Hi all,
Just back from a fantastic trip. Just wanted to thank everyone for all of the tips (wide right for Carsland at rope drop, head to the right for autographs with Belle and Rapunzel after the Fantasy Faire shows etc.)
We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and loved every minute of it. The pools are so great for small kids, we saw several characters there which the kids loved. Overall it just had a great resort/vacation feel and the extra morning hour was awesome!! We had a standard room with an upper level park view at the Frontier Tower for a few nights (best view I can imagine - pool and fireworks) and a 2 bedroom suite with a pool view in the Fantasy Tower for the last few nights when more family joined us.
One thing that was odd to me was that the restrooms in the DLH didn't have a changing table - ?!?! Tiny nitpick problem but it was just so weird to me.
I read a lot of the comments about crowds and grads and just wanted to add my experience. I was there with small children so we were not even attempting to be in the parks much past 9. On Fri May 31st we noticed the parks getting really crowded in the afternoon, mostly due to grads. We hopped over to DCA and had a great, non-crowded, time. Sunday and Monday night were much more crowded than I thought they would be (these were NOT grad nights) but we just tried to find something not crowded to do. We even managed to get a front row standing place for Fantasia without much problem an hour before the show on Monday night.
I was there during grad nights last year and noticed this year they all seemed to be in the parks much earlier - noticeable after noon. A DLH CM told me on Thur 18,000 grads would be there and that after they changed the policy to have them there all day and not just for the party they actually started letting more grads in per day (but I don't know if that's really accurate, I'm sure every grad night is different in some ways).
However, even though I was around a lot of groups of grads I did not have any problems with them. One yelled out a bit when we entered Space Mountain and I remember thinking "Here we go!" but it was a 2 second thing. The grads were better behaved than several adults (the man who saw his child was splashing all the kids at the globe fountain by Star Trader and didn't do anything to stop him, the woman who took a flash photo of ever.single.thing at POTC until my DH yelled "stop flashing!" and luckily she did) But in 8 days those are the only 2 things that pop out. Overall everyone we encountered was super nice and just excited to be there. I only mention those 2 instances because they were not grads. I totally get that some people here had horrible grad experiences but I wanted to let people who are travelling later this month know that a great trip is still possible. I'm sure the later in the night the grads are there the more excited they are about the night, the more they need to charge cellphones, etc.
I am planning on sending DLR a note telling them that even though I didn't have any rude grad issues I would never travel there during grad nights again because:
-extra crowds (I totally agree with people that it is a jerk move not having grad nights on the official calendar - and also the different Marathons, Goth Days, Gay Days - they should all that stuff on there) But bottom line - the extra crowds from grad nights combined with locals who are about to be blocked was a bit much
-we rode the rides I thoughts grads would flock to early, and maybe I would have done that anyway, but I just want to have more flexibility, and the next time we visit my kids will stay up later and want to go on thrill rides more and I don't want to worry about running into rude grads on top of regular rude people
-I loved the EME but it was too bad that some rides were not open that would have normally but they needed extra maintenance because of the grad nights. This one would keep me away from grad nights even if they were not given park hoppers for the day.
I think the policy to have grads there all day and to give them fastpasses is a bad one. Even if they got rid of that and had grads only there for the parties I also am irked that grad nights go on for so long. I love going in early June but as they have grad events every single week for May and June there's no way to avoid them if you want an extended trip. I would love if they did them every other week so you could schedule around them.
Anyway, now I'm rambling!! I hope everyone traveling to DLR soon has a great trip and is not impacted by the grads. Thanks again for all of the tips. I'd be happy to answer any questions about my trip if anyone has any.
Just back from a fantastic trip. Just wanted to thank everyone for all of the tips (wide right for Carsland at rope drop, head to the right for autographs with Belle and Rapunzel after the Fantasy Faire shows etc.)
We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and loved every minute of it. The pools are so great for small kids, we saw several characters there which the kids loved. Overall it just had a great resort/vacation feel and the extra morning hour was awesome!! We had a standard room with an upper level park view at the Frontier Tower for a few nights (best view I can imagine - pool and fireworks) and a 2 bedroom suite with a pool view in the Fantasy Tower for the last few nights when more family joined us.
One thing that was odd to me was that the restrooms in the DLH didn't have a changing table - ?!?! Tiny nitpick problem but it was just so weird to me.
I read a lot of the comments about crowds and grads and just wanted to add my experience. I was there with small children so we were not even attempting to be in the parks much past 9. On Fri May 31st we noticed the parks getting really crowded in the afternoon, mostly due to grads. We hopped over to DCA and had a great, non-crowded, time. Sunday and Monday night were much more crowded than I thought they would be (these were NOT grad nights) but we just tried to find something not crowded to do. We even managed to get a front row standing place for Fantasia without much problem an hour before the show on Monday night.
I was there during grad nights last year and noticed this year they all seemed to be in the parks much earlier - noticeable after noon. A DLH CM told me on Thur 18,000 grads would be there and that after they changed the policy to have them there all day and not just for the party they actually started letting more grads in per day (but I don't know if that's really accurate, I'm sure every grad night is different in some ways).
However, even though I was around a lot of groups of grads I did not have any problems with them. One yelled out a bit when we entered Space Mountain and I remember thinking "Here we go!" but it was a 2 second thing. The grads were better behaved than several adults (the man who saw his child was splashing all the kids at the globe fountain by Star Trader and didn't do anything to stop him, the woman who took a flash photo of ever.single.thing at POTC until my DH yelled "stop flashing!" and luckily she did) But in 8 days those are the only 2 things that pop out. Overall everyone we encountered was super nice and just excited to be there. I only mention those 2 instances because they were not grads. I totally get that some people here had horrible grad experiences but I wanted to let people who are travelling later this month know that a great trip is still possible. I'm sure the later in the night the grads are there the more excited they are about the night, the more they need to charge cellphones, etc.
I am planning on sending DLR a note telling them that even though I didn't have any rude grad issues I would never travel there during grad nights again because:
-extra crowds (I totally agree with people that it is a jerk move not having grad nights on the official calendar - and also the different Marathons, Goth Days, Gay Days - they should all that stuff on there) But bottom line - the extra crowds from grad nights combined with locals who are about to be blocked was a bit much
-we rode the rides I thoughts grads would flock to early, and maybe I would have done that anyway, but I just want to have more flexibility, and the next time we visit my kids will stay up later and want to go on thrill rides more and I don't want to worry about running into rude grads on top of regular rude people
-I loved the EME but it was too bad that some rides were not open that would have normally but they needed extra maintenance because of the grad nights. This one would keep me away from grad nights even if they were not given park hoppers for the day.
I think the policy to have grads there all day and to give them fastpasses is a bad one. Even if they got rid of that and had grads only there for the parties I also am irked that grad nights go on for so long. I love going in early June but as they have grad events every single week for May and June there's no way to avoid them if you want an extended trip. I would love if they did them every other week so you could schedule around them.
Anyway, now I'm rambling!! I hope everyone traveling to DLR soon has a great trip and is not impacted by the grads. Thanks again for all of the tips. I'd be happy to answer any questions about my trip if anyone has any.
I thought grad night was in the middle of the night. Is DL no longer doing that, and just letting the grads in during the day?
