect on American Idol | The Disney Blog http://bit.ly/i6JUHS
In response to a couple points above:
– Cast Members are allowed to audition, but they are not always allowed the “golden ticket” should they win the day’s proceedings.
– While American Idol does air on Fox, Disney went through the company that produces the show, 19 Television — Fox is completely out of the picture.
My main concern is: what happens to the attraction once Idol on TV eventually gets cancelled?
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@ Tommy:
I have little doubt in my mind that Idol will continue to hang on at Studios after it’s cancelled on TV. Disney is always a hair late when it comes to current attractions, and they’ll keep that rather than risk money on something new until they’ve locked down something that incorporates one of their franchises.
I’m most intrigued by the theory you had that during Magic Music Days the singers would be better. Never even occurred to me but I, like you, would have thought the same thing… lots of talented kids in the park who have singing ability would likely be attracted to Idol. Sorry to hear it didn’t happen that way, but as others pointed out, perhaps the time commitment prohibited them from auditioning.
On my last vacation, we visted Hollywood Studios twice. The first time, we went and saw the American Idol experience, and I was very impressed with the stage show. Also, one of the performers was really amazing. I enjoyed voting, and think it’s a great attraction. The next time I went, the place filled up before we could get in line!! I enjoyed the American Idol experience very much so… We intentionally skipped “Sounds Dangerous” with hopes that our disinterest in that might shut it down though!
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