Photo TR: Homer's Grad Nite at Magic Kingdom, 4/20/07

[Homer]

A sign that the end of the year is coming has always been one tradition at my school for the past 35 years. None other than to cart a bus full of rowdy high school seniors to Magic Kingdom for Grad Nite. Most of the night, I chilled with my friends and most of the pics I got were of my friends. But, I snapped some stupid, dorky shots too.

 

So, on to the boring text part!

 

First ride of the night was BTMR. I have not ridden this Arrow masterpiece since I was 8 and so this ride felt like a new credit to me. Also, two of my friends were complete wusses and I couldn't convince them to ride, but at least one of them rode with me, and at least she liked it. Lets just say this ride feels like its never going to end at some points, really well themed, and some pops of airtime to go with it. BTMR gets my "favorite Mine Train coaster" award until I finally get around to riding Everest... Score: 8/10

 

So, since half of my group went down to Main Street to shop while my friend and I were at BTMR. We had a hard time trying to find them and ended up in Tomorrowland. First things I see were a very ugly MILF and Stitch. My friend wanted to see Stitch, so we went over there, since we had nothing better to do.

 

To sum up Stitch's Great Escape... it sucked. I see how Disney was trying to go with the overall family audience, but this ride seemed too cheesy to be at Disney. The only props this ride gets is how great looking the Stitch animatronic is. Other than that, PTS! Score: 2/10

 

After that, we headed over to Buzz Lightyears to only a walk-on wait. I still kind of prefer MIB, maybe because the guns at MIB are not as bulky. However, Buzz remains one of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom because of its fun factor. Score: 8/10

 

Following Buzz, we finally found the other half of my group and we decided to hit up rides in Fantazy *ahem* Fantasy Land. So, lets briefly review rides in Fantasy Land.

 

its a small world- "OH GOD MAKE IT STOP!" 1/10.

Peter Pan's Flight- All this and a trip to Neverland Ranch... 3/10

Snow White- Witches and Bitches... 3/10

Carousel- Its like every other darn carousel. 6/10

Mad Tea Party- One word: awesome. Not Red Dawn Awesome, but close enough. 8/10

 

After that, we stepped in to Tomorrowland for a ride on Indy Speedway. A special note here, the ops were especially nice tonight on this ride, it seemed random that at the end the CM gave us all stickers. Okay, I guess, but free stuff is awesome. Score: 7/10

 

Then, we ate at Cosmic Ray's and headed over to Adventureland to ride the newly revamped Pirates. Let me just say that Pirates' renovation was well done with adding movie elements and still keeping the old charms that made us all like the ride in the first place. One question... where's Keira Knightley? Score: 7.5/10 (would have been an 8 if I saw some Keira )

 

After that, my friends wanted to shop around Main Street and I was dragged along. Thats about it for that part... yep...

 

Following that, we re-rode a few of the rides earlier (Buzz still had a 5 minute wait). After that, we waited 45 minutes for The Fray concert, which really was not that amazing and I don't know why my friends even like them. I'm in to Alternative, but The Fray is just mediocre. Also, there was a big crowd in front of the castle that the concert was standing room only with no room to move whatsoever. Annoyed the crap out of me, but I still had a good time with friends.

 

In the middle of The Fray concert, we left for our bus and said later to the Magic Kingdom. It was an awesome Grad Nite, even though we never got to hit Splash, Space, and Haunted Mansion due to wait times. Also, Barnstormer was closed due to ToonTown Fair being closed. But I didn't care, the next time I head back up to Disney (which will be like another 5 years or so ), I can geek out as much as I want.

 

Other things of note:

Closed attractions were TTA, Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, ToonTown, and any other dark ride where teens could do it.

Space Mountain was still running old school, no "upgrades" to ROCKIT! or any of that shizzle.

I still laugh at MILF, even though I never went on it.

Stitch should be PTS'd, I'm pretty sure I pissed off some of you Stitch fans here.

And to make this TR educational, CHEMISTRY CLASS!

 

Thanks for reading and/or looking at my horrible pictures!

Bad shot of a nice banner Disney hung out for us. I feel special.

Castle and Statue, me likey...

Obligatory mascot shot!

Oh, theres the castle...

OMG NINJA CASTLE!

(also, failed attempt at Castle Crushing)

Hay, TPR, this is proof I was with a girl last night. Does that make me cool now?

YAAGH! MAKE IT STOP!

MILF! MILF! *Beavis and Butthead laugh*

BTMR's wait for me, we ended up getting a train to ourselves!

[Scaparri]

I've heard about that. Looks like a pretty sweet deal. My high school did something similar but they usually took us to either KI, SFStL, or SFKK.

 

I can see what you mean about Stitch, but I kind of liked it. I feel like it was lacking for a Disney ride, but still fun and enjoyable. Makes me wonder what the old Alien Encounter used to be like.

[RCTfan]

I've only heard horror stories working Grad Night events in the Entertainment department. I rather not get beat up and get paid for it. No thanks.

 

Looks like you had a good time though! I'm glad to see you had fun!

[arrowfanman]

Nice PTR Homer. A few things...

 

-Big Thunder is not an Arrow.

-Big Thunder > Expedition Everest.

-Small World isn't that bad.

 

 

 

Anyway, looks like you had an "interesting" time, which is the best way I could put my Grad Nite expirence over here at Disneyland--I dont think I would do it again, but I'm glad I did it. It's also fun to see the CM's put down a little bit more of an iron fist than usual.

 

-Jahan

[Homer]

I should have taken a POV that night ...

 

Thanks for the comments, yeah, I didn't do everything I want because of time and others' interests (I felt like I was dragged along shopping on Main Street with girls, but, I had a better time with friends than being alone, thats all I can say!

[haiderodes]

I've only heard horror stories working Grad Night events in the Entertainment department. I rather not get beat up and get paid for it. No thanks.

 

Looks like you had a good time though! I'm glad to see you had fun!

 

I worked a couple of grad nights during my college program. Granted I was out in the parking lot, so it was a different type of stress. Try directing 400 busses in the middle of a thunderstorm and torrential downpour after working a 10 hour shift!

[Swimace]

I went to Grad Bash and Islands of Adventure/USO my senior year. I think the highlight was a 5 minute wait for ROTM at about 1:45 am with an entire car full of my friends. Grad Bash was great, although they had to close down Hulk/DD after midnight for noise reasons.

[BarryH]

Nice photos!

 

Way back when I was in high school in the 80's, the Magic Kingdom had "Grad Nite." I remember people had to dress up for the occassion. Guys had to wear suits and ties. Girls had to wear dresses. There wasn't any rides that would really get you wet while wearing your suits. I don't think Splash Mountain was constructed yet in the late 80's.

[Director_Guy]

Gah! Now that damn It's A Small World song is stuck in my head! Nooo!

[jedimaster1227]

I'm guessing that they didn't have the new Rockit Mountain effects up and running yet right?