We just spent the last 3 days at Sea World, San Antonio. Paul and I don’t get each other anything for Christmas for the most part, we usually buy something for the house and call it our present. This year we wanted to use our Sea World year passes before they expired, and so we counted the hotel cost as our gift to each other.
** Quickly I want to say that in no way was I compensated for this post! We also got NO discounts on anything that I am talking about other than the ones I found myself! I just want to give you guys the information that I have on a fun place to visit!
If you live within 4 hours of a Sea World, it is worth at some point in your life to get a year pass and try to make it a few times. Locations are:
There are a few things that you can do to really save some money on your trip. The thing unfortunately that you can not save much money on are the tickets themselves, but I have a few ideas to make it a little less painful!
Buy a year Fun Pass if you are going more than 1 day! Even if you know you are not coming back, 1 day pass is $59, a year pass is $79. If you were going 2 days over a weekend it is till cheaper to get the year pass.
Fun Card – I bought these for the kids and I. The 2012 prices are $59 and $49 for JUST Sea World. Prices for Sea World and Aquatica (the water park) are $89 (adult) and $79 (kids).
Benefits…
- Purchase your 2012 Fun Card now and get the rest of 2011 for free!
- Unlimited admission for 2011 and 2012
- SeaWorld San Antonio and Aquatica options available
- No waiting in line for tickets
*Personally I could not imagine going in the summer and not going to the water park. It is a MUST for us. Also, the new one they are building in San Antonio is AMAZING!
Annual Pass– I buy 1 of these for Paul. It is $129. This gets us free parking and 20% off everything in the park. I figure we only need one, and he is the one usually driving. Parking is like $15 so it is worth it.
Benefits…
- SeaWorld San Antonio and Aquatica options available
- Free parking, merchandise and dining discounts, and discounted guest admission with the 1 Year Pass
- Affordable EZ Pay Passes
- Access to 10 SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment parks with the Platinum Pass
- Get to the park when it opens!!! Get in line QUICKLY for the big rides. You will have about 1 1/2 to ride the big rides before the lines are 2 hours long.
- Make sure to see the main shows first. You will need to be there about 30 min before the show starts to get seats.
Total cost this trip to get into the park: $0
Once you have tickets, lets talk about food! You can bring SNACKS and a small 12″ cooler in. They will search it. I bring in water for the baby and all the kids no matter their size has a water bottle with water. I always bring, crackers, fruit, cookies, dried fruit, etc. in and have never had them make me take it out.
We leave a cooler in the car with lunch meat and cheese, plus drinks and soda. I REFUSE to pay $10 each person for lunch or a meal. When it is time to eat or everyone is hungry we go out to the car and eat lunch on the tailgate! I figure we save about $70 a day doing that!
In the Park: They have souvenir cups in the park like the one to the left. They are $8.99 to buy for the year and soda or lemonade refills are $.99. I didn’t buy a cup but 2 of my kids did last March and we brought them with us this time to use.
Total cost for us this trip in the park: $13 for 3 days!
Hotel ~
Obviously if you have someone to stay with that is the best route. We don’t. Last time I was able to get a good deal on our hotel through a daily deal site. We need either 2 rooms or a bigger room than most, so this always costs us more than most people. This time I actually used Priceline. I have not used them in a very long time. But between Christmas and New Years it is very slow (unless there is a BIG bowl game) and rooms are cheap. I got a 2 room, 1 king, 2 queen, sleeper sofa deal for only $99 a night at a Holiday Inn Express by Sea World.
I would suggest Travelocity also. I can usually find a good deal there as well. If you know far enough in advance start watching the daily deal sites in the city you are going to and watch for deals on rooms or bed and breakfasts.
ALWAYS make sure to get a hotel that has FREE full breakfast and FREE internet (a must for a blogger)! I don’t want the added expense of paying for breakfast or the hassle of trying to feed kids granola bars in the room 🙂
Total cost of hotel for 2 nights: $235 with taxes
** I also used Restaurants.com to get 2 different gift vouchers for dinner. I got a $50 one ( to Magic Time Machine) and a $25 one ( to a Sports Bar/Restaurant by the hotel) for only $7!
Because we didn’t have to buy our tickets this time, the entire trip for 3 days with 9 people cost us just under $400. Which I think is pretty dang good!