Grad Nites - should I change my plans

[izzy]

I was planning on visiting DL and DCA on May 13, 14, and 15. Now I see that the 13th and 15th are going to be Grad Nites - ugh. I'm wondering if Grad Nites will affect the parks enough that I should consider rescheduling my trip.

In addition, I am planning on staying at the GCV, so I was wondering if it might be extra noisy if they have late night events at DCA.

Any advice would be welcome!

 

[BirdsSingWords]

It all depends on your tolerance level for groups of (sometimes) rowdy teenagers. They *do* let the teens into the parks during the day (although not all of them arrive during the day), then move the whole shebang over to DCA at night.

Frankly, if I was planning as far out as you are and had a choice, I'd avoid grad nites. My tolerance level for teen shenanigans (screaming, horseplay in lines, sometimes line cutting, swearing, makeout sessions, etc.) diminishes with each passing year.

I will allow that not all teens behave badly. But some do. I was unnaturally old as a teenager, and hated that kind of obnoxious group behavior even then. Loathe it now.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We were there over a couple of these types of grad nites a couple years ago. It's not necessarily a deal breaker. The family crowds will be much lighter than if you push your trip later. Hit the "big" DL rides that teens love (like Indy) early in the day. Rule #1 get to the park ASAP in the mornings, take advantage of EMH. Students started showing up by noon and were quite thick by late night in DL before their party in DCA started. Are they extra rude & obnoxious? Depends, just like normal crowds you get rude people, we found them to be slightly more "annoying" (ie rowdy) than regular summer crowds (though more bad language but that might have just been the students we were around). We got out of the parks late at night when the crowds became too much. On the plus side GCH was much quieter than once summer gets going.

It's totally possible to enjoy DL during grad nites! Early mornings and patience are your key.

 

[Nicolette11785]

I was in DL for 7 days in early June this year and all the days that did not have grad nites were very nice. The teens did inappropriate things in the tower of terror photo I wanted to get because it was my sons first time. So they obviously could not sell me the photo. I also saw that a lot of them only cared about themselves (taking up entire walkways,goofing off,etc).

In the future I am going to avoid grad nites whenever possible.

 

[Nonsuch]

...I am planning on staying at the GCV, so I was wondering if it might be extra noisy if they have late night events at DCA.

There have been a few reports of excess noise, grads screaming on Goofy's Sky School
Last year while staying at GCH, I went up to the 6th floor patio at 10PM specifically to check on Grad Night noise -- the Paradise Pier area was almost empty

 

[Butterfly123]

Our last trip we had Grad nights three out of our four days. I was nervous because I had read some things on the boards about line jumping and general rowdiness. We lucked out and didn't have any problems. We planned accordingly, hit big rides early in the day before all the grads arrived and did entertainment in the evening. We started in DL, and when the kids started arriving early afternoon moved over to DCA. Most of the kids were in DL during the day since their nighttime party was at DCA.

All that being said, I would avoid them if I could. When we had three it was a pain to plan around them. If we had just had one, it wouldn't have been bad.

 

[Filipina]

Change plans. It's too rowdy.

 

[izzy]

Thanks for everyone's input. I don't have a lot of tolerance for teens' shenanigans when they are traveling as a group - they're usually fine on their own, but when you get a big group of them I've found that they usually resort to more obnoxious behavior to show off in front of their friends. I'm thinking I need to avoid going to parks those particular days.

 

[dnamertz]

Is there a list of the grad night dates for 2015?

 

[cats mom]

Is there a list of the grad night dates for 2015?

Currently listed 2015 Grad nights:

May 13
May 15
May 16
May 18
May 26
May 27
May 29
May 30
June 2
June 3
June 5
June 6
June 10
June 12
June 13
June 17
June 19

Edited to add:

Dates that are already sold out
May 15, 16, 27, 29
June 5. 12

Of course they could all sell out closer to the event, so that may not be much help.

 

[algae]

I was planning on visiting DL and DCA on May 13, 14, and 15. Now I see that the 13th and 15th are going to be Grad Nites - ugh. I'm wondering if Grad Nites will affect the parks enough that I should consider rescheduling my trip.

Last time I was there for grad night, it was a lot of fun! Oh, wait. I was a grad at that time. Nevermind

In addition, I am planning on staying at the GCV, so I was wondering if it might be extra noisy if they have late night events at DCA.

If you have a park view and can see Paradise Pier from the room, it might be fun to see the entertainment they have there. Supposed to be a special WOC show... I'd go just to see how they change WOC.

 

[Liberator]

What about the hotels itself? Are the Disney hotels blocked by teenagers and drunk grads?

We luckily picked three nights with no Grad Nites, but I wonder what the hotels will be like...

I guess I have a totally wrong mental image of young American people celebrating and having a good time - thank you very much, television

Some people say Grad Nites affect the whole matter very much, some say they did not even notice. Let's wait and see..

 

[princesshalo22]

What about the hotels itself? Are the Disney hotels blocked by teenagers and drunk grads?
.

When I had Grad Night at DLR 2 years ago we had to arrive and leave with our school, so we didn't even have the option of staying in the hotels. I am not sure if all schools are like that though.

 

[gottalovepluto]

What about the hotels itself? Are the Disney hotels blocked by teenagers and drunk grads? We luckily picked three nights with no Grad Nites, but I wonder what the hotels will be like... I guess I have a totally wrong mental image of young American people celebrating and having a good time - thank you very much, television Some people say Grad Nites affect the whole matter very much, some say they did not even notice. Let's wait and see..

Disney has STRICT no alcohol/drugs rules for grad nites. Seriously, a policy violation by one student can blacklist the whole school from Grad Nite and many schools search students prior to bus boarding to the event to prevent problems. DL has been doing this for decades and they know what to watch for. I wouldn't be concerned about drunk grads at all or your images of partying American high schoolers at DL grad nite (those who party like that will do it elsewhere). Also, most grads aren't spending the night at hotels, it's mainly in-state/area schools that attend.

 

[Geemo]

I've never been on a Grad Night.

But after reading various post regarding Grad Nights, I'd change my dates. By changing dates, I see it as one less thing to worry about as far as crowd level goes.

If I wasn't able to change the dates, I'd still go and plan accordingly.

Geemo

 

[corinne76]

We went during grad nights last year. The kids weren't all that bad. Maybe we got lucky I did notice more teens and stuff, but none were overly rowdy where we noticed.

Now, Knotts was a different story. There were teens making out everywhere. and in some cave thing (IDK, we passed in on the way back to the entrance, there were stairs to walk down and a bridge I think), we saw a couple making out and the guy had his fingers ... elsewhere. They were right in the open with families walking past them. It was a disgusting display in a family park.

 

[arichau]

I've been to DLR for the last three years during Grad Nights. We have never had any issues that were more than slightly annoying. We like to go in early June (it just works out for us) so we just accept that we need to hit certain rides early and just be flexible on some days.

The worst behaved people we have run into every trip are adults (non-grads). No contest. And those people are the same people who can be there on any given day.

Now having said that I do try and schedule our trip so we hit one or two Grad Nights and not 3 or 4. I would do the same thing for any "special event". So if it's easy to switch things around I would go for it but you could reschedule to a time that has other large group events, the weather might be hotter, if you earlier some of the rides might be closed. So it's always hard to know.

Bottom line is I think some people walk into the park expecting the Grads to be annoying and if you're looking for it you will probably find it. So if you don't like teenagers you should totally switch just for your own sanity

 

[Mabel67]

I've been both on grad nights and accidentally during a cheerleader week. I will take grad night over cheer week any day!!

 

[2boysmom1998]

I will be there June 2 - June 6th, 2015. I will have 4 Grad Night during my visit. I'm not happy about it but what can I do? I will deal with it I guess. I chose that week because I was able to get a really good deal through Southwest Vacations. $1600 for Airfare, Bus Transfer, Hotel (Fairfield Inn across from Disneyland) and 4 day park hopper tickets! It's just for my oldest son and myself. I'm excited!!!!

 

[coaches24]

I admit I only have experienced a grad night on one of my trips (in May 2012, the first year they used the all day passes format) but there were two grade nights on my 5 day trip and the grad night days were the better days of the trip (not than any of the days were bad). It got more crowded in the evenings but during the day it was less crowded than the regular days without grad night events. I only had had one incident on main street with a group of kids cursing, but that kids friends corrected her quickly and they were well behaved the rest of the time. Just sharing my experience. Grad nights are not always a problem. And I think at times a lot of people try to avoid them making the crowds on non-grad night days more crowded.