Weekend Adventures: Legoland

So, I'm a little late in posting this. But I better late than never, right?

A few weekends ago, Dan and I went to Legoland with some friends of ours. These friends both happen to be teachers at my high school and we all work in the same building. The cool part about being friends with other teachers is that we can all benefit from the teacher perks that local attractions offer. Like the fact that Legoland offers free annual passes to Florida teachers.

But those perks don't extend to teacher spouses, so we normally have to pay for Dan to get into the park. However, Legoland had a First Responders appreciation month in May. Since Dan is an EMT, he was able to get a free one-day pass. So the four of us got into the park for the price of parking.

It was the first time any of us had been to this theme park, so we weren't sure what to expect. We all assumed going into it that it would be geared more towards children than adults, and Legoland didn't disappoint in that aspect. All of the rides are set up so that one kid and one adult can sit together. I really don't think the rides are made so that two adults can sit in the same row - there were quite a few times where we had to squeeze together to fit.

I think the boys favorite part were the mini Lego cities.

 Key West & Daytona International Speedway

Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine

State Capitol Building in Tallahassee

 And, the White House complete with the First Family and their dog Beau on the front steps!

My favorite part was the fact that they kept some of the original Cypress Gardens. Cypress Gardens was the original "theme park" where Legoland currently sits. It was full of beautiful gardens with southern belles wandering about, and had an awesome water stunt show. The park closed down years ago, but Legoland kept some of its original beauty in a small section of their park. Although the southern belles are no longer there, Legoland did create life-size versions of them to welcome you to the gardens.

Overall though, it was a fun afternoon. It was nice to get out and see a new theme park. I don't think any of us will be headed back to Legoland any time soon, unless its to check out their waterpark (which is included in the teacher pass). We all pretty much agreed that it probably would have been more fun had we taken children along and had experienced the park through their eyes.

Although, that didn't stop us from acting like children and playing with Legos whenever we got the chance!

Anyone else been to Legoland? Or maybe you know of other teacher perks out there? I know Sea World has the same annual teacher pass deal. 

Theme Parks on the Cheap

As I mentioned in my last post, having lived in Central Florida the majority of my life has given me many opportunities to visit the plethora of theme parks in our area. Growing up I never really understood why out-of-town family members got such a thrill out of going to Disney or Universal Studios. To me, they were just a part of everyday life.

Something else I've never really understood was how people could go to these places and spend so much money! I've stopped and talked with tourists before who are visiting the Orlando area. Most of the ones I've talked were while I was visiting Disney. The majority of them were staying 6 nights/7 days in a hotel on the park property, eating all of their meals on property, and visiting all 4 Disney parks. Talk about some major dough being spent!

So, I thought I would give some of my tips and suggestions for having a great time at theme parks without emptying your savings account.

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The first major hurdle is getting into the parks:

#1: It's all in who you know

I would say 75% of the trips I've made to theme parks, I've done so by getting through the ticket gates absolutely free. This all comes from knowing someone who works at the parks. If you have family or friends in the Central Florida area, more than likely they'll know at least one person who works at a local theme park. See if they would be willing to give you free passes - they usually are allotted a certain amount of passes each month/year. If they can't give you a pass, see if they'd be willing to meet you at the gate - at Disney, cast members are allowed to check in so many people per day into the parks without needing a pass. Sometimes they can give you a discount card which can lower your ticket price up to almost 50%.

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#2: Check online for discounts

A lot of theme parks offer discounts to people who work in specific professions, like teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and active military personnel. Florida teachers can get into Sea World free for the remainder of the year just by showing them 3 little sheets of paper (check out this link for more discounts offered to Florida teachers).

#3 Try bundling

On our last trip to Sea World, the fiance was going to get in using an employee discount from an old friend of the family. The cost of a normal adult ticket to Sea World is around $80. With the discount, he would only have had to pay roughly $40. However, the park is currently holding a promotion with their Summer Nights deal that gets adults in at children's prices ($71) and they get a second night free (the stipulation is that you had to return sometime during that same week to claim the 2nd night). So, each day would have cost approximately $35.50 - cheaper than the discounted ticket.

#4 Even if you think you have a deal, don't be afraid to ask for more

We thought we had the best deal walking into the park earlier this week - $71 for two days at the theme park? Worked for us. But, when we got to the ticket counter, we asked if there were any other deals they were offering that might be better in the long run. That's when we found out about the annual pass. Basically, you pay the adult ticket price for that day ($80) plus another $10 or so to upgrade to the annual pass. So for roughly $90, you can get into the park an unlimited number of days for the remainder of the year. If we only went two more days (which breaks down to $30 a day), the annual pass was already a better deal than the Summer Nights. Then, for an extra $20 or so, you could get free parking for the rest of the year, plus 10% off of food purchases at particular restaurants in the park. Considering parking is $14 per day, that would pay for itself after 2 trips as well. So, for around $117 (after taxes) plus my free teacher study pass, we can now park & get into the park without having to shell out another dime until July of next year.

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Sometimes, none of the above options will work. And when you are bringing an entire family with you, tickets alone could drain your wallet. So, here are some tips on how to save money once you've entered the parks:

#5 Bring your own food

The prices of food at theme parks is down right outrageous! That's probably where the fiance and I spend most of our money inside the park. A buffet lunch cost the two of us $25, and trust me, theme park food usually isn't anything to write home about. Plus, later in the day, the heat was getting to us and we wanted ice cream - another $10 spent. Most people pack little snacks in their bags to munch on throughout the day, but many don't think about packing their entire lunch (me included!). A colleague of mine made this suggestion the other day, and I think I'm going to start doing this for now on. Pack a small hand cooler with things you'd eat for lunch: string cheese, PB&J or turkey sandwiches, juice boxes, etc. Make sure you have enough ice in there to withstand the Florida heat if you're going in the summer! Then, when you first enter the park, find the nearest lockers, and stash your cooler away. The daily cost of a locker is about $5 depending on the theme park. Five dollars versus twenty-five dollars is a deal to me! Think of the savings if you're travelling with children!

If you are planning on visiting any of the Florida theme parks in the middle of the summer, plan on also drinking a butt load of water. Dehydration is something that can very easily happen in this Florida heat. My suggestion is to bring your own water bottles with you (whether its a typical pre-filled water bottle or a reusable bottle) and refill them throughout the day at the many free water fountains around the park. Even if you forget to bring a water bottle with you, spend the initial $2-$3 to buy your first bottle from a vendor. Then save that bottle the rest of the day and keep filling it up.

#7 Skip the soda & beer

This one is a biggie! You would not believe how much they charge for bottles of soda and beer! I'll let the picture do all the talking:

And this doesn't even show the beer prices! It amazes me how much they can charge for soda, knowing that just down the street in the local gas station or grocery store, you can get the exact same thing for nearly half the price. Some parks offer a souvenir cup that you initially pay around $7 for, and then only pay $0.99 for each refill the rest of the day. The fiance and I figured out (yes, these are the conversations we now have since we've been trying better to budget) that you'd have to buy at least 3 or 4 sodas throughout the day to even equal the amount of money you'd spend to buy 3 or 4 individual bottles of soda. So, unless you really want that souvenir cup, and you really have to have a soda, then buy the individual bottles. Otherwise, stick to water - you're body will thank you later. :)

#8 Get a meal pass

This is only a money saver if you are planning on spending the entire day at the park. For instance, at Sea World, the meal pass is $30 per person, per day. So, for the fiance and I, it would cost us $60. Now, lunch only cost us $23 total. So, to make the meal pass worth it, we'd need to eat at least 3 meals at the park. I don't know about you, but we simply do not spend that much time there.

#9 Bring your own camera

The theme parks have tons of places for photo opportunities. Usually, they are free - like standing in front of a cool statue or plant, or a meet-and-greet with your favorite Disney character. However, pictures of you riding some of their more thrilling rides will cost you a pretty penny. A simply 5x7 image costs approximately $20 at Sea World, depending on what the picture is of. My suggestion, be sneaky! Wait until the photo attendant isn't looking, and snap a picture with your own camera of the screen they're displaying your picture on. Sure, it's going to be really crummy quality, but hey, I'm cheap! See...

The boys getting situated. This is Dan's new favorite roller coaster - Sea World's Manta. Can you tell he & our friend Jay are excited??

Ok, so I'm a total chicken. I do not like roller coasters. There are very few coasters that I will agree to ride on (much to the fiance's dismay). So, I usually wait in line with whoever is riding the coasters, and then stand on...well, I don't know what it is called exactly...loading dock (for lack of a better term) until they finish.

Photo at the kiosk. Sneaky sneaky! :)

#10 Avoid gift shops like the plague

This one is simple - if you don't have kids. I'm telling you what, they make these shops really hard on parents. I don't know how a parent can walk in there with their kid(s) and not buy them something. But seriously, if you can avoid the shops, you're going to save a ton of money. My advice is to figure out where the nearest Wal-Mart is to the theme park. As weird as that sounds, they typically sell the parks' merchandise at a slightly lower cost.

#11 Come prepared & plan ahead
You're probably thinking that this one is obvious. But let me tell you, I'm guilty of breaking this cardinal rule on this most recent trip. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm pretty pale (thanks to a dad who is fair skinned & strawberry blond), so I burn really easy. Needless to say, I forgot to take sunscreen with me. As much as I hated forking over the cash, I knew I'd rather take the hit in my wallet then be miserable with a sunburn (plus the future risk of skin cancer...). So, I spent TEN DOLLARS for the tiniest bottle of sunscreen! I know, ridiculous. But, again $10 versus sunburn & increased cancer risk... was an easy decision to make for me.

So that's it! Eleven tips on how to save you and your family a little bit of green while visiting some of the local Central Florida hot spots. Anyone have any tips to add to this list? I'm always interested in learning new ways to save money. Did anyone out there take a trip to Orlando and one of its theme parks? Or maybe you hit up a theme park in another state? Please share!

Summertime Family Fun

I mentioned in my last post that we were planning a trip to Sea World Orlando this week, and let me tell you, it was a blast! It wasn't my first time going to the park - honestly I can't even remember how many times I've gone. Living in Orlando, all of the famous theme parks are less than an hour away, so it's not unusual  to have been to the parks more than once before graduating from high school. A lot of the local schools actually have their end-of-the-year field trips at the theme parks (that is until transportation budgets got slashed...) which is how I got to go most of the time.

The fiance and I spent the day with his brother, Jimmy, his wife, Tracy, and their son, Tyler. This wasn't their first trip to the home of Shamu either - Tyler's first trip was about 3 years ago.I should probably mention here that he's 6 now. At first Tyler was very hesitant about the animals, but after a couple of hours he started warming up.

Before I share some of our pictures from the day, I want to clarify that the quality of the pictures aren't going to be all that great. As I've mentioned in previous posts, my only camera right now is my cell phone camera (buying a new camera is definitely on our to-save-for list after the wedding). So, a lot of the underwater pics will be a little blurry or poorly lit. Also, I haven't really told anyone that I've started this little blog project, besides the fiance and my mother. Because of that, I don't feel comfortable posting pictures of my nephew's face for the whole world to see without mommy and daddy's permission. Yes, I know that most of them are already posted on our private Facebook accounts, but those have privacy locks. So, any pictures of Tyler will be from behind. With all of that said, here we go!

First stop of the day - the dolphin exhibit. Here are the trainers feeding them.

Tyler got to feed the dolphins. You can't see him here, but he and Tracy are down at the bend. I think it was still a little early for him, because he didn't reach out and touch them.

These are the pictures from the underwater viewing area. I loved it in there! You can get some awesome pictures (if you have the right camera). Here's an oldie from a 2007 trip to Sea World that shows what it could be like:

Check out the fiance's hair and beard!!

Tyler loved the dolphins.

Manatee Rescue was up next on the agenda.

Anyone want to guess what Mr. Manatee is eating??

I don't know why, but I think it is so funny that they eat lettuce.

This is where I tried to tell Tyler that the manatee's nickname is "Sea Cow." I think he was still a little too young to get that one though...

You can't go anywhere in Florida without seeing gators.

The aquariums were up next:

My poor attempt to get Nemo & Dori in the same picture. :)

Penguin Encounter - Tyler's favorite exhibit

This is when we knew Tyler was finally warming up to the animal exhibits. He asked to feed the sharks!

So Uncle Danny thought it was the perfect time for he and Aunt Hannah to stop and take a picture. Can I just say, I don't like this picture. But it's the only picture we took of both of us all day. In my defense, the humidity was absolutely horrible all day long. Both of us were nasty & sweaty after only being in the park for an hour. So you can imagine how gross we both were by this point in the day... Yuck!!

Next up was Shamu's Happy Harbor where all the kiddie rides are. We rode the carousel, roller coaster, and the jelly fish ride.

He had to be on a dolphin! :)

Up next is what everyone goes to Sea World for: SHAMU!!

Kisses! Mwah!

Tyler though the sting rays were cool. After we were done with this exhibit, we went right back to the sting ray feeding tank that we quickly went by earlier in the morning. He loved getting to pet the sting rays, but didn't like the splashing part so much. :)

At this point in the day, the skies were looking pretty nasty. Everyone knows Florida is the "Sunshine State," but what everyone doesn't realize unless they've visited or lived here is that we are also notorious for daily showers and thunderstorms. So, we decided to hit up the dolphin and whale show and sit under the stadium in case the rain decided to come.

I also thought it was so cool when the trainers did this!

False Killer Whale :)

This is only one of two shows (that I'm aware of anyways) where the trainers are still allowed to get in the water with the animals.

At this point, my phone died. So I couldn't take anymore pictures... But, the fiance and I are thinking about going again this Sunday (we now have annual passes, woo hoo!), so I'll try to get pictures of the other exhibits and shows in the park.

Also, I'm thinking about writing a post about how to get the most out of the theme parks without spending a crap load of money. It's so incredibly easy to walk out of the park and have spent hundreds of dollars - especially if you have a family.

Anyone else hit up any theme parks this summer? What are some cool theme parks outside of Florida to visit? I'd love to one day be able to travel around the country a little more, and would love some suggestions.