by Donna Alexandria

Created on: April 10, 2009

When visiting a theme park, you want to get the most out of your experience. The best way in doing so is to find ways to save time. How many times after visiting a theme park you thought to yourself, "we ran out of time. We didn't get a chance to ride that many rides?"

This happens to be a common occurrence especially when people do not plan their trip in advance. To save on time when visiting a theme park you should first consider planning your trip in advance, and make sure you establish an itinerary.

You can accomplish this by surfing the park's website. Look for an on line map of all the rides, and other entertainment venues. Some theme parks have down loadable guidebooks. If you can't find one on line, call the park's customer relations department, and see if one can be mailed to you. Your map will direct you to all the rides in the park. A guidebook will obviously give more detailed information like peak times at the park, expected wait time for each ride, and show times. From the guidebook, which usually has pretty, glossy pictures, your children can pick out the rides they want go on, and other things at the park they would like to do.

The next thing you would want to do to save on time is plan on arriving at the park when they first open around 10 am. The park is usually more fun early in the day because there are less people, and the sun hasn't reached its full potential.

Decide in advance how much time you're willing to spend at the park. Knowing this in advance will help you save on time because you'll know well in advance the amount of time you have to schedule. After deciding this, plan your day accordingly. If you decide to see a show, find a convenient time, and make sure you know how long the show will last. Try to schedule all activities together even if you have varying ages of children. If you're taking teenagers and toddlers, let the teenagers go off on their own, but make sure to give them certain times to return for lunch, and departure. Plan bathroom breaks accordingly where everybody has to at least make an attempt.

Other time saving tips at theme parks are to avoid getting lost (even with a map). Plan your trip where you visit one side of the park at a time. A lot of time is wasted at theme parks by wandering around unnecessarily. If you have a list of twenty rides, put them in logical order as to what rides you'll ride first, or second based on the proximity to each other. Also, if the games are near the theater and you plan on engaging in both venues do them around the same time.

Theme parks are great to visit, but they can often times lead to exhaustion and frustration. The best way to have fun at a theme park is to preserve your energy. The only way to do that is to alleviate time wasters like unnecessary walking.

Learn more about this author, Donna Alexandria.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.