Disneyland’s annual Grad Nite has taken place, and it was certainly a night of disenchantment. From closed restaurants and rides, to arriving hours before students could enter the parks, the night of inescapable line-cutting and overpriced merchandise was truly, one to remember.
Disneyland, a theme park bringing in around $5 million a day, could not bear to end its corporate greed for one night in support of the graduates. With special edition graduate merchandise ranging from $25-$80, an average food spending at around $150 a day, on top of a $270 ticket. Most of California Adventures restaurants were closed as well. Only 2 quick-service restaurants were open (don’t be fooled– still not affordable in the slightest), as well as a small array of snacks, not ideal fuel for a 9pm-2am theme park excursion. So, was it worth it?
There are three tiers of tickets schools can choose from for Grad Nite. Each senior paid for one ticket, the cost for the tickets at Tech were higher than the highest-tier ticket, we got the worst ones.
Following the 8 hour bus ride from Oakland Tech to Anaheim, students were unable to enter the parks upon arrival. Instead, there was around a 3 hour long waiting period before students could go inside the parks, spent in Downtown Disney, a small shopping and dining center outside of the park’s entrances.
“Was it worth $400? No. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But $400? I could do a lot with that.” Explains senior Solomon Rigelhaupt, with a sentiment that many seniors share. The night could have been easily improved by something as small as a free meal voucher or a merch coupon for seniors, but the night had a hard time kicking off when so many people were priced out of the main experiences.
It was an odd choice for Tech to take its seniors to the most expensive place on Earth, but even odder to provide no financial assistance for its graduates. I mean, we’re about to pay for college tuition!
While a lot of students criticized the price and organization of Grad Nite, senior Prince Vaughn viewed the experience a little differently. Although he did admit the bus ride was long, tiring, and uncomfortable, he felt the trip was still worth attending because of the memories he made throughout the night. Prince said his favorite part of Grad Nite was “probably the socializing” since he got the opportunity to meet other students from different schools.