AREA SCHOOLS PLAN GRAD NIGHT.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Hey, graduate! You just received your high school diploma! What are you going to do now?

``I'm going to Planet Hollywood!''

``I'm going on a harbor cruise''

``I'm going to the Hard Rock Cafe!''

Whatever happened to: ``I'm going to Disneyland!''?

In the Santa Clarita Valley, grad night at the Magic Kingdom is not a popular tradition anymore, as it has been in years past. The Class of '97 will celebrate commencement with all-night parties, but not at ``The Happiest Place On Earth.''

Although seniors at Saugus High School wanted to attend Disneyland's annual festivities, the park doesn't offer a grad night June 17, the night of the Centurion graduation. School officials had to come up with another idea for a post-commencement bash.

Tickets went on sale Monday at Saugus High for the senior excursion to Planet Hollywood at South Coast Plaza. The '97 grads will have the movie memorabilia-filled restaurant to themselves, said Saugus High activities director Kathy Stroh.

``We tried so hard to get these kids to Disneyland,'' added Saugus High Principal Cheryl Brown. ``I want the parents to know that we made every attempt to structure a fun, safe evening for the kids.''

Disneyland offers grad night on several dates: May 22 and 29, June 5, 11, 12, 18 and 19, according to park spokeswoman Susan Roth. Tickets for the all-night celebration are $34 per person.

If Saugus seniors attended the bash June 18 or 19, that would defeat the purpose, Brown said. ``To go to Disneyland any other night kind of negates what grad night is about. The point is to offer a safe place for kids to be after graduation,'' she said.

At Canyon and Valencia high schools, seniors will celebrate their graduations with semiformal moonlight cruises around Newport Harbor on a chartered boat. Their ticket - $65 at Canyon, $60 at Valencia - pays for bus transportation to Orange County, dinner on board the ship, dancing to records spun by a disc jockey, and a variety of games and activities, according to Canyon Principal Patrick Kelleher and Valencia student activities director Frank Ferry.

Hart High grads will have a post-commencement party at Universal CityWalk's new Hard Rock Cafe.

Canyon High will have its senior class cruise June 7, a Saturday night 10 days before its 500 or so students graduate. Last year's cruise in Newport Beach was a hit with the Class of '96, Kelleher said, noting that it's been several years since Canyon grads went to Disneyland. ``I'm not sure that the kids are interested in doing that,'' he said.

``Once students here at Canyon got into the cruise mode, that was something that has been very well received,'' the principal added.

Valencia's 285 seniors are the school's first graduating class. The tight-knit group wasn't interested in going to Disneyland after its June 17 commencement, said Valencia Principal Paul Priesz.

``We're so close to Magic Mountain that I think the theme park thing is something they're used to. They wanted something different,'' Priesz said.

After the ceremony, Valencia grads will report back to campus by 10 p.m. to board buses, and they should arrive at the charted boat around 11:15 p.m. The shipboard party will last until about 3:30 a.m., Ferry said.

School officials wanted to offer grads a fully supervised evening after commencement. ``It's the last time the seniors are going to see (each other). You want to make sure no one's going to act irrationally or go out drinking and driving,'' Ferry said.

The Saugus High evening at Planet Hollywood will cost $50 per student, and will include food, beverage and bus transportation. There are 570 seniors in the graduating class.