KittyKat1978
DIS Veteran
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- Aug 7, 2011
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I was there for 3 grad nights May 23, 24, & 25th. I left the DL around when CA closed (around 8:30-9:00) as the amount of people seemed to triple.
So What's The Final Word on GRAD NITES?
- Thread starter Cal-Pie
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aluckyduck
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2011
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Was I wrong thinking they had access to both parks all day this year?
No you are not wrong. They could come as early as they wanted, but they had to come together as a school. Most schools came between 12-3 from what I understood. The school I chaperoned with came at 3ish. However, the day we came, we could not got to DCA, it was closed to the media. We were given a DCA ticket to use on any day within a year.
It definitely got busy after 4. I think they closed the gates to grads at about 10, so most were in the park by 7, just in case!
As far as the GN went, it was really cool! It was not busy, rides were 20-40 minutes, and not trying to stay up until 6 am was really nice.
If I were just a regular guest, I'd have been annoyed, though, at the crowd size.
skiingfast
<font color=teal>Has had no bacon<br><font color=b
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I was there Tuesday. I didn't enounter any problems nothing that bothered me but lots of groups here and there with increasing sightings as the day went on.. Though I did leave before 10 from DCA and was in the RSR FP line a little after 8pm and went right to LFT after RSR. CL was pretty crowded so any grads didn't stick out like a sore thumb when mixed into the big crowd.
cats mom
DIS Veteran
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- Oct 25, 2000
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I'm surprised at how many people say attending on a Grad Night had little to no impact.
I'd say that was true for us in the morning hours or for rides or shows that don't typically appeal to the teen crowd. You want to ride Pinocchio's Daring Journey or see Mr. Lincoln? You'll probably be just fine.
But for things like Screamin', Space Mtn, etc. we definitely noticed not only longer lines, but a different vibe in line, especially starting late afternoon and into the evening.
I didn't see any behavior I thought was awful, but lets just say there were groups of teens ranging from intimate couples all the way up to large, vocal groups traveling together enmasse.
Would I completely reschedule a trip to avoid Grad Nights? Not necessarily. But I would try to make sure my park days weren't all Grad Nights, or if that was my only option, I would structure my touring plan accordingly. ie: get there as early as possible and do anything you think might appeal to teens first. Save the stuff most teens tend to roll their eyes at for later in the day when the crowds really hit.
I'd say that was true for us in the morning hours or for rides or shows that don't typically appeal to the teen crowd. You want to ride Pinocchio's Daring Journey or see Mr. Lincoln? You'll probably be just fine.
But for things like Screamin', Space Mtn, etc. we definitely noticed not only longer lines, but a different vibe in line, especially starting late afternoon and into the evening.
I didn't see any behavior I thought was awful, but lets just say there were groups of teens ranging from intimate couples all the way up to large, vocal groups traveling together enmasse.
Would I completely reschedule a trip to avoid Grad Nights? Not necessarily. But I would try to make sure my park days weren't all Grad Nights, or if that was my only option, I would structure my touring plan accordingly. ie: get there as early as possible and do anything you think might appeal to teens first. Save the stuff most teens tend to roll their eyes at for later in the day when the crowds really hit.
starshine514
DIS Veteran
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- Nov 21, 2010
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We had one grad night (our last night) on our last trip mid-May. We had bad experiences, long lines, line jumping, bad language, condom laying one the ground (DD7. - What's that Mommy?) I was very unhappy about the experience, so much so that I emailed Disneyland about it (which I would encourage -otherwise they won't realize how bad the new format is. Btw -I did get a response and in the end a letter I can take to the box office for 1-day PHs for my family). I'm hoping they'll change the format back if enough of us complain. In the meantime, I'll be avoiding grad nights.
Goofy_Mom
Disney Princess
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I wanted to add to this part. We rode Pirates at around 10 pm and it was awesome!! It seemed to be amped up, I "actually" thought a canon ball was going to take my head off and the impact from the canon splash was huge!! I think it's the only time I have gotten wet on that ride!
Our experience was similar as well. We were at the parks June 11-13 & 15-16. We also noticed the park was definitely more crowded and rowdier. DH & DD were waiting in line for one of the rides and they said 2 grads had stolen a balloon from a child's stroller and they got in line ahead of DH/DD. The cast member noticed it right away and called them out on it. One of the guys tried to play it off like the balloon was his (hiding it behind his back), but he eventually admitted he took it and gave it directly back to the child whose stroller he took it from. DH said they were quiet and looked ashamed during the remainder of their wait in line.
Also, while waiting to be let into the auditorium for Captain EO, I was talking to my toddler when I noticed a young couple really going at it. I mean, the guy was groping at his GF's crotch
and....well, let's just say they realllly need to just get a room already. I was pretty disgusted being there with my kids. I mean, I was young once as well (35 now), but some things just are not appropriate in certain places and I have never been that disrespectful in a public place.If we start making annual trips to DL (instead of every 2 years), I will definitely try to plan around the Grad Nights.
theparsons
DIS Veteran
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- 833
We attended two Grad Nites (Thur June 21 and Fri June 22).....the days were crowded but the private event portion was decidedly NOT crowded....we walked onto almost everything, and rode Star Tours without getting up from our seats 8 times (could have gone longer, but we decided to leave). Most of the kids seemed more interested in the dance parties/music than in the rides, lol. My group was there for the no line rides and never stood in line to get into the dance floor (yes, there were lines for the dance floors....they had one entrance, one exit and as kids exited the same number were allowed in.)
I spent about an hour talking with a lead CM on Friday and found out that the highest attended Grad Nite event this year had approximately 14,000 grads....the lowest was approx 8,000 grads. Our nights were both near the 10,000 mark.
When we signed up we were required to fill in a survey about things like what time we intended to arrive, etc. Turns out that the majority of the schools were coming very late afternoon/early evening. The average time on the hoppers was 4-5 hours, plus the private event of 4 hours.
Our group was one of the "exceptions" according to her.....we came Thursday at rope drop (to do RSR), then we left about 3pm, went back to the hotel for a nap, coming back at 8pm, staying until 3am. Our group was also one of "very few" that did more than one party night....in fact she said she thought there were less than a dozen schools doing two nights and without exception she thought they were ones travelling from afar....we came from Phoenix, so not local, but not what I would truly call far but I guess one of the groups actually came from Canada and a few from Eastern states as well. On Friday, we slept until about 2pm and came back to the parks at dinner and stayed all night again.
She expects that next year will be about the same.....and it's planned that way. In the past they had the grad nights as a one-park all night until dawn event and there were only a handful of nights. Now there are over 20 nights and the private party is only 4 hours (11pm to 3am). The reason for this change was the impact on the public hours.....people were complaining about not knowing about the reduced hours to the public and they'd come here from far off and it was a one time trip, etc etc. (Obviously not Disers, because we know to check the calendar!!) And, the schools were complaining about not being able to visit the non-private event park. So, the compromise was to open both parks to the grads during the day, and start the party a bit later so the public didn't feel cheated either. She said that the complaints were way down this year about the hours, but that they still had some issues with complaints about the student behavior.
That led to another very interesting conversation about entire schools that have been banned from grad nite because of behavior issues! That really shocked me.....so this year's senior class screws up and the entire rest of the school is banned for years to come....she said some of the bans were for 3 or 4 years (in other words the current student body), some were a decade and a few were lifetime bans! I think I'd have some real hatred for the seniors that caused my younger class to never be able to go! When I asked what behavior caused such things she rattled off a long list....drugs, alcohol, sex in the park, fights, all the normal stuff.....the lifetime bans apparently were because it was the same types of problems for more than one senior class from that school, and she said the blame was really on the school admin for not seeing it as a problem and working to ensure the next year's senior class didn't do the same thing. That floored me, lol.
We witnessed a group of teens being expelled.....they were on Haunted Mansion and the ride stopped midway (for us we were at Leota)....it was about a five minute wait before it started up again. As we exited the Disney Secuirty were there with a group of 5 teens and two big bottles of booze. The teens could barely talk/stand. And mind you, the private party had only been going about an hour! According the CM I spoke with, these teens were escorted off property by DL security and arrested for underage drinking by the Anaheim Police (we were warned of this possibility in the Chaperone Guide). She said that if that was a second offense for the school they'd be banned. Apparently it wasn't the only set of arrests that night either. Personally I think this specific problem could be avoided with a better bag check...shining a light into a big backpack doesn't see what's at the bottom. I've always felt this way though.....you know those diaper bags could be holding an arsenal, lol.
Anyway...sorry, got off track a little, but I found it very interesting and somewhat sad how the students are messing up these things for the next year of grads. DL has the largest number of security on duty during these events....even more than they had on June 15 for the opening of Carsland. I asked her point blank if she thought that these continued problems would eventually end Grad Nites and she didn't think so because it was too much of a tradition (since the 1960's) for Disney to want to end it, and that even though these are big problems....it's a dozen or two students out of the thousands that attend each evening. I was happy to hear that as I was worried it would go away like it did at WDW....she wasn't sure all the reasons WDW stopped, but said she had heard it had more to do with low interest than with problems.
So...back on track a bit.....8k to 14k of kids are really not a huge amount and the impact appears to be only in the later hours. This year the crowds were really more families than grads.....and centered around Carsland opening. DL was decidedly less crowded both our days....not walk on, but Star Tours was 20 minute waits which seems about half what it was a month ago.
If anyone is planning their trip for next year, here are the dates for Grad Nite so that you can either avoid them, or realize that your best times are going to be through midafternoon before most of the grads arrive and increase the parks by a few thousand.
May, 2013: 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31
June, 2013: 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21
I spent about an hour talking with a lead CM on Friday and found out that the highest attended Grad Nite event this year had approximately 14,000 grads....the lowest was approx 8,000 grads. Our nights were both near the 10,000 mark.
When we signed up we were required to fill in a survey about things like what time we intended to arrive, etc. Turns out that the majority of the schools were coming very late afternoon/early evening. The average time on the hoppers was 4-5 hours, plus the private event of 4 hours.
Our group was one of the "exceptions" according to her.....we came Thursday at rope drop (to do RSR), then we left about 3pm, went back to the hotel for a nap, coming back at 8pm, staying until 3am. Our group was also one of "very few" that did more than one party night....in fact she said she thought there were less than a dozen schools doing two nights and without exception she thought they were ones travelling from afar....we came from Phoenix, so not local, but not what I would truly call far but I guess one of the groups actually came from Canada and a few from Eastern states as well. On Friday, we slept until about 2pm and came back to the parks at dinner and stayed all night again.
She expects that next year will be about the same.....and it's planned that way. In the past they had the grad nights as a one-park all night until dawn event and there were only a handful of nights. Now there are over 20 nights and the private party is only 4 hours (11pm to 3am). The reason for this change was the impact on the public hours.....people were complaining about not knowing about the reduced hours to the public and they'd come here from far off and it was a one time trip, etc etc. (Obviously not Disers, because we know to check the calendar!!) And, the schools were complaining about not being able to visit the non-private event park. So, the compromise was to open both parks to the grads during the day, and start the party a bit later so the public didn't feel cheated either. She said that the complaints were way down this year about the hours, but that they still had some issues with complaints about the student behavior.
That led to another very interesting conversation about entire schools that have been banned from grad nite because of behavior issues! That really shocked me.....so this year's senior class screws up and the entire rest of the school is banned for years to come....she said some of the bans were for 3 or 4 years (in other words the current student body), some were a decade and a few were lifetime bans! I think I'd have some real hatred for the seniors that caused my younger class to never be able to go! When I asked what behavior caused such things she rattled off a long list....drugs, alcohol, sex in the park, fights, all the normal stuff.....the lifetime bans apparently were because it was the same types of problems for more than one senior class from that school, and she said the blame was really on the school admin for not seeing it as a problem and working to ensure the next year's senior class didn't do the same thing. That floored me, lol.
We witnessed a group of teens being expelled.....they were on Haunted Mansion and the ride stopped midway (for us we were at Leota)....it was about a five minute wait before it started up again. As we exited the Disney Secuirty were there with a group of 5 teens and two big bottles of booze. The teens could barely talk/stand. And mind you, the private party had only been going about an hour! According the CM I spoke with, these teens were escorted off property by DL security and arrested for underage drinking by the Anaheim Police (we were warned of this possibility in the Chaperone Guide). She said that if that was a second offense for the school they'd be banned. Apparently it wasn't the only set of arrests that night either. Personally I think this specific problem could be avoided with a better bag check...shining a light into a big backpack doesn't see what's at the bottom. I've always felt this way though.....you know those diaper bags could be holding an arsenal, lol.
Anyway...sorry, got off track a little, but I found it very interesting and somewhat sad how the students are messing up these things for the next year of grads. DL has the largest number of security on duty during these events....even more than they had on June 15 for the opening of Carsland. I asked her point blank if she thought that these continued problems would eventually end Grad Nites and she didn't think so because it was too much of a tradition (since the 1960's) for Disney to want to end it, and that even though these are big problems....it's a dozen or two students out of the thousands that attend each evening. I was happy to hear that as I was worried it would go away like it did at WDW....she wasn't sure all the reasons WDW stopped, but said she had heard it had more to do with low interest than with problems.
So...back on track a bit.....8k to 14k of kids are really not a huge amount and the impact appears to be only in the later hours. This year the crowds were really more families than grads.....and centered around Carsland opening. DL was decidedly less crowded both our days....not walk on, but Star Tours was 20 minute waits which seems about half what it was a month ago.
If anyone is planning their trip for next year, here are the dates for Grad Nite so that you can either avoid them, or realize that your best times are going to be through midafternoon before most of the grads arrive and increase the parks by a few thousand.
May, 2013: 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31
June, 2013: 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21
We were there for two grad nites (6/21 and 6/22). I didn't realize before that it was grad nite because I didn't really look into it. I saw that the park closed at 11pm, so I was going on the old idea of GN and assumed it wasn't happening since the park didn't close early.
The crowds were definitely bigger in the evening and especially at the thrill rides (ToT, Screamin, etc). I first realized something was "different" when we were in the ToT FP return line around 9pm. The line was huge and the crowd was mostly teens. There was a lot of profanity, lots of PDA and just a lot of "noise" - people yelling across to friends, random screaming, etc. We left the line after 10 minutes of not moving and asked the CM what was going on - she explained that it was GN and as much as she was trying to avoid showing it, it was clear that she was not thrilled.
We experienced the same thing at Space Mountain about an hour later (we were using our FP). We saw one couple pretty much having sex with clothes on - groping, grinding, etc with no regard to the families around them. The profanity was again common and loud as were the discussions about sex, alcohol, drugs, partying, etc. We left that line also.
Overall, it definitely seemed to change the overall experience of the lines from our experience. In the lines, there really isn't a way to avoid it and it definitely didn't feel "family friendly". I'm 37, and I've definitely used profanity, but I felt really old in those line and was bothered by it.
When I was in high school, GN was a different experience - the students entered together, it was a private event, there was an enforced dress code and it just seemed like a "classier" event. Of course there was only DL at that point, but I don't remember it being an extension of high school, it was an event. You had to get dressed up which I think made it more "special".
I did share my opinions at City Hall before our trip ended and the CM did say that they were looking at possibly changing things for 2013 and they had received many comments about this year's events.
The crowds were definitely bigger in the evening and especially at the thrill rides (ToT, Screamin, etc). I first realized something was "different" when we were in the ToT FP return line around 9pm. The line was huge and the crowd was mostly teens. There was a lot of profanity, lots of PDA and just a lot of "noise" - people yelling across to friends, random screaming, etc. We left the line after 10 minutes of not moving and asked the CM what was going on - she explained that it was GN and as much as she was trying to avoid showing it, it was clear that she was not thrilled.
We experienced the same thing at Space Mountain about an hour later (we were using our FP). We saw one couple pretty much having sex with clothes on - groping, grinding, etc with no regard to the families around them. The profanity was again common and loud as were the discussions about sex, alcohol, drugs, partying, etc. We left that line also.
Overall, it definitely seemed to change the overall experience of the lines from our experience. In the lines, there really isn't a way to avoid it and it definitely didn't feel "family friendly". I'm 37, and I've definitely used profanity, but I felt really old in those line and was bothered by it.
When I was in high school, GN was a different experience - the students entered together, it was a private event, there was an enforced dress code and it just seemed like a "classier" event. Of course there was only DL at that point, but I don't remember it being an extension of high school, it was an event. You had to get dressed up which I think made it more "special".
I did share my opinions at City Hall before our trip ended and the CM did say that they were looking at possibly changing things for 2013 and they had received many comments about this year's events.
We were there June 7-9, with Grad Nights on the 7th and 8th. The 7th wasn't so bad, but it was obvious by the groups of teens wearing similiar t shirts who the grads were. The 8th was much, much more crowded, and DCA around the first showing of WOC was very busy. Lots of large groups of loud teens that night. We never encountered anyone rude though. Yes, there were hoards of teens there and yes, many of them were very loud, but I found the teens to be a lot more respectful than a lot of the other park attendees that day!
During fireworks on our first night, we were standing waiting for the fireworks to start, and there were four teenage girls in front of us. One of the girls turned around and saw us there with our 5 and 2 year olds, and told us we could take their spot (to have a better view) so that our kids would be able to see better. She mentioned that they would be seeing fireworks again (I'm assuming for Grad Night) and that it didn't matter as much to them as it probably would to our kids. I thought this was very sweet and thoughtful for a group of teenage girls to think that way
During fireworks on our first night, we were standing waiting for the fireworks to start, and there were four teenage girls in front of us. One of the girls turned around and saw us there with our 5 and 2 year olds, and told us we could take their spot (to have a better view) so that our kids would be able to see better. She mentioned that they would be seeing fireworks again (I'm assuming for Grad Night) and that it didn't matter as much to them as it probably would to our kids. I thought this was very sweet and thoughtful for a group of teenage girls to think that way
elgerber
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2000
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- 24,453
We were there the 21st and 22nd, and while we saw some groups of grads, we did not have any problems with them, or notice anything like described above.
Definitely. I remember thinking that the parks felt busier and noticed the crowd was full of teenagers and rowdier, and then I remembered it was a Grad Nite.
starshine514
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2010
- Messages
- 3,164
Worse. Normally we close the park out on Sunday nights and have really short lines the last couple of hours. On grad night, the crowds just get worse, not better. If I ever go on grad night again (which I hope not to), we'll use all our FPs early and stay on the kiddie rides until closing. Fantasyland was the least effected area (go figure, right?).
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