Mar 21 2009

The Cost of Fun

12 responses so far

12 Responses to “The Cost of Fun”

1. # Carolina on 21 Mar 2009 at 9:17 am

   

   I think this is a huge problem for large families. Every time I go to Disneyland, I think, I would not be able to do this as often if I had more then one kid. But you’re right that family memberships really do help bigger families the most in helping to off-set the cost.
   That said, even with one kid, I’m on a single income and monitor my family-fun spending carefully.
   Here’s why I love small museums, and state or national park activities, all cost much less. Anything that resembles amusement park, is way too expensive to do often.
   And classes are worth it if your child really enjoys the particular topic, and they have good reviews.

   Carolina’s last blog post..Feeding the Lorikeets at San Diego Wild Animal Park

2. # Amy on 21 Mar 2009 at 9:31 am

   

   I used to be a travel agent, and it saddened me to have families that had scrimped and saved for months and months to go to Disneyworld. Not that I don’t like Disneyworld–I like it very much–but when you think of all the other things that family could have done with the money, it was shocking. We’ve done Disney twice, both times as a couple-day add-on to a Disney cruise. Also not cheap, but the cruises were fantastic.

   Nowadays the kids are older, so the entertainment is different, and in many ways cheaper. They like to go to the movies, and don’t mind going at matinees ($5 versus $8). Since the EP theater is attached to the EP mall, we can bring in food court purchases, which taste better and are far cheaper than the movie theater offerings. I’ve trained them to request video rentals via Netflix rather than the video store. Stuff like that. My kids are old enough to bike to Dairy Queen in the summer for an ice cream cone, saving me the trip, not tempting me to buy something, plus they get exercise (it’s about an 8-mile roundtrip).

   Amy’s last blog post..Friday food

3. # minnemom on 21 Mar 2009 at 10:49 am

   

   Carolina, you’re right about it being a bigger hit on larger families. There are times when I’d splurge on just one or two kids, but with four…

   On the other hand, we really get a bang for our buck on memberships. Usually single-museum memberships would pay for themselves with only two visits per year from our family. Find one that includes reciprocity to other museums, and we’ve got it made.

   Family size is kind of interesting to think of in terms of travel. When you think about restaurants, airfare, or tickets, the more you kids you have, the more you pay. Yet it doesn’t cost us any more to drive four kids than one, or to stay in a motel room (unless we require a larger car or larger hotel room because of it).

   It’s not easy to make the decisions on what the value of a dollar is, and it’s an issue that every family sees differently.

4. # minnemom on 21 Mar 2009 at 10:54 am

   

   Amy, your Disney comment is interesting. My husband and I were just discussing the same thing at lunch. Every once in a while, I think I see what looks like “affordable” Disney prices. (Airfare specials, etc. have to go along with it.) And every time I do more research, I come to the same conclusion: We could see so much more with that money. From my estimates, one week at Disney would cost twice as much as our 17-day trip to Philadelphia. That’s hard for me to justify.

   A Disney cruise is one thing we actually have considered, for the reasons you’ve mentioned, plus we’ve heard they’re really good about food allergies on Disney. If we ever do go see Mickey, there’s a good chance that it would be attached to a cruise.

   Thanks for weighing in. (And, to help me find more local things to do with the kids, I’m hoping my copy of your book is in the mailbox today!)

5. # Bridget Smith on 23 Mar 2009 at 9:54 pm

   

   When it comes to themeparks, especially with small children I really think that memberships are the way to go. That way you can take your time, and enjoy several short trips instead of one long trip. It is pricey, but my husband doesn’t have alot of time off, so at the moment we mostly enjoy these more local adventures especially with small children. It pays to do your research and shop around. You can really save alot of money that way. I have found that Costco can be a great resource for affordable theme park tickets. Our three month Legoland passes were only a few dollars more than a single day ticket. We visited after my husband came home from work, on our own on summer days, on a few weekends, and for some special events. I think I calculated that it ended up being about $4 a visit because we went enough times.

   For Disneyland, we discovered that the cheapest Southern California pass was cheaper than buying tickets for three days at Disneyland. We enjoyed our three days, and now have a fun outing for school holidays as well (They aren’t good on the weekend). When it comes to Disneyland, I’ve heard if you don’t hit it in the off season you’re wasting your money. We have enjoyed a lot of fun days with very few lines (our big trip was in early December). I had friends visit during spring break last week… they ended up riding ONLY ONE RIDE due to the lines!

   Here in San Diego there is a Go Card that offers lots of fun attractions and good value. Sea World also has a fun card promotion…pay for a day, and you have a pass that’s good for the rest of the year (parking not included). Balboa Park has a different set of museums free every Tuesday, so that’s where you’ll find us Tuesdays in the summer. San Diego Museums aren’t very big and they aren’t really great for more than a few hours of fun, so I haven’t gone the membership route yet. I’m still thinking about it. If I lived in San Jose it would be a different story. They have an awesome Children’s Museum, Tech Museum, etc.

   My other piece of themepark advice is don’t pay for anything except for admission: bring your own food, try to avoid buying souvenirs or have your kids spend their own allowance. Make sure you pack sweatshirts, sunscreen, etc. Get creative with lodging…for our Disneyland trip we stayed at a timeshare and endured a presentation…great accomodations little cost. Stay with a friend. For Vegas, we are cashing in Amex points.

   There are many ways to save on family fun, museum visits, theme parks, zoos, hikes. A little planning can make every adventure a little more affordable even for a larger family.

   Bridget Smith’s last blog post..Public Tantrums and Other Misbehavior While Traveling-Thoughts?

6. # TopazTook on 05 Apr 2009 at 7:44 pm

   

   If you ever do want to take your kids to Mall of America stuff, I found out when my sister recently visited with her crew: on Toddler Tuesdays, you can get 3-hour ride passes for $12. There’s no age limit on who can get them. They’re not good for all the rides, but there were plenty — we rode some more than once, and I don’t think we even got to all of them — to satisfy kids under 10. (We had an 8, 5, 2 and 1 year old with us.) There were also people from Underwater Adventures at the Toddler Tuesday event that day handing out coupons for adult admission at the price of a child admission. Alternatively (since I don’t think you can use both discounts together), almost all of those free coupon books around the Twin Cities (library lobbies, pediatrician’s offices, etc.) will have a coupon for buy one adult admission, get one child admission free to Underwater Adventures.

   Still, we didn’t go — because we had so little time left that, even with the discounts, it wasn’t worth the price.

   The Mall of America also has free family movies on Saturdays. http://www.theatresmoa.com/events.htm (Scroll down past the unfortunately placed Hooters ad.)

7. # Isabel's Mommy on 06 Apr 2009 at 8:55 am

   

   You can get a membership to Underwater Advenures as well. It might be something for your large family to look into & consider.

   Also, check out the Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins. They have better prices on tickets and all their shows are about an hour long children’s productions. We love it! They also have BOGO coupons in the Entertainment book, frequently email coupons if you are on their list and sometimes pass out coupons fo the next show when you attend another. Plus they have the Flex Pass, which comes down to $11/ticket and parking in the lot across the road is free.

   Isabel’s Mommy’s last blog post..Caribou Wild Berry Smoothie

8. # minnemom on 07 Apr 2009 at 6:56 am

   

   TopazTook, thanks for the info about the Toddler Tuesday passes. Now that you mention it, I recall hearing about them. I think they’re good on the “kiddie” rides, but if you have little ones, that’s what they’ll enjoy anyway!

   And yes, there are plenty of Underwater Adventures coupons out there. If you want to go, be sure to find a discount of some kind.

9. # minnemom on 07 Apr 2009 at 6:58 am

   

   Isabel’s Mommy, it’s kind of funny, it would actually be about $.20 cheaper for our family of six to buy an Underwater Adventures membership than to pay full price admission for one visit.

   Thanks for the info about Stages. I’ll look into that. I’ve been wanting to take the kids to a play but the price usually keeps me away.

10. # Mary in Mn on 27 May 2009 at 9:57 pm

    

    Hi there,

    I’m a new reader and assume you’re from MN from this post… anyways, I was on an email list for the CTC since I homeschooled last year. They had 7.00 tickets to Peter Pan last year (in the middle of the day, in the smaller theatre) so we took advantage!

    At this point we have four boys under the age of ten. I, too want to expose them to a lot of theatre but it is expensive. Mary Poppins is coming to St. Paul in September, but just for me and the boys to go at the cheapest time (Sunday night @ 6:30) it would be almost 100.00! That’s like going to 2-3 CTC plays!

    So try to get on that email list for great last minute low-priced tickets, it was a lot of fun!

11. # minnemom on 27 May 2009 at 10:13 pm

    

    Mary, glad to have you here, and thanks for your comment.

    Your CTC idea is excellent. Their costs have always been prohibitive to us, as are most other theater productions. I looked into Cirque du Soleil and couldn’t believe the cost. I have a hard time paying that much for just a couple of hours of entertainment.

    I’d love to take my kids to the theater, however. We’re fortunate to have a college nearby that puts on annual children’s productions, and deals like you mentioned would be distinct possibilities.

    Old Log Theater has a summer production this year as well, and I think GoCityKids has a coupon so that tickets are only $10. We’re thinking about doing that with friends.

12. # Museums for Kids: Are children's museums too expensive? | Backpack to Buggy on 22 Nov 2009 at 8:21 pm

    

    [...] out: *Another parent’s point of view *An affordable children’s museum SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Museums for Kids: Are [...]

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