2025 Graduation Night

Every year, the graduating class celebrates one of many special occasions before they go off into the real world. One of these special occasions is called “Grad Nite”, in which the senior class spends around 15 hours in Disneyland to eat wonderful food, enjoy crazy rides, and bond with classmates that you grew up with. While there were some issues in my experience like the buses, wait time, and crippling feet pain; 2025 Grad Nite was awesome overall!

The rundown of Grad Nite basically is starting around 9:30 to 10:00 AM with check-ins with our chaperons before we fill onto the buses. Thankfully, I got on one of the nice buses with my group, so we filled in and got some comfy seats. Then the chaperones would tell us to not do dumb stuff such as not bringing anything illegal, and then check in with the other chaperones through the group chat. Afterwards, we then drove to Disneyland and then we got our tickets, wrist bands, and 65 dollars to cover food expenses or fast-pass tickets if we wanted to. Then we got checked in, went through security, rode on the tram, and finally entered Disneyland. The rest of the day was basically spending time in Disneyland before going over to California Adventureland around 9 PM, and then we went into the buses around 1 AM and arrived at Mayfair around 2 AM. 

My overall experience was kind of mixed if I’m being honest. The things I enjoyed were getting to go on the rides, eating food, spending time with friends, and exploring the place. And if I can recall correctly, the order of rides my group went on was Jungle Cruise, the Millenium Falcon, Thundermountain (twice because a friend had to sit out due to spacing issues), Rise of the Resistance, some spinning swings, the Ferris Wheel, and then the Incredicoaster. Honestly, I loved the rides but I absolutely hated the wait time. Which brings up the cons of Grad Nite, that being the aching feet pain, the issues with buses, and the wait lines. We did not get to do every major ride like Space Mountain, or the Haunted Mansion, or the Guardians of the Galaxy drop ride because it had about a one to two hour wait time, which is definitely not worth it. Plus we began to get grumpy and tired around the 11th hour, so some of my group skipped out on rides. Besides that, I don’t like how you still have to go to school the next day since most students would skip out or be running on 2-5 hours of sleep, which I was the later half of those who came to school the next day.

Pet peeves and sucky things aside, Grad Nite is still incredibly worth going. It’s a very fun experience, and I got to enjoy a variety of things in Disney that I haven’t been able to for a while (That being like five or six years ago). So despite the expensive ticket when the school brings it up, I recommend to all future seniors to go to Grad Nite and make the most of it with your friends! Anyway, I gotta go prepare for graduation and college, so have a good one!

Image Courtesy of Robert GLOD on Flickr.