Hershey Park,Dutch Wonderland,Sesame Place,Busch Gardens(2x),Water Country USA(2x)

[Ridewithme38]

So looks like my vacations this year are structured around theme parks, May(3 days) is Hershey park and Dutch Wonderland, June(a day or two) is Sesame Place, July & August(two weeks) are Busch Gardens & Water Country USA ...Not the way I would vacation if i had the choice...But my 6yr old Loves it....So, i need to find a way to make these trips as cheap as possible

I know i can buy a Super Grover Pass for $209+ to get admission to Sesame Place, Busch Gardens and Water Country USA, but since i may only make sesame Place a day trip, is it better to just buy the "Fun Card"($67) at BG & the "Summer Sizzler"($48) at WC and a two day ticket to Sesame Place($58)

What about Hershey Park & Dutch Wonderland? Is there anyway to get a deal on those prices? Is the Combo Ticket the best price?

It was so much easier last year when i got a free bounce ticket for her

 

[Skittles1]

It seems as though you would be better off with the 2 day ticket for Sesame Place. Though, if you thought you might be able to get down to Sesame for another weekend during the summer, it might be worthwhile to do a Sesame season pass. Sesame has lots of fun stuff to do in the Fall too for Halloween. It's not that far from NY. I live 10 minutes from Sesame, so we always get the season passes. You could do the lower priced Big Bird pass, and save 50% off Busch Gardens and Water Country.

 

[tschwa2]

You also need to consider parking. The Fun cards don't include parking at BG and WC so that would be another 15 each park per day. I can't tell if the super grover includes preferred parking at Sesame and regular parking at BG and WC or just the Preferred at SP. If you go with Super Grover only get one and do fun cards for your daughter.

If you do the 7 day pass Colonial Williamsburg, BG and WC ($120 online) it includes parking and if your daughter is under 6 (or looks under 6) her ticket is free. For a two week trip in Williamsburg you could save by only getting one week and spend the first 3 days and last 3 days at the resort and exploring other areas including Jamestown and Yorktown riverwalk (both make nice walk and picnic areas with little beaches on the rivers). You could also use this time to do a day trip to Virginia Beach or closer Norfolk or Newport News. If you didn't take the bridge tunnel down its kind of a neat trip (you can stop and fish) and a scenic drive and picnic to the Eastern Shore of Virginia is also nice.

Avoiding the parks on the weekends is also a plus because the lines are 2-3Xs longer on weekends so by doing a Wednesday-Tuesday 7 day you only have one weekend at the parks. If your 2 weeks in Williamsburg aren't consecutive you still might want to consider 2 7 day passes.

Since you will be staying closer to Hershey than DW you might want to go with the 2 park pass but see if you can do the evening preview the night before your hershey visit. Summer Coke cans , Wendy's and local grocery stores often have $'s of Hershey and Dutch Wonderland which may end up being a better deal.

If you like those parks you might want to consider a weekend visit in the fall of next year. The happy hauntings are less expensive than summer tickets. Weather is beautiful at that time and you can also throw in Cherry Crest Farm Maize Maze and Strasborg railroad. If you have any extra time or energy there are lots of Penn Dutch and rail road activities in the area too. Camping makes nice family time. I always want to camp someplace else every other year but I always get outvoted because everyone loves October in Pennsylvania.

 

[natasha5687]

Maybe you should consider a Busch Gardens Platinum Pass. They are $329 each but they are good for 2 years at all 9 parks. They include free parking at all of the parks and discounts on dining and merchandise at all 9 parks. The other nice thing about the platinum pass is that you can break the payments down into 24 equal installments. After your 2 years are up you can continue to pay monthly for as long as you would like. It's about $13.5 monthly per pass. We are buying ours in Williamsburg because they are cheaper that way. We have a 4 year old and we are not going to purchase a pass for him. The reason being is that as pass holders we can get 50% of tickets (1 per place per pasholder). It turns out to be a bit more economical to buy the 4 year old tickets at half off the kids price for out upcoming trips. Below is a link that will give you a rundown of all of the benefits. FYI...I couldnt locate the easy pay option so I googled Busch Gardens Williamsburg Platinum payment plan and it showed up.

http://seaworldparks.com/buschgardens-williamsburg/PassMembers

 

[amyhwang]

We had the Super Grover Pass last year, ordered online at the early spring discount and it was mailed to me.

It was a great deal! We went to Sea World and Discovery Cove in March (free preferred parking at Sea World, saved $20 a day, food discounts at Sea World, HUGE discount at Discovery Cove, I paid $69 non dolphin swim for me, and $129 or $159 or something like that for the kids to swim, discounts on photos and a sweatshirt for my daughter there). We also went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on two separate trips over the summer, as well as Water Country USA. We got preferred parking free there and discounts on food as well. The parking is so close!

I would say that pass is awesome. It was only $159 or so I think.

Warning: when we went in July, from the DC area, I95 was a parking lot. Should have taken us 3 and a half hours from our house to Williamsburg. It took 6 and a half hours. I was so wiped out from the drive! Early June, it was a different story, no problem with the drive and the parks weren't crowded at all.

 

[natasha5687]

We had the Super Grover Pass last year, ordered online at the early spring discount and it was mailed to me.

It was a great deal! We went to Sea World and Discovery Cove in March (free preferred parking at Sea World, saved $20 a day, food discounts at Sea World, HUGE discount at Discovery Cove, I paid $69 non dolphin swim for me, and $129 or $159 or something like that for the kids to swim, discounts on photos and a sweatshirt for my daughter there). We also went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on two separate trips over the summer, as well as Water Country USA. We got preferred parking free there and discounts on food as well. The parking is so close!

I would say that pass is awesome. It was only $159 or so I think.

Warning: when we went in July, from the DC area, I95 was a parking lot. Should have taken us 3 and a half hours from our house to Williamsburg. It took 6 and a half hours. I was so wiped out from the drive! Early June, it was a different story, no problem with the drive and the parks weren't crowded at all.

I just posted about the Busch Gardens Williamsburg Platinum Pass on another thread. I just bout 5 of them. We looked at the Super Grover but decided against it because they are only good for 1 year vs 2 on the other platinum passes. When I looked at the Grovers they were still $209 yesterday. When do they start sending out their early purchase discounts?

I found out after my purchase that I could have purchased the 2 year Seaworld San Antonio pass for $269 each and had them shipped. The webistes indicate that each pass must be used first at the park purchased. What they dont tell you is that it is basically just to pick up your pass. When you use the shipping option you get the actual pass instead of an e voucher to pick up the pass at guest services. This would have saved me $400 on a family of 5. While I did pay for all of mine upfront the have an option to break the payments down into 24 equal installments of $10.86-$15.60 per month per pass (price depending on park of initial purchase). Another useful

 

[Ridewithme38]

Ok it looks like plans have changed....Now its:

For two tickets, one adult one 6yr old
Hershey park/Dutch Wonderland May(2 days) $139.90
Sesame Place June (2 days) $115.98
CamelBeach July (7 days) $199.98
Busch Gardens/Water Country August (7 days) $169.98

The super grover and/or Busch gardens passes sound like a good idea, but i'm not sure if they'll really save me much money...i think i have to travel to Busch gardens much more

 

[natasha5687]

Ok it looks like plans have changed....Now its:

For two tickets, one adult one 6yr old
Hershey park/Dutch Wonderland May(2 days) $139.90
Sesame Place June (2 days) $115.98
CamelBeach July (7 days) $199.98
Busch Gardens/Water Country August (7 days) $169.98

The super grover and/or Busch gardens passes sound like a good idea, but i'm not sure if they'll really save me much money...i think i have to travel to Busch gardens much more

The money you save would depend on wether or not you see yourself going to some of the other parks. If you are planning Tampa, Orlando, San Diego, or Williamsburg in the next 24 months you could save big. Also remember that with these passes parking is included as well as a discount on food and park trinkets. I can understand where you are coming from. I did a cost analysis and this came out least expensive for me. Everyone has different vacation plans.