A few weeks ago I attended a conference held at Disney World. While our accommodations were at the Disney World Contemporary Resort, we decided to venture out to visit Universal Studios which now boasts two separate parks and a humongous City Walk filled with shops and restaurants. My eldest was very clear she wanted to see all that the newly opened Harry Potter portion of the theme park had to offer.
When you head out to these types of resorts, there are all kinds of ways to save money. It's important you do your homework about the best ways to save money on tickets, buying express (or fast) passes, and making sure you are smart about multi-day passes.
I've always felt that food was one of the grossly overpriced parts of the experience in attending these parks. From the candy stores to the hamburger joints, be prepared to spend forty to fifty dollars a meal unless you have planned ahead. I would recommend on your way to Universal Studios to hit a grocery store or even a Whole Foods (which is not more than a mile from the park) to stock up on some nuts, bars, or items that won't melt during the day.
When it comes to buying drinks, I thought I had a way to outsmart the park. I ventured over with my son to one of the concession stands and picked up a souvenir cup with an all you can drink in the park attached with the cup. Right around the corner from the stand was a universal Coca Cola machine that could make you any type of Coke product beverage that your heart would desire. I figured my son could get a drink and then we would just refill for me, my wife, and my daughter.\
Much to my surprise, when we went back to fill up the souvenir cup just a few minutes later, the machine told us that we had to wait 8 minutes until the next refill. WHAT??? You are now timing my soda consumption after I just paid you thirteen bucks for a lousy cup? Yes, exactly Sherlock. The cup actually times you and limits how often you can refill the cup. Thankfully it wasn't a super hot day and we didn't actually want to have a quick drink to quench our thirst. I was completely flabbergasted by yet again another theme park technique to make profit.
Look, it is bad enough that ticket prices for an adult (I think that's age 10 at Universal) are now pushing $100 a ticket. It's bad enough you have to pay $13 for a souvenir all you can drink cup. But timing how often we drink? It's just too much. Looks like next time the cherry cola just might find a way into the log flume . . . that is if I have enough time before I refill again.
Written by: Ted Jenkin
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