grad nites

I am in the try to avoid it camp. Nothing against the teens, especially since I went to grad night as one once... Those nights always feel really crowded and a bit chaotic to us. I will say that we've never had a particularly bad experience though. The kids can be a bit rowdy but they can be fun also, I think it really just depends on your level of teenager tolerance :)
 


We've been at DLR three times now (we usually go in early May) while there had been Grad Nites. It never felt more crowded than regular nights, and we never encountered super rowdy teens (I know others that have). Don't know if we were lucky or just did not notice.

We hit DCA in the morning and then move to DL in the afternoon or just call it an early night and go to DTD or off property for dinner. One time we planned our off property day on one of the Grad Nite days - kids can buy tickets for the whole day not just the party.
 


So does that mean if there's a grad night on May 29, we can still use MM on Saturday, May 30 in DL?
 
We've gone in early June to DL a few times and whenever we go at that time of year, there are Grad Nights. Overall, we haven't had problems with it. On one occasion, we were in DCA about 45 min before it closed to regular park guests and that was a little unpleasant because most of the grads were in DCA at that point, and roaming in huge groups blocking walkways, lots of swearing, shouting, normal rowdy excited teenager stuff. It was a pain.

So when we go to DL in June again, we're going to plan on avoiding DCA for probably the 2 hours before it closes for the evening to regular park guests.

Our normal strategy has worked well at DL for Grad Night days. What we usually do is something like this:
  • get there for rope drop. Go to DL first.
  • Spend the morning hitting up slow loader rides (stuff like Dumbo) and FP headliners.
  • Plan on being done with Tomorrowland before lunch.
  • In the past, we've noticed that grads started to show up around 3 pm.
  • Take a break at our hotel for 2-4 hours. Get FPs to ride repeats of anything in the evening.
  • If hopping to DCA, be done at DCA BEFORE it closes to regular park guests.
  • In evening at DL before the grads have to be over at DCA, there will be a fair amount of grads in DL. Avoid all of the thrill rides unless you have a FP for it.
  • If watching fireworks, watch the fireworks by IASW instead of on Main Street or in front of the castle.
Once the grads all have to be over at DCA, DL turns into a ghost town by comparison. Also by that time in the evening, families with younger children have left or are starting to leave because their little ones are all tuckered out. One time, we went on Pirates 3 times in a row during the 2nd Fantasmic showing. :-)
 

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