July 15, 2021 • 13 mins
With everyone going back to amusement parks, how do you have a great time out and still save money?
I've got those tips for you and more in this episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
It's the middle of the summer, and everyone is trying
to go to an amusement park andhave fun. My family recently did
the same thing, but it was sucha potentially expensive outing.
How do you maximize your fun andsavings at the same time? We'll
discuss that and more coming up.
Welcome to the savvy Brown Girlpodcast with Wendy Coop. Your
(00:25):
number one destination forpersonal finance and
entrepreneurship for savvywomen.
Welcome to Episode Four, where Iwill be talking all about
amusement parks. But before Iget to that, make sure you are
subscribed to the podcast andshared with all of your savvy
friends and family. I mean it GoGo share it right now. Oh, wait.
(00:49):
Now, this past weekend, myhusband and I joined some of my
family on a trip to KingsDominion amusement park in
Virginia. And while I had agreat time with everyone, I
couldn't help but think howsavvy women can maximize their
savings and time when it comesto planning trips like this. And
we know we're the ones planningthe trips, right? Like that's
(01:10):
not a secret. So let's look atseven ways to maximize your next
trip to an amusement park.
First, let me say cost will varydepending on the size of your
family, and whether or not youcan find discounts before you
arrive. Our costs were based onjust me and my husband traveling
without children. So tip numberone, buy your tickets online in
(01:31):
advance. Often the best dealsare online via the parks
website. But if you're amilitary family, check with your
base recreation office to see ifthey offer a specially priced
tickets if the park doesn't. Besure to also look for any age
related discounts for childrenor seniors. And even if you are
on the parks website, make sureyou poke around for that
(01:55):
military discount, or justsearch the parks website for the
term discount or special pricingand see what you can come up
with just on the parks websitebefore you go hunting anywhere
else. And if you're planning onmultiple days, going for
multiple days, check out aseason pass for even more
savings. You know, if you liveclose enough, and you know
(02:16):
you're gonna go three four timesin a season, the season passes
is gonna save you money in theend. Tip number do go during the
week. These are often they'reoften deals for going to the
park when it's less busy, whichis good for you because it's
less busy. Saturdays andholidays are going to be the
(02:40):
busiest and everything may costmore during those days. Try to
go Monday through Thursday forthe best savings. But even if
you can't, and you're stillgoing on Sunday or holiday, make
sure you look for all thesavings possible just like I
mentioned in tip number one. Tipnumber three, purchase the meal
plan. Oh, this one might be alittle controversial, because
(03:02):
some of our family did notpurchase the meal plan. But my
husband and I chose to purchaseit. So for the two of us the
premium meal dine premium mealplan was $40 each. And it
included a number of differentdining options. So we weren't
just stuck with pizza or hotdogs and french fries. In fact,
(03:23):
I had none of that during myentire state and we were there
from pretty much open to close.
Also, the park had a number ofvegetarian and vegan options for
me included in the dining planthat I found just by searching
the parks app. The app told mewhich dining spots had
(03:45):
vegetarian and vegan options andit even told me exactly what on
the menu was offered. So I knewwhen I was going there and
wouldn't have to guess. Ourdining plan also came with a
souvenir cup with free refills.
We could refill that cup every15 minutes with delicious Coca
Cola products, but includingwater, and we could use the meal
(04:07):
plan every 90 minutes to eat. Soonce we added up what we would
have paid out of pocket for thefood and the refills, it was
easy to see that we would havespent more than $80 out of
pocket if we hadn't bought themeal plans. I think we ate twice
(04:30):
and fill up our cups at leastfour times during during our
stay. And I can only imagine howmuch more we would have saved if
we had eaten more or had morepeople with us on the dining
plan. Tip number four. Ditch thephoto add on. Yeah, I know
everyone wants souvenir photosbut it's very tempting because
(04:54):
they are professional photos ifyou're riding the roller coaster
You want that nice shot withyour arms in the air and your
mouth wide open as you'rescreaming and sheer terror. But
it just wasn't worth the extramoney for us. One because Wendy
doesn't ride roller coaster. Anddo. My husband just wasn't
interested. I know there's goingto be employees who will take
(05:18):
your family photos for an extrafee. But, you know, you can just
ask a kind stranger to take thephotos for you. It's it's a
thing. It's okay, you can dothat. Just Just ask. Just ask.
And your phone is free. So it'snot like, you know, the last
(05:39):
time I went to Kings Dominion ineighth grade, you know, and we
were using disposable cameraswith film in it. Okay. Yes,
that's how old I am. So, useyour phone, save the money.
Unless you know, it's going tobe a really awesome photo. Tip
(06:00):
number five is carefullyconsider souvenir t shirts and
other novelty items. It's prettywell known that everything at
the park is going to have ahefty markup. So if you really
want that particular item, goahead and buy it. But there's
some things that you're going tobe able to find online outside
of the park. But remember, ifyou're going to buy gifts, have
(06:24):
a preset budget, especially ifyou're attending with kids, so
that you know how much to spend.
Another tip you might try withthe kids is to limit it to say,
one t shirt and one non t shirtlike toy item. If you have an
idea of how much these thingsare going to cost, or you can
(06:44):
say everybody's going to get a Tshirt on this trip or everyone's
going to get a cup on this tripor everyone's going to get a key
ring or something like that, orwhatever thing you normally get
from amusement parks make thatthe thing. But if you don't know
souvenirs are going to be a hugebudget buster. And five years
from now, you'll you may noteven have that shirt anymore.
(07:09):
And you'll wonder why you evenpaid $25 for a T shirt. Now that
I've thoroughly brought down theroom, let's go back to Tip
number six, which is buy yourparking pass in advance. When we
got to the park, there was along line of people who had not
purchased their parking passesin advance. I don't know why it
(07:30):
was there. When you bought thetickets online, you it was an
offering. It was like they tookyou through a very methodical
process when you bought yourtickets online. So you started
with the emissions ticket. Andthen you added on things one at
a time you add it on the mealplan, you decided if you wanted
the souvenir t shirt, youdecided if you wanted the fun
(07:53):
pics, professional photo, andthen it prompted you to also pay
for a parking pass. So if youbought your ticket online, you
would have seen this. Butwaiting in that long line would
have been a huge time suck, andit takes away from your time at
the park. Not only that, but itmight cost more at the gate just
(08:13):
like your admission tickets,like regular tickets for Kings
Dominion at the gate are $70 wepaid a little more than half of
that for our military tickets.
But for parking we paid $17 Idon't even know what it would it
(08:36):
would be at the gate. More than17 I'm sure. And there were two
options for parking passes inadvance each within $3 of each
other depending on how close youwant to depart the gate. But if
you got there early enough, youwould be able to find great
parking anyway. So buy yourparking pass in advance. Don't
wait that long line. And thenTip Number seven is upgrade to
(08:58):
the fast passes. Now I know fastpasses are a source of bad
feelings and controversy foranyone who goes anywhere from
Disney World to Kingston Manianto, you know, Knott's Berry Farm
or whatever, wherever you go.
Around here, we also have sixflags in Hershey Park. And
(09:20):
people think that it's crazy tobuy a fast pass or Fast Lane
pass or whatever it's called. atthe park you're visiting.
Becauseyou should be able to just wait
in line I guess, I don't know.
But here's the thing. There wasa ride called twisted timbers.
(09:43):
That was a very popular ride atKings Dominion. And on a
Saturday like you know, we werethere on a Saturday, obviously
there's going to be a lot ofpeople lines are going to be
long. If you did not have a FastPass. It was going to take you
an hour To get through the linethrough the two metal detectors,
yes, there were metal detectors.
And then finally, on to andthrough the ride in our cut that
(10:08):
time, potentially in half withthe Fast Pass, it lets you
depending on the park, it willlet you come in through a
separate line, or essentiallyskip the line or come back at a
particular time so that youdon't have to wait in line.
Because guess what you can dowith all that time that you're
(10:29):
not waiting in line. You canride more rides, you can eat
more food, you can catch a showat the park, you can sit take a
break, you can do a bunch ofother things. Rather than just
stand and wait in line and whoreally wants to wait in line for
an hour. Just put it in thebudget. And this is one of those
(10:50):
line items that when I mentionedthings may cost more on the
weekend. This was definitely oneof those things that cost more
on the weekend. And there weretwo versions of the past with a
$15 difference. One lets youskip the queue on 10 rides, the
other had 13 rides. Whatever youchoose is up to you. I didn't
(11:12):
get a fast pass because like Isaid, I don't do rollercoasters,
but my husband got a fast lanepass. And it was worth every
penny. He totally maximized hiswriting for that day. And I'm
glad I didn't have to wait anhour for him to get on and off
twisted timbers. Also, if you'realready going to buy a season
(11:36):
pass for admission, check to seeif there's a season Fast Pass so
that you don't have to get itevery time you go to the park. I
know there was for KingsDominion. But wherever you're
going Disney World Disneyland,great adventure. Wherever you're
going, the rules might bedifferent, so make sure you look
(11:58):
in advance. Bonus Tip, downloadthe park app, we found that it
was a lot easier to navigate thepark and fine dining options
once I downloaded the app. So Icould see which places took our
dining plan. what my optionswere the apps, The app also had
wait times listed for each ofthe rides along with a
(12:18):
description of the rides. Wecould also store our tickets in
the app, so I didn't have toprint them at home. I printed
them anyway for backup, but Ireally didn't have to everything
was scannable in the app. Sothose are my best tips for
saving money at an amusementpark. So for the two of us, we
(12:38):
paid about $271 for our tickets,parking, food and fast lane
pass. Again, I can say we didn'tlose money and we save time,
hassle and money especially ondining by purchasing in advance
and taking the time to plan ourtrip. I hope your next trip is
just as enjoyable for you andyour family. Thank you for
(13:01):
listening to this week'sepisode. Be sure to subscribe
and leave a review and yourreview could be featured on a
future episode.
It's the middle of the summer, and everyone is trying
to go to an amusement park andhave fun. My family recently did
the same thing, but it was sucha potentially expensive outing.
How do you maximize your fun andsavings at the same time? We'll
discuss that and more coming up.
Welcome to the savvy Brown Girlpodcast with Wendy Coop. Your
(00:25):
number one destination forpersonal finance and
entrepreneurship for savvywomen.
Welcome to Episode Four, where Iwill be talking all about
amusement parks. But before Iget to that, make sure you are
subscribed to the podcast andshared with all of your savvy
friends and family. I mean it GoGo share it right now. Oh, wait.
(00:49):
Now, this past weekend, myhusband and I joined some of my
family on a trip to KingsDominion amusement park in
Virginia. And while I had agreat time with everyone, I
couldn't help but think howsavvy women can maximize their
savings and time when it comesto planning trips like this. And
we know we're the ones planningthe trips, right? Like that's
(01:10):
not a secret. So let's look atseven ways to maximize your next
trip to an amusement park.
First, let me say cost will varydepending on the size of your
family, and whether or not youcan find discounts before you
arrive. Our costs were based onjust me and my husband traveling
without children. So tip numberone, buy your tickets online in
(01:31):
advance. Often the best dealsare online via the parks
website. But if you're amilitary family, check with your
base recreation office to see ifthey offer a specially priced
tickets if the park doesn't. Besure to also look for any age
related discounts for childrenor seniors. And even if you are
on the parks website, make sureyou poke around for that
(01:55):
military discount, or justsearch the parks website for the
term discount or special pricingand see what you can come up
with just on the parks websitebefore you go hunting anywhere
else. And if you're planning onmultiple days, going for
multiple days, check out aseason pass for even more
savings. You know, if you liveclose enough, and you know
(02:16):
you're gonna go three four timesin a season, the season passes
is gonna save you money in theend. Tip number do go during the
week. These are often they'reoften deals for going to the
park when it's less busy, whichis good for you because it's
less busy. Saturdays andholidays are going to be the
(02:40):
busiest and everything may costmore during those days. Try to
go Monday through Thursday forthe best savings. But even if
you can't, and you're stillgoing on Sunday or holiday, make
sure you look for all thesavings possible just like I
mentioned in tip number one. Tipnumber three, purchase the meal
plan. Oh, this one might be alittle controversial, because
(03:02):
some of our family did notpurchase the meal plan. But my
husband and I chose to purchaseit. So for the two of us the
premium meal dine premium mealplan was $40 each. And it
included a number of differentdining options. So we weren't
just stuck with pizza or hotdogs and french fries. In fact,
(03:23):
I had none of that during myentire state and we were there
from pretty much open to close.
Also, the park had a number ofvegetarian and vegan options for
me included in the dining planthat I found just by searching
the parks app. The app told mewhich dining spots had
(03:45):
vegetarian and vegan options andit even told me exactly what on
the menu was offered. So I knewwhen I was going there and
wouldn't have to guess. Ourdining plan also came with a
souvenir cup with free refills.
We could refill that cup every15 minutes with delicious Coca
Cola products, but includingwater, and we could use the meal
(04:07):
plan every 90 minutes to eat. Soonce we added up what we would
have paid out of pocket for thefood and the refills, it was
easy to see that we would havespent more than $80 out of
pocket if we hadn't bought themeal plans. I think we ate twice
(04:30):
and fill up our cups at leastfour times during during our
stay. And I can only imagine howmuch more we would have saved if
we had eaten more or had morepeople with us on the dining
plan. Tip number four. Ditch thephoto add on. Yeah, I know
everyone wants souvenir photosbut it's very tempting because
(04:54):
they are professional photos ifyou're riding the roller coaster
You want that nice shot withyour arms in the air and your
mouth wide open as you'rescreaming and sheer terror. But
it just wasn't worth the extramoney for us. One because Wendy
doesn't ride roller coaster. Anddo. My husband just wasn't
interested. I know there's goingto be employees who will take
(05:18):
your family photos for an extrafee. But, you know, you can just
ask a kind stranger to take thephotos for you. It's it's a
thing. It's okay, you can dothat. Just Just ask. Just ask.
And your phone is free. So it'snot like, you know, the last
(05:39):
time I went to Kings Dominion ineighth grade, you know, and we
were using disposable cameraswith film in it. Okay. Yes,
that's how old I am. So, useyour phone, save the money.
Unless you know, it's going tobe a really awesome photo. Tip
(06:00):
number five is carefullyconsider souvenir t shirts and
other novelty items. It's prettywell known that everything at
the park is going to have ahefty markup. So if you really
want that particular item, goahead and buy it. But there's
some things that you're going tobe able to find online outside
of the park. But remember, ifyou're going to buy gifts, have
(06:24):
a preset budget, especially ifyou're attending with kids, so
that you know how much to spend.
Another tip you might try withthe kids is to limit it to say,
one t shirt and one non t shirtlike toy item. If you have an
idea of how much these thingsare going to cost, or you can
(06:44):
say everybody's going to get a Tshirt on this trip or everyone's
going to get a cup on this tripor everyone's going to get a key
ring or something like that, orwhatever thing you normally get
from amusement parks make thatthe thing. But if you don't know
souvenirs are going to be a hugebudget buster. And five years
from now, you'll you may noteven have that shirt anymore.
(07:09):
And you'll wonder why you evenpaid $25 for a T shirt. Now that
I've thoroughly brought down theroom, let's go back to Tip
number six, which is buy yourparking pass in advance. When we
got to the park, there was along line of people who had not
purchased their parking passesin advance. I don't know why it
(07:30):
was there. When you bought thetickets online, you it was an
offering. It was like they tookyou through a very methodical
process when you bought yourtickets online. So you started
with the emissions ticket. Andthen you added on things one at
a time you add it on the mealplan, you decided if you wanted
the souvenir t shirt, youdecided if you wanted the fun
(07:53):
pics, professional photo, andthen it prompted you to also pay
for a parking pass. So if youbought your ticket online, you
would have seen this. Butwaiting in that long line would
have been a huge time suck, andit takes away from your time at
the park. Not only that, but itmight cost more at the gate just
(08:13):
like your admission tickets,like regular tickets for Kings
Dominion at the gate are $70 wepaid a little more than half of
that for our military tickets.
But for parking we paid $17 Idon't even know what it would it
(08:36):
would be at the gate. More than17 I'm sure. And there were two
options for parking passes inadvance each within $3 of each
other depending on how close youwant to depart the gate. But if
you got there early enough, youwould be able to find great
parking anyway. So buy yourparking pass in advance. Don't
wait that long line. And thenTip Number seven is upgrade to
(08:58):
the fast passes. Now I know fastpasses are a source of bad
feelings and controversy foranyone who goes anywhere from
Disney World to Kingston Manianto, you know, Knott's Berry Farm
or whatever, wherever you go.
Around here, we also have sixflags in Hershey Park. And
(09:20):
people think that it's crazy tobuy a fast pass or Fast Lane
pass or whatever it's called. atthe park you're visiting.
Becauseyou should be able to just wait
in line I guess, I don't know.
But here's the thing. There wasa ride called twisted timbers.
(09:43):
That was a very popular ride atKings Dominion. And on a
Saturday like you know, we werethere on a Saturday, obviously
there's going to be a lot ofpeople lines are going to be
long. If you did not have a FastPass. It was going to take you
an hour To get through the linethrough the two metal detectors,
yes, there were metal detectors.
And then finally, on to andthrough the ride in our cut that
(10:08):
time, potentially in half withthe Fast Pass, it lets you
depending on the park, it willlet you come in through a
separate line, or essentiallyskip the line or come back at a
particular time so that youdon't have to wait in line.
Because guess what you can dowith all that time that you're
(10:29):
not waiting in line. You canride more rides, you can eat
more food, you can catch a showat the park, you can sit take a
break, you can do a bunch ofother things. Rather than just
stand and wait in line and whoreally wants to wait in line for
an hour. Just put it in thebudget. And this is one of those
(10:50):
line items that when I mentionedthings may cost more on the
weekend. This was definitely oneof those things that cost more
on the weekend. And there weretwo versions of the past with a
$15 difference. One lets youskip the queue on 10 rides, the
other had 13 rides. Whatever youchoose is up to you. I didn't
(11:12):
get a fast pass because like Isaid, I don't do rollercoasters,
but my husband got a fast lanepass. And it was worth every
penny. He totally maximized hiswriting for that day. And I'm
glad I didn't have to wait anhour for him to get on and off
twisted timbers. Also, if you'realready going to buy a season
(11:36):
pass for admission, check to seeif there's a season Fast Pass so
that you don't have to get itevery time you go to the park. I
know there was for KingsDominion. But wherever you're
going Disney World Disneyland,great adventure. Wherever you're
going, the rules might bedifferent, so make sure you look
(11:58):
in advance. Bonus Tip, downloadthe park app, we found that it
was a lot easier to navigate thepark and fine dining options
once I downloaded the app. So Icould see which places took our
dining plan. what my optionswere the apps, The app also had
wait times listed for each ofthe rides along with a
(12:18):
description of the rides. Wecould also store our tickets in
the app, so I didn't have toprint them at home. I printed
them anyway for backup, but Ireally didn't have to everything
was scannable in the app. Sothose are my best tips for
saving money at an amusementpark. So for the two of us, we
(12:38):
paid about $271 for our tickets,parking, food and fast lane
pass. Again, I can say we didn'tlose money and we save time,
hassle and money especially ondining by purchasing in advance
and taking the time to plan ourtrip. I hope your next trip is
just as enjoyable for you andyour family. Thank you for
(13:01):
listening to this week'sepisode. Be sure to subscribe
and leave a review and yourreview could be featured on a
future episode.
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