So here we are… another summer and a struggle to balance work and family time with the kids while staying within a budget. We decided (or rather had decided for us) to scale back and focus on getting out of debt while trying to save for emergencies and a fun family trip for my 50th birthday. Last year we didn’t take any “real” vacations and this year will be the same. We purchased the Kennywood Platinum passes last year because we honestly thought they would pay for themselves. And they did. But they were super pricey when you figure in 5 people. The passes got us into Kennywood, Sandcastle and Idlewild as often as we wanted. The passes included free parking and free drinks at all 3 parks. We ended up having Izzy’s birthday party at Kennywood and used our passes with buddy passes and “Bring a Friend” discounts and only paid $70 out of pocket to get 17 people into the park! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! The passes made her birthday “party” worth it alone when you figure we spend on average $500 per birthday party. I reserved 2 cabanas and we had brunch before we left for the park for roughly another $450 so we stayed within our typical birthday party expense. That being said, we spent over $1,300 for our family on the passes and we only went to Idlewild (the boys have pretty much outgrown that park) because the cost of admission/parking/drinks was included with our Platinum passes. We also got to enjoy the holiday lights at Kennywood so that was an additional bonus.
Looking ahead to where we can cut costs this year, we don’t “need” to go to Idlewild and although unlimited visits to Sandcastle in theory are nice, we only went once last year. Kennywood is on the Bucket List because it’s a Pittsburgh favorite, it’s close to home, and the kid’s school picnic is there every year. The school tickets are discounted with an “Early Bird Special” at just under $32 a piece. It will cost us $160 to get in for the day. BUT if I buy the discounted Gold season passes for 3 of us, ($119 x 3 = $357), we can use those passes to get all 5 of us in 3 times during the season with the free parking and drinks. Typical discount tickets are $40 online so in actuality, the passes pay for themselves if we go 1 more time this summer. This saves us $1,000 right off the bat from last summer. We can pick any other random day to take the kids for our “free” visit or even save a trip for the Christmas lights. Sandcastle tickets are $25 online so I’ll end up eating that cost to get in since the Gold passes are exclusively Kennywood passes.
