Oh no! Scheduled our trip on a grad night! :(

[beckyc1980]

Hi everyone!

I thought I was so careful this year when scheduling my family's trip. I thought about weather, which rides were scheduled to be closed, etc. But I didn't even think about Grad night. So as it turns out, two of our three days are grad nights. What can we expect on these days? Will it be insanely crowded at the parks? That's my main concern. I purposely scheduled this trip for May so kids would still be in school. Ugh. :/

 

[Geemo]

Post #1 for you. A newbee. Welcome!




If you start early I'm sure you'll be fine.

Here is a link to let you know what events are going on at DLR and it also lists school breaks
http://www.disboards.com/threads/2016-calendar-of-events-school-breaks-and-dlr.3434866/

The grad nights info is here
http://www.disneyyouth.com/our-prog...ad-night-dlr/#categories-disneyland-grad-nite

There are extremely few times when the parks aren't crowd.
That's why I find the first link figment_jii does so helpful when trying to decide when to book a trip.

Have fun
Geemo

 

[Disneyland1084]

I've never been on a grad night, but I can't imagine it making that much of a difference. Disneyland can be insanely crowded on any given day. It's really hit and miss. But speaking of grad night, I think it's really $()#&* that DL doesn't do it in the middle of the night anymore. They did it that way for over FIFTY years, and then changed it all of a sudden a couple or so years ago.

 

[agamble]

Since they don't do the parties at night the parks no longer close early for them, bonus. Unfortunately the teens now get a park hopper good all day and they add to the crowds. On the plus side, the parties happen when a majority of schools are still in session and people aren't vacationing. Though the further you get into June the more schools will be out.

 

[SMD]

There are extremely few times when the parks aren't crowd.

As I was reading this thread I was thinking that once you get into grad nite season it's going to be crowded because it's also vacation season. And the regular crowds don't go away just because more people are coming.

 

[Geemo]

As I was reading this thread I was thinking that once you get into grad nite season it's going to be crowded because it's also vacation season. And the regular crowds don't go away just because more people are coming.

If you read the information on the Grad-Nite page, you'll see Disney added two nights "Due to overwhelming demand". So there ya go....

The new norm is here for park attendance. Something all of us will have to adjust to.
The ole' times are pretty much a thing of the past.....

Ahhhh I do remember when.....

Geemo

 

[Rabb it]

Get there at opening to knock out the E-tickets! The grad night crowds are as expected annoying and loud, everyone trying to show off and be loud in front of their buddies or girls.. Make sure to pace yourself, hit the good shows, and maybe have dinner at a nice restaurant, you can be sure none of the graddies will be eating at any nice places!

 

[Butterfly123]

The advice here is great. Start early, and do all the bigger FP rides early in the day. The kids start coming around noonish, and you can get a lot done before then. Do you have hoppers? They will be so helpful, so you can start at DL and hop over to DCA later in the day when DL gets crowded. The kids mainly focus on DL, because their party starts in DCA at 10:00pm, so their chance to do the DL thing is during the day and early evening.

And don't worry too much. Two summers ago we had to plan a four day trip that had three grad nights! It was the only time we could go. It didn't turn out to be a big deal. Now you never know what the groups will be like, and I try to avoid them when I can, but having a grad night doesn't always mean chaos. I had heard a lot about line cutting, and loud behavior on rides. We rode the things like SM early in the day, so we could avoid that type of thing. The kids we experienced just wanted to have a good time.

 

[MouseOfCards]

Post #1 for you. A newbee. Welcome!




If you start early I'm sure you'll be fine.

Here is a link to let you know what events are going on at DLR and it also lists school breaks
http://www.disboards.com/threads/2016-calendar-of-events-school-breaks-and-dlr.3434866/

The grad nights info is here
http://www.disneyyouth.com/our-prog...ad-night-dlr/#categories-disneyland-grad-nite

There are extremely few times when the parks aren't crowd.
That's why I find the first link figment_jii does so helpful when trying to decide when to book a trip.

Have fun
Geemo

Thanks!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Welcome!!

You'll be fine. But do be ready for big crowds, not crazy holiday level stuff, but the crowds have remained steadily large this spring. A little bit of pre-planning is all that is needed to make the most of grad nite days. The grads tend to start trickling into DL by lunch and are very noticeable by dinner. There aren't too many of them in DCA because they have free run of that park after closing for their party. (The exception is Grizzly River Rapids, I did notice an uptick of high schoolers in the single rider line in the afternoon but it really wasn't bad.) The first PTN and the DL fireworks were bonkers on the grad nite we were there last year so I would plan those on the non grad nite. The late PTN was fine. You DO NOT want to try a "major" ride after dinner in DL on a grad nite (I tried Indy once- what was I thinking?!). Grads start leaving DL when their party starts in DCA but DL park is still full of them until closing.

Our plan on Grad Nites:
-Rope drop DL (or as close as we can, usually we're about 15mins behind rope drop lol!)
-Do the major attractions in the morning (like Space, Indy)
-exit park around 2pm for pool/hotel break [if you're not a pool/hotel break person simply hop over to DCA when the crowds start to be too much for you in DL]
-head into DCA for the evening

You can still have a great time at DLR over Grad Nites!

 

[beckyc1980]

Thank you all so much! We ended up pushing our trip back just one day, so at least now we will only be there for on grad night day and the other two days will be "regular" days. Hopefully it's not a big deal. One of my kids has autism so we always have fast passes which will help with lines. Trying not to stress about it!

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[Purrkins]

Ah, grad night, where one can expect to hear kids yell "boner" all through the Haunted Mansion. My wife chaperoned some kids a few years back and I came along. When she asked again last year if I wanted to come I asked can I drive separately? No. Can I bring my flask and drink whiskey all night? No. Yeah, I'm good going through our Netflix queue and clipping the dog's nails. Have fun.