Tuesday, September 29, 2009

New England Aquarium and Amtrak Discount Tickets

by TT

We went as a family to the New England Aquarium in Boston yesterday. I had the pleasure of taking my niece and my two children via Amtrak. This was the first time my son had been on the train and he absolutely loved it. It was worth the extra cost for us to take the train when you factor in the cost of parking and driving almost 3 hours one way to get there, gas, tolls, and the frustration coming from the children of having to sit still in the car that long. At least on the train, you can walk around, get a snack from the snack car and have room to play a game. I'm really big on finding discounts on-line to save money and this trip was no different. I was able to save some real money booking online with Amtrak and the kids between the ages 2 -15 years old were 1/2 price.

Our trip on the train was great and we met other families also heading to the New England Aquarium which lead to a discussion about buying tickets online. A lot of folks where going to buy tickets when they got to the Aquarium. If you never been, plan on waiting in line for a least 1 hour 'outside' to purchase your ticket and in February it's cold. Some families purchased their tickets in advance online directly from the Aquarium web-site and were quite surprised that they were charged a surcharge for the convenience of purchasing your tickets in advance. I personally was astounded to hear of such practice for the convenience of advance purchase tickets. I shared that I saved $8.00 on advance purchase online tickets for the attraction and here is how I did it.

First, I have an account with eBates. Its FREE and easy to open an account with eBates and they pay you to shop online. I've never been spammed with emails from eBates and they protect your privacy but best of all you get cash back, discounts, and rebates for shopping online. Through eBates , I was able to find event tickets at a discount. You must be logged into you eBates account in order to get cash back. Orbitz is a member of eBates. I was able to get $3.00 back instantly on my Aquarium tickets just by accessing Orbitz through eBates. I purchased 5 tickets (2 Adult and 3 children) and saved an additional $5.00, $1.00 off per person for general admission tickets. Combo tickets for general admission and IMAX theater were also available through Orbitz for a discount and no surcharge. I had an instant savings of $8.00. Every little bit makes a difference. I'm sure that the specials vary from time to time but its certainly worth it to check it out.

I hope that you find this article useful. Thank you for reading.

4 comments:

  1. Holy cow! I had never heard of ebates. sounds like a good deal, and I am going to look into it. Thanks, Becky!

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  2. Thanks for the info on ebates!! Very useful. Carolyn

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  3. I'm glad to hear about ebates. We'd been wanting to go to the Chattanooga or Atlanta Aquarium. I'll see if I can get a deal!

    Wish we had a convenient Amtrack, though. It would be great to take a train trip again.

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  4. great info in your blog and i did follow it

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