Grad night - one-off bad experience or the norm?

[DonMacGregor]

Flats and tennis shoes are all I wear. I can't do ANY heel.

You couldn't have worked at Disneyland/Disney World back then either.

 

[Dug720]

You couldn't have worked at Disneyland/Disney World back then either.

Thank goodness workplace safety has entered the picture and people realize that heels are NOT appropriate theme park employee attire for safety reasons for the majority of jobs.

 

[bizaro86]

Sorry to hear about your daughter's experience. We went a week ago and our trip overlapped with 2 grad nights. I enjoyed it quite a bit actually, and wouldn't avoid that time in the future. There were teenagers doing teenager things, but I'm fairly tolerant of people having fun at theme parks. None of them were overly disruptive, a few running carelessly was the worst we saw, which isn't a big deal to me.

Grizzly rapids isn't always closed. We stayed fairly close to the close of DCA for public tickets and rode it last (only 1 son likes water rides so we always do it last thing and the other plus my wife do either soaring or now webslingers). All the other riders were grads, I took photos of a group on the ride for one group of three. They all seemed to be having a pretty good time to me.

DCA was pretty dead in the morning on grad nights - I think people avoid them and the grads don't show up until later.

 

[Kit Jackson]

To the OP, I would try to go at a time in the future when it is less crowded. Tell your daughter that it was an off day/a bad night but not to let it premanently ruin Disneyland for her. If she enjoyed the December trip, remind her of that.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Thank goodness workplace safety has entered the picture and people realize that heels are NOT appropriate theme park employee attire for safety reasons for the majority of jobs.

You keep saying "heels". We're talking laced work shoes with a non-slip, rubber sole with a "defined heel". The shoes they let CM's wear now (anything black, including tennis shoes), are miles less safe than what we were required to wear.

This is what everyone wore back then, regardless of costume (unless you were wearing cowboy boots on Thunder, or moccasins on Canoes). Even under full-length dresses, girls wore the laced shoes. Girls on Storybook could wear Mary Janes, and Guest Services (what everyone now calls "Plaids") wore actual heels with a strap (dance shoes).



I liked wearing a chukka boot myself:



ETA: Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread...

 

[DnA2010]

We were at DLR on friday the 12th of May and it was for sure very busy afternoon/evening in both parks. Morning was ok, but we were in DCA later till about 7:30pm and it very busy already with rides down, and when we got to DL it was very busy as well with long lines also. I did see some grads in front of us in line for WS using Genie and they didn't have a parent with them, so not sure how they were able to get it, but they were using it. I did watch the ride times in DCA over the evening and they for sure stayed high

 

[cmph]

We were at DLR on friday the 12th of May and it was for sure very busy afternoon/evening in both parks. Morning was ok, but we were in DCA later till about 7:30pm and it very busy already with rides down, and when we got to DL it was very busy as well with long lines also. I did see some grads in front of us in line for WS using Genie and they didn't have a parent with them, so not sure how they were able to get it, but they were using it. I did watch the ride times in DCA over the evening and they for sure stayed high

The Genie+ rule is for under 18yos. Unfortunate rule for the summer birthdays!

 

[DonMacGregor]

Ever since they introduced "mix-ins" in lieu of true Private Parties back in the '80's-'90's, it's been hit-or-miss on how a party will turn out, attendance-wise. You just never know when things will go sideways. For example, back in 2003, when the Ducks were in the Stanley Cup Finals, attendance at the parks exploded. That series coincided with plenty of Grad nights that year (4/27-6/9), and impacted the Grad Nights significantly. Obviously an extreme example, but as good as Disney is at projecting attendance, they do miss the boat a few times, especially given how far out private parties are scheduled.

 

[twodogs]

Ever since they introduced "mix-ins" in lieu of true Private Parties back in the '80's-'90's, it's been hit-or-miss on how a party will turn out, attendance-wise. You just never know when things will go sideways. For example, back in 2003, when the Ducks were in the Stanley Cup Finals, attendance at the parks exploded. That series coincided with plenty of Grad nights that year (4/27-6/9), and impacted the Grad Nights significantly. Obviously an extreme example, but as good as Disney is at projecting attendance, they do miss the boat a few times, especially given how far out private parties are scheduled.

But with park reservations these days, shouldn't it either at the Disney-expected crowd level or less (if people made a reservation and then no-showed)? Crowds should never surprise Disney (and their staffing levels) with the reservation system in place.... But it still seems like the systems are overwhelmed more than they aren't. Ride closure, perhaps staffing to the bare minimum for the crowds, perhaps staffing even less than that to save money...But the actual number of people in the parks on any given day, private event or not, should never be a surprise to Disney.

 

[Aurora0427]

A site I follow for Disney news said that there is a rumor that DL oversold grad nights this year. They said there would usually be about 5000 grads in DCA but that one night there were almost 14,000!! I have no idea if this is true but if it is, it would seem to explain the overcrowding.

All I know is we were at Disneyland and DCA last Tuesday and Wednesday- both grad nites- and it was completely nuts all day. Worse than Halloween crowds. We were fine because we go all the time and I’m finally an expert at using genie plus, but I felt so sorry for the families with young kids who went thinking they were beating the summer crowds. It. Was. Madness. Most people had grad nite wristbands… they showed up by 10:30am and Disneyland was packed until they all had to go over DCA at 9 for the official party. The park was lovely after 9. We walked on Rise and Runaway Railway and had the best time.

 

[irlandaise]

All I know is we were at Disneyland and DCA last Tuesday and Wednesday- both grad nites- and it was completely nuts all day. Worse than Halloween crowds. We were fine because we go all the time and I’m finally an expert at using genie plus, but I felt so sorry for the families with young kids who went thinking they were beating the summer crowds. It. Was. Madness. Most people had grad nite wristbands… they showed up by 10:30am and Disneyland was packed until they all had to go over DCA at 9 for the official party. The park was lovely after 9. We walked on Rise and Runaway Railway and had the best time.

The grad "night" attendees were allowed to enter both parks at any time that day??

 

[starlite_]

The grad "night" attendees were allowed to enter both parks at any time that day??

The grand nite attendees that purchased a ticket that allowed them to enter the parks at any time that day were. Not every grad had that type of ticket.

 

[cmph]

The grad "night" attendees were allowed to enter both parks at any time that day??

They pay twice as much for a ticket type that is a one-day park hopper + grad night ticket. It's by no means a "good deal".

 

[joseph821]

They pay twice as much for a ticket type that is a one-day park hopper + grad night ticket. It's by no means a "good deal".

Not a good deal at all. Agreed.

 

[Aurora0427]

The grad "night" attendees were allowed to enter both parks at any time that day??

It’s a ticket….. they buy a park hopper ticket in addition to their grad night ticket. Disney has 3 options I believe. For whatever reason, there were tons of grad nite attendees with the park hopper ticket last Tuesday.

 

[Aurora0427]

They pay twice as much for a ticket type that is a one-day park hopper + grad night ticket. It's by no means a "good deal".

It may not be a good deal, but lots of them buy those tickets or they did last Tuesday!

 

[cmph]

It may not be a good deal, but lots of them buy those tickets or they did last Tuesday!

oh for sure, but that's at least partially b/c some of them aren't given options. Mine was one of them on Wed LOL. The grad trip she was part of, that includes the tickets in the overall trip cost, didn't give them an option of which ticket type to buy. I would bet that most of the non-locals opt for that overpriced all-day version.

 

[Aurora0427]

oh for sure, but that's at least partially b/c some of them aren't given options. Mine was one of them on Wed LOL. The grad trip she was part of, that includes the tickets in the overall trip cost, didn't give them an option of which ticket type to buy. I would bet that most of the non-locals opt for that overpriced all-day version.

I wonder if they aren’t given a choice because they’re supposed to come together on a school van, bus etc with a chaperone. I thought I read the grad nights were for local schools only….. but I guess that means Southern California?

 

[starlite_]

I wonder if they aren’t given a choice because they’re supposed to come together on a school van, bus etc with a chaperone. I thought I read the grad nights were for local schools only….. but I guess that means Southern California?

Not just California. I think any high school can participate. Even other countries.

 

[cmph]

I wonder if they aren’t given a choice because they’re supposed to come together on a school van, bus etc with a chaperone. I thought I read the grad nights were for local schools only….. but I guess that means Southern California?

Not just California. I think any high school can participate. Even other countries.

Correct, not just CA. We're CA-adjacent but our area schools have been doing this trip for some time. We have an organizer per school, but the high schools in our district all travel together. They travel in big ol' buses to CA (and the non-DLR activities), but they stay in the good neighbor hotels, so they walk to the parks.

I asked DD, and they didn't have to check in with their chaperones at the parks. I'm sure they buy the all-day hoppers+grad night b/c they think it's the best use of their time.