Swimace
Posts: 5916
Registered: 8/28/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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 4/29/2006 3:53:59 PM
So last night/this morning I was at Grad Bash at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was basically a massive party that covered both parks. They had the parks lit up with crazy lighting packages and there was music and dance zones all over the parks. To my surprise, most of the lines were shorter than a normal day.
So here's how the night went:
It was a lockdown event, so they had to make sure everyone was in the park and stayed in the park. Instead of getting off at the normal parking areas, we got dropped off right in the park. They couldn't risk kids sneaking off between the garages and the park entrances, so the busses just drove straight through the backstage areas, which was really cool since we basically got a backstage tour from our schoolbus. We entered behind the Hulk and drove all the way around the backstage area of IOA. Our bus dropped us off at the Lost Continent entrance, which was in between Dueling Dragons and Sinbad. To keep crowds and chaos to a minimum, some schools got dropped off at a marvel gate, Toon Lagoon Gate, JP Gate, and Lost Continent gate. We got off the bus and went through metal detectors and then we were in!
We walked around a little to get a feel for the event, we went through JP and Toon Lagoon and ended up at Marvel Island. We decided it was Hulk time! We waited for about an hour, which wasn't bad since the line was basically one big party. Think about it: everyone there is the same age as you, everyone there came to party, and everybody there is ready to get on the Hulk! It was honestly the most fun I've had in line before, everybody was dancing and chanting '06, '06 and doing yells and whatnot. So we got to the front of the party and got in the second row. Wow! I have never gotten such a good ride on the Hulk! With the crazy dance parties and lighting packages that were going on throughout the parks, what I was when I shot out of that tube was different than I've ever seen. The view was amazing, the park was lit up specially for Grad Bash, and below people were just partying and having a good time. I don't think any ride on the Hulk will ever be able to top that for me.
So then we decided to get away from the crowds and go to Universal Studios. We got to the park through Suess Landing, since you can't leave the park. In between the parks they had a crazy lighting package fog tunnel thing that was crazy. Once inside Universal Stusios we went and watched Chris Brown's conert. There was also some group called the Click 5 who performed but we didn't want to see them. After the concert we went and rode The Mummy. We waited a little less than an hour for this, and since the line doesn't group people together as much it wasn't much of a party. Hey, the Mummy still rocked and it was funny to see kids fall for the booby traps.
After The Mummy we wandered around for a little bit soaking up the party. There was a huge party going on around the Jaws area so we danced a little bit. After that, we got hungry and went and got a hotdog. It was now about 11:45 and we decided to hit up the midnight showing of Fear Factor Live. It was a pretty good show, a lot of the stunts were very impressive for a live show with Grad Bash participants. When the show ended we went and rode Men in Black which had about a 10 minute wait. It was fun, I scored 164,000 points which was the highest in our group.
After this we wandered around some more and ran into about 10 more kids from our school. Some were going to ride Spiderman and some were going to ride The Mummy. It was about 1:00 in the morning at this point. I decided to go with the Mummy again since IOA seemed to be a lot more crowded. We waited a little less than 30 minutes for the Mummy this time, there were about 10 of who chose Mummy.
After The Mummy we just went and partied until 2:00 am when the park gates open to let people out. We walked through CityWalk to exit, they had CityWalk covered with barriers to direct traffic si
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larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002
Rank: Platinum Critic
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 4/30/2006 12:18:39 AM
Does Disney still have their Grad Nite event? or has Universal replaced it?
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Swimace
Posts: 5916
Registered: 8/28/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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4/30/2006 10:15:52 AM
No, Disney still has theirs, Fall Out Boy is performing at Disney this year. It's a lot more formal though, from what I've heard guys have to wear collars and girls have to wear skirts that are more than a certain length an whatnot. Grad Bash is more party oriented than Disney, as one might imagine.
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Timberman
Posts: 845
Registered: 9/21/2004
Rank: Gold Critic
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5/1/2006 12:08:13 AM
Man, I went to the wrong school. We had a cookout on the practice football field. The event did feature one ride, however. Every year around prom time, the state police use to bring this contraption to the school that was supposed to simulate the impact of a low-speed, rear-end crash. I think the point was to discourage drunk driving and other types of reckless vehicular operation. It was like something out of Action Park, kind of a car seat on a sled that ran on a track tilted at about 30%, straight into a bumper. It got the point across. I'll never forget seeing this one headbanger chick (this was back in the hair metal days) loose every piece of jewelry she was wearing on impact. They've since switched over to parking demolished cars in front of the school.
Message updated 5/4/2006 12:59:24 AM by Timberman
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Swimace
Posts: 5916
Registered: 8/28/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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5/1/2006 10:23:57 AM
They always park a messed up car in the senior parking lot the week before spring break. They always have a problem with the sterio and tires and stuff getting stolen right off of the thing, because my school is g-h-e-t-t-o. 
Universal was really careful with student safety. I don't know if you've ever been to US, but it's set up so that CityWalk is in between the entrances to the parks and the parking lots. To avoid kids sneeking off and leaving, the busses just pulled right into the backstage road and dropped us off there. The entire night they had security guards posted at both park entrances so that people couldn't leave. They wouldn't open the gates 'till 2am and then they had CityWalk covered with barracades to direct traffic straight to the buses. Universal pretty much took every precaution in making sure that there were no unofficial school activities taking place that night, and they did a vey good job of it. My friends who went to Grad Nite at Disney said that they were also brought in through the backstage areas, too much risk of people slipping away on the monorail.
Message updated 5/1/2006 10:24:44 AM by Swimace
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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5/2/2006 10:14:19 PM
Nice TR. Sounds like you had a great time. I am also glad to hear that Universal took their responsibility of having all these kids seriously - there's a lot that could go wrong with so many teens running around. 
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mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001
Rank: TPC News Minister
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5/4/2006 10:51:55 PM
Sounds like a blast. They don't have anythign like that around here.
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