STICKER SHOCK

Orlando is known for its' theme parks, with the Disney complex as the center piece. About 15 years ago, Patty and I were here in Orlando, and visited many of the parks, including Universal Studios, Sea World, and Disney. None were high on our list of things to do yesterday, but after sitting around at Cummins for 2 days, and with our love of animals, we knew Sea World would provide a few hours of entertainment. All through out the area, there are countless businesses that advertise discounted theme park tickets. As we were driving toward Sea World, we passed one discount ticket business that had a sign posted "Sea World 9.99". That peaked my curiosity enough to stop and investigate a little further. I walked up to the counter and said "I'll take 2 $9.99 tickets for Sea World". The very slick salesman started to explain that it wasn't quite that easy. The way these discount ticket outlets operate, is they steer you to some condo development for a "tour", and then you are eligible for the discount tickets. With the Sea World tickets, the $9.99 price was for the first member of the family, then everyone else paid the $84 per ticket price, after taking the tour. I told the dude, we didn't have time for a 2 hour tour, and thanked him for his time. Before we left the motor home, I told Patty that I wouldn't be surprised if $100 was about what we would pay for 2 tickets into Sea World. If we paid at the gate, I was about half right, and we both agreed that we would rather do something else. We ended up at a huge outlet mall, did some serious people watching, and actually made a couple of purchases that came to a whole lot less than the admission price for one person to Sea World!