10 Things Theme Parks Won't Tell You

You’re waiting in line to get into Sesame Place. Your kids are chomping at the bit to rub shoulders with Elmo, and you’ve resigned yourself to paying $44.50 per person for admission to the Langhorne, Pa., theme park. Before you flip the big bird to Miss Piggy, go through your wallet and pull out every credit card and organizational membership ID you can find. Chances are that at least one of them will cut the cost of entry.

Discounts flourish at theme parks because admissions account for only part of their revenue. “[A] big thing is having people in the park who are eating pizza, drinking Coke, buying T-shirts and souvenirs,” says Tim O’Brien, vice president of publishing and communications for Ripley Entertainment and author of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Amusement Park Oddities & Trivia. At Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill., for instance, American Automobile Association membership gets you a few bucks off admission every day except Wednesday—when the discount is three times that amount. In addition, local gas stations often promote park coupons on the back of their receipts. “If you pay full price, you haven’t done your homework,” says O’Brien.