Our Weekend at Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark

This past weekend we headed to South Padre Island to celebrate my cousin's daughter's 6th birthday. They had planned to take her over there for the weekend and invited anyone who wanted to come and celebrate with them (invite was a "Buy Your Own Ticket"). After talking it over with my husband, we decided to go and celebrate with them and being the RGVCouponmom, we were able to do it on a budget. Here is how we had a blast at the park and enjoyed some family time.

First thing we did was call some of the island hotels, which some were quite expensive. Some for one night were in the $100's. So after calling around we were able to get the Econolodge for $39.00 for friday and $59 for Saturday, we checked out on Sunday. It was a very nice hotel, free continental breakfast (cereal, mini doughnuts, juice). We paid a total of $114 plus change (not bad in my opinion). We had already eaten dinner before we headed over there.

Econolodge in South Padre Island, Texas

We got there kind of late, so it was showers and then bedtime. We woke up at 8:30 a.m., we ate the continental breakfast, dressed and headed over to the waterpark.

The company that I work for has an annual family picnic at Schlitterbahn each year. With our entrance tickets for that day of our company party, are also 2nd day rate discount tickets for the remainder of the summer season. I still had those tickets put away and called the park to see if they were still good (just to be sure) and to my surprise, they were expiring on Sept. 22nd, the last operating day (we were going on the 21st!). So, we were able to use them. Our total cost came out to $70.00 (plus some change). It was $22.00 for both adults and $16.00 for both of the girls. The regular price for tickets are around $36.00 for adults and about $20 to $30 for kids (i am estimating the cost of the tickets, we did get a great deal). The cost of the tickets also included the new Schlitterbahn Beach Resort Indoor Park. So we were able to enjoy two waterparks for the price of one!

Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark

At the parks, you are able to bring your own picnics, so we had already gone grocery shopping the week before and just loaded up our cooler with what we had. We had bread, ham, chips, condiments, sodas and snacks. Plus, my cousin had ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, so there was lunch right there.

It was an amazing day, since the outdoor park was closing that weekend, the park was virtually empty, we were able to enjoy the rides and not bump into people. We got to catch up on some family talk. It was an amazing day. After about 4 hours at the outdoor park, the weather turned and started to rain, so we headed to the indoor park, which is very nice. We stayed there for the remainder of the day due to the heavy wind and rain. The kids enjoyed this park just as much as they did the outdoor park. It was wonderful.

Kat, Hailey, & Cousin Amaria (the birthday girl in light blue suit) at the Indoor Park

The park closes at 7 p.m., so we packed up, said our goodbye's to my family and we headed back to the hotel. We decided to head to the restaurant next door and have dinner. We figured we did good on budget that we treated ourselves. The restaurant is called Padre Rita Grill, very good. They have seafood and burgers. Hailey ate the kids shrimp and fries ($7.00) and Kat got the kids burger ($5.00), the food came in a great t-shirt plate. My husband got the all you can eat soup and salad bar for $10.00 (plus change), I got the Builder Your Own Burger for $8.75 (very good). In the middle of dinner, little Hailey completely fell asleep in her food, apparently she had a very good time at the waterpark and while we were wrapping up the leftovers, another waitress came and showed Kat how to make a "Swan" out of foil paper.

 Hailey Asleep & Kat's Swan (little blurry)

Our food total came out to $31.00 more or less, husband paid (plus $5 tip, the waitress was great). Once we were done, we headed back to the hotel, checked out the next morning and went to breakfast at Denny's (sadly, I forgot my Denny's coupons!), but we ate great, the kids got Mac-n-cheese and pizza (they didn't feel like breakfast), hubby got the Lumberjack (which we share, cause I am not a big breakfast person) and I got the $2.00 pancakes, we both got water and shared the drinks with the girls (this makes a significant difference in your bill). We ended up paying about $26 plus change, because Denny's is doing a promotion where you donate $3.00 receive $9.00 in coupons back (See Denny's Promotion here).

This mini-vacation was the greatest we have had in a long time. We had a great time with family and we were able to do it on a budget. I figured that we had spent around $300. We might have spent more had we paid full price for the hotel and waterpark tickets. but, we didn't. We have been working on being debt free and we had saved some of this money for a nice little getaway. We are happy that we spent this money on something special, we were able to spend time away as a family and enjoy ourselves with our kids. That was money well spent.