Grad Night, does park matter?

[SOCALMouseMommy]

My husband asked me what I want to do for Mother’s Day and what I really want to do is go to Disneyland! This would mean buying my husband a day ticket as he doesn’t have a Magic Key like the kids and I do.

Now I see that Mother’s Day is a grad night. We would go early and leave after dinner, so the later hours are not an issue. But now I’m really torn about 1) Doing this at all and 2) If we do it, which park to choose or if we should do a park hopper.

Day tickets are so pricey, especially a park hopper, and we will also get Genie+ which adds another $80 minimum, not to mention spending on food, etc. With the grad night in the mix now I’m worried it will be too crowded and a waste of money and maybe I should just skip it.

Every year I end up doing something I DON’T want to do for Mother’s Day (like cooking and entertaining other people at my house) and this year I just felt like doing something for me, which of course is always going to be Disney!

 

[chezcurrie]

Splurge on the hubby’s hopper and make this YOUR day! You can easily spend $60 (cost of the hopper) on flowers that will fade - go make those memories and celebrate YOU!

(P.S. make sure there are reservations available - I tried for this Sunday with my Believe Key and no-go)

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I say if you can get reservations (currently not available for magic keys but I know that changes especially closer to the day), then go. The only hard part is you might have to buy that hopper ticket before you can secure your and your kids' reservations if you haven't already made those. At least you can use the one-day ticket sometime in the future if things don't work out this weekend. Since you don't go all together very often, splurge on the hopper and the Genie+. Do something you want to do for Mother's Day. This is why I started going to Disney on my birthday every year...my birthday is near (sometimes on Thanksgiving) and I was tired of cooking, cleaning, and entertaining for everyone else. I don't need presents or attention on my birthday, but it's nice to feel like I got to pick the activity at least.

A hopper will make the Genie+ more valuable and give you that oh so important flexibility for when something inevitably turns out less-Disneyish than it should, so just splurge on it. Your husband doesn't go very often. I haven't found Grad nights to be disruptive to my experience when I have visited during them, especially with a leave-after-dinner plan. I would just advise you to plan a little bit more than you might normally as a regular visitor, such as have your top 3 rides or experiences that are important to you in mind and do them early and have 2 or 3 dining ideas or even a dining reservation made so that you don't have the stress of bouncing from food options due to unexpected crowds. You might also want to have in mind some ride or experience that your boys will especially love to do with their dad since he doesn't go often, and then you can either experience it with them or get pictures of them together, whichever makes you happier.

 

[starlite_]

Sounds like a great plan, personally wouldn't do a hopper unless there are things you really want to do on DCA.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Splurge on the hubby’s hopper and make this YOUR day! You can easily spend $60 (cost of the hopper) on flowers that will fade - go make those memories and celebrate YOU!

(P.S. make sure there are reservations available - I tried for this Sunday with my Believe Key and no-go)

Thank you for the encouragement! My first few years of Mother's Days were always such a letdown and now I want to reclaim the day, ha ha.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I say if you can get reservations (currently not available for magic keys but I know that changes especially closer to the day), then go. The only hard part is you might have to buy that hopper ticket before you can secure your and your kids' reservations if you haven't already made those. At least you can use the one-day ticket sometime in the future if things don't work out this weekend. Since you don't go all together very often, splurge on the hopper and the Genie+. Do something you want to do for Mother's Day. This is why I started going to Disney on my birthday every year...my birthday is near (sometimes on Thanksgiving) and I was tired of cooking, cleaning, and entertaining for everyone else. I don't need presents or attention on my birthday, but it's nice to feel like I got to pick the activity at least.

A hopper will make the Genie+ more valuable and give you that oh so important flexibility for when something inevitably turns out less-Disneyish than it should, so just splurge on it. Your husband doesn't go very often. I haven't found Grad nights to be disruptive to my experience when I have visited during them, especially with a leave-after-dinner plan. I would just advise you to plan a little bit more than you might normally as a regular visitor, such as have your top 3 rides or experiences that are important to you in mind and do them early and have 2 or 3 dining ideas or even a dining reservation made so that you don't have the stress of bouncing from food options due to unexpected crowds. You might also want to have in mind some ride or experience that your boys will especially love to do with their dad since he doesn't go often, and then you can either experience it with them or get pictures of them together, whichever makes you happier.

Thank you for this! I have only ever once not been able to get Magic Key reservations, just have to wait until the night before when everyone cancels. The only time this did not work out for me was last year's Candlelight.

It's good to know that you haven't found grad nights to be disruptive ... I just don't know how much they add to the crowds these days. Sundays are usually pretty nice.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Sounds like a great plan, personally wouldn't do a hopper unless there are things you really want to do on DCA.

The reason I was considering it was 1) hubby hasn't been to DCA since prior to covid and has not seen Avenger's Campus and 2) it would be fun to have a drink or two on Mother's Day, ha ha.

 

[Federalist45]

This year Grad night ticket offerings changed slightly and got more expensive. The one website that I saw speculating about how the changes would affect things was guessing that most of the students would limit themselves to all day DCA tickets (instead of the super expensive park hopper option).

I also feel (hope) that for Mother's Day, most of the grads will only be doing the party instead of a full day at the park. It's hard for me to believe that a lot of out-of-town schools planned grad-night weekends for Mother's Day.

 

[starlite_]

The reason I was considering it was 1) hubby hasn't been to DCA since prior to covid and has not seen Avenger's Campus and 2) it would be fun to have a drink or two on Mother's Day, ha ha.

But it's not hubby's day it's yours!
Joking aside, only get them if you think it will be worth it, I find that only going for 1 day with hoppers stress me out of all the things I'm "missing". (Drinks are fun tho)

 

[Katiebird]

I would splurge and go! You could easily spend similar money going out to dinner, buying flowers, etc. and you should get to do what YOU want!

I'm also going Sunday! Just me and the kids though, my DH only goes every few years and he already went in January. We've gone in the past on grad night days, granted it was before covid so it's been a while, and it really didn’t seem more crowded during the day. There were larger groups of teenagers, and while they can be kind of obnoxious I try to find joy in the joy they are having instead of being annoyed (It's not alway easy but I try lol). Next year my oldest will be going to grad night

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

This year Grad night ticket offerings changed slightly and got more expensive. The one website that I saw speculating about how the changes would affect things was guessing that most of the students would limit themselves to all day DCA tickets (instead of the super expensive park hopper option).

I also feel (hope) that for Mother's Day, most of the grads will only be doing the party instead of a full day at the park. It's hard for me to believe that a lot of out-of-town schools planned grad-night weekends for Mother's Day.

Hmmmm so by this theory DL might be less crowded with grads?

I too thought it was weird to have a grad night on mothers day!

 

[chezcurrie]

Thank you for the encouragement! My first few years of Mother's Days were always such a letdown and now I want to reclaim the day, ha ha.

Yup, we do what we have to do. I told hubby this year I wanted my car detailed and either Disneyland as a family or a massage. He said the massage should be a given so since I couldn’t get a reservation I just booked us to go see guardians in 3D at a nice theatre where they bring you food and drinks (hello champagne!) Mom of three boys … when in Rome! Lol