How we do east coast vacations on a budget.
As a family coming from the DMV area, we know that our dollars have to stretch as far as they can go… especially in these trying times! We…
As a family coming from the DMV area, we know that our dollars have to stretch as far as they can go… especially in these trying times! We have weathered, and continue to weather, some financial storms. With all the various activities and events coming back to full capacity, we would like to share our tactics on maximizing our well deserved vacation time.
Our favorite vacation spot is Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. It’s about a 4 hour drive from where we live and generally requires a hotel stay to get the most out of our time. So, with that example in mind we can let you know how we plan out a trip.
The FIRST step is Do Your RESEARCH!:
Check the events page.
We check the Busch Gardens official website to see what is happening when we want to go. The events focus on different things depending on the time of year. Keep in mind that the event dates do fluctuate from year to year. We visited for Mardi Gras in February, which focused on food, fun, shows, and entertainers. The Food and Wine Festival just started and we wanted to be there for the opening weekend; it runs from April 28 to June 12. This event focuses heavily on food and wine (obviously) from around the world and checking in on these beforehand will allow you to plan your day at the park better. Sherry likes to make notecards, and highlights all of the top dishes to try at the various stands. As we all know, a trip to the amusement park (especially for first-time guests) can be hectic and stressful, so doing your research beforehand will give you invaluable insight.
Step TWO is Pay What You Can In ADVANCE!:
A pre-paid vacation is more fun and relaxing!
It’s better to leave any/all/most of the extra expenses for local fun and unexpected things when you arrive at your destination. Doing your research will allow you to set an accurate and realistic budget for your trip.
Main things to think about for the budget will be transportation, lodging, amusements, and food.
We drive 4 hours from Baltimore to Williamsburg and usually buy gas the day of or night before hitting the road. In the past we have had success purchasing gas cards for longer trips. For an upcoming trip, we have been keeping an eye on flights as the pricing goes up and down often. We haven’t flown together yet so we have room to learn.
When you do arrive, it will be great to finally get out of the car and into a bed!
Signing up for the various hotel chain clubs and member packages will score you discounts over time. Our preferred lodging is IHG Hotels and Resorts -Holiday Inn, Candlewood, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, etc. We generally book months in advance and if pricing changes in our favor hotels are usually good about honoring the change.
If you don’t think you can afford to go to a resort check out Airbnb! We have done Airbnb twice this year by splitting the cost between a group. This method has its challenges of coordinating schedules between friends and family, but it could net a major cost savings. We stayed at the Wyndham Resort: Governor's Green on a budget and it was amazing! Don’t forget to stay in contact with your host and be sure to get any and all details from them as early as possible. We were met with an unexpected deposit hold of $100 on this most recent trip. On a previous trip to a different resort our host disclosed everything and was very attentive to our needs and upfront about all fees.
For us, amenities are important.
The more the merrier. We often travel as a family with kids who are now teenagers. Space, privacy, and convenience are all factors in our lodging plan. Proximity to restaurants, size of bathrooms, and numbers of beds are all things that should be considered. Sometimes you can get away with a pull out bed-sofa or a murphy bed, sometimes you can’t. Knowing what you have in the area and can budget for before hitting the road is much better than going in blind.
Step Three is to Remember To Have FUN!
Don’t lose sight of the goal! You want to have fun and save money at the same time, so be smart about your moves, know what you are getting into in advance and the rest will fall into place.
Deals-
The Food and Wine Festival at Busch Gardens is all about trying new things and experiencing different culinary cultures. The best way to do that is to invest in the deals, try out the samplers, and to see what kind of packages they have (see Step 1, RESEARCH). It has been our experience that they offer a couple different deals at different times of the year while also not posting the prices of what is on offer inside the park.
Food-
Yes, buy the sampler pack. It is priced at $59.99 or $79.99 as a package deal and you get 10 or 15 samples, respectively. Upfront it is pricey, especially for multiple people, but with the samples costing anywhere from $5 to $13 individually the savings start to add up. If you bought 10 samples at $5/each you would be losing $9. However, if you buy the package and redeemed the higher priced samples you could be saving much more. Redeeming 10 of the $6+ samples would save you $10. Pushing this method a little more by redeeming some of the fancier foods and/or alcoholic cocktail samplers at $9 or sometimes higher would save you $20 or more over the $79 deluxe sampler price. I tried the “Oyster Shooter.” It was $13 if purchased individually, so it was bad. I wouldn’t have tried it without getting it in the package, so it felt like getting a deal. Which was great!
Wine-
Yes, buy the Wine Tour. No, do NOT buy the Wine Tour twice.
The Wine Tour allows you to do three wine tastings in different parts of the park with wine from the regions they represent. The pricing does fluctuate (~$35.99), but they do offer a significant discount when you do a “Wine Tasting Refill.” When you do your first tasting you will receive a souvenir wine glass. When you take this glass to any cashier for the next tasting, maybe day two or when you come back later in the year, you will get the tour refill price. Or buy the individual Wine Tasting at one location and bring the glass to the second and third location for the discounted price. There’s a few ways to work this deal, it really depends on how much wine tasting you want to do.
Rides-
For this trip we passed on the Quick Queue packages since we were mostly focused on the food and wine parts of the park. If you are going to try to do everything and maximize a day in the park with food AND rides we do recommend at least considering it. As a rollercoaster fanatic on a budget, the biggest recommendation would be to try and plan a multi-day trip during the middle of the week. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the least busy days in the park, so they will be the best for shortest ride lines and you will not likely need a Quick Queue pass. If you can only spare a weekend, it is doable but the park will be the most busy.
Extreme Rides-
Be sure to know what kind of rides you and your group are interested in and check all of the height and weight restrictions before you go. We did find that their newest coaster, Pantheon, is not suitable for some larger riders. Not the most fun thing to find out after waiting in line for an hour or more. Modern roller coaster restraints are changing and different body types that may be able to ride on one coaster may not be able to ride on some others.
Staff-
The whole park staff at Busch is friendly and super helpful. Be sure to ask questions if you have them. Pro-Tip: There’s no tipping allowed at the wine bars but you can always give positive feedback about the Wine Ambassadors to Guest Relations.
Member’s Discount-
We probably make the most of our deals at the park through the member’s discount pass. We pay for this monthly and we reap the discounts for the whole year we go even before the year is paid off. Parking, Merch, Pass Member Days… there’s too many discount options and opportunities to state here but you should try to take advantage of as many of them as you can!
Take this knowledge and find success in your next adventure! We hope your experiences are as fun and enjoyable as ours have been. Thank you for reading and thanks for listening….
and watching on our new YouTube Page!!
PANTHEON Fly by! The DigiKast is almost ready to talk about BG F&W very soon!
The Digikast is ready to talk about the #BuschGardens Food and Wine Festival. It's coming along, will hopefully be out…youtube.com
Love the World! Peace.