Saving Money at Amusement Parks

In the past two weeks my daughter has headed to Cedar Point (with the school percussion ensemble), Kings Island (with her track team) and Fort Rapids, an indoor amusement park (for an end of the 8th-grade bash) and my five-year-old son wants to know when it’s his turn. He has a point, but there’s the cost to consider. Because my daughter went on school trips, she didn’t pay full price. Now, we’re searching out some other deals for us.

There are some. If you want to head to an amusement park this summer, before you pull out your wallet to pay full price at the admission gate, check out some of these money-saving options.

Buy your tickets on-line or look for deals at grocery stores. Here is a link to Cedar Point’s discount ticket information. Cedar Point is located in Sandusky, Ohio. One way you can save money is to get 14 other people to go with you. For groups of 15 or more, you can save more than $10 a ticket. We have done this before. Once at Kalahari Water Park, also in Sandusky, we found out that if we had a birthday party we could all get free pizza and a drink along with discount tickets. It was no one’s birthday, but we’re not picky.

Kings Island, located between Columbus and Cincinnati has discount tickets available at Kroger grocery stores and online right now. The online price is for advance sales so you can’t buy these on the same day you’re going. Plan ahead. For a great deal on food, add the all you can eat barbeque. Last year we had a friend who had discount tickets through work. The barbeque was included. It was a lot of food and good. Other grocery stores around th U.S. often have discounts–so do banks. Ask around.

Right now, on the Universal Studios Hollywood Theme Park site, you can buy a one day ticket and get the second day free. Or you can try Rahim Rahman’s method in the picture. Lots of luck with this one. I’d let him in.

Here are four Web sites to help you find discount tickets near you. I found the above deals by looking on the park’s sites and poking around.

For more discount ideas, check out: How to Save Money at Amusement Parks. Now, all I have to do is remember my own advice.

Roller Coaster Accidents: They Happen

The day my daughter was at Cedar Point amusement park at a band competition, one of the rollercoaster trains of the Magnum XL-200 roller coaster ran into the back of another one at the station. It didn’t stop all the way, but this was barely a fender bender. The thing was going only 10 miles an hour. Still, two people were treated for injuries and one had an asthma attack.

Last year, a month after my daughter was at Kings Island with her middle school sports teams, the roller coaster Son of a Beast had a mishap when it abruptly stopped near the station. Then more than 12 people were hurt. Turns out, there was a broken timber.

How often do roller coaster accidents happen, I wonder? I love them and have learned the art of holding my neck with one hand while holding onto the safety bar with the other to keep from jarring my head with every turn. I found a couple resources that list rollercoaster accidents and their causes. RideAccidents.com lists rollercoaster fatalities and their causes between 1972-1997. Another, Theme Park Insider also keeps track. Because of the accidents, there is a bill, the National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act in the works that would restore the jurisdiction of Consumer Product Safety Commission over fixed amusement park rides, but it hasn’t passed.

For the most, though, part roller coaster accidents happen because the riders make a mistake and not because the ride fails. Whew! My daughter heads to Kings Island this coming Saturday.