How much do grad nights affect park attendance?

[Sky07]

I was there last June. It was a non-issue.

 

[Blue32]

I have not been to DL on a grad night since 1981 - my own LOL. Between DLR and WDW, I think we all know any time you get a group of teens together you will see this kind of thing. Whether it is the Brazilians on school break or cheerleader crowds you tend to see high energy teens not appearing to care about how their behavior and language and noise (screamy teen girls) affects others.

I have seen all of this on normal Disney days that are not grad nights. I also have heard profanity from adults as well. And other types of rude behavior from adults.

If I were going on a grad night I would follow the advice of the PP who mentioned trying to focus on dining or shows in the evening. Maybe that is the day you skip a typical afternoon break and power through and then leave the parks early.

Good luck to the OP!

Someone asked about this in the Chat section of the Lines app as well and a couple people responded with the advice of:

Get your priority rides done at DL in the morning(especially the thrill rides) and hop to DCA in the evening. It seems a lot of the grads tend to stay in DL until late in the evening when they have to move over to DCA for the after hours party. Makes sense.

 

[LBIJim]

OP, since you homeschool and can choose your vacation dates, I'd avoid going on a grad nite. Last May, DW and I purposely changed our dates after we found out the original ones were grad nites. True, there might not be any problems, but having the luxury of a choice, to me it makes sense to avoid any potential trouble. Have a great trip.

Jim

 

[Butterfly123]

Someone asked about this in the Chat section of the Lines app as well and a couple people responded with the advice of:

Get your priority rides done at DL in the morning(especially the thrill rides) and hop to DCA in the evening. It seems a lot of the grads tend to stay in DL until late in the evening when they have to move over to DCA for the after hours party. Makes sense.

This worked well for us. We didn't have big problems with the grad nights on our trip, but I think part of the reason is that we worked around them. It was more crowded, starting to build as the day went on. If you can avoid them, I would, simply because I didn't find it fun to have to work my schedule around them. One wouldn't have been bad, but we had three on a four day trip. I don't mind a little rowdiness around the parks, but I don't enjoy people acting up on rides, which did happen, even avoiding the more popular rides in the evening. It's still Disneyland, and it's great fun, so if you can't avoid them (like on our trip) you will still have a blast. Just be prepared, and plan accordingly.