Graduation Parties

February through May carries close to half of the Valley's demand for group transportation, and April is the single busiest month on our calendar. College commencements land in early and mid May, high school ceremonies in the second half.

So graduation sits at the tail end of a season when buses have already been in demand for weeks.

Most groups come to us about a month ahead, and that habit works against graduation families specifically, because everyone at your school shares one date. When a big university holds commencement, thousands of families want dinner reservations and rides on the same evening. Ask six to eight weeks out, the moment the schedule is published.

Size decides the vehicle. A friend group of sixteen to twenty will almost certainly be quoted a party bus, because at that size that is essentially all anyone quotes. The 20-passenger party bus is the usual starting point, with the 24-passenger party bus once dates and roommates join. A family of ten to fourteen going to the ceremony and then dinner is better served by the 14-passenger limo Sprinter, which is easier for grandparents to board and simpler to stage near a crowded venue.

Ceremony days tend to run long anyway, and May Saturdays carry a six-hour minimum with us, so plan the family trip as six hours from the first pickup. That's usually the right number for ceremony, photos and dinner without rushing anyone.

Parents, grandparents, siblings and visiting aunts ride together from the house or the hotel to the ceremony, then to a restaurant, then home.

The goals are simple: no parking, no long walk in the heat, and everyone arriving together so seats can be saved as a group. This trip is about comfort and timing, not entertainment, so pick the vehicle accordingly.

Two details that matter more than people expect. Graduates have an earlier call time than guests, so they often need to travel separately or be dropped first. And the reservation has to cover the ceremony, the dinner and the drive home, which for most families is five to six hours rather than four.

If relatives are flying in for the weekend, our airport shuttle page covers group pickups at Sky Harbor, and one arrival run often saves two people a whole afternoon of driving.

Valley ceremonies happen at big venues. ASU uses the Tempe campus stadium and arena, GCU its arena in west Phoenix, and several districts rent professional venues including State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Others use the school's own football field at sunset.

They all share one problem. Five thousand to twenty thousand people arrive within the same 45 minutes and leave within the same fifteen.

• Arrive 60 to 75 minutes before the ceremony starts.
• Expect a designated drop-off zone rather than the front gate, and a short walk from it. Ask the school about accessible drop-off for anyone who needs it.
• Pick a meeting spot for afterward away from the main exit. Cell service slows to nothing when fifteen thousand people text at once.
• Tempe streets around campus crawl on commencement nights. The Tempe page has notes on pickups near Mill Avenue and the stadium.

Graduation season is when the real heat starts. Late May afternoons regularly pass 100 degrees, and an outdoor evening ceremony begins while the bleachers are still radiating the day.

The guests who struggle most are the ones you most want there: grandparents, and relatives visiting from somewhere cooler who have no idea how fast the desert dehydrates people.

A private vehicle helps in three specific ways. It removes the walk from a distant lot, which at a stadium can be fifteen minutes of asphalt. It gives older guests a cool place to wait if they need to leave before the last name is read. And it is parked nearby, so nobody stands in a pickup crowd at 9:30 at night.

Bring water for the ride there, not just the ride back, and tell out-of-town guests to wear light clothing and a hat to an outdoor ceremony whatever the dress code implies.

Eighteen-year-olds want a night of their own and their parents want to know where they are. A bus with a written itinerary gives both sides what they need. Four conversations to have early:

• Who holds the reservation? One parent, reachable all night.
• What is the route? Dinner, a photo stop, a drive, and a drop-off at one house is a complete night. Put it in writing and send it to every family. The photo spot finder helps with the stop.
• What are the rules for riders under 21? Ask us when you request your quote and pass the answer on before the night, not at the curb.
• Who is paying? Families usually split evenly. Use the split cost calculator, collect before you reserve, and keep the rider list in the guest list manager so the count holds.

Anyone who booked a bus for the dance a month earlier will recognize all of this. If that is still ahead of you, our prom page goes deeper on sizing and timing.

The restaurant is where graduation nights come apart. Every table for ten within five miles of campus is spoken for weeks ahead, and ceremonies run long. A 7:00 ceremony with 1,200 graduates does not finish at 8:30.

• Reserve dinner as soon as you know the ceremony date, at least 90 minutes after its scheduled end.
• Pick a restaurant away from the venue. After a Tempe ceremony, a table in Chandler, Arcadia or south Scottsdale is 15 to 20 minutes out and far easier to get than anything on Mill Avenue.
• Tell the restaurant you are coming from a graduation. Many will hold a table longer if they know why.
• Count the wait into your hours, since the vehicle stays with you through dinner.

If the graduate is at NAU or U of A, the family trip becomes a day charter instead. See the charter services page for drive times.