Summer fun.........at what cost?

This has not been a good year for a lot of families this has not been a good 2 years for many families including the writers. In past years this would have been a most wonderful summer, trips to Iowa for reunions, trips to Mexico for a wedding, trips across the country as last summer and not just for me and my wife but hell we take the kids and grand kids whenever possible. We've already missed two reunions in early June and now will miss a wonderful wedding in Mexico in July and at this point are only hoping we can make a short trip to SoCal for the grand kids to somewhere like Lego land or Knots berry farm.

How do the majority of families manage summer trips like this for the kids and grand kids? Have you looked into the ticket pricing for a lot of these theme parks? What brought this blog on today is an ad I seen on TV last night building up the opening of the new Star Wars ride at Disneyland. Keep in mind all parks have added so much stuff that a day is way too short to visit all areas of the parks, and thus the "park hopper" tickets. I understand a "park hopper" ticket allows you to come and go for 2 or 3 days to these parks and their multiple theme areas. Lets take a family of 4 for example and according to the add the Disney hopper pass cost $199 each, that's $800 for that family just to get into the front gate! It's been years since I've visited Disneyland but I know even 10 years ago it cost between $50 and $100 a day for food and snacks for each family member during their visit, and that doesn't include if you buy the kids a T-shirt with Mickey on it. Then we have hotel expenses and this is a conservative guess of $150/night and maybe a breakfast or dinner outside the park to save a few bucks will still run $75 a meal for this family of four. Now if you have a family of four and opt for the 3 day hopper ticket with all the expenses I come up with approximately $1875 for this three day stay for this family plus gas and miscellaneous expenses would most likely be at least $2000. Even if this family received and saved for this trip the $1000 tax break a lot of folks Mr. Obama supposedly gave this too, it wouldn't cover half of the "THREE DAY" vacation!

Just to keep things in perspective the other parks are bit more reasonable but not much better. Legoland $89 each for a 1 day hopper (Legoland has 3 area's and a 3 day hopper is preferred), SeaWorld $70 for a one day ticket, and Knotsberry farm is by far the best price but half the attractions is $39 for one day. So who is visiting these parks and where is the money coming from, my guess would be the majority of visitors are using a credit card and will be paying for this vacation long after the next 5 or 6 vacations. I'd be willing to bet that at least 75% or more folks put this expense on a credit card or they couldn't even be going on this vacation. Hell those with money that can afford these 3 days extravagant vacations are too frugal to spend that kind of money on an amusement park in most cases would be my guess.

This is not about me or anybody else that might be going through tough times in this economy, this is about the cost of taking your family to a theme park. In this economy more folks are relying on credit to get by or to do those things the cash just isn't in the bank for, and those credit companies are continually raising the debt limit and the folks continue spending. Disneyland is no doubt the happiest place on earth and I totally agree with that, I've been to Disneyland a number of times and Disney world once and would return in a minute. I'm thinking the parents might not be the happiest folks around when the bills start rolling in.......This shit is expensive!