Sesame Place on a Budget - Part 1 (Tickets and Hotels)!

For many families, the annual summer family vacation trip to an amusement park area, is a rite of passage!  For those of us in Western New York, there are many vacation areas to choose from within a reasonable driving distance!  One such park is Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.  From the Rochester area, it is about a six hour drive.  This park is excellent for young families, ages 2 to 10!

This series - Sesame Place on a Budget - will discuss how your family can visit Sesame Place while being budget conscious..  Part 1 will talk about how to save on tickets and hotels.  Part 2 will talk about what food to save on what food to splurge on!  Lastly, Part 3 will talk about how to save on parking, souvenirs, and other helpful tips!

There are a few areas in the budget that one will not be able to control (or have very little control  Ticket prices for the amusement park itself are similar to what you would pay for two days at Darien Lake. Gas prices and tolls will be relatively fixed.  In my research before our family went, I did a lot of social networking to see if there were discount tickets to be had at places like grocery stores, back of soda cans etc. in the nearby Philadelphia area.  At the time, (summer 2009) there didn't seem to be deals like this (typical of what we see here in Rochester).  I found that the only discount tickets were offered through AAA and also through employer based recreation associations.

Sesame Place is best visited on a 2 day pass.  If you get the 2 day pass, you can do everything, and many things multiple times!  The park is probably 60% water park, 40% rides/attractions.  In summer 2010 the general admission price for a two day pass is $53 (this is also the same price for a one day pass, so of course you will want to choose the 2 day!  AAA is currently offering the pass at $49.  This is similar to what I found last year.  Tickets and hotel are going to be your biggest costs to the vacation.

The first place where you can really save money is deciding where to stay!  Sesame Place is located in the middle of a booming town!  For local Rochester and Buffalo friends - It is not out and off the thruway, like Darien Lake.  It is in a very commercial town!  Sesame Place is located in Langhorne, PA, (for you Rochester area folks, think driving down Jefferson in Henrietta and a big amusement park is an entrance off of that (for Buffalo friends, think of an entrance off of Niagara Falls Boulevard near the mall!  Yes, there is a mall down the street, chain restaurants galore, and every type of national chain store - all within 5-15 minutes.

In Langhorne, hotels abound but they are all priced for the convenience (hence more expensive) of staying 5 minutes away from Sesame Place.  The Sheraton ranges $209/night, Holiday Inn range is $161/night, and the cheapest that I found for convenience sake (3 miles away) was $119/night.  These hotels are again all for the convenience of being right near the park.  However, if you are willing to drive a little bit - you can save BIGTIME!  Just 19 miles away in Horsham, PA you can get rooms for $80/night!!!  Our family stayed at the Homestead Suites, which gave the added bonus of having a kitchenette (which included a full size refrigerator, microwave, and stovetop range to use for all the food we were bringing!) in the room!  It was $80/night in 2009 and is showing that price currently for dates in summer 2010 on Expedia.  There are also other similarly priced hotels in that area too!  When you go on vacation, you are not always sure if the hotel you book is in a safe area etc.  Horsham is similar to Langhorne - a very busy town, malls, chain stores and restaurants (similar to Henrietta and Tonawanda).  The drive was fairly straightforward - we always left 1 hour before the park opened (the park opens at 10am everyday).  Most of the rush hour is done by 9am.  If you Mapquest your directions from Horsham, it will tell you it takes about 26 minutes.  If you allow yourself 1 hour, that gives you plenty of time to drive there and get a great, Preferred Parking space.  You are also first in line for when the park opens and can go on a few rides quickly without having to wait!  You can check Expedia for rates on the dates of your stay.  For locals from Rochester, the ride from Horsham to Langhorne would be similar to driving from The Mall at Greece Ridge to the Eastview Mall.  If you are from Buffalo, the ride would be similar to going from the Boulevard Mall to Ralph Wilson Stadium.  When the park closes the majority of the time at 8pm - so if you did stay in Horsham, you could be back in your hotel by 8:30pm! 

Another excellent option for room rate, given by a reader below is to use services such as Hotwire.com or Priceline.com!  These can be great options if you are flexible with where to stay and have smaller families (4 people or under), that you don't need the guaranteed extra room or kitchen facilities!  We have personally used hotwire.com when there were fewer of us travelling and found incredible rates at 4 store hotels!

To review Part 1 on how to save money on tickets and hotels:  First use a discount organization, like AAA to get a few bucks off of your tickets.  Make sure you get the 2 day pass - because the 1 day pass is the same amount!  Next, stay 20 miles outside of Langhorne and you are able to save anywhere from $40 to $120 per night!!! 

In the next article, Part 2 will talk about how to save money on another big spending area - Food!  If you would like to receive more articles like this for FREE, please subscribe above.

I would love to hear your comments and questions!  Please comment below and check back often for answers/updates!  Also, if you have been and have any suggestions on hotels or tickets, please comment below!