Many seniors dressed up to take the traditional four hour trip up to Walt Disney World for a night to remember, Grade Nite of course.

The buses came late, the seniors were piled on the buses late and they all arrived to the park an hour late but the atmosphere was thick with excitement because even though it was already nine at night when the buses got to the Disney parking lot the night hadn’t even started for the passengers aboard.

One of the first things that might have been on all the seniors minds was which rides to go on first. The lines might have been long, at one point the wait for Space Mountain was 80 minutes, but it was well worth it to be next to your friends screaming as the rollercoaster fell down that final drop.

However, what would the night be without the performances that lit it up? One of the exciting things about Grad Nite is the different artists and bands that perform around the park. This year the ones that hit the stages were The Last Goodnight, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Neyo, and Cheskob.

“My expectations surpassed, they (Grad Nite) were well organized, and I had a lot of fun,” said Brittany Tai.

The seniors had a special group performance from the Jabawakeez who have been deemed “America’s Best Dance Team,” by the MTV show, and they certainly didn’t disappoint its viewers. They took the stage more than five times before hitting the main center stage in front of Cinderella’s Castle. The yells over every beat they moved to could be heard yards away.

“The most memorable moment from Grad Nite was seeing the fireworks with all my friends and the Neyo Concert,” said Aymara Lucero.

This year, Varela hauled in 11 buses to take its seniors, each carrying 52 students. Grad Nite is an experience that is totally different from any other Disney experience. There are literally thousands of seniors attending Grad Nite from Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina.

This year the seniors were supposed to go to Blast Off, which is a two hour celebration before the real celebration takes place. Only a few schools pay the extra money to attend Blast Off which gives their seniors the option of riding rides without an extreme wait when the other thousands of students from other schools start coming into Disney.

This year, however, seniors weren’t able to get the full two hours of Blast Off, due to one of the buses breaking down. The other buses waited so everyone got there at the same time. Although the seniors weren’t able to attend the full Blast Off, they were still able to enjoy Grad Nite with all their friends.

At Grad Nite seniors are able to go on every ride, unless it’s broken of course. Even though there are lines, they aren’t that long and keep moving so that kids are not just in one spot for two hours.

Grad Nite starts at 10 pm and finishes at about 4 am. By this time, everyone is so tired they can barely walk, or still so super excited that they keep everyone else awake.



Grad Nite held a special significance this year, as this was the last time it would be held in Walt Disney Word’s Magic Kingdom. From now on, Grad Nite will be held at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The Class of 2009 will have to decide whether they would like to go to Disney’s Grad Nite or Universal’s Studio’s Grad Bash in their senior year.

Regardless of the ups and downs with the buses and the rides, seniors can definitely say that Grad Nite will be a night to remember.