Sometimes Value Costs Money

September 4, 2015

I’ll take just about any chance to save money. It’s all about getting the most value for my hard earned cash. But every now and then a situation arises where spending extra money increases value. I experienced one of those scenarios just last week.

As our last summer family activity, my family (and a friend of our son’s) spent the day at a nearby amusement park. The regular cost of admission is $42 per person, but my father-in-law can get discounted tickets through his employer for $27. By getting the tickets through my father-in-law, we saved $15 per person, or $60 total.

Saving money ROCKS!

We pulled into the parking lot just 20 minutes after opening, astonished at how many people were at the park already. Not only was the parking lot over 2/3rds full, but there was a long string of buses with a students streaming out, heading towards the park entrance. We knew the park was going to be busy, and the lines were going to be extremely long.

After going on one ride, and waiting in line for well over 45 minutes, we walked by a gift shop that had a huge sign saying, “Fast Pass Sold Here!" A Fast Pass cost an additional $35 per ticket, but allowed us to go in a special line at the most popular rides allowing us to essentially cut our wait time down to nothing.

We calculated our options:

Stick with our standard ticket and go on one ride every hour or more. We had 10 hours until the park closed. Taking into account mealtimes, we’d get to go on a maximum of 8 more rides the entire day.
We could spend some extra money, and go on rides without waiting until our stomachs told us to stop.

We chose to purchase the fast pass and make the most of our time at the park. With a raise of the wrist at each ride, we bypassed the snaking crowds of people and went immediately to the front of the line. I don’t think I’ve ever gone as many amusement park rides in one day in my life.

We left the park just a few minutes before the park closed, having completely had our fill of rides. To purchase the four Fast Passes, it cost an additional $140. We paid more for the Fast Passes than we did for our tickets, but it greatly increased our value. We didn’t drive over 2 hours in each direction to spend most of the day waiting in line. The Fast Passes enabled us to ride to our hearts’ content and have a memory of a day at the amusement park that will last a lifetime. To us it was money well spent.

Have you ever increased the value of a trip or experience by spending more? How much did it cost you?

Brought to you courtesy of Brock