Amusement Parks: To Dine or Not to Dine?
A few years ago, our local theme park, Six Flags Over Georgia, began offering dining pass options with their season pass packages. We get season’s passes because Six Flags is pretty much open March through December and it is an easy trip right up the road. We are not picnic packers and a day at the theme park usually involves buying expensive food. However, we questioned when the dining pass became available if it was a good deal.
Since that point, I have watched dining passes popularize and a number of theme parks are now offering this option. The plans can be expensive, so Six Flags has even created a less expensive dining package. The less expensive package includes lunch and a snack, while the full package includes lunch, snack, and dinner.
When the dining plan first came out, only the lunch-dinner plan was available (they didn’t offer snacks back then). Since Jackson and Lucy were small, we thought we would get our money’s worth out of buying two dining passes and all of us sharing those two meals when we went to the park.
Our plan worked… almost. The kids ate a little more than we expected, so around spring break, we went ahead and purchased a third dining pass. Of course, I am always looking for a deal, so I took the total price we paid for all three dining plans and I kept a tally on my phone how many times we used them. I included if we ate both lunch and dinner (counting two meals) or if we left before dinner was served (counting only one meal).
I was very skeptical at first eating two meals in the theme park because they are definitely not the healthiest. So, I made a rule that if we ate one typical theme park meal, the other had to be on the healthier side. That year, we came to about $5.75 per meal. That has its negative side… that we were spending that much for each trip into the park, but also a positive side, that we ate three meals for $17.25.
After that initial year, we began buying dining passes regularly. One year we got each meal down to something like $2.10 per meal, which was worth it for our family. However, the following year, we purchased the plan and I was so tired of eating theme park food that I didn’t use my plan at all that season. Somewhere it all seems to balance out, but there are benefits and drawbacks to buying the passes. We have decided that ultimately the passes are a benefit to us. Here are some questions to ask if you are considering buying a theme park dining plan:
- How many times are you going to the theme park this year?
- Is the dining pass good at other theme parks owned by the same company? For example, in Atlanta, Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags White Water both accept our dining pass.
- What does the dining plan include? If you are not going to use the full lunch-snack-dinner pass, are there smaller packages such as a lunch-snack pass?
- What are the cut off times for lunch, snack, and dinner? If you like to go to the park only at night, will the lunch pass benefit you at all?
- Can you buy fewer dining passes and share meals?
- Will you take your other meals home and eat them later? We have done this so many times. Also, if you are not going to eat your snack, can you get a large bottle of water or a snack that you can enjoy later?
What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of season pass dining packages? We would love to hear your opinion! Please drop us a line in the comment section below.
