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We only have the zoo and it's been worth it.

so far we have/had annual passes to the zoo, seaworld, disneyland, and legoland. at our kids age (2.5yrs and 11mo) i find that only legoland and the zoo are worth it! seaworld i think is a once a year/every couple years type place. the only pro is that teachers/education admin get free year passes so dh (and the kids) were free! disneyland is hard at this age cause of the crowd, heat, and lines, and its farther than the other parks for us so we didn't find it as worth it.

I think annual passes are nice because you can just run in for a quick visit and not have to worry about spending the day there to get your money's worth. Plus, I have two kids so we recouped the cost of our membership after two visits! Also, I like supporting local facilities like zoo and museum. I worked for our park district (which is affiliated with the zoo and museum) so I know what a difference memberships made to their budgets, haha!

We have a zoo membership that we love. It is 15 minutes away and parking is included. Those two attributes mean we stop by almost every weekend. We also love our regional parks membership which covers entrance to several nature centers, swim fees at the local parks, and all parking fees at parks.

We did not renew our membership to the local toddler amusement park. It's cute but it's about 30 minutes away, which is always nap inducing, and it costs $5 to park which is annoying since parking is a pain anyway.

We just got a pass to our local children's museum and haven't actually been since, but I think it'll be worth it-- it's only 15 min walk from our apt, and we will recoup costs if we go 6 times. But when we do go, we only stay for less than 90 mins since that's all lo can handle, and this way I won't stress about getting out money's worth. We've had good weather lately but I foresee taking lo a lot on rainy or too hot days this summer especially since she stays home with me 2 weekdays and we aren't signed up for any classes this summer (which cost way more than the museum membership!)

We have zoo & children's museum, both have already gotten their money's worth 3x over this year!

We have a membership to the children's museum and it's been so worth it! Close to my house, free parking, plus if you are a member you felt in an hour before regular opening times!

We've been thinking about getting one to the Toledo Zoo or Imagination Station, but it's tough since the only time DH can ever come are on Sundays, and when we attempted it this past weekend they were so crazy busy there was nowhere to park and the line to get in was nuts...we just said forget it. But I think that once D is a bit older we might get one for Imagination Station, L loves it there!

But my SIL has memberships to both, so typically I just go during the week since she can get in one adult besides herself, haha!

We have an annual pass to the zoo. Totally worth it. Instead of a membership, we bought a punch card to the children's museum (they only sell them a few times a year). This way we can bring many guests (or LO can go with her grandparents) without it costing us too much money.

@Mrs D: @mrsjyw: @Finfan: @clover:
Okay there are a ridiculous amount of us obviously in the same area here...meetup sometime?

For us they are totally worth it. Memberships here are really cheap and we have them for the zoo, acquarium and technical museum.

I feel like in some cases, it's not worth it.

One year, we had annual passes to the zoo. The problem was the distance and the transportation, so that year, we didn't get our money's worth.

I think it depends on proximity, and your likelihood of using it. We have two zoos in the area but both are pretty far away now (we got a Groupon deal for an annual family membership when we were closer to the one zoo). The closest aquarium is in another state. We have Sesame Place which I'm kinda debating, but I want to see how our birthday trip in early August goes before committing.

There's a lot of stuff around but none of it is in our backyard, so we tend not to take advantage of them. Maybe we will when LO is older? (she's just about to turn 2)

Around here, annual passes tend to recoup the cost after visiting the location 2.5 times within the year. Personally, I find that really easy to do with places like zoos and aquariums and such. So I definitely think they're worth it!

You also have the benefit of being able to leave if your LO is just having a really fussy day and not having a good time. With an annual pass, you aren't really losing anything to do this. But if you just paid for a day visit, you feel like you're wasting your money to leave early.

The zoo and museums are free here.

@mrsjyw: Me too!!!

@mrsjyw: Works for me!