Play that funky music! I was there in June of 1980, too! You should’ve hung with us—we had a blast. It was a big date night at our highschool, as big as prom, bigger than Homecoming. Seniors could invite a guest under 21 if they bought their ticket through the student store. I went with my friend since elementary school, V, and my best friend and her boyfriend, who was bouncing around like Tigger. We were small town kids, 3 hours on the bus to get to Anaheim, first time some of us had been out all night. We ate at the now closed Tahitian Terrece, saw the Magic Tiki room show with flame-jugglers, stood in line in the dark for the Haunted Mansion and rode the Dumbo flying elephants. It was all magic.
I went to Disneyland in '91. It was a lot of fun. I borrowed a really pretty, but comfy, dress from a friend and I looked good–still have the pictures. I lived in Santa Maria, so it was a bit of a drive. My husband, from Sacramento, did have a Grad Night, but it wasn’t nearly as cool, I forget what they did.
Stucco, I believe the idea behind dressing up was that the kids would theoretically behave a bit better and be less likely to, say, destroy things.
Here in Carson City (we only have one high school) we don’t have Grad Night. Instead, we have Safe Grad, which is a safe, alcohol-free alternative to the graduation parties that most kids like to go to. After the nighttime party, the kids go to Marineworld or something.
I didn’t go. If there was ever one night where I was going to get drunk, it was the night after I got out of that hell hole.
I heard it was lots of fun, but really, not my thing. I had lots of fun with three of my friends at my parent’s house. We each got a beer, we were supervised while drinking it, and we watched cult movies until 2 a.m. before passing out. Much more fun than hanging out with most of the idiots I went to school with.
~Tasha
Well, Disney is pretty good about clamping down on troublemakers. Ivyboy had a good time…rode the rollercoasters several times and managed to hook up with a couple of “hot” girls from another school.
We live in Louisiana and Grad Nite is a big deal. The school holds the trip over the kids all year to gain (relatively) good behavior from the seniors. It does help a little so the students value the experience. Apparently HSs from all over the southeast head to DisneyWorld at about the same time. I have been told that a lot of young people stay up to all hours of the night having a great time. Me, I have to admit that I would rather be in bed asleep. Sigh. youth is wasted on young people… 
I went to Grad Nite at Disneyland in 1989. I really wanted my prom date to go with me, but he was already taking the girl who took him to Grad Nite the year before, so I ended up inviting my sister (then in 8th grade, IIRC) so I wouldn’t be all by myself. We ended up hanging out with some people from one of the many school clubs I belonged to. We had a pretty good time. I remember getting on Space Mountain for the first (and only) time, and the boy seated in front of me shouting “I have a hard-on!” as the ride slowed down. I was mortified, but sis didn’t bat an eye. 
We had a Senior Skip Day. Our prom was on a Thursday, and the Friday after, all the seniors skipped school to sleep in after staying up all night. Well, actually a lot headed down to Cedar Point instead… I think my friends and I slept in and went to the beach in the afternoon. Senior Skip Day was a tradition in our school and the date was well advertised (I think the student council or prom committe decided on it). The teachers and principal knew what the plan was and… well, if they had a problem with it, they didn’t say so. Any teacher with senior classes pretty much planned on not doing anything that day.
On Graduation night, we had a Senior All Night Party (to provide a safe, alcohol-free environment). We didn’t go to an amusement park or anything, though. Ours was a lock-in at our high school… but it was pretty cool. Parent and community volunteers came in and decorated and set up games and activities in every corner of the schools, a carnival midway in the gym, swimming, dancing, plus tons of freebies and prizes. All my friends and I went. Tons of fun.
Grad Nite at Disneyland (or other high-profile location) was not actually on graduation night; it was a few weeks before the end of school, IIRC. It wasn’t the same thing as the graduation party, but an extra event.
On graduation night, my school held an all-night party just like everyone else, in the hope that fewer kids would go out and get killed while driving drunk. As I recall, they got a lot of people to show up by offering an all-night raffle with really good prizes–just about everyone won something.
We didn’t have Grad Night (it would have been a hell of a trip from Maryland), but we did Senior Skip Day, stayed out all night after the prom and then did Senior Week at the beach right after graduation.
I went to Grad Night at King’s Island (now Paramount’s King’s Island) and the musical acts were Leon Redbone and Brownsville Station.
I went to my own school’s Grad Nite, and another with a friend. This was in '88. Great fun!
I agree the dressing up part is pretty stupid. They were dead serious about it though. There was a scare at the last moment when we were all loading onto the buses and it was discovered that some kid hadn’t worn socks. He was going to be left behind, when another kid’s father gave him the socks off his own feet! 
There were several musical acts, but I can only remember Expose’. I got pissed off at my friend because she wanted to hang around and dance, which we could do any night of the week. I couldn’t believe she was going to waste time dancing at Disney World.
The school had told us that we would be frisked at the gate, so there was a distinct lack of contraband. We were horrified when we found out there were no shops on Main Street selling tobacco. Then we ran into the one guy from our school who had dared to smuggle in cigarettes. He was very popular with various cliques that night.
It was a long, long bus ride home. A voice in the back of the bus was chanting, “If I can’t sleep, nobody sleeps. If I can’t sleep, nobody sleeps.” Annoying at the time, but when I remember it now, it totally cracks me up.
Grad Nite '99 - Britney Spears was our big celebrity. This was when she was just coming on the scene, and “Baby, One More Time” was real big. I remember her on the stage dancing, with mobs of people all dying to see her. I didn’t really care, so I was way in the back. I climbed on a wall to get a picture, then hopped off and we all went looking for the carousel.
Disney at night was fabulous. I had a great time.
Los Angeles. 1982. Grad Night was, of course, at Disneyland. The musical guest was Tommy Tutone (867-5309). Dress up was required.
I wasn’t planning on going because my good friends were going with their girlfriends and I didn’t have one. My friend’s girlfriends went to a different High School and were a year younger. They convinced me to go with one of their girlfriend’s friends named Glennie. She apparently was totally up for it. I only had a vague idea who she was because she had been to a couple of parties that I had also attended. I wasn’t that into the idea but I reluctantly agreed and bought the tickets.
Two days before the event, she canceled on me. Supposedly her Mom nixed the idea but who knows. I was a little bummed about having to eat the tickets but I didn’t care about missing the event in general.
It turned out that Glennie went to the same university as me but one year behind me. During her freshman year, she lived in the same dorm as a good friend of mine. She recognized me but I didn’t recognize her. Years later I heard through a mutual friend that she thought that I was giving her the silent treatment because she stood me up for Grad Night.
We didn’t have any official event. My pals and I went out to a diner. It was going to be the one night I stayed out later than my brother. I got home at 4 am. He got home at 4:15. :mad:
Around here, schools have Operation Graduation where the kids go somewhere “fun” and get locked inside all night.
I went to my Junior and Senior prom but didn’t go to Grad Nite or even Senior Skip Day. Classes were boring that day as none of the teachers had anything planned, but I wasn’t interested in doing what the other students were doing (maybe if Senior Skip Day had been at Disney World it would have been another story :)). I may have walked home after it was clear there wasn’t going to be actual classes that day.
We had that too. We found some kid who was going and paid him to buy each of us one of the official Project Graduation T-shirts, as proof we had attended. Then we went somewhere *actually * fun that night.
Grandma found out years later and still got mad!
San Diego '88. Took the bus to Disneyland. The girl I wanted to go with couldn’t make it (she was a sophomore and her parents said No), so just hung out with my friends. Honestly don’t remember a thing about it (not one ride or incident) so it obviously wasn’t that memorable (I remember much much more about the graduation ceremony itself).
Boy was I glad to get out of there (HS), though.
- Graduation was at 5:00, then we could go have dinner, then had to be back by 9 to catch the bus to Disneyland. Our musical acts were The Greg Kihn Band and Berlin. Went with a girl I’d known since 5th grade instead of my girlfriend, who I been dating for about a month. We had the stupid suits for boys, dresses for girls dress code.
We also had a school sanctioned Senior Ditch Day, where we took a bus to San Pedro, then took the ferry over to Catalina Island for the day. Supposedly if you didn’t go, you were supposed to go to class. I don’ t know of anyone who actually went to school that day.
I remember Grad night!!!
I remember being super excited on the way there, running around from ride to ride, getting a quick glance at the Britney Spears concert (back when she wasn’t big, not that she is anymore) and passing out in the bus on the way back.
Oh yeah, I attended Grad nite '99 at Walt Disney World