‘23 Seniors Enjoy Magical Day at the Happiest Place on Earth 

Vanya Arakelian

Seniors (left to right) LIlia Hacoupian, Vanya Arakelian, Mariangel Kourkounian, Melineh Shaverdyan, Anahit Sukiasyan, Elen Grigoryan and Nairy Manoukian pose during fireworks at Galaxy’s Edge.

In the midst of applying to colleges, balancing work, extracurricular activities and the stress of Senior Projects, seniors took a day off at Disneyland. 

Arriving at Clark at 7 AM in the bitter cold, forecasting to be in the 50s; seniors huddled closely together to warm each other up while waiting to board the buses. 

Before reaching Disneyland, the seniors had a slight delay. The blue bus arrived at Clark 35 minutes later than scheduled, but that didn’t stop the seniors from getting cozy on the buses that had arrived and just hanging out together. 

Split into 5 buses, 220 seniors made the trip to Disneyland. Surrounded by friends and good music, it was sure to be a good day for everyone. After hitting the road, the yellow bus had some karaoke action going on to songs by Arctic Monkeys and Tyler the Creator. Ms. Mardirosian and Mr. Ghavam were intent on making sure students were having fun.  

Upon arrival, seniors met up at the front of the castle to take a group photo before going to explore the park on their own. Many rushed to popular rides like Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance to try and beat the crowd. 

However, it was a typical busy Saturday, and the wait times were through the roof. Despite that, lines were a part of the Disney experience, and many seniors bought Genie Plus to help cut the wait times. 

“My favorite part of the whole day was stumbling into a Lion King musical, I had never seen it before and it was produced really well,” said senior Melineh Shaverdyan. 

For other seniors, getting stuck on rides and having to evacuate together, or having funny posed pictures on Space Mountain as well as the bus ride were moments that stuck out to them. 

Time was lost as seniors waited in line, enjoyed delicious new foods and drinks from Galaxy’s Edge, beignets from New Orleans Square, or pickles from the carts. 

As the sun set, many seniors saw each other in line for rides, and were dashing to squeeze in as many rides as they could before the 9:45 meet-up time. Scattered across different parts of the park, seniors watched the fireworks, as the weather permitted despite the bitter cold. 

But, all good things must come to an end, and this day ended with skipping and sprinting back to the buses after a very tiring but very fun trip.