Bumping since I made more purchases...
So, my current update to my 1st trip...
1st trip - Pittsburgh (grandparent visit)/Niagara Falls CA/Columbus, OH (Game Convention) - 10 days/9 nights...
Hotel - we are staying at an Embassy Suites at all 3 locations - we used points for 1/2 the cost, so we are paying $660 total, but even full cost would only be $1320, since we are doing Sun-Wed in Canada (and the difference in June cost between weekends and weekdays was monumental
)...
UPDATE - I rebooked the Embassy Suites in Columbus that I was paying points+cash for (vs all points at the other 2 locales, since I didn't have enough to cover all 3 locations) b/c I found a deal that let me have the same cost and keep the points (which equal about 1 free hotel night in a 1 bedroom), so instead of having no hotel points at the end, I'll have about 30-40K to use for next year's vacation - that was a win (I got a Sunday rate, even though we are checking in on a Wed, b/c we were staying through Sunday and those rates were CHEAP)
Gas/Parking/Tolls - $400 (this is way too high, but it's buffer)
Game Con Badges/Tickets - $250 budget to $325 budget (current)
UPDATE - I bought all our game convention badges - they went up a little this year, so I spent $155 here so far. I think I'm gonna bump this budget $75 to $325 b/c some of my family wants to try True Dungeon, so that's gonna be pricey...so I'll have $170 for tickets/events (that are not free - my spouse runs events, so my kids can play them for free)
Canada Attractions Passes (the 4 attraction ones) - $300ish (we'll see next year)
Canada Dinner Theater - $200 budget to $175 paid in full with tip cost included (final)
Canada Extra (Souvies, Groupons, etc) - $200 - used $65 so far, so $135 left
UPDATE - I bought a Groupon for $43 US today which gives us 6 tickets (which I've reserved and gotten confirmed) to the Greg Frewin show cheap seats and 2 arcade attraction areas with tokens and "attractions". I know I will have a $30 CAD fee (which I'm assuming will be $22.50 US) to use one set of the attractions (which is all I'm planning, although you never know - my kids may want 2 arcades), so I've spent $65 in my extra budget, but I think it's a helluva deal to get the 2nd night show for our trip and some "kid" attractions - We now have all 3 nights set (evening falls fireworks show the 1st night, Oh Canada the 2nd night, and Greg Frewin the 3rd night - my kids will love this b/c they love shows!) I thought about waiting to buy (to see if the exchange rate or Groupon discount code got even better), but I wanted the Bird Kingdom Groupon, and that disappeared this week right as I would have entered the "usable" point for it, so I didn't want the same to happen here, when those magic show tickets are SO cheap compared to their retail price...
Groceries (picked up in Pburgh for Canada and Columbus for CON) - $125 (light lunches in case breakfast is too light, snacks, drinks)
Dinners for 7 nights (grandparents have 1st dinner bought, dinner theater will be 2nd dinner bought) - 1/2 fast food/1/2 casual sit down - $500 (no alcohol, since we'll have it at the hotel each night)
Ohio Extra (Souvies, Random) - $100
Total Budget OOP - $2735 - rounding to $2750
Okay, so in the time since my last post, I got a 5 digit expense (a required new bathroom), so we planned this trip in the most economical way possible without "missing out" on why we were going...and we had a ton of fun on a tiny budget...here's how our trip finally happened and cost...
Hotels - $660 (same as expected - points paid for 4 nights and we got a great deal on the other 5 - in fact, Hilton gave us back our points for our night in Pittsburgh b/c of their corporate decision of selling our booked Embassy hotel to a planned senior living development and thus relocating us to Homewood, so I actually got one "free" night, since we have 40K points to use for next year)
Parking (Columbus and Niagara) - $52 (3 nights in Niagara Falls at the Casino and 4 days in Columbus - got free parking 1 day in Columbus)
Tolls - $25 (still have to pay a $1 for a crazy NY toll that had no toll booths and needed ezpass)
Gas - $98
We Go Bus Passes Niagara Falls - $47.91 (6 48 hour passes)
Niagara Falls Attractions
- Hornblower $109 (6 tickets - full price with exchange rate)
- Bird Kingdom $50 (6 tickets - Groupons at 25% discount plus additional Canada tax onsite)
- Niagara Falls Fun Zone $28.74 (6 tax and facility fees for the Groupon bought - got 4 attractions and 25 tokens/person)
- Greg Frewin Wild Magic Show ($43 Groupon for the 6 tickets which all included the Niagara Falls Fun Zone attractions and arcade tokens - best deal ever since they upgraded us to level 4 seating at the theater)
- Oh Canada Dinner Show ($175 - used coupon codes and BOGO free child - $5/CDN/person tip included)
- Niagara Power Vista Museum (NY side) (Free - awesome for a free museum)
- An hour long walk over the Lock Bridge to the American falls (Free - it's gorgeous)
- Niagara fireworks show (Free - not that special, but free is free and fireworks are fireworks - think Minor League baseball
)
Columbus Game Convention Passes $155
Columbus Game Convention Game Tickets $104 (skipped True Dungeon when money became an issue - that's for next year)
Groceries - Ended up only bringing $40 worth (Single serve chips, single serve cookies, single serve milk and chocolate milk, single serve decaf diet cokes, sprites, and water, M&M bags, giant Goldfish container, ziplocs - this worked perfectly for both sites - we only bought mains for light lunch every day since kids grabbed a beverage and snack and had an apple or banana from breakfast)
Travel Day lunch food for 3 main travel days (Bob Evans x 2 and Wendy's) ($114)
Niagara Falls Restaurant Food (mainly food court eats from Tim Hortons and Subway, and take out ethnic cuisine - best dish ever was beef shwarma poutine
($202)
Pittsburgh Restaurant Food (free - as expected, grandparents picked this up)
Columbus Restaurant Food ($157 - bought a large Donato's pizza for 4 of 5 days for lunch for $16 (6 slices) and then different healthy options at night - got fresh fish Poke bowls (Con had a BOGO deal, so these were so cheap), Bahn Mihs, and Thai Massamam curries, and enjoyed the wildly awesome spread at Embassy Suites for free the other 2 dinner nights)
Souvenirs ($0 - we had no money to spare, so we went without - my 2 oldest bought their own single souvenirs with their money for $65)
Total OOP Spent - $2060ish, so way under budget...which we needed b/c this is our summer of no spending thanks to our bathroom.
But even though we did it cheap, we didn't feel like we "missed" anything. We prioritized the best attractions and found some tricks to make them cheaper (ie - if you are in Canada, always pay in Canadian currency with a CC that gives you a practically at par exchange rate - thanks USAA
...it was a fun trip, and it showed my kids you can really stretch a dollar on a very fun vacation without feeling like you missed out.
