Who needs to go to Disney World? Not the Cooties! That’s because today we invested in summer passes at Carowinds, the local amusement park (and by “local,” I mean only one exit up the road from our house). If we were any closer we’d actually hear the screams coming from the people riding the new Intimadator roller coaster.
The season passes are expensive, yes. Part of me cringed when I hit “confirm” on the order. But over the long-run of the summer months, I know this will end up being BARGAIN entertainment for our family. My hope is to take the kids there once a week. That sounds like a lot, but the important thing to know is that the park is only open until 8 p.m. during the summer. And I work. Therefore, we’ll only be spending a couple hours at the park at a time. It think we can probably go there at least 3 times before we have to repeat anything a second time. Heck, that takes care of most of June right there.
Also, the season pass includes access to the water park. Now that I trust the kids around water (what with CootieGirl becoming a fish last summer, and CootieBoy not too far behind), I figure we can hit our neighborhood pool a couple weekends each month, and hit the waterpark the other couple of weeks in the month.
The reason we opted to get the passes were largely because of the kids’ height. CootieGirl has finally reached 49″ tall – which allows her to ride all but the most dangerous rides. CootieBoy is 44″ – which allows him to ride 65-70% of the rides. The bonus is that his season pass was cheaper since he doesn’t meet the required 48″ tall for all the rides. And consider this: We probably spend $60+ for the four of us to go to one movie at the theater. So we can either go see 4-5 movies this summer, and that’s it, or we can go to Carowinds 10-12 times this summer AND continue to go on weekends after school starts through the end of October!
Now that the kids are tall enough to go, and since Carowinds is basically in our own backyard, I doubt Disney World will continue to have its thrall over the kids. Periodically they ask if we can go back, and I did think about planning a family trip to go in early 2012, but since Carowinds will be available to them ALL SUMMER, I just don’t see the need to go to Disney World again for a long time.
We have debated Carowinds passes. As someone who spent most of her summers there I feel like we’re missing out without them. Scott detests big crowds and long rides though so I don’t know how often I could rally the troops (trooper?) to actually go and make it worth the cost.
I think we’ll be able to avoid crowds by going after work – my hope is that most people will go during the daylight hours with their kids. We’ll see how true that is. I also think that by going on a night you wouldn’t think is popular (Tuesday? Wednesday?) we can avoid big crowds. The great thing is that we can spend the whole summer doing tests (is Wednesday busier than Tuesday? Is parking better at 5:30 p.m. or 6:15 p.m.?). Either way, I know the kids will have a blast!
I think season passes are BRILLIANT. I belong to the zoo and I’d buy a park pass if I had an amusement park nearby, too. Not only is it a major bargain when you go a lot, but it takes that “we have to do everything in one day” whip off your back. I like to go for an hour or two and leave before it becomes a chore.
Go Cootie Mom, go!
You made a good investment in family summer fun.