So, previously, I mentioned this switched to Hershey/Pittsburgh/Columbus and then a 5 day NY trip, breaking the budget into $6K for the 1st trip and $3K for the 2nd (b/c I can use my timeshare there)...well, I finally got around to buying and setting in stone some of the 1st trip, so here's what I have so far...
Hotel
Fairfield Inn & Suites Hershey Chocolate Avenue (Hershey 5 night stay) - Larger Studio, sleeps 6 with free breakfast - $760.35
Home2 Suites by Hilton Pittsburgh Area Beaver Valley (Pittsburgh 1 night stay) - 2 Queen Bed and sofa bed, sleeps 6 with free breakfast - $147.85
Residence Inn Columbus Downtown (Columbus 6 night stay) - Two Bedroom Suite with Two Bath - Larger Suite, sleeps 5 with free breakfast, but have to pay parking - $1496.96 + $182 parking = $1678.96
Total Hotel and Hotel Parking = $2587.16
Gas and Tolls Total for Whole Trip $300
Entertainment
Hershey - Hershey Park - 6 1-day tickets with 3 hour preview entry (so 1.25 theme park entries) = $280 total (after extra fees - $43.95/each for 6) - purchased
Hershey Park Parking - $15
Knoebel's 1 night bargain night bands for 4 (spouse and I are vets and will just use our $20 in free tickets) - $48+tax or about $50
Hanover Pretzel Factory Tour - Free
Utz Factory Tour - Free
Yuengling Factory Tour - Free
Hershey Chocolate World - Still TBD - will do the free ride - still deciding if we will do more
Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine Tour - $60 total (hoping to get a deal and get this cheaper, but it's saved as a max cost b/c we are definitely doing this)
Total Hershey so far $405 - I plan on budgeting $600 for entertainment here, with Groupons for the Hershey museum or the gardens or the trolley...or the riverboat in Harrisburg...but it's a rough guess
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Total Pittsburgh - Zero - family stop - so, no entertainment - family will entertain us
Columbus - Origins Game Fair Bands (3 adult - 1 vet, 2 free kids, 1 free volunteer) - $175
Origins True Dungeon $200 (for 3-4 folks)
Origins other event tickets $200
TBD activity on arrival or last day - TBD - I'm gonna save $100 here to play with and to have extra money for souvies if desired
Total Columbus - $675
Total entertainment = $1275
Food
Using my Busch Gardens trip experience last year, and knowing since we're working with the allergy, we tend to only eat out at most 1x/day (even more true when we have a hotel breakfast every day, which we do this trip), I'm planning the following...
Hershey
Groceries and Food Factory purchases $300
Food Out $300
Pittsburgh $0 (family feeding us)
Columbus
Groceries $200 (will be using some of the stuff from Hershey)
Food Out $300
Food on the Road $200 (1 cracker barrel or fast food meal on each driving day - so 4 meals)
Total Food $1300
Total Overall Budget as of now $5462 (of $6000) - any buffer not used flows to NYC or next year's funds, so this figure makes me happy for now
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