Every year, the senior class gets the opportunity to go on a big trip at the end of the year as a rite of passage celebration. The event is known as Grad Bash and it’s right around the corner!
This year, the class of 2024 Grad Bash is on Saturday, April 20th. It will be hosted at Universal Studios in Orlando, but the seniors will also have access to the Islands of Adventure theme park.
Senior classes from schools all over get to stay overnight at the parks, some on Friday and some on Saturday. The park is closed to the public, so it’s just senior classes and their faculty during Grad Bash hours.
For Darnell, the advisors will be Mrs.Bottini, who was the coordinator for this year’s trip, Mr.Dent, who will be there as the faculty member, as well as Mr.Stevenback and his wife, who are both DCPS employees and have been to Grad Bash in past years.
Everyone will meet at our school around noon on Saturday. They will be given pizza for lunch before getting on a Kelly Tours bus and leaving at 1 pm to head for Universal. Each senior will be given a meal ticket on the bus ride over, good for one free meal and drink of choice while in the park. Once they get their drink, it can be refilled with water as many times as necessary. The meal tickets will not be active all night, so seniors must get their food while they still have the chance to! They are allowed to bring a bag into the park, but it must be smaller than a piece of paper and it can’t contain any snacks.
Usually, the seniors arrive at Universal Studios between 7 and 7:30, when the park closes and the general public is asked to leave. This year, our school was given the opportunity to participate in the “mix-in” with regular guests before the parks close. This means that our seniors will be arriving around 4 pm rather than 7, allowing them early access to the night’s festivities. Our Grad Bash attendees will have a wristband on that allows them to stay inside while the park is going through closing procedures and the other schools are welcomed in.
While at the park, seniors don’t have to stay with the advisors, but they do have to check in a couple times a night in order to maintain a safe environment. Most of the rides will be open until they leave at 2 am on Sunday morning, but some of the more popular ones will close early to avoid students still being in line when it’s time to leave. The lines for more popular thrill rides will fill up fast, so many of our seniors are already making plans regarding what rides they want to prioritize.
All in all, it’s going to be a very fun night, and when Darnell’s class of 2024 arrive “back in reality” around 5 am, it’ll feel like a real bummer that the night has come to an end.
