Which Memberships would you get?

[Sugar Magnolia]

We received 2 Wiis for Christmas. Thankfully one was from Santa, so we had a receipt.

We want to do something for the family with the money, but can't decide what we should do.

I think a few memberships would be a good idea and would save us money throughout the year. But I can't decide which ones. We have a zoo, children's museum, and a science center all within an hour of our house.

Which ones would you pick?
And is there anything else you would do with the money?

TIA!

[cvanbrunt]

Children's Museum or science center. You can go year round.

[brittone2]

Whichever ones you see yourself using the most...if some of those are far enough that you won't want to drive there as often, etc. I might cross them off your list (I have a newly 2 year old who doesn't do that great in the car, so that biases my advice. I end up avoiding a lot of things that are more than 30 mins away from home because the headache isn't worth it ;) ). Something open year round is great too :)

We have a membership to a local kids museum, and it also has some nice stuff like a butterfly house, petting zoo, a small section of native NC wildlife like snakes, turtles, owls, etc. and then an outdoor section that includes lemurs, bears, and wolves. On nice days we can hit the outdoor portions, and on rainy days we can access the inside stuff. With a membership I don't feel obligated to try to do it all in one day.

[C99]

We hold memberships to the natural history museum, aquarium, nature museum, and arboretum. I didn't use my zoo memberships as much as I thought I would, so let them lapse. And our local children's museum is $$$ to park, so I let it lapse after a year also.

[cono0507]

We go to the zoo 1-2 times per month spring, summer and fall and in the winter we go a couple of times (they have a great indoor Children's zoo/play area). We also go to the Children's museum a lot (ours has free parking, fortunately) - about once a month or so. I'd love to go to our science museum more often, but my kids are a little young to get a whole lot out of it yet so we are loving the zoo and children's museum.
We also belong to the arboretum and go 1-2 times a month in the warm months.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Which will you get the most bang for your buck from? Which have the higher general admission's costs?

I like having the zoo one b/c we can just pop in and see our favorite animals. But, the zoo is only 15 minutes away so that works fine. If it were 1hr away we wouldn't do that.

Our science center membership includes several other museums so that is really nice.

Beth

[Jen841]

We got $ too for this. We joined our Zoo at Mother's Day b/c it was a great outdoor thing. We are now joining a Children's Zoo. My goal is to get a membership every 6 months so they will stagger a bit and not get old for us... and a bit less pressure.

Today we are going to the Zoo
Friday we will start our other membership

At least for us, we upgraded to include guests in our membership. On time with grandparents paid for it. We have had so much fun randomly treating friends to the zoo.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Yes on the guests thing! ILs have a membership to the one brittone2 described, and I can take *8* people over the age of 2. Seriously, our playgroup has basically gotten in on our pass when the LOs were still under 2.

We really enjoy the children's museum that's closest to our house. Proximity is a huge factor for me. Having an interesting place for DS to crawl is important too.

Another thing to consider is reciprocity. Check to see which OTHER museums the upgraded passes will get you into. We base our travel activities on what passes we have when we go see relatives. That makes it a little bit more fun too. We can use our children's museum pass at 2 other places within an hour from here, in case we ever get adventurous.

Our zoo if 1.5ish hours away and we haven't even used that pass except for on vacation. I'm not going to take the kids by myself, and weekends always seem pretty busy. And...DS would pretty much be in the stroller most of the day.

Do you have friends that belong to a certain one? If I can meet a friend there w/o having a big ol' huge ordeal, that's fun too. DH will even take DD and meet one of his guy friends and their DC on occasion!

[Melaine]

Our zoo is only 15 min. away and it is a great one. The kids and I both love it and it is a safe, pleasant place for me to get some exercise with the girls happy to be in the stroller. Ok, pretty much the only place for the girls to be happy in the stroller. Our weather is mild so we can and do go all year round. Also, our membership is less than $100 for a year which I think is a phenomenal price.
My girls are too young to be much interested in a museum, I guess, but I just wanted to say, don't discount the zoo. I love it.

[Dcclerk]

I second/third/etc. the notion of where would you get the best bang for your buck and what are your kids interested in? We have a membership to the science center which is an hour away, and we pass a zoo and museum or two on the way. For my kids, though, the kids' science center could not be beat. It is perfect for us in a way that the museum in particular would not be.

[Corie]

We've had a zoo membership since before the kids were born.
We are big zoo people. My kids also attend the summer zoo camps.
Since we are members, we get a discount on the zoo camps
and food/drinks and gift shop purchases.

[Sugar Magnolia]

So, everything is about an hour away (there is no traffic). Would it be worth it to join?

I am now second guessing my idea. There is nothing near us. Nothing. We have been to all 3 within the past year and my thought was that if we had a membership we would go more often. The thought of driving does not bother me, but I don't make the drive that often.

I might be thinking of other ideas now.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Hmm... Is there one you could see yourself taking the younger ones to while the older one(s) are in school?

[Jen841]

Our places are 45-60 minutes away (depending on traffic) but we love going 'to the city' area. We have a favorite sandwich shop we go to on the way home which is icing on the cake : )

Here 2 visits pay for a membership (entrance, parking and the 'extras'). I am frugal, and am proud to say we have paid for our zoo membership at least 10 times.

I am learning 7 months into it one is losing his interest a bit, it is time to rotate. We had not been there since Halloween and today he was not very excited (and the zoo is not the best place in the winter.) We will join the Children's Museum this Friday. It is close to the Zoo, so there are times we can stop to see the giraffes which will make E so happy (all he talks about.) I love the 'drop in' idea. With a membership you don't feel like you have to do everything. You can go in, see a fav, see something new and leave. It does not need to be a full day event.

Don't let the fact that it is over an hour away ruin your idea. If the kids like and adventure and you are ok driving do it!