Grad Nite info

[boyumz]

I'm in charge of our school's Grad Nite trip. Our school has never attended before and we're coming from Northern Calif and because of that it is not an inexpensive trip. I have questions as to what kind of crowds to expect. We are scheduled to attend june 13th so I know there will be quite a few kids there, but really, how bad do you think it will be? Is it so crowded, you only get to ride on a couple of rides? Someone told me once that Grad Nites are limited to 22,000 guests, but that number seems kinda low. I know there are cast members here that might be able to fill me in a little on what to expect. So if you work at DL or have been to Grad Nites in the past, please share your knowledge. Thanks!!

[DoomBuggyDude]

Well, good news!

Grad nites are closed to the public, so the only
factor is how many schools booked the same
night yours did. Typically they are very quiet
with seven schools or less; the average being
ten.

If you booked the Blast-Off option, you start
your night at DCA just a few min. after they
close to the public and stay there until about
10pm. Then you get escorted into DL through
a backstage entrance near Indiana Jones.

If you booked the regular 11-7 night, it will be
more like a typical DL visit, lining up at 10pm
at the main entrance, entering Main St. to the
hub and then at 12 mid. the rest of the park
opens.

There are several nice touches to a GN visit,
including many charachter photo ops and many
live bands playing every type of music you
can imagine with large dancefloors throughout
the park, sponsored by many LA and SF
radio stations.

There are also fireworks at the top of every
hour near the castle.

Have fun.

[varcity]

This is a couple days old, and I don't normaly post on i-cot west (usually just a VMK poster), but I got so excited to read about a grad night!

I graduated in 2005 and I did get to go to grad night. I also am a northern Californian (45 minutes east of SF) so we took the bus trip down and got to DLR in good time. Forget how long but it's besides the point.

DCA was pretty cool, they had the boardwalk games free for a couple shots or you could pay for some prizes to win as well. Screamin' had the long lines of course and all the other rides were open. at about 10 we headed over to DLR.

DLR has 4 "dance clubs" with different types of music that I only enjoyed for about 15 minutes. There are not extreme lines, but the main rides to get backed up. The whole park was open and I had no real problems like I do when I go on a capacity day with the crowds. By the end of the night (5 in the morning) most kids are on any park bench they can find trying to sleep and we definitely all sleep on the bus ride home.

All in all a GN is completly worth the money. I know I had to pay 200 to go on the trip and I enjoyed every minute of it. Staff is friendly even though they are over time, park is clean, not crowded. Just an awesome experience to close out your senior year. Keep us updated after your trip and let us know how it goes!

[Chescat]

Grad Nights at Disneyland have been going on for years. Trust me I went to my grad night in high school and that was long time ago.

Varcity has more experience with the outside LA trips. What at least used to happen and I believe its still the same. For LA schools, we would do our graduation ceremonies and around 9:00 or 10:00 (can't remember) they loaded us all up on buses to Disneyland. The parks closed to the public and everything is geared toward Grad Night (if you can imagine we had Rick Nelson and his band when we went - when they still had the tomorrowland stage where Honey I Shrunk the Audience is now ). Got my Winnie the Pooh bear with his cap and they used to have special merchandise for the night.

Around 7:00am or so in the morning, they loaded us back on buses back to our schools. Pretty cool being at disneyland middle of the night and at day break. Its an awesome experience to put on top of a high school graduation.

[LibertyTreeGal]

Oh my ... I did grad night in 1987, almost exactly 20 years ago! We got on the bus early too, took us about 7 or 8 hours to get there and the bus driver got a speeding ticket LOL. Then they took us to a hotel so we could change our clothes (we were all wearing sweats for the trip) and then we went to the park. Gosh, I can't remember going on any rides except Tiki Room, but I do remember getting my pic taken with Chip.

I guess age has gotten the best of me when I remember the bus ride better than the time in the park

[boyumz]

I loved reading about your past experiences! Has anyone gone yet this year? We go in 13 days, and we're all so excited. I'm wondering if there are any live bands scheduled for Disneyland, or is it all DJ's?

I've really had a hard time getting feedback on the Grad Nite 2007.

[Chescat]

I might be wrong, but I don't believe any of the grad nights have actually started yet since most schools aren't out yet. When I was there last week, didn't see any of the grad night merchandise out yet. Not sure if they are starting this week or not. I can ask tomorrow.

[tinkwest]

I might be wrong, but I don't believe any of the grad nights have actually started yet since most schools aren't out yet.

Three Grad Nites are already over (05/17, 05/24, 05/31), there is one tomorrow (06/07), and three more after that (06/13, 06/14, 06/21).

[Chescat]

Yeah I checked today and they said they had 5 of them already with one tomorrow night. Thanks Linda!

Saw a lot of the kids in the park wearing the Mouse Ears that looks like a graduation hat today. Didn't see that last Friday. Probably restocking for tomorrow.