I took a big risk yesterday. I took the family up to Busch Gardens Christmas Town. Normally we go before Christmas but this year was just too busy and we had to do it after. It was good because one of the boys gifts were their Busch Gardens memberships.
To them it isn’t any different than being on the pre-school pass or going on a free ticket but looking at the parking prices yesterday it is making it so the membership pays for itself in one trip. Let’s do the math real fast. We’re paying $60 a month for the four memberships or $720 a year. Abigail went on a free guest ticket yesterday so we will include that in the value. It also gives me a thought for when her preschool pass runs out.
Single day tickets for Busch Gardens are $112 the last I checked and basic parking is $40 a car. That means one trip for our family of five would be $600. We get a few membership discounts on food inside the park which maybe amounts to an extra four or five dollars saved a visit. I don’t like spending too much money on food inside the park and normally opt to eat at a nearby fast food restaurant or a local place like Two Drummers instead.
So instead of paying $600 for one day at the park we pay $720 and probable visit between 10 to 12 times a year. I do try and make it once a month, but sometimes we’ll miss a month or go an extra time or two in the summer.
As for Abigail we do now have four guest tickets for the spring and summer and four for the fall and winter. If we limit ourselves to eight trips a year we can extend the time needed until she gets a full membership, but that could become a nuisance at some point and her membership should be around $15 a month next year, and as they grow older stuff like the zoo, botanical gardens, and aquarium will start to drop off.
At the end of the day this isn’t a question until next year and I completely let the discussion of future cost derail a post that was going to be about the kids fighting over stuffed animals at a game stand.
David Huzzard Writes 