The Celebration Begins

Maclay Seniors Attend Grad Bash 2024

Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

Maclay seniors indulged on a long night of fun April 12 for this year's annual Grad Bash. Grad Bash is a yearly event that is held at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Senior classes from all over Florida attend over the course of three weekends. Maclay seniors left campus at 12:30 p.m., with two stops along the way, one to a rest stop and a second to pick up seniors who were on the Latin trip. Seniors were ready to take on Universal, arriving around 6 p.m.

 For Grad Bash, the regular attendees at the parks have to exit the park in the evening to make room for all the seniors. By 7 p.m., seniors begin to flood into the park to make it onto their favorite rides. Maclay seniors did not have to wait long to get into the park, due to the buses parking right at the entrance. After going through security, seniors were able to start exploring the parks.

“Spending time with my friends and getting to ride all the rides was definitely the highlight of Grad Bash,” senior Jacob Parrish said. “Revenge of the Mummy was my favorite ride and I had a lot of fun.”

When first arriving, wait times for popular rides such as “Revenge of the Mummy” and “Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts” were very short, ranging from about 20 to 45 minutes. However, as more people began arriving and getting into the park, the wait times started shooting up, some being up to three hours.

“The Velocicoaster was my favorite ride and it was my favorite thing about Grad Bash,” senior Owen Miller said. “It was a little too tall and I’m afraid of heights but it was still a lot of fun.”

There were many teacher chaperones that came with students who could be contacted if needed. Students were able to travel between parks, but exit gates were closed until 2 a.m., which was when everyone started leaving. By the time seniors got out of the park and onto the bus, it was around 3 a.m.

“My favorite part of grad bash was getting to go on the rides with my friends,” senior Ava Duke said. “I had a blast going on the mummy ride.”

After a long bus ride home, students made it back to Maclay by 7 a.m. After a long night together, seniors were able to make memories together as they began to turn the corner towards graduation.