Sesame Place on a Budget - Part 2 (Food)!

Deciding to take a family vacation can be an expensive ordeal when you factor in hotel, meals, tickets etc.  However, there are many things that one can do to keep things in control and within a budget!  This series - Sesame Place on a Budget - will discuss how your family can visit Sesame Place while being budget conscious. Part 1 talks about how to save on tickets and hotels. Part 2 will talk about what food to save on and what food to splurge on! Lastly, Part 3 will talk about saving on parking, lockers, and souvenirs! 

Planning ahead for meals is another huge moneysaver when going on vacation, and Sesame Place is no exception!  Food in the park is typical of amusement parks and the prices can be expensive (especially when you have a family of four or more!).  In order to stretch your budget for meals, our family took a save, save, save, splurge mentality with regards to breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner! 

Let's discuss the splurge first so you understand why to be frugal on the other meals!  We decided that dinner would be our splurge meal (or at least not our most frugal meal of the day). One idea that I would highly recommend is the character dinner! This is a splurge, but a very nice treat especially if you have been frugal in the other areas! The character dinner is worth the extra money that you pay. You book the dinner in advance, and you can save a few dollars per person if you book through AAA.  The reasons that I think the character dinner are worth the big price are: 1. "Dine with Big Bird" is air conditioned which is extremely nice after a hot day in the park. 2. It is all you can eat and very good buffet food. 3. It is a contained, safe area with the doors closed (so no little escapees!). 4. It is very easy to get pictures with all of the characters and not long lines to stand in. 5. Fun, fun, fun, - performances and opportunities for kids to dance with characters - a wonderful family event and your kids will love every minute of it! 

The first night, we had brought our dinner along since it was our travel day. The second night we did the character dinner.  The third night, we ended our park visit earlier (around 6:30) and used gift certificates previously purchased through Restaurant.com which has incredible deals on gift certificates. Restaurant.com typically sells gift certificates to certain restaurants at a discount. For example you can buy a $25 gift certificate for $10 or $15. They frequently have sales, where you can buy $25 gift certificates for $4-$8! We decided on a restaurant that was 10 miles away called Tijuana Flats! Our whole family loves Mexican food and this was a family friendly restaurant, complete with kids meals, crayons for the table, and a candy bracelet to go along with it!  The restaurant is located in a strip mall area with not much to look on the outside but fun in the restaurant!  To recap, we splurged on the character dinner and also going out to dinner on one night.  There are always the eating areas in the park, as well as, restaurants in the town of Langhorne too!

On to the areas of food where you can SAVE!  The first item to do in food planning is to plan your itinerary and exactly what you will do for each meal.  We decided that since we were going to the Sesame Place area for three days we would pack the majority of our food.  Staying at the Homestead Suites that I talked about in Part 1 was a huge help because we had a full size refrigerator!  The first day of our trip was traveling to Horsham.  The second and third days were spent in the park.  The final day we took a trip up to Crayola Factory and then headed home. 

For the first day of our trip, we packed bag lunches, snacks, and a barbecue chicken dinner (barbecue chicken, potato salad, fruit salad)!  For the beverages of our trip, we purchased two cases of water (24 packs - one of the larger sizes (16.9 oz) for meals, and one of the smaller sizes for carrying around in the backpack at the park).  We also purchased a few packages of drink boxes (including the smaller size Elmo and Big Bird ones from Walmart (organic) for fun), a box of Hugs, and a smaller quantity case of single serve Orange Juices.  For the adults, we also brought some sodas.  Yes, this was overkill on the drinks, but we are a family of six and the goal was to bring food and not have to waste time on vacation at a grocery store.  We also did not want to pay $2 or $3 for water/juice in the parks for each person several times a day!

For breakfasts, we made blueberry muffins and brought them along, and also brought the small size individual cereals.  We brought milk, but you could easily pick that up in a convenience store there.  In our trunk, we packed one big cooler which held our milk, some drinks, and the first night's dinner.  All other beverages were kept room temperature until we got to the hotel and loaded into our refrigerator.  For lunches, we brought a smaller size cooler to bring to the park (and leave in our car).  We packed sandwiches (both pb&j and lunchmeat), granola bars, chips, cookies etc. and just varied it up each day.  At the hotel the night before or in the morning, the lunches would be decided and packed.  In the park we carried around a backpack (normal size) that was filled with the little waters, juice boxes, and snacks like granola bars, gummies, etc.  Everywhere you turn, a kids will be eating popcorn, nachos, or these gigantic sugar packed lollipops.  Plan ahead and bring some fun treats, especially the wild lollipops which you can purchase from a dollar store, rather than spend $3 per snack per kid! 

When we went on the water rides, we kept the backpack in the car.  At lunch time in the park we would go out to the car to eat, spread the blanket on the lawn or sit at one of the tables (see Part 3 for how close up you are when you pay for Preferred parking)!

If you are diligent about the planning, you can save a lot of money on the meals, snacks and drinks of your trip!  Part 3 will talk about why to pay for Preferred Parking, how to save on souvenirs and some other helpful tips for your trip!  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 any questions regarding Part 2 and the Food, please comment below!