In the last 6 weeks, I have visited the Twin Cities’ Model Train Museum, the Bakken Museum, a Vikings pre-season game, Fort Snelling State Historical Site, The Minnesota State Fair, The Renaissance Festival and Valley Fair. Owen was with me for four of these adventures, and Jennifer was with me during three of them. You might wonder: How does someone pay for all that stuff? Especially since there’s evidently no money left in the country anymore?
Here’s how:
First off, your friendly neighborhood library offers free passes to local attractions. So, I first picked up a ticket for the Model Train Museum. Admission to this museum is only four bucks, and Owen was free anyways, but, hey, I saved some cash.
Owen and I did the same thing for the Bakken Museum: Owen was free anyways, and I saved myself 7 big ones.
Jennifer and I got into the Vikings football game for free thanks to our soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law who thoughfully gave us tickets he was unable to use.
For Fort Snelling, I again tried the library. They only have a limited number of free passes each week, so there’s no guarantee there will be one when you want one. So I was rather pleased when I went in to the library one Monday morning and found a free pass waiting on the shelf. I took it to the front counter and attempted to check it out…but the clerk informed me I could only have one pass at a time and the Bakken Museum’s pass was still checked out to me.
“But I already went to that museum,” I whined.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said, “You can’t check out another free pass until Wednesday.”
So, I did what any good cheapskate would do, instead of putting the pass back on the shelf, I hid it inside an obscure book on a lower shelf in the back of the library. I returned on Wednesday, walked up to my book, opened to the correct page, and pulled out the pass. The clerk then allowed me to check it out. On August 25th, then, Jennifer, Owen and I got into Fort Snelling for free…a savings of $20.
For the State Fair, I ordered tickets through my place of employment, which offers discounts on major events. Jennifer and I were granted admission for $16 instead of $22.
For the Renaissance Festival, I nabbed tickets for $8 a piece from a co-worker who also works at the Festival. As the normal cost of admission is $19.95, Jennifer and I were able to enter for $16 instead of $39.90.
Finally, my company buys out Valley Fair once every other year for the employees and three of their friends. Since admission is $37.99, and I got in for free, this was the best deal of the bunch.
So here’s what I spent on those six attractions for my own admission and Jennifer’s (when she accompanied me): $32.
And here’s what those same attractions would have cost without discounts: $170.89.
$37.99 for Valley Fair? So not worth it. That means a family of 3 would spend $113.97 just to walk in the door, not to mention food or souvenirs. That’s crazy, since it sucks and all. According to me anyway :p
Yeah, that place is a rip-off. I would not go to it unless I got in for free (and that’s the how I’ve gotten in the three times I’ve gone in the last 13 years).
Valley Fair also has the highest priced food and drink. For instance, a 16-oz bottle of water cost $2.50 at the State Fair, $2.00 at the Renaissance Festival and $3.18 at Valley Fair.
Then, of course, the change jangling around in your pocket from that odd price ends up flying out while riding on a roller coaster.
Plus you almost got a free lunch at Century College. We had no way of knowing, but if you could have stayed another 15 minutes we could have had lunch. Plus there were demos of cool science stuff on the lawn near the tent. I did not see them till after you had left. Oh well.
True, but I was just naming off the general-admission attractions that normally cost money.
I also took a tour of Great River Energy in Maple Grove, but since that (like Century) isn’t an area “attraction” and since (like Century) there was no admission fee, I left it off the list.