Disney's Hollywood Studios Announces Operational Changes for Late 2008 and 2009

[Lizzie]

This all makes me sad. It just cutback after cutback. With nothing exciting planned. Getting to Fantasmic is going to have to be a carefully planned event. I don't have any desire to see any American Idol show. I hope they don't raise the cost for the dinner with seating for this show.

[Vito]

I tend to agree about the American Idol thing. It doesn't really make sense to me. It feels like they're trying to hop on the bandwagon of something that's "trendy" (TV's highest rated show) but it just doesn't seem like a good fit. Why would I want to watch everyday park guests sing what's in essence karaoke?

I'm not quite sure I get what the appeal is. Kinda seems like Disney wasn't thinking this one all the way through, which in and of itself is somewhat scary. I hope they didn't invest too much in this.

On the positive side, the building that's housing it hasn't really been used for a good attraction in I don't know how long, so it's not replacing something I was interested in. And I don't think the cost of running the attraction will be all that much - at least not compared to putting on a show like Fantasmic.

And even though they try to make it sound like American Idol is an "alternative" to Fantasmic, I still think it's more about $ than anything else. (And of course, as I've laid out earlier, I completely understand why it has to happen at this point, and still firmly believe that during peak times Fantasmic will be a nightly event).