What to expect on a Gradbash night for non-attendees

jina

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
I just found out our only night at Universal is during Gradbash in mid-April - we will arrive around noon on Friday (from WDW) and fly home Sat evening. Do the parks get crowded prior to the event? (are there grads who are also AP holders who would go early and make the park very crowded?)

Sounds like Citywalk will be a zoo which is a bummer. We want to go to Toothsome and will be staying at one of the preferred on site hotels so hopefully priority seating will help but I'm kind of nervous now. It will be our first and only time (at least for now -maybe back in 4+ years) time at Universal (we've done Universal Hollywood w/ an AP so we will mainly do HP + the non-Hollywood attractions) and it will be me, DH and DD8.

I'm just trying to best set expectations w/ my family and possibly rearrange some plans if it's going to be nuts although we cannot change our actual time at Universal as the WDW portion is all paid for and non-refundable at this point. Should we skip Citywalk entirely and try to get back to the hotel as soon as the park closes at 6? (We will exit at the Universal exit, not IOA as I am hoping they will still have the parade) -or is Citywalk kind of required, in that you can't get back to the hotel w/o having to push through the crowds?
 
I rearranged my trip to skip it end of April after reading reviews on tripadvisor

Biggest issue was park closing too early for me, since our flight doesn’t land until after 11 am. combine it with the citiwalk party till 8 pm & I elected to do WDW for day before our cruise & hit up U at end of our trip. I just couldn’t imagine dealing with a huge throng of high spirited kids.

I’d seriously consider departing WDW & try to arrive as early as possible to U. You can check in & receive your FOTL perk early. Bell services will gladly hold your bags.

Toothsome is crowded in general for dinner, especially on weekend. You could always work in lunch there on departure day if the wait is too long for your liking.

Are you saying you will be exiting Studios? That’s a short distance to the boat launches. You can walk to all the resorts if the mood strikes you.
 
Thanks @keishashadow - our last night at WDW we will be done w/ parks and have an early dinner so we could theoretically get up early Friday and head to Universal - hopefully traffic isn't too bad in Orlando - that's why I was assuming we'd wait until 10:30 or 11am to depart WDW for Universal. Yes, we will exit at the Studios side on Friday - good to know it's close to the boats. I need to look at the maps more - I was looking at each park's map but not the complex as a whole. I was so focused on getting everything planned for WDW down to the minute (including a fun 3:55am wake up on the 60 day mark for FP+), I only now started looking at the Universal time as I heard it's far easier to just show up & we'll have the unlimited express pass - until I saw the Gradbash thing today!

I'm not too worried about not getting to all the rides and shows Fri afternoon and Sat into early afternoon unless the Gradbash is somehow also making the parks more crowded not during the Gradbash event- we won't be doing any of the rides they have in California other than Hogsmeade. I'll look at Toothsome on Saturday but was thinking of doing Mythos (with a reservation) so we'd have something hearty to eat before our long flight back to the west coast that evening.

Anyone have a recommendation on Mythos vs Toothsome if we can only do one? We'll probably try for Toothsome Fri night but if it's a ridiculous zoo w/ Gradbash attendees we'd punt Toothsome to Saturday unless Mythos is a better bet.
 
Mythos is themed well, IMO the food has slipped a bit, but it’s still worth experiencing. It’s in IoA. We honestly prefer Lombards in studios. Check out the menus

Skip 4 on way up to U, take the surface roads. Look at google map, & find Palm Parkway out of DTD area, no more than 20 min from DTD crossroads area most times of the day. May hit light @ Sand Lake Rd but otherwise far better than getting stuck on 4!

OT have done USH several times, adored their version of HHN!

Sounds like you have it all under control, enjoy!
 


It will be more crowded than a typical day that time of year and there are large groups of teenagers with varying levels of supervision. I'd compare it to being at Disney during a cheerleading competition. It impacts wait times, but they still aren't as bad as summer. The parks close pretty early which can stink.
 
It’s a bad move to arrive at any park (museum...) at 10:30 or later. That’s when the masses arrive. The early bird catches the worm and enjoys time with far fewer people. Traffic won’t be a problem- the crowds will be. Go over bright and early!
Mythos isn’t often open for dinner.
All of the hotels have great restaurants if CityWalk is too crowded.
 
understood on arriving early. we will have done 7 days in a row of rope drop at WDW prior - we are early rope drop people in general. But I heard Universal could be different especially with the unlimited express pass -crowds are estimated at a 2 for that day according to touringplans but I was worried w/ gradbash perhaps that is way wrong. If the gradbash makes the crowds larger than what was predicted we'll get up early - but not for an 7am check in followed by 8am open at Universal - not worth it to us - we've done all the Universal hollywood stuff. I was more concerned about Toothsome at 6pm when the park closes and some of the rides in the 4-6pm hours as we know we will be at the park during that time.
 


The express passes will help with lines on rides but if you show up after 10, the lines for security and ticketing will be larger and then the park itself will just be more crowded. It's just a lot nicer to do the HP areas early in the day when it isn't crowded.
If you only have one day in the park, I'd snack and push Toothsome to later. Crowds will be lighter and you'll maximize park time. The HP areas are so magical later in the evening that I'd totally recommend being there for that.
 
We had no issue last year in April on a Friday. We navigated the parks during the day without express pass, but we did get there close to opening and left in the afternoon for a pool break. City Walk was busy early on in the evening but by the time we headed over for a late-ish dinner it had all cleared out and was quite enjoyable. Doing the same this year, and again no express pass because we loved Sapphire Falls and can't wait to go back!
 

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