Grad Nights

[abbie13_15]

Okay I see there is a Grad Night on June 16th (it's on a Thursday). How much earlier do the parks close. I am reading on some boards they close really early and others say they start around midnight. Anyone have any input on this specific day of the week.

 

[cloudconnected1039]

When I had my Grad Night at DL a couple of years ago, we got there around 1030 or 11 pm and it was suppppper crowded already. Not to mention there were ALOT of changes made, stages added, etc. Considering all the things they had to do to make it "Grad Night", they probably closed in the early evening sometime, like 6 I'm not sure though.

I must say though, Grad Night was my worst experience at DL thus far. It was the most crowded I've ever seen it (even compared to some summer days ), and because of that lines to rides were tremendously long. My friends and I waited 3 1/2 hours to get on Space Mtn . I'm pretty sure from the span of midnight, when the ropes dropped to the lands, to 6 am, we went on Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and BTMRR. It was a nightmare!! Not to mention that everything containing Disney magic was GONE, completely GONE. The special fireworks they had at like...2 or 3 maybe were put to top 40 songs . For a Disney lover like myself, I wanted to cry at how non-Disney DL was . But other than that, I was really excited to graduate!!

 

[perrinej]

Is grad night also in DCA or only DL?

 

[Eeee-va]

I think DL closes around 9 for Grad Nites, and I think they usually offer fireworks right at the end. In years past, Grad Nites started off in DCA (a special extra "Blast Off" party attendees of Grad Nite could purchase) and then moved to DL. So DCA closes a few hours earlier than DL.

We went Thursday 6/10/2010, the day of the media premiere of World of Color AND a Grad Nite, so they closed DL even earlier, at 8, with no fireworks or anything. That was an unusual event. By the end of the day in DL, it was actually kind of crowded; I don't know if people thought the parks would be lighter because they weren't open summer hours or if it was just all the DCA guests being forced over into DL. It wasn't really bad, but it was more crowded than Wednesday and I think maybe even felt more crowded than Friday. (Not sure there were more people, but they didn't expect crowds so they didn't have all the stations fully staffed at eateries, for instance.)

BUT, despite being more crowded than I expected, it was excellent to HAVE to leave to go back to the room around 8. (OK, I think we probably could've done Downtown Disney but I thought rest was a better idea.) We got a GREAT night's sleep and were completely ready for a full day on Friday!

 

[HydroGuy]

Okay I see there is a Grad Night on June 16th (it's on a Thursday). How much earlier do the parks close. I am reading on some boards they close really early and others say they start around midnight. Anyone have any input on this specific day of the week.

See

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

 

[perrinej]

HydroGuy - you are full of great information for us 1st time visitors to DL. Since grad nights are in May and through mid June, does this mean that all of the California schools will be out of session for the summer during our trip? We are arriving June 10 through June 18.

 

[HydroGuy]

HydroGuy - you are full of great information for us 1st time visitors to DL. Since grad nights are in May and through mid June, does this mean that all of the California schools will be out of session for the summer during our trip? We are arriving June 10 through June 18.

You should post a poll on that. SoCal schools tend to get out early to mid-June in my experience. In any case I do not think schools getting out will be your biggest issue. It will be the opening of Little Mermaid and Star Tours and the SoCal AP holders.

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

We were at DL last year during Grad Nights. I believe we were there 6/13-21.
Mid week they had 2 grad nights. One of the nights was Wednesday, so there was no MM for Thursday, they moved it to Wednesday. It was awesome because there was no one there on that Wednesday MM.

I can't remember what times the parks closed because one of the party nights we didn't do a park we went to a baseball game.

Sarah