Avoid Grad Nights?

[TXAKDisneyFan]

I've been to DL several times, but generally go to (and prefer) WDW. However, a friend is planning on going to DL at the end of May/beginning of June. She and her family (husband and two daughters, ages 9 and 7) have never been to DL before. They really don't know anything about any of the Disney parks (what sorts of attractions there are, places to stay, restaurants, etc). The 7yo is princess crazy; both girls like thrill rides.

I saw that Grad Nights for 2015 are scheduled on May 13, 15, 16, 18, 26, 27, 29, and 30; and June 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, and 19.

I've read the crowds can be pretty bad on Grad Nights, especially since the kids can now arrive at park opening. Most of the tips I've read are that they mostly affect the waits for the e-ticket rides (which are the ones my friends would be primarily interested in). Are the crowds bad enough to avoid those days? Also, aside from the crowds, should they avoid the parks on Grad Nights simply to stay away from unruly, mostly unsupervised teens?

TIA!

 

[Blue32]

I've been to DL several times, but generally go to (and prefer) WDW. However, a friend is planning on going to DL at the end of May/beginning of June. She and her family (husband and two daughters, ages 9 and 7) have never been to DL before. They really don't know anything about any of the Disney parks (what sorts of attractions there are, places to stay, restaurants, etc). The 7yo is princess crazy; both girls like thrill rides.

I saw that Grad Nights for 2015 are scheduled on May 13, 15, 16, 18, 26, 27, 29, and 30; and June 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, and 19.

I've read the crowds can be pretty bad on Grad Nights, especially since the kids can now arrive at park opening. Most of the tips I've read are that they mostly affect the waits for the e-ticket rides (which are the ones my friends would be primarily interested in). Are the crowds bad enough to avoid those days? Also, aside from the crowds, should they avoid the parks on Grad Nights simply to stay away from unruly, mostly unsupervised teens?

TIA!

You are going to get opinions of varying degrees on this. We visited last year, and while we did notice more teens in the parks in groups on the Grad Nights, we did not have any negative experiences with them other than a couple loud boats on POTC while we were eating dinner at Blue Bayou.

Once thing that helped us was doing more E tickets during the early parts of the day, and using evening time to watch the shows like Fireworks, WOC, F!. One day we also spent in DCA and thought that thru the day the park was less crowded. A lot of the grads will start in DL if their after party is in DCA. So spending more time in DCA in the afternoons and evenings makes sense because many won't cross over to DCA until their after party.

I'm of the opinion that if you can avoid the grad nights, great. But if not, I would not worry too much about it and use the above tips to avoid the crowding as much as possible. I would still go to the parks on a grad night...and we are again this year because we are attending a convention at the end of May.

Hope this helps.

 

[californiamomof4grls]

We went the last week of May last year and there were two nights that were grad nights. I saw kids but they were spread out all over. Around 10 you noticed DL started to clear out and we even heard kids saying it's 9:30 we have to go and meet Mr. so and so at the other park. DL was open until 12 and DCA until 10. There was nothing negative and it was crowded in general but I saw more families (locals) then teenagers.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Thanks for the responses!

It sounds like it's not a deal breaker, but it would be better to avoid those days given the option. Of course, a crowded, "bad" day at Disney (land or world) is still better than even a good day most other places!

 

[HydroGuy]

I've been to DL several times, but generally go to (and prefer) WDW. However, a friend is planning on going to DL at the end of May/beginning of June. She and her family (husband and two daughters, ages 9 and 7) have never been to DL before. They really don't know anything about any of the Disney parks (what sorts of attractions there are, places to stay, restaurants, etc). The 7yo is princess crazy; both girls like thrill rides.

I saw that Grad Nights for 2015 are scheduled on May 13, 15, 16, 18, 26, 27, 29, and 30; and June 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, and 19.

I've read the crowds can be pretty bad on Grad Nights, especially since the kids can now arrive at park opening. Most of the tips I've read are that they mostly affect the waits for the e-ticket rides (which are the ones my friends would be primarily interested in). Are the crowds bad enough to avoid those days? Also, aside from the crowds, should they avoid the parks on Grad Nights simply to stay away from unruly, mostly unsupervised teens?

TIA!

This may help in addition to the other good posts so far:

"The Scoop on Grad Nights at DLR in May and June" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2298400

 

[whoever]

While not a deal breaker, I'd strive to avoid them at all costs. I had some bad experiences with grand nights on our May trips.

 

[kirstie101]

We had 2 grad nites during our trip last June and had no problems with them.

What we did was go to DCA during the day on the grad nite days. We used the assumption that since they teens had to be in DCA in the evening that they would go to DL when first arriving. This did seem to be the case. During the day we didn't even notice them to be honest. I'd guess we started seeing more teens around 3:00 or so. Around dinner time or a bit later we'd hop over to DL as most of the teens were exiting DL for DCA. Seemed to work well.

Our trip this summer has one grad nite and we'll use that strategy again for that day.