Will Grad Night Effect my trip?

[cather74]

I'm thinking about going for a five night stay at the end of April but I saw that it's grad night. Will the parks be closed? Will the Allstar resorts be packed with teens? Should I pick a different weekend? I want to relax not experience highschool again.

[Tick-Tock]

Whatever park the Grad Night party is in will be closed early (a couple of years ago, it was MK and it closed at 7). The major effect that we saw was that Spectro and Wishes were quite crowded on Thurs and Sun, because the park was closed at 7 on Fri and Sat for the Grad Night parties.

[faline]

I've been there a number of times during grad parties and have never found it to affect our park experience. I wouldn't hesitate to go again during grad nights.

[BigRedDad]

It's been 20 years since I went to Grad Night. It was different back then I think. The parks closed at 7PM and Grad Night started at 8PM. There were no guests in the parks when Grad Night started. I am not sure how it is now, but I would bet it is similar still.

[TiggerCat]

I'm thinking about going for a five night stay at the end of April but I saw that it's grad night. Will the parks be closed? Will the Allstar resorts be packed with teens? Should I pick a different weekend? I want to relax not experience highschool again.

I always thought grad nights were towards the end of May.

TC.

[Tick-Tock]

It's been 20 years since I went to Grad Night. It was different back then I think. The parks closed at 7PM and Grad Night started at 8PM. There were no guests in the parks when Grad Night started. I am not sure how it is now, but I would bet it is similar still.

Yes, the park is cleared for the teens attending the party. My problem with Grad Nights isn't because there are a lot of teens around - it's because we take pretty short trips, and having MK close at 7 on two of four nights really messes with my scheduling (my favorite nighttime show is Wishes). But that's when my birthday is, so oh well!

[Tinkerfreak]

Didn't they move Grad Nights to DHS last year? Is it still being held there this year or did they move it back to the MK?

[Tick-Tock]

It looks like they moved it back to MK this year.

[PetefromRI]

We arrive on May 1st,the last night of grad night,so we'll do our traditional Epcot visit and ride Spaceship Earth,we always ride this first when we arrive at Disney World.

[eandrsmom]

We went a few years back during Grad Night. We did notice a huge increase in the crowds that night. We purposely avoided MK that day, and went to Epcot. After MK closed to the general public that evening, Epcot became PACKED with people. Because of early closing, I guess people took the monorail directly from MK to Epcot. Needless to say, we left Epcot and just went back to the resort for dinner.

[tys_mommy]

I could be wrong but I believe that they usually close only one park a night early for grad nights and will bring the students in on buses – thus no in influx in the resorts. But just be prepared for increased traffic and changed traffic patterns – it took us 45 minutes one night on a bus to get from either EPCOT or the Studios to Fort Wilderness b/c MK was hosting a grad night.