Yes they seem to hide it on a separate website. The ones for the older students seem to be in April then these in May.
Not that I knew the ages as I am not very knowledgeable on the US school system lol
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Me neither.
It is fairly common for 8th graders (last year of Middle School) to have a class trip, although in my day, this would have never been referred to as graduating. We only graduated from high school. These days, I have noticed a lot of schools “graduate” kids from one grade to another, or at least when moving from elementary to middle, and middle to high school. A little weird to me!
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I’ve started to see it over here too. Kids don’t just finish nursery, they have a graduation ceremony with tiny hats! I think it’s ridiculous.
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When I went last year, it was because of a grad night. Right around the time you’re looking at, actually.
Ok thanks did you find it impacted crowds?
I didn’t notice a difference, really. We went on everything we wanted, with short waits. I even made a touring plan, but found that we didn’t even need it. The parks just felt pretty empty for most of the day, I not in HP, but in general. I like going early May or late April in general for that reason.
Thanks we were hoping to hit HP first thing as its an 8am opening (so hopefully fewer people will make 7am early entry!) then tour the rest of the park. However we will be returning for a late start on the 14th and use express pass (most likely) so if anything has a long wait we can skip it that day and ride the second day and just have more of a general stroll around.
I am also having a think about if its worth heading to Volcano bay in the afternoon or if waits are still crazy there?
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I think with the express pass, you shouldn’t even worry at all about skipping rides. When we went, we didn’t have the pass, and went on everything. Going to HP early is always a great idea, there’s so much you can do in that first hour. I’ve never been to volcano bay, so I can’t help with that.
Thanks yeh the first day we won’t have the passes so will do HP early then see what else has reasonable waits. But our second day we will get the passes so I’m confident we can cover everything we want and have a lie in.
I just really enjoyed some time spell casting last time while HP was quiet so hoping we can repeat that. Next question will be if my 2015 wand will still work!
Hopefully someone else can weight in on what volcano bay might be like of an afternoon otherwise I can start a separate post on that.
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All the advice I see for Volcano Bay says get in and out early.
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Yes, it will if it’s interactive! Plus, there’s a lifetime guarantee, if it doesn’t work, you can get it “fixed” in ollivanders.
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That’s great news thank you. I got it in Ollivanders you kind of have to once the wand has chosen you lol and I had so much fun with it
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They are great about “fixing” the wands. My daughter’s four year old wand didn’t work. They told us to go right to the front counter at Ollivander’s, tell them we needed “wand repair” and they quickly replaced her wand with an identical one! Super quick and easy.
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We loved Volcano Bay last spring, and are going again at the end of March. You definitely want to go early to Volcano Bay, it gets to capacity many afternoons. Early entry there is the best, you will get a ton done and be out of there after lunch. Their food is really good, so definitely plan on eating a meal.
I would not go to VB in the afternoon, instead swap it for the morning. There are no standby waits, you have to tap in to get a return time. By lunchtime, the waits are really long (hours), and there is very little to do while waiting besides the wave pool and lazy and fast rivers. You cannot just ride another ride like you can at the regular parks. Volcano Bay is fantastic, the rides are much more thrilling than the Disney water parks rides. We had a lot of fun, and I don’t even really like water parks.
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Yeah, you don’t even have to go to the front of the line. You can go up any witch or wizard working inside Olivander’s, and they take care of it real quick!
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Thanks might have to look to rejig things a bit then to allow us a morning at volcano bay as it sounds like arriving at opening is essential. We won’t have early entry but hopefully be ok.
Are the HP areas quiet enough for some spell casting at times other than first thing? I think some people said it can be quiet ish in the afternoons.
Thanks all
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Things start to calm down at night, or early evening. There are still people there, but not like earlier in the day when it’s packed.
If, by “afternoons” you mean any time BESIDES between noon and 6 pm? Then sure! 
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The evenings work well for us.
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