It's that time to start thinking about that summer vacation to your favorite amusement park. I am going to take just a minute to recap they ways to save money and the ways to get the most out of your vacation.

Here are 6 Steps to Planning the Perfect Roller Coaster Vacation

Use Hotwire to save you money. Here's how to figure out what hotel you might be booking.

Do you really need to purchase that FlashPass?

Make sure you get the most out of your park.

Groupon is a great way to find good deals. Not only on food, but hotels, entertainment and spa. Just to name a few things. Make sure you add the city you will be vacationing to and watch it for deals.

Take the time to research the park you are going to, and make sure it will meet all the needs of your family. Our family does like Disneyland, but since we tend to be more of the thrill seeker type family, we have to head to places like Cedar Point. But for those that don't like thrill, Cedar point is not the best place for you.

My favorite money saving tip of all when going to amusement parks to ask for cups of water at the restaurants. Both Cedar Fair parks and Six Flags will give you cups upon request for FREE. Which is a whole lot cheaper than $4 for a small bottle.

Forced to buy the bottled water, then buy it from a vending machine so you don't have to pay sales tax. Every little bit counts, right?

Need a few more ideas, check out Frugal Dad.

We spent a total of 3 days at the park.  Well, our half day the day we arrived, full day on Tuesday, then a half day on Wednesday before we had to catch our flight.  Because we went for 3 days we purchased the season passes.  This also allowed us discounts at stores plus coupons for so much more. We could have gotten into Hurricane Harbor for FREE, but we never did go.

If you are going and you want to get the most out of your day, make sure you go first thing in the morning.  We hit 6 rides in an hour and half.  The day before we had gotten there at 12pm, because of our flight, and we stayed until 6 and we rode 6 rides.  The lines were longer later in the day.  For even more tips about getting in quicker than everyone else make sure you check out yesterdays post.

Let' s back up and remind you of my first secret.  That was checking school calendar.  I realized that California was still in school June 14-16, so therefore the park was not super full.

Everyone runs right for Tatsu and X-2.  If you are going more than one day, pick one day to go the other way first, because very, very few people go that way.

We were on the very first ride of the day on Goliath.  By the time we made our way around to Scream, we sat and rode it 3 times in a row.

If you are a wooden roller coaster fan don't miss The Terminator.  It's one of the best wooden roller coasters.  It is super fast and the seats are ultra cushy making the ride much more enjoyable.  Don't pass this one by.

Because we did run a lot in the morning and hit the opposite side that most people go to, we were able to get in 14 rides on the 2nd day.  We would even take breaks.  Remember that we always pack our snacks, so they are healthy and much more affordable, but we mostly do it because it's just healthier.  We had trail mix and jerky packed in our cargo shorts.  Also, like I said before, we would stop and get our FREE glass of water to have with our snack.

I do also need to mention that we did something we don't often do.  This was do to that fact, that even though I was running through park and riding coasters, I did have back surgery scheduled for the day after we got home.   We did need to take breaks on this trip.  We ended up hitting the park hard in the morning, then we left for a few hours of napping, eating and swimming, only to return to the park right before closing and hitting more rides.  Had we stayed that extra 4 hours we would have had nearly 20 rides that day.

So I guess to answer my question, do you really need a flash pass for Magic Mountain, I would have to say, if you timed it right, there is no reason.  If you HAVE to go in the middle of summer and have the money to spend I would probably get one just so you can really enjoy the park. Read for restrictions before purchasing though.

Tomorrow I am going to post about the Hotel we stayed at and places we ate.

This is linked to Works for Me Wednesday

We have "discovered" some great tips while visiting Six Flags Magic Mountain, sorry it has taken me so long to get all the details out to you.  We have saved some money and time and found ways, that had we know, we could have saved even more money and time.  I missed out, but I am sharing with you, so yo don't miss out.

We like to get to the park just before it opens and stand at the gate and run in. I know we are crazy, but that's what works for our family.

BEST TIP OF THE YEAR:

We noticed that they have a line for Discover Card Holders.  Yep, that's right.  It pretty much looked like an express lane.  Masses of people to your right and to your left about 5 people in line.  We have a Discover card, but we did not bring, because we didn't know.  Bring your Discover card!

Also as you go around the park you get an instant 5% off of most things that you purchase, plus the discount for being a season pass holder. These signs were in all the windows of the gift shops and some of the eateries.  I think we also get 1% cash back on most purchases using our Discover card, so this really does start to add it.  Slowly, but every little bit helps.

All that to say, I guess it really does pay to "Discover" at all Six Flags nationwide.

Check back tomorrow as I share some more great money saving and time saving ideas.

1.  Do some investigative work. If you look through all the hotels in the area you can find some matching descriptions.  The one that set mine off was 100% smoke free.  Look through the list of amenities and you can kind of figure it out.  Another time when looking only one hotel in the area had a spa, so that was easy.

2.  Book a package and it will show you what you are booking.

I did number 2 and it was the one I actually booked.  I booked a car/hotel package.  Not only did it show us the hotel, but it was the best price we had found.  Even adding the car it ended up costing us less.

You will need to do some math because it breaks it down per person.  That's fine, it was costing us $71 per person to have the motel with no breakfast and no car.  I got motel, breakfast and a car for $80 a person.  Break that down, for $9 more a person or $36 total, we are getting a rental car for 3 days and breakfast for four for 2 days.  Sweet!!

I looked at rental cars, even through Hotwire and it was cheaper to do the package.

Are you a little curious what we are booking??

We really wanted to do Kingda Ka, but it's so far away.  Our window is so small that we decided staying on the West Coast was our best option.

We decided to hit Six Flags Magic Mountain.  We really do love this park.  Our only hang up is that it's kind of got a lot of gang activity, but they are watching it closely and we won't be there during the night hours. By staying on the West Coast and having such a short flight we will be able to hit the park the day we fly in and the day we fly out.

Before we booked the trip we did what we always do and that is check the school calendar for the school districts in the area.  They all go through the week that we are there.  We might run into some bus loads of kids coming in for end of year, but nothing like it could be.

We just booked our airfare, and we had lots of miles.  Not quite enough to get it all for FREE, but the four of us are flying for $150, not too bad.

I know it's a crazy idea, and it's just days before my surgery, but the kids have really wanted to go.  My daughter has been asking for a vacation this summer and we just weren't sure if it was possible and today I decided to throw caution to the wind and book it.

Linked to
Thrifty Tuesday
Works for me Wednesday