Right about now is the time where high school seniors in schools across the country have the opportunity to partake in Grad Nite at Walt Disney World where they basically get the park to themselves. Cast members beckon to their every whim where they'll get to ride rides, buy merchandise, see entertainers perform and explore the park late into the night in the ultimate Grad Party!

Alright now that the spiel is done lets get to the basics.

My school never participated in Grad Nite...mostly because I live in Michigan and the price to get there plus the price to participate would have been so exponentially high that money would have to have grown on trees for all of us to have enjoyed it. But I did get to work Grad Nite in 2007 in the Magic Kingdom in 3 different areas: Main Street at the Emporium, Adventure Land at Pirates of the Caribbean and a small shop near it, and doing Glow which was my personal favorite, pushing portable carts full of glow merchandise around the Magic Kingdom.

I met kids in all of my areas, had personal conversations with them and got to experience Grad Nite with hem...even though I was either stuck behind a counter, or a portable cart trying to fend off people from stealing the merchandise...I experienced foam dance parties, people on stilts dancing with me, celebrities performing and more.

Not to say that I didn't have my downers during Grad Nite...I had to fend of people stealing from my Glow Cart, tell hopefuls that we were out of the Grad Night T-Shirts or Grad Mickey Dolls and hope they didn't start crying, and to answer stupid questions like "Is all this stuff free?" Yeah...you think about that young graduating senior. Your high school taught you well!

The extremely long hours wasn't a perk either...while it did give a bunch of us CP's a chance to break away from the repetitive Main Street Music and work along to some awesome tunes that blasted over the speakers...but working in the Emporium, we tend to get out late anyway. I can honestly say that the latest shift I've ever worked was Grad Nite getting off at 5:00 am after cleaning up for 2+ hours and getting home at 6:00am while most of my roommates had 2 - 3 hours of sleep left, I was just getting into bed for the night. That, plus every student would come to the Emporium for merchandise (not unlike any regular day at the MK) and we would run out so fast that we would have to restock every hour!

I also heard of crazy stories going on during Grad Night like student's making out in bathrooms and on dark boat rides (i.e. Pirates of the Caribbean, Small World, Peter Pan's Flight etc.), and one that I cannot believe...student Mickey Mouse over into the moat...and because he took his head off to breathe, he got termed. Not sure if I believe this story, but I wouldn't doubt it being Grad Nite...

I experienced Grad Nite on a different level as well with my CP friends. Our managers loved us so much (or just did it to shut us up) that they took us on the roof of Main Street (right next to Casey's) to watch the Frey perform on the main castle stage. It was probably one of the most magical and best experiences on my College Program.

I wouldn't trade that experience for anything however...I loved Grad Nite and I really wish that I was down there this year to experience it.

Here's what I found on the website what's in store for this year's Grad Nite...

• Multiple live stages featuring the hottest musical acts including Katy Perry, Lloyd, Metro Station, Mishon, The White Tie Affair, Lesley Roy, and Wynter!
  Celebrity host Hayden Panettiere
• One talented Senior, each night, will earn the opportunity to sing on the Grad Nite main stage!
• Celebrity appearances including Jaslene Gonzalez — Cycle 8 winner of America's Next Top Model and reality TV stars Paula and Ryan from MTV's The Dual 2!
• Red-carpet treatment
• Complimentary music album download card
• Multiple live DJ's and dance zones throughout the Park including celebrity DJ Roonie G
  Special Class of 2009 fireworks
• Free-play arcade
• Interactive video games
• Unlimited access to thrilling rides & attractions including Rock 'n' Roller Coaster® starring Aerosmith, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, all-new Toy Story Mania!, the all-new American Idol Experience and more!

To get the scoop on this year's Grad Night and more information, click the title of the post to go to Disney' Grad Night 2009 website.

So from the looks of it it looks like this year's Grad Nite is going to be set at the Disney Studios which is a change of venue from when I got to work it back in 2007. Not sure how I like it at the Studios but then again my opinion doesn't really matter...I had a blast in my three areas during my Grad Nite...so much that I bought a $10 T-Shirt that I still wear! (It looks awesome!)

What about you guys...any Grad Night Experiences, from the student's perspective or cast members...cool stories, tragic breakdowns? Anyone working Grad Nite this year that's excited or nervous about it? I wanna hear them all! Leave them in the comments below...and if you ever get stressed during Grad Nite, doing what Julie does below is totally acceptable..no matter what your manger says!

DISCLAIMER: it's now 2:18am and I should be in bed, but a good Blogger never turns down their thoughts for sleep. So any misspellings or rambles is completely and directly related to my stubbornness and lack of sleep.

During my daily Twittering, I noticed John Hensel made this tweet about working over 145 hours this week because of the Easter Holiday. He even made this video for his YouTube subscribers apologizing that he won't be able to make a full-video due to his lack of sleep and excessive work schedule (okay so maybe not ALL good bloggers turn down their thoughts for sleep!):



This led me to thinking, I know it's a holiday weekend, ergo a lot of people will be spending time at the parks...but does over 145 hours seem a little excessive? When I was a CP in '07, they capped our hours during holiday and peak times at 60-something and wouldn't allow us to work longer than that...and I worked on Main Street in the Emporium! We would always get flooded during the day and especially at night-time after the fireworks when everyone was exiting the parks.

Anyone I've worked with, who has worked in the Emporium or even visited the shop knew how terribly busy we were. Anyone who closed would yearn for the time when managers would say gather round and we would wave goodbye to electronic Mickey as he reminded us to have a magical day and we would slavishly wander in the tunnel to the bus to take us home (or for us CP's, the bus to take us to the OTHER bus to take us home...)

I remember one time I had to work until 3 or 4am (I think it was also around Easter time), got home at around 3:30 because of stupid American Coach (but we'll save that for a different time) and had to be up and back at work at 8am the next day. I was not magical that day let me tell you that.

Even when I worked Grad Nights in May and we would get down close to 5 in the am and some people just stayed in costume downstairs because they had to be back in 5 hours to work a 14 hour shift and felt staying downstairs would benefit more than 3 hours in bed!

Trying to think of the major holidays I'll be working this summer makes me both excited and partially scared: July 4th, Father's Day, heck just summer in general!

So I definitely feel John's pain and I understand it's a holiday weekend, but 145 hours? Really Mickey? What do you guys think? Any work experiences where scheduling just didn't seem to be your friend? Leave them in the comments blow...

Okay the furnace just turned on and being up alone in the basement of my apartment is scaring me so I'm going to bed. Have a magical night!