What are Grad Nights?

[fishinChip]

I'm wondering what are Grad Nights and how would they affect my vacation at the end of April or early May?
THANKS!!!

 

[WDSearcher]

Grad Nites are special events that are held after the park closes and require a separate "hard ticket" in order to attend. They are for graduating seniors, their dates and their chaperones only, and include several stages of entertainment, dancing, photos, etc. They are "late night" events -- starting after dark and going until 1 or 2am.

They don't tend to affect normal "day guests" all that much, except that MK tends to close an hour or so earlier so that entertainment set-ups can take place. So MK hours will be affected on those nights. Also ... lots of the Grads come down for a few days, not just for that night, so you'll see a lot more high schoolers on those weekends, and you'll notice it a lot more if you're staying at the budget resorts -- particularly the All-Star resorts.

The good news ... MK and MGM are the only two parks that really see a significant bump in attendance during Grad Nites. The kids generally stay out of Epcot and DAK. So if you make those your focus on the days the kids are there, you'll be fine.

 

[n2mm]

There are also activities at Pleasure island for these special guests! PI is usually closed to the public until 9:00 PM during these special engagements. You can usually tell that the kids are there, mostly because of the sea of yellow school buses and tour buses filling the parking lot.

 

[DebbieB]

These are held on Friday and Saturday night and pre-empts Spectromagic and Fireworks at MK those nights, usually the only days of the week they are held in off season.

 

[SnackyStacky]

I'm surprised these aren't more widespread. Our local amusement park has grad night.

Not making any judgements, just surprised is all!

 

[bunnyfoo]

What are the tentative dates for the grad nites? Do they usually take place at the beginning of May?

 

[angey77]

Originally posted by WDSearcher
The good news ... MK and MGM are the only two parks that really see a significant bump in attendance during Grad Nites. The kids generally stay out of Epcot and DAK. So if you make those your focus on the days the kids are there, you'll be fine.

Not true on EPCOT. When I attended in '95, we were forced to stay in EPCOT NINE HOURS!!! Do you know what kind of torture that is for a 17 year old?? And we're talking pre-Test Track days!
Anyway, depending on the schools, the students usually only see MK on Grad Nite, and a different park each day, including Universal and Sea World.