Walt Disney World is opening a new attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

It’s called the American Idol Experience, and while it’s been running off and on for a few weeks (a soft opening), the official grand opening is set for February 14th.

I was lucky enough to see not one, but three of these shows a little over a week ago. Two regular shows, and the finale show at the end of the day. And I have to say- I loved it!

The idea behind American Idol Experience is to make you feel like you’re in the audience of the actual show, and they succeed in that pretty well.

I never waited around much outside, so other bloggers can describe that in more detail for you, but the show really does start outside.

While you’re waiting to be admitted to the “studio” and your seats, you’ll be standing around on a steeply sloping slab of concrete. Above you are monitors that I’ve heard have Ryan Seacrest appearing on them, but I’ve not seen it myself.

What I have seen is the warm up host running around with a microphone and a camera man (who has a camera), getting the crowd to chant for a contestant, and usually picking out an adorable, young audience member to blow a kiss to one of the contestants.

Just before show time, you’ll be admitted into the studio, encouraged to move all the way to the end of the aisle (seats about 1000, but as the show becomes more well known and regularly scheduled, you may need to arrive early), take your seats, and no photos or video. I took that to mean during the actual show, and so I, along with many others, took advantage of the quiet time before the show starts. The stage is just that cool.

Please note that the seats are very small. If you’re a size 14 or more, you’ll probably find them a bit snug. If you’re a size 20 or larger, you may even find them painful.

Soon the show sort of starts. By sort of, I mean there’s an energetic young man (I ran across Ali- my fave, and Tom) who gets the audience doing weird things with their arms, shouting things back at him, and basically getting loads of cheesy laughs. Ali reminds me of an inoffensive Carlos Mencia, but from what I could tell, Tom had the same script.  However, I only caught the very end of Tom’s warm up (they seem to switch back and forth, as do the judges), so I can’t tell you more about him.

This part is seriously the best part of the show, but that doesn’t mean that the rest isn’t good.

Anyway, after the warm up, the host is introduced- We had a gorgeous blond hostess for the first and final shows, and an average but trendy guy for the middle show. Both were excellent in my opinion.

Then the judges are brought out. There are three, and we saw two different sets. Both sets that I saw had two men (one was a Simon type) and a woman, but I’ve heard other reports of a set of two women and a man.  One of the Simons was funnier in my opinion, but the other was more believable.

The judges serve as commentators, usually offering up advice, criticism, and sometimes compliments. It, however, is left up to the audience to vote.

Each of the 3 to 4 contestants is brought out in turn to sing. One will get a prerecorded message from a previous Idol winner, one gets part of their back stage interview played, and one gets a video of that adorable young “fan” blowing a kiss.

Since the contestants are tried out before hand, none of them should be actually painful. Of course with the soft opening, many slots are filled by cast members, but once February 14th arrives, they should all be real people. That’s when things either fall apart totally, or blossom.

After each contestant sings their song, you, the audience, gets to vote on your favorite. Majority wins, and for most shows, the winner goes on to the finale show at the end of the day (it was 7pm for us).

While they tally up the votes and draw out the suspense, they get the audience to stand up and sing along to a rather cute song and video (I Got The Music In Me- Jordin Sparks). The song and video are cute, not the sing along. I loathed that, and both of us, as well as about 1/3 of the audience flat out refused to participate. In my opinion, that sing along is the only reason that I would skip American Idol Experience in the future,  and I’ve heard others say so as well. However, that’s what soft openings are for, and if we’re lucky, Walt Disney World will come up with a more palatable alternative. Maybe another visit from Ali.

After all the scheduled shows are run, there’s still the finale to come. This runs more or less the same way, but with the additional songs (around 5-8 total, instead of the original 3-4), they don’t bother with the sing along. Thank goodness!

So why would an average guest put themselves through a full day’s worth of singing, coaching, interviews, etc? Well, the average guest wouldn’t. But the prize that’s awarded to the favorite singer at the finale is what’s called a Dream Pass.  It entitles the winner of that pass to walk straight to the head of the line of ANY American Idol try out. No waiting at all.

So is it for me? No. But anyone who dreams of being the next American Idol may just want to take a quick trip to Florida and try their voice out in a smaller, friendlier venue before making that plunge.  After all, it’s “the best Fast Pass ever”.

If you enjoyed this article on the American Idol Experience, please check out the rest of this site for more Walt Disney World Vacation planning information.