American Idol Experience

On Monday the whole family ventured together to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We got there before the park opened and had a plan of attack (as one must when fighting the crowds at Disney.) As soon as they let people in the park half of us took off to get a fastpass to Toy Story MidwayMania (seriously the coolest ride. You are in a car with 3D glasses & a "gun thing" and you go up to 5 different screens and play 5 different carnival games and try to score as many points as possible.) This was obviulsy the rest of the parks idea as well. The line for just the fastpasses was huge even when I got there and I was basically running to get in line. The rest of the family was off to audition for the American Idol Experience. Andrew and KT went to audition together. We were all pretty nervous. We didn't want one to make it and not the other, but the producers told them before they auditioned that since they were siblings it was likely only one would be chosen. They wanted variety in the show and assumed they would be to similar.

While the whole family waited to find out what was happening Mike made friends with a squirrel. He even got it to eat out of his hand. Pretty crazy huh?


After about an hour or so these two came out of the auditions both wearing there "Golden Ticket." They both made it and were put in two separate shows the 1:30 and 4:00 shows respectively.
To celebrate we went back to Toy Story Midway Mania. It was a ride everyone could ride and wanted to ride (Which is hard when you have an age range of 85 to 10 year old.) The only down side was we didn't have enough fastpasses. I went to the people working the fastpass distribution kiosks. They said they never had extra tickets for the ride. I told them about my siblings and them not being able to get tickets because of auditions. Then she looked a little harder and found just the right amount. It was magical. She hugged me and wished them both good luck with their performances. So all 10 of us were able to ride the ride together. I love the magic of Disney :)

With Andrew and KT both being in a show and having to be over an hour early for the show we had a very limited time to do things. Luckily their big sis knows how to work the fastpass system and asses line wait times. Both were able to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster twice before KT's show!
The whole experience for them was pretty incredible. They got to work with a vocal coach on there song and go to hair and makeup. They got the whole star treatment! About 350 cam to Kt's show at 1:30 and Probably 500 to Andrew's show at 4:00. So they both had decent crowds as well.
KT sang the song "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat. She did awesome. Her tone is very much like Colbie's so she rocked it. They judges loved her. They told her she looked like Barbie and was as sweet as cotton candy. They told her to not worry about looking at the lyrics but the crowd next time because she had the song down. The other people competing against her sang "What Hurt's the Most" and "Reflection." In the end the Boy advanced to the final show. His whole choir of over 100+ were there to vote for him. I thought if KT didn't win the other girl would since she rocked her vocals. But oh well. KT didn't care and loved every minute of it so she was a happy girl.
After KT's show we were on our way to ride Tower of Terror when these street performers saw Andrew's American Idol tag and asked him to sing. He sang Josh Turners "Your Man" in his deep, sexy country voice. I think they were surprised. Then we told them KT had just done the show they pulled her up and she preformed "Bubbly" again. I was recoded the whole thing and they saw me and came up to me and asked if I sang. I told them "Not like these two" but KT told them I sang awesome Disney songs. So they had me come up and sing. I sang "Part of Your World." They told us we were a talented family with great teeth. LOL. Thanks. I got it all on camera so I will need to post that some time. We went to Pizza Planet for lunch then back to watch Andrew's show!
Andrew is honestly a natural. I thought he was amazing. He sang "I don't wanna be" by Gavin Degraw. Of course it isn't as much of his style as Coldplay or Josh Turner but they only had 100 songs to pick from to sing. We are all a little bitter with the judges. They didn't give him as much love as we thought they should have. They we different judges than KT had. KT's judges told all the performers to stop moving around on stage and just sing, so that is what Andrew did. He took center stage, made eye contact with the audience and just sang. They told him marketing wise he was a dream come true, but that he had basically had stage fright since he didn't move (since he didn't think they wanted him too.) At any rate he did not advance to the finale either. They other two preformeres were in there late 20's with kids and sand "Hot Stuff" and "I Hope You Dance." The lady who won the round was pretty good and did rock it so what can you do?

After the American Idol let down the grandparent and parents left the 6 kids with the keys to the van and headed home. We took the fairy to Epcot to see if there were any fastpasses left. But being the middle of June and 6 o'clock at night. There was nothing but 90 minute lines and humidity.

We went to drown our sorrows in the soda at club cool. The free samples of soda across the world is always a must when at Epcot. I think we drank our weight in the stuff. Italy was just as gross as I remembered and Japan was still my favorite. CHEERS :)

Luckily we were able to ride one ride. Mission Space. It is actually the only ride that scared me a little. You are put in a simulator that spins you around so fast you hit G force speed and feel like you are in a space ship. The skin of your face is pulled back and your eyes water. If you close your eyes or look sideways you will begin to feel the spinning and for sure get sick. I was a little worried to take my 10 year old sister on the the ride. Especially since she is still afraid of rides like that, but they boys talked her into it. Luckily we all enjoyed it and felt like we accomplished something at Epcot. So off we headed to The Magic Kingdom. *sigh*

Notice how many people are at the park? I was astonished. I had forgotten how crowded the parks get. I was disgusted. To many people, to many screaming kids, no fastpasses left, long lines and people, humidity and people! We went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy show. Then got some food to give us the strength to fight the crowds for the firework show.

Luckily we were able to score some of my personal favorite seats. The street curb outside the Edy's ice cream store. I was able to enjoy a little dessert before the show. In the end...

it's moments like this....

and this...

...that put the magic that is sometimes lost in the crowds, lines, humidity, heat and dehydration back into Disney. I always get teary watching "Wishes" in front of the castle. As the tears rolled down my cheeks this time I thought "this is silly why are you crying?" and then I decided it was the lyrics being sung

"Star light, Star bright,
First star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might
have the wish, I wish tonight.
We'll make a wish and do as dreamers do.

And all our wishes...

Will

Come

True..

and that all of my dreams and more are coming or have come true!