2011 Fun Pass discounts for Busch Garden (Tampa, Christmas: appointed, how much, to buy)

[cabeck1]

Does anyone know of any discounts for the 2011 Fun pass to Busch Gardens. The cheapest I can find is $75 with AAA. Looking for anything better. Thanks a bunch

[emmaro]

Did you or your spouse graduate from USF? USF Alumni get a discount but I am not sure how much.

This page (scroll down to the entertainment section) gives more info:

http://usfalumni.org/s/861/internal.aspx?sid=861&gid=1&pgid=331 (http://http://usfalumni.org/s/861/internal.aspx?sid=861&gid=1&pgid=331 - broken link)

[cabeck1]

Thank you for your response, however, I did not graduate from USF> I currently am working for Americorp in Tampa and was hoping there was some discount for this type of service, but so far can not seem to find one. With the small stipend we are paid, purchasing the tickets is not easy.

[tilli]

Originally Posted by cabeck1

Does anyone know of any discounts for the 2011 Fun pass to Busch Gardens. The cheapest I can find is $75 with AAA. Looking for anything better. Thanks a bunch

Not much of a discount, eh? It's $78 from Busch Gardens directly. It sounds like maybe you aren't an official Florida resident, in which case you won't qualify for the fun pass anyway and would have to buy a season pass instead. I am pretty sure that they have payment programs available for the season pass if you can afford a small amount each month rather than having to come up with it all at once. I don't think that option is available for the fun pass but you could check if you have the required proof of residency.

[tjax1000]

We received fun passes from someone as a Christmas gift.

The very first thing I remember seeing after driving into the parking lot was $13 for parking. Ugh. I think the normal season pass includes parking?

Anyway, sort of the unfortunate thing about having a pass (especially the fun pass) is that you don't just go on a whim-or at least we don't- because there are still costs involved. It starts with $13 for parking. While you're not forced to buy food inside, most people/families will end up spending money on at least one meal. Maybe you can take a picnic lunch in but I sort of doubt it. You could always go back to your car and eat I guess.

Don't get me wrong, $50 for parking+food beats $300 for tickets+parking+food each time you go. I imagine the fun passes are *very* lucrative for the park. They know FL residents probably wouldn't pay to go more than once in a calendar year anyway. So, let them come back all year for free, and rake in the parking and concession revenue.

At least for $13 parking, they appear to have decent security- lots of guys up in watch towers. Makes me wonder if it is preventative or if they've had problems in the past.

[cabeck1]

I actually am a resident of Florida, just became one yesterday. Just searching for other discounts than AAA

[num1baby]

Originally Posted by tjax1000

We received fun passes from someone as a Christmas gift.

The very first thing I remember seeing after driving into the parking lot was $13 for parking. Ugh. I think the normal season pass includes parking?

Anyway, sort of the unfortunate thing about having a pass (especially the fun pass) is that you don't just go on a whim-or at least we don't- because there are still costs involved. It starts with $13 for parking. While you're not forced to buy food inside, most people/families will end up spending money on at least one meal. Maybe you can take a picnic lunch in but I sort of doubt it. You could always go back to your car and eat I guess.

I know exactly what you mean. We got Fun Passes for Christmas 2009. I thought that it would be great and we would go several times to really take advantage of them. Unfortunately it is so expensive after we are there, that we could only go once the entire year. Walking that much, I needed a lot of drinks. Besides that, we had to eat lunch there (or waste an hour of the day walking all of the way through the park, to the shuttle, out to your car, eating the food we brought and then going all of the way back in. After parking, food and almost constant drinks (went in July), we spent around $100 (probably more) not counting the tickets that were bought for us. We couldn't find another chance to go that year because we couldn't afford the food. I was really disappointed that I couldn't go more.

[tilli]

Mel's hotdogs ain't what it used to be, but it is still relatively cheap eats walking distance away. There's also an IHOP right across the street. Although for me, going to Busch Gardens without eating at the Stanleyville Smokehouse is unthinkable.

[tjax1000]

Originally Posted by tilli

Mel's hotdogs ain't what it used to be, but it is still relatively cheap eats walking distance away. There's also an IHOP right across the street. Although for me, going to Busch Gardens without eating at the Stanleyville Smokehouse is unthinkable.

Yes, we ate at the Smokehouse when we went last month. Definitely not your average theme park food! We split a sampler- it was a *huge* plate of food. We also bought a couple of the refillable cups, hopefully those will pay off on subsequent visits.

In regard to the OP's question, I check my company's employee discount site and they had discounts for every other major theme park except Busch Gardens. That, combined with the small AAA you saw, combined with the fact that they're treating a single day ticket as an all year pass, makes me think they're probably not inclined to offer deeper discounts to anyone right now.

[It's Cin!]

If you get the FUN CARD, make sure to upgrade one person in your family to the next regular level of ticket so that it includes the parking and the food/shopping discount. The upgrade will pay for itself very quickly with just the free parking alone!!! Upgrade whoever is the most likely to go the most or most likely to be the one taking the kids, (In our family it was me, the mom).

We figured that one out way back when BG offered the Bronze pass (basically a 'fun card'). We have been platinum pass holders since that option started which has paid off for us visiting Tampa and Seaworld so often.