How bad are grad nights?

Hubby as agreed to take me for our Anniversary that also coincides w/ the California dental convention Mid May. I'm guessing there will be grad nights thrown in there somewhere. How bad are they? Do they close the park and shuttle everyone to CA or do the kids just flood both parks? I'm trying to decide if it will be the fun vacation away from our 4 kids or if it's just going to be miserable w/ so many teenagers.

Well you'll get varying opinions on this. For what it's worth, I think the grad night angst is way overblown. Having experienced many I've yet to have so much as an annoying encounter. While I'm sure they happen, I gotta believe they are the exception not the norm. And while there will be more teens than usual it's not like no one else will be in the parks, especially during the day.

I have been to about 8 grad nights and some are fine but I have also had some bad experiences with the teens.

I would ride any rides with attraction photos very early in the day before most of the teens get there if you are someone who likes to buy the photos. Usually about 60-70% of my attraction photos on grad nights are blacked out because of the teens innapropriate behavior.

Try and get there early morning before it gets packed. There is no "shuttling" from one park to the other since they are so close. Disneyland also stays open. The grad nites are at CA adventure.

I will be there this May when the dental convention is going on too. I just couldn't pass up the DL hotel rate for it.

We were there for two of them 2 hrs ago. We had been in CA and we're leaving for DL in the early evening. That's the only time we saw them.....TONS of them coming in it was actually hard to get out! LOL I think if you start in CA and and head over to DL in the afternoon/early evening, you'd not notice them. They all had to be in CA by a certain time that night.

So many opinions indeed! Mine: heck yes you'll notice them. Can you still have a great vacation? Definitely Yes.

I've been in late May 3 different trips over grad nights so these are my experiences. Best strategy: DL during the day, DCA at night. We've tried braving DL on a few different occasions on actual grad nites each trip (because we're gluttons for punishment I guess) and it never went well. The first time we FP Indy at like 10pm and besides the cue being full of hyped up teenagers that late at night Adventureland was more of a traffic jam than usual. The second time we just went in to ride Haunted Mansion around 11pm and it was actually ok, well there were a lot of extra screams from say every other buggy but none were rude or obscene. Last trip we decided we wanted to eat at Plaza Inn for dinner, see fireworks and PTN and to this day I don't know WHAT we were thinking. It was PACKED and the kids were rude and the families were upset with the seniors and each other and it was not a happy place. We grabbed a table and planted ourselves there for the next few hours until the late PTN finished. Yeah, not our best night...

Generally speaking you start to notice Seniors in DL around lunch. They aren't annoying or rude at this stage generally they're just starting their days and there really aren't too many. We always exit the park a couple hours later and return around dinner. The grads are much more noticeable at this point. Now you should avoid the "popular" DL rides (Indy, Space) because this is the grads last chance to hit the rides before being pushed out to DCA later that night. Around 8pm crowds in DL get really thick and the kids are getting rowdier by the hour. I don't blame them, they're getting closer to their party and there are so many other seniors around by then but as an adult I don't care for the atmosphere by then.

The key: Park Hoppers = DL during the day, DCA at night. DL up until dinner if you must. After dinner time in DL on a Grad Nite? Don't be me! DCA is your friend that night. (The party is in DCA after it closes to the public so most of the kids are trying to do eveything they can in DL up until the parks close and they're forced into DCA.)

I would never advise someone NOT to go to DL during grad nites. But do prepare (like you are!) so you know when to avoid what areas and you can have an entirely pleasant trip!

Oh, general info on Grad Nite OP. In the past few years Grads have park hopper tickets for use during the day with the general public and then from 11pm-3am a "private" party for them is run in DCA after the general public has left the park. The party used to be held in DL way back when but it was moved to DCA a few years ago. They usually run a few parties a week.

In June of 2013 we took our first family trip to DLR (we are WDW vets from Illinois) and our dates coincided with Grad Nights. For the most part the teens did not bother us whatsoever...we did see a ton of them in the different parks, but they weren't too obnoxious. The only time that we were really annoyed and frustrated with them was when we were trying to have a nice dinner at the Blue Bayou (we were seated right by the water) and it seemed like every other boat that passed by, we would hear teens heckling at all of us who were trying to enjoy our meals by screaming, yelling, and being very loud and rude (one teen decided it would be funny to shine his light on his phone at all of the tables). Now fast forward to June 2016, our family is again planning a trip to DLR and even though we know that Grad Nights will happen while we are there, we are making sure that when we return to Blue Bayou, it will be on a night that there will be no parties.

The wife and I have been at Disneyland 3 times. I think the "worst" we dealt with was while eating dinner at blue bayou, someone on a boat for Pirates yelled "Hey, throw me a roll". Can they be louder than most normal people? Yes. Can they cuss a lot? Yes, but that really never bothers me from nearly 6 years as a civilian in law enforcement plus several friends and family members with military and or police backgrounds. But i've never experienced any of the pushing, line cutting, etc that gets blamed on grad night. Can kids be idiots and do stupid stuff? Yes, but again they are kids. Grad night is supposed to be a safe way for them to blow off the steam and stress of finishing one of the most important milestones in their lives.

Plus I can safely guarantee for the most part, those kids at grad night are much less annoying then my graduating class on it's grad night, which was a sober cruise in SF Bay overnight which was anything but sober for about 90% of the kids on there.

DL seems busier during the day on Grad Nights since they have to go to DCA in the evening for their party.

My husband and I were at the parks this past May for a few grad nights and we didn't have any problems. They can be boisterous but for the most part they were fun. We did feel like the lines for all the big attractions were huge at night time though! At one point Space Mountain had a line of 120 minutes and the park didn't even feel that crowded!

Thank you everyone Since it's just going to be me and my hubby, I think it will be totally doable. I don't think I"d try for it with all 4 kids though...

We did one last year with grandparents and a 1 and 3 year old. Now, there were some exuberant teenagers walking around making lots of noise. They were just happy and walking around in packs. A little annoying, the whole pack walking, but I think it's fun to see kids so happy! Now the attraction picture thing, I totally agree with. Hubs and I got gifted fast passes to go on RSR together. First and probably only time we will get to do that until the kids are tall enough to go on it. And we were in the back behind some teens who did something we werent sure was appropriate so we couldn't buy the picture. I was bummed about that.