Never mind the Grand Canyon. Forget about Disney World. If you want to be an American Idol, plan to spend your vacation staring at asphalt in a stadium parking lot someplace like ... East Rutherford, New Jersey.

"We took our cruise money and did this," said Gary Rainey who flew up with his wife and daughter from Crystal River, Fla., so his daughter, Mariah Roberts, could take her shot at fame.

"It's good clean fun," Rainey said, estimating he spent about $4,000 in all. "Everyone comes to Florida to play tourist, so it's kind of fun the other way around."

The Fox megahit is onto the vacation trend: Its American Idol Web site offers tourist information on each audition locale — and local visitors bureaus are jumping on the bandwagon.

And so it was at the New Jersey Meadowlands, a former industrial dump northwest of New York that is now home to a massive sports complex. More than 10,000 packed the site when the show came to town as news helicopters swirled overhead.

"Any time that an event of that scale comes to the Meadowlands, it highlights all that we have to offer," said Jim Kirkos, CEO of the Meadowlands Liberty Convention and Visitors Bureau, which put a special Idol link on its own Web site.

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'AT LAST'

"Up and down Manhattan, in all five boroughs and in the greater Metro area (including East Rutherford), you will find every kind of delectable food item from all corners of the world," American Idol's Web site reads.

Assuming you're not too nervous to eat, that is. Many contestants chose to forgo pasta fagioli in Hoboken and soul food in Harlem to instead stay close to the Continental Airlines Arena for fear of missing the 5 a.m. start time. Plus, there was makeup to apply, hair to tease and shirts to iron.

Contestants turned stadium motels like the Plaza Motor Inn in Secaucus, N.J., into backstage areas, belting out chestnuts like Etta James' "At Last" and Bette Midler's "From a Distance" in the halls and lobby.

"It was a lot of fun, actually," said general manager Norman Findling. "They were practicing as they were going up and down the elevator."

Given Idol's three-step preliminary audition process, no one knew how long they'd be there. Findling told them: Don't worry, you only have to pay for the nights you're here.

"Sure enough, after the first day nobody made the cut and they all left," he said.

"But it was interesting. Nice people."

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REMEMBER THE ALAMO

The economic boost to any city is hard to gauge. For auditions at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex in Alabama, the Idol Web site helpfully notes: "You really don't even need to leave the complex to be entertained!"

In San Antonio, Texas, civic boosters hoped area attractions would beckon.

"You know that people are going to come from around the area for that specific reason, but you also know that when they're here they're going to take a look around," said Evelynn Bailey, account executive at the San Antonio Visitors and Convention Bureau.

"I mean, you can't be in San Antonio without visiting the Alamo and seeing the River Walk. It's hard not to be a tourist when you're in a city," she said. As such, American Idol is welcome anytime, she added.

"I think they do a great job of making it an event."

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'WAIT TO WAIT'

For the Rainbow family — yes, that's really their name — daughter Phoenix's starry ambitions prompted them to cancel their annual camping trip in the Adirondacks and instead drive down to New Jersey from Syracuse, N.Y.

Phoenix realized her dream of meeting Ryan Seacrest, but her mom Piper would've preferred camping. In East Rutherford, "all you did was wait to wait," she said.

"We don't have a lot of money, and I'll tell you what — it's very costly," she said, estimating they spent about $3,000, including five nights for four at a motel. She and her husband each took a week off work.

"We haven't relaxed at all," said Phoenix, who played "Annie" in her school play. "We tried to find Chinatown and got lost," she says. "We wanted to go Ground Zero, but couldn't find that either."

For Roberts, who flew up from Florida, the trip amounted to a seconds' long audition in front anonymous judges. And then it was over. No second chances, no next round.

"I had fun, and I'm glad I did it," she said. "But now when I watch 'American Idol,' it's not going to be same anymore."

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Stephanie Hoo is asap's business writer, based in New York.

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