Will early closing due to Grad Nite affect us?

[Mr.Bubbles]

We just booked our first trip to DL for June 2008. We will have two days to be in the parks. I just realized that one of the days, a Thursday, will close at 9 p.m. to get ready for Grad Nite. Will this seriously impact our touring of DL if we are there at opening time? Are the parks packed to the max around mid June? Our only other option is to do CA on Thursday and DL on Friday, but which would be more crowded?? I have heard that Fridays at DL can be pretty packed. We typically stay at the parks ALL day from opeing to closing, even if it is 11p.m. or midnight. The Grad Nite will cut out about 3 hours on Thursday. Any advice??

 

[DLovinFam]

I was trying for find info. on when grad nights were in 2008. We are going mid June too. Do you happen to have the grad night dates for me? Thanks.

 

[Mr.Bubbles]

I found the info on the Disney website at:

http://www.disneylandgradnite.com/chaperones/home.html?deeplink=2008dates

Here is what they are showing for 08:
2008 GRAD NITE DATES
Thursday May 15
Thursday May 22
Thursday May 29
Thursday June 5
Wednesday June 11
Thursday June 12
Thursday June 19

 

[minniecarousel]

The problem we encountered in June 2006 on a Grad Night was that everyone leaves the Park at the same time. I think they had the fireworks early and then hearded everyone out the MainGate. We thought we'd be able to use the Monorail but they said they were done loading for the night - that it wouldn't be returning! (Why they wanted everyone to go out through Main St was a mystery to me.) All the restaurants in DTD were jammed! We were staying at the Grand Calif, and that's where we buy most of our meals. I heard that the parking lot trams were a nightmare. It gets you out of the Park earlier, but it didn't really feel like it cut into our touring very much.

 

[Mr.Bubbles]

Thanks Julie. It sounds like doing anything at DTD is the biggest issue.

 

[Albort]

Though Grad Nite scares the crowds away big time. They DO close the Lion King lot for the buses to park i believe. They usher everyone out to the M&F parking structure.

Grad Nite is terrible though... i hated it.

 

[DLovinFam]

This is good to know ahead of time. Two of our 7 days at DL, we are planning to drive down to San Diego and do the Zoo and Seaworld. I guess Thursday (grad night) will be one of those days and we won't worry about getting back early to spend time at DL. I did buy 6 day hoppers, so I guess we will use one of them on Sat afternoon/evening, after we arrive.

I love this board! It's nice knowing what to expect ahead of time. It really helps in planning and not being dissapointed because we weren't aware of something.

 

[Albort]

ooo, before i forget, one of the grad nite, the EE is cancelled but its move to a Sunday so you might want to take advantage of that since people would probably not know about the changed EE date.

and park opens one hour later the next day... dont forget about that...

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Our trip this past June landed on one grad night. It also messed us up for EE that we wanted to use on that day. But it really wasn't that big of a deal. Crowds were still pretty low that day, and we had very little wait for the rides. We just went back to the hotel shortly before closing (so that way we missed the crowds leaving) and took a swim!

 

[Mr.Bubbles]

Thanks! So, no EE that day and a onerhour delay opening the next day. Good to know! Since we will only be there Wed-Sat. a.m. we will not have an opportunity for EE while we are there.