Avoid Disneyland/DCA during HS grad events?

[ZombieWanKenobi]

Hey all, planning a family trip visiting both parks 6/9 - 6/11, driving home Sunday 6/12. I know there are some high schools that are doing grad events 6/8 and 6/9 so my question is should we avoid the parks on 6/9 and alter our visit to include park time on Sunday 6/12 in trade for Thursday 6/8?

Just wondering what the teen volume is like for this type of thing and if the crowds in general would be better/worse if we traded it for Sunday.

Thanks all!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You'd be better off asking this on the Disneyland board...there are plenty of Disneyland regulars there.

 

[rwdavis2]

Have you checked the Disneyland forum? I remember some posts about this a couple of years ago.

 

[figment_jii]

My sense is you'll get a pretty even split between those folks that say "avoid Grad Nites" and those that say "Grad Nites aren't that bad". My personal feeling is that on a Grad Nite day, you will see more teenager groups in the parks. There will be some that are less well-behaved and plenty that are fine. I've heard horror stories about badly behaved teens in the parks on Grad Nites, but I haven't personally seen any of them. So for me, I would go with whichever day works better for your schedule regardless of it being a Grad Nite or not.

 

[ZombieWanKenobi]

I did have some concern about teen behavior but not sure how many schools are participating so could be a non-issue. I didn't want to trade a "what if" factor, going to the park on Thursday with the grads for a guarantee of Sunday being more crowded in general due to a weekend day. Just trying to weigh the lesser of the two evils I guess.

 

[Azjenn]

We were there last year during one of the grad nights. Keep in mind that they get a good all day park hopper for the day of their party. While all the groups we encountered were polite and respectful, there were A LOT of them there and they congregate in big groups. Last year their party was at dca in the evening (I'm assuming this years will be also) so it seemed as though they spent most of their day time at disneyland. I would maybe think about spending your day at dca on the day of the grad night.

 

[purple figment]

The grads have an all day park hopper, but since the Grad Nite is at DCA, many of them are in DL during the day. It was pretty quiet in the morning, but as more groups started arriving it got crowded in the afternoon and evening. Tomorrowland and the thrill rides in the park (e.g. Indy and Splash) tend to get the busiest so if you want to go on any of these rides it is best to do it in the morning. As far as behavior, they were fine. We only encountered one person whose language was extremely inappropriate. Overall, I wouldn't stay away because of Grad Nite. Just choose the day that works better for your schedule.

 

[ZombieWanKenobi]

Thanks for the replies. If the questions is just about crowds in Disneyland would you say Thursday with the grads would be any more crowded than Sunday?

 

[tarheelalum]

Sunday's are probably the most crowded day of the week due to the annual passes. The grad days are usually not as crowded but hit or miss in terms of obnoxious teenagers. For the most part they seem largely unsupervised and remarkably loud. If you like the huanted mansion they pretty much ruin that experience. They skip lines were ever they go and run around yelling F this and F that. Certainly not all of them are that bad but enough of them are to turn a good day into something else.