American Idol Motorcade

This was by far one of the most amazing days I have had so far at Disney. Since I work at Hollywood Studios, I got the inside scoop about a special event happening today. In order to debut the brand new American Idol experience, Disney was showcasing a day of huge events and parties. The day started early in the morning with ABC's Good Morning America taping a performance by David Cook and David Archuleta at the new American Idol Experience. In order to get into that event, you had to have a special ticket. Darn. However, my roommates and I arrived at 10am to see the Studios decked with Glitz and Glamour. A long blue carpet with American Idol emblems ran on Hollywood Boulevard from Crossroads (the beginning of the park) to the Sorceror's Hat (near the Great Movie Ride). Special event cast members were everywhere, and since it was a special day, many more characters were seen at the Hat for pictures and autographs. I saw Pocahontas, Snow White, Belle, Mary Poppins, Mr. Penguin, Minnie, Eeyore, Pooh, Chip and Dale, Tigger, Goofy, and many others. There were also rumors flying around that Bob Iger (President and CEO of the Walt Disney Company) and other bigwigs in the company were at Hollywood Studios. We were able to ride many rides today because we had a friend with us that worked attractions at Tower of Terror. He tooks us backdoor and we didn't have to wait in line for any ride! It was great! While we were there, we heard Carrie Underwood was backstage. Crazy!

We decided to find a spot around 3pm for the American Idol motorcade. We happened to sit right near the first American Idol emblem on Hollywood Boulevard. This turned out to be a great spot. Around 4:45pm, the motorcade began with Kimberley Locke, a season three contestant who was going to be interviewing every celeberity for Entertainment Tonight right in front of us! About 24 American Idol celeberities appeared in the motorcade, and each one was driven onto the blue carpet individually in a GM convertible. A few of the celeberties were Carrie Underwood, Paula Abdul, Taylor Hicks, David Cook, David Archuleta, Ruben Studdard, Jordan Sparks, Fantasia Barrino, Diana DiGarmo, Brooke White just to name a few. We were able to get amazing pictures very close-up because of where we were standing. What an amazing experience!

After the motorcade was finished, we left the park to go to EPCOT. I still had some shopping to do at a huge store there, because our cast holiday discount ended today. I sure will miss that great discount. If you are interested, check out ET tomorrow night, Friday, February 13, (either at 7pm or 8pm) to see the segment about the American Idol experience. It should be great!