Disneyland or DCA on Grad Night

[tootogether]

We have plans to visit the Disneyland Resort on Friday, 6/16 (Grad Night) and then Monday, 6/20. With Grad Night being Friday, should we stay away from DCA completely Friday and just go to Disneyland or vice versa?

 

[figment_jii]

Grad Night attendees have tickets that allow them access to both parks during the day. Generally, most reports indicate that you'll see a fair number of the attendees in DL during the day and then they "hop" over to DCA once their party starts. I recall seeing a fair number of Grad Night attendees in DL during the day. I don't think there is really anyway to avoid dealing with grad night crowds in either park.

 

[Winnowill]

Tons of grads in DL yesterday. They're unavoidable.

 

[tootogether]

Tons of grads in DL yesterday. They're unavoidable.

Did you notice around what time they started arriving?

 

[Megb1]

We went in May when it was grad night and they started arriving at opening and got busier throughout the day. More so in DCA.

 

[purple figment]

When we were there on a grad night and the morning was pretty quiet at DL. If you are at rope drop you'll have time to do a fair number of rides. The grads start arriving around midday and it gradually becomes more crowded during the afternoon and evening. Tomorrowland and the thrill rides in other areas of the park (e.g. Splash, Indy, Big Thunder) tend to get very crowded so if any of these are in your plans do them in the morning.

If you have hoppers you could do DL in the morning, then head over to DCA in the afternoon. Not as many grads are in DCA during the day since they'll have the park to themselves during the grad night hours.

 

[arichau]

My strategy for Grad Nights is to do the thrill rides early and be ready to hop. Honestly this is my strategy every day! We always go in early June and usually have a few grad nights for our trip. If I'm going to make a reservation for a character dinner or a dinner that gets me a reserved area for the parade, etc. I will book it one of those nights.

We have never had any kind of issue with grad nights - sometimes the day before or after that isn't a grad night is crazy busy for seemingly no reason. You just never know. I've been in both parks during grad night days and haven't really noticed a difference - ride closures I think have much more of an impact on huge crowd swells - which are of course unpredictable.