← The Stacking Benjamins Show
The Stacking Benjamins Show
How to Plan the Perfect Theme Park Trip Without Wasting Your Money or Your Day (SB1844)
01:06:38
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- [00:00]
Joe Saul-Sehy
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- [01:01]
Robert Niles
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Robert Niles
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Robert Niles
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- [01:30]
OG
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- [01:32]
Robert Niles
First time?
- [01:34]
OG
No. I've been nervous lots of times.
- [01:41]
Doug
Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin Show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And are you ready to kick off summer 2026? I sure am. I got my notepad ready because I can't wait to hear from our annual guest who kicks off another season of theme park madness. From the top theme park website, Theme Park Insider, we welcome back Robert Niles. Plus, a hot new Netflix show might help you understand your financial and health care options. What is it? We'll share and help you understand health coverage strategies better. And don't you worry, halfway through the show, I'll come sauntering in like I own the place with some great Wednesday Benjamin stacking trivia. And now, two guys who are always happy to help you avoid the rollercoaster of investing emotions. It's Joe and O. Jj.
- [02:45]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Jj. We are back to the beginning of another summer. Oh, gee, it feels like Robert Niles was just here. With us. And now he's upstairs talking to mom again.
- [03:00]
OG
Yeah, maybe in your world. Not, not so much here. There's been a lot. There's been a lot of stuff between here and long year here in the last year. I mean, a lot of great stuff. It's not been bad, but a lot of great stuff.
- [03:12]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, and Robert Niles, of course, always brings the good stuff that you can enjoy each summer. I know that. And we'll talk about this later. I went to Dollywood last year because Robert Niles wouldn't stop talking about it. Have either of you guys been?
- [03:24]
OG
No, I haven't.
- [03:25]
Doug
But I've heard good things.
- [03:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, highly recommend it, man. We've got a great show today though, so sit back and relax. If it's your first time listening to the greatest money show on earth, the Stacking Benjamin show, you might wonder what do theme parks have to do with a money show? You know what, Theme parks can be incredibly expensive. If you're going to spend that kind of money, let's make sure that it's worth it. And Robert Niles over the years has taught our stackers so many great tips and tricks and also talked about what's hot, maybe what you can avoid and think about later. All of those things I think factor into let's have some really good fun this summer and maybe either save money or make it worth it if we're going to spend a lot of money. So, Robert, coming up, we got a great headline as well. We also have a couple sponsors who help us keep on keeping on. One is the Vault. If you go to stacking benjamins.com vault you will see that not only do we help you protect your identity and get off of all of those lists. Also coming up to the Vault is budgeting the Vault. Already a Swiss army knife. You can track your budget, you can track your net worth and get off this. So many different Things. Stack your Benjamins.com vault. Why have you 18 different financial apps when you could have it all in one? We have a couple more sponsors here and then our only other sponsors the entire episode are in the middle of Doug's trivia. So we're going to hear from them now and then Mr. Theme Park Insider himself, the mind behind the number one website on theme parks in the nation, Robert Niles coming back down to the basement to help us kick off summer. My first life insurance was such a difficult process. Number one, I had to get by my own insecurity about death. And I was a guy as a financial planner who dealt with death all the time. And then I had to do all of this rigmarole. It was like the ring of fire to get the policy done. And yet, when I got the policy finished and I knew that Cheryl and my twins were going to be okay, I can't tell you how great it felt. But I always wish there was a way to get this done a lot easier. Well, Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy. It's 100% online. You can get a quote in seconds, you apply in minutes. And you get same day coverage. No medical exam. You just answer a few simple health questions. You get up to $3 million in coverage. And some policies are as low as $30 a month. And you'll get your lowest rate from their network of trusted carriers. Ethos has a 4.8 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot. Over 4000 reviews take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your free quota. Ethos.com S-T B E N that's ethos.com ST BEN. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. I can't believe summer's about to begin already. And you know how you know because Robert Niles is back in mom's basement. How are you, Mr. Niles?
- [06:44]
Robert Niles
I am doing really well. How have you been for the past. It's been like two weeks since I talked to you. Right.
- [06:50]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I totally feel like that I have to brag. I have to brag because of you. I went to Dollywood last year.
- [06:57]
Robert Niles
Congratulations. Your life is complete. That's it. We're done. Okay. Thanks everyone.
- [07:02]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It seriously is complete. You kept telling me how good it is over and over and over. And I think over and over and over and over and over and over. And we finally went and. Oh, my God, Robert, what a great time. I don't even need the ride.
- [07:14]
Robert Niles
So happy for you. I'm so happy.
- [07:17]
Joe Saul-Sehy
The food, the theming, just hanging out, the music. As you know, the. The Dolly Museum. Robert, this place is great.
- [07:23]
Robert Niles
Yeah. And you don't have to be a Dolly Parton fan, although you will be after you visit because it just. It's that. It's everything that you want from a theme park. It's that theming, it's that atmosphere, it's that customer service. It's like going to Japan without having to pay for it. It's that level of just attention to people. Really want you to have a good time, want you to feel welcomed. And you can't help but but just feel better about everyone around you while you're there. It's just a wonderful place to visit.
- [07:53]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, and that's what I was mostly blown away by, was the number of older people that were there that clearly didn't care about the rides. Like, you can tell by the clientele that's there what they're doing. All right, I want to make.
- [08:03]
Robert Niles
But the rides are really good.
- [08:04]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, the rides were amazing. The R lightning rod, amazing. Just incredible.
- [08:08]
Robert Niles
One of our top 10 coasters in the world.
- [08:10]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, it just incredible. All right. I could fawn over Dollywood, but we got a lot of work to do here in a short amount of time that we have you. We want to make this Dollywood moment that I have, no matter what theme park people are going to great for everybody because, you know, every family's had this moment. You spend $1,000 to get everybody to the, quote, happiest place on earth, right by 1:30, somebody's crying, somebody's sunburned, and somebody just paid 18 bucks for a hot dog. So we want to save some stackers from that fate. So let's work on this. If you were planning a theme park for your own family like you do, where do you start?
- [08:48]
Doug
Robert?
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Robert Niles
It really just depends upon where are the ages of your kids, who's going on this thing? Do you have kids? Is it just you? Just you and your significant other kids, extended family, multiple generations going all this? I mean, think who's in the crew that's making this trip? Because that's going to have a huge influence on the type of places that you visit. If you've got really little kids, like early elementary. Hey, you want to be looking at places like the Legoland theme park, stuff that's really made specifically for them, because that is a tough age to appeal to.
- [09:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
So wait a minute. So you're saying don't start with the park. Start with you and your family and choose the park. Because you could be going to the wrong park in the first place, I think is what you're saying.
- [09:29]
Robert Niles
Absolutely. I mean, there are parks that people hate, that are perfect for other people. I mean, it really just is all about the fit. This is a relationship. This isn't just you consuming a product. This is a relationship. And you've gotta be a 50, 50 partner in this relationship. And if it's a bad match for you, it could be the greatest park in the world for everybody else. But it's a terrible purchase for you to be making for your family. So think about who's in the crew that's going on this and what you're all into at this point. I mean, you could have kids that are really into Minions and Shrek and if you're taking them to Disney instead of Universal, you're making a mistake. If your kids are really into Star wars and Mar and well, okay, there's one exception on this and you're going to Universal instead of Disney. Again, it's a mistake. There's great stuff at all of these parks, but it's really about which ones are right for you, I'm sure.
- [10:20]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Then I hop on a place like Theme Park Insider.
- [10:25]
Robert Niles
Oh yeah.
- [10:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
How do you plan out your day?
- [10:27]
Robert Niles
One of the really nice things that we've gotten Theme Park Insider is a section called reviews theme parkinsider.com reviews and we've got one page guides on there that we've kind of crowdsourced. What's the best strategy for going to various parks? The general advice is you want to get there as early as possible before the park opens so that you can go, you know, run and go do the most popular ride in the park first thing before it really builds up a long line. That's not always the case, but that's generally the rule on that. Almost all parks at this point will sell you an upcharge line skipping pass that gets you into a shorter queue. It's never truly a line skip, but gets you into a shorter queue. And sometimes if you know this is a once in a lifetime trip or a once in a very long time trip and you've got a little extra money to split splurge, those can be good deals. But sometimes, depending on where you visit, you don't need to do that. With a little smart planning, you can avoid anything over a half hour wait and still get on all the major rides. So that's really park specific. And that's why we've got all of those guides up on themeparkinsider.com but in general, what you really want to do is try and find the place that's right for you. Because if it is right for you, ultimately you're going to figure it out. I mean, ultimately you're going to have a good time. Like you were saying about Dollywood, even if you don't get on all the rides, you're still having a great time because it's just a fun place to be that really vibes with what you're looking for in a family vacation.
- [11:48]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What's the biggest mistake you think that families make when they're planning?
- [11:53]
Robert Niles
Thinking that they have to do something because somebody else told them to? You don't want to do this just because your friends at school or your friends at the workplace just told you, oh, you have to go to Disney because you have kids that age. The mistake that a lot of people make is just getting themselves into a bad situation. And then all of the effort in the world, throwing all the money you got at it isn't going to get you out of that bad situation. So the thing is, avoid going to the destination that's not right for you in the first place. And if you do that, then you're going to have a good time.
- [12:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Are there wrong days to go to a theme park?
- [12:30]
Robert Niles
Not really, no. I'm going to come off of that. There aren't. Even on the busiest day, you can still have a good time. There are obviously better days to go to a theme park than other days. One of the tricks with if you're going to Walt Disney World, go check out the calendar for something called Run Disney. That is the half marathons, marathons that they run at the park about four or five different weekends during the year. And they're kind of things that you wouldn't think of being peak weekends. And that's why Disney scheduled these running events on them. And they fill those parks. You have got tens of thousands of people, runners bringing their family. They're running in the parks before they open in the morning. Their family is coming to join them. So when the park opens, it's full on those weekends. And if you happen to be there on one of those weekends, maybe that's the day you sleep in and come in later, or you just find a different weekend to visit. But there are little things like that all over the place. In general, if there's no school on that day, it's going to be more crowded. So if you can visit on a school day, you'll be better off. So that then works out to your own situation. If your kids are in school, then that's not really gonna help you. It used to be that there was a little bit of a shift in academic calendars around the country, that California got out a lot later than other schools, which made Disneyland a nice place to visit, like in early June. But everyone's kind of gone to the same calendar now. Everyone's getting out kind of mid to early May and coming back in August, So that's not so much of a factor. Do, however, consider hurricane season in Florida. That is something you might want to keep in mind. You can get some great deals, end up in really nice parks, or you could be in the middle of a torrential storm, it takes your chances.
- [14:15]
Joe Saul-Sehy
A good friend of mine decided to go even though there's a hurricane bearing down on Orlando, they'd already paid, they had a bunch of non refundable tickets. The hurricane took a hard right that year, Robert and he said we were in the park by ourself. Which was serendipity, but probably not good planning.
- [14:30]
Robert Niles
One of the things to remember about visiting Orlando during hurricane season is when a hurricane hits Florida, all the people on the coast evacuate to Orlando. So it's gotta be a really big storm to still be hurricane strength by the time it gets that far inland. But at the same time, you're in what could be an island at that point. You could be in a situation where you can't get your flight back in time to get back to work or school or whatever commitments, roads might not be available for you. So I mean, this is not something to be taken lightly. But in terms of personal safety, if I were going to be anywhere in the state of Florida when a hurricane hit, I would pick Orlando.
- [15:07]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's funny because of course I spend time following you on the Internet and I watch creators and I watch families plan these trips. Does it feel to you sometimes like there is over planning going on? Like there's somebody who's too excited and maybe makes this a death march instead of a great holiday?
- [15:27]
Robert Niles
I love planning. I think planning is part of the excitement of a trip. Obviously my livelihood depends on people planning trips. I mean, I started this website because I love planning. I wanted to help other people plan. But the really important thing to remember about planning is it's okay to abandon a plan. Go make the plan. Don't worry about making the plan, but recognize that when you, you get on the ground and the situation presents itself, you can abandon that plan and go with something else. It's your vacation, have fun with it. If you were planning on doing something but something else catches your eye and you're like, I never knew about this. I want to check it out. Go for it. It's your vacation, Enjoy it.
- [16:08]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And I love and you caution me about this many, many times. Just scheduling. And breaks too. Just scheduling. You know what? We're not going to plan anything for this afternoon. It's going to be just whatever time
- [16:19]
Robert Niles
that is becoming more and more important on summer vacations as well as weather gets more extreme and more hot. I see people all the time in Orlando who scheduled thinking that it was going to be the same as a summer back home in Michigan. And they get down in that heat and humidity, and they don't last more than half an hour before they need that break. So keep in mind that if you're going someplace that's a different environment because you want that heat, you want that sun, that heat, and that sun's going to take that energy out of you. So you're going to need more breaks than you think you need.
- [16:49]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I'm laughing as you're talking because I just remember that Jim Gaffigan joke about, you know, taking your family to Disney in July is like vacationing on the surface of the sun. So.
- [16:59]
Robert Niles
But with better rides.
- [17:01]
Joe Saul-Sehy
With better rides, right? Agreed. I like the fact that you started with your family, not the park. But when you're evaluating a park, you've been to the good, bad and the ugly around not just the United States, but the world. How do you know whether a park is actually worth the money?
- [17:16]
Robert Niles
Yeah, that's the big question, isn't it? For me. I mean, I know that there are certain parks that really deliver when it comes to customer service. Ultimately, that's it for me. A park can have the most amazing iron, the most amazing capital in place if it doesn't have the soft product, if it doesn't have the customer service. I'm not having nearly as good a time at a park that has invested in people, that has invested in customer service, that's going to make me feel welcome. That's why I love the Hirschend theme parks. That's Dollywood, that's Silver Dollar City. Actually, they are buying up theme parks all over.
- [17:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
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- [19:58]
Robert Niles
Quint.comSB America if you have a independently owned family, local theme park, chances are Herschend either bought it or they're going to buy it soon. But they're doing doing great. Privately held company. They don't have to answer to Wall Street. They can invest in that soft product and they do. I love those parks for that. Disney and Universal are pretty good at that. I mean, obviously if you're there on a super crowded day, it can be tough, but if you go in there with the right attitude, you're kind to people, you're going to find a lot of kindness coming back with that. Right now it's getting a little rough at the Six Flags parks with their staffing, but again, it's so site dependent upon that. I mean, everybody I know from Northern Ohio loves Cedar Point. Cedar Point has continued to deliver for people over the years. A lot of people in Texas are swearing by Six Flags Fiesta Texas is one of the best parks in that chain as well. So there's still value to be had.
- [20:48]
Joe Saul-Sehy
San Antonio, right?
- [20:49]
Robert Niles
San Antonio, that's their park there.
- [20:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. The one in Arlington's not so great.
- [20:54]
Robert Niles
Yeah, they're doing a big new coaster this year. There's some hope for that. I think there's some positive momentum going there. But yeah, there is a gap right now between Herschend and Disney and Universal and then you see United parks and Six Flags and with Legoland kind of somewhere in between. But for me, what I'm looking for is when I'm reading other people's trip reports. When I'm reading things like the Theme Park Insider discussion board and our review section, I'm looking for people who are talking about customer services experiences. And if they're talking about great customer service experiences, that's a park I'm circling, going, maybe I want to get to something like Efteln in the Netherlands. I cracked a joke about Japan earlier. Japan, best customer service in the world. Anything in Japan, you're going to be doing okay. Trouble is that everybody is onto this at this point. Those parks are super crowded. That is the boss level for theme park fans. If you've conquered everything else and you're ready to level up to total the big boss battle, then you go to Japan theme park, because those are not for the beginners and the novices.
- [21:54]
Joe Saul-Sehy
If I'm going to Japan and only have time for one theme park, is it disneyseas?
- [22:00]
Robert Niles
Yeah, I'm going to Tokyo Disneysea. And that is the most challenging theme park in the world to visit if you want to get all the top stuff. Because you're going to have to get there an hour and a half, two hours before it opens, you're going to have to have that. You're going to have to have that app downloaded. You're going to have to have a payment system set up, which can be a little tricky in Japan because you're going to have to buy a premier access to their frozen ride within 10 minutes of that park opening. So you have to be one of the people who get into that park in the first 10 minutes in order to buy that. Otherwise you're looking at a three to four hour wait for that attraction. So that's why I say it's boss level stuff, is everybody has figured out how to optimize this. There are no people that you can take advantage because if they don't know what they're doing, every single person in that park knows exactly what they're doing. They've done this before. They are experts at it and it makes it a absolutely wonderful environment once you're in there, because everybody knows what they're doing. Everything works so smoothly. People are so friendly about it. That is a rush. When that park opens, it is. It is the theme park equivalent of running with the bulls. There's no walk in there.
- [23:07]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, and this is where planning pays, right on this part.
- [23:10]
Robert Niles
Absolutely.
- [23:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Especially for me in that Disney system.
- [23:12]
Robert Niles
Now, if you roll in right at park open to Tokyo Disneysea, you're gonna be able to walk right in you're gonna be able to get on a lot of great rides that day. You're gonna have a wonderful time. But if you want to go on that frozen ride, you want to go on some of the two or three top attractions at that park, you're not going to get in because it's going to take three to four hour wait, standby on those. And if you're okay with that, great. You're going to have a wonderful time. This is such a beautiful park, has great food, wonderful customer service, even below that top tier of attractions. Absolutely wonderful experiences that you'll have a great time on. It's just that if you do a little bit of planning, you can maximize it into the ultimate theme park experience. And if you've been around a lot of parks and you're looking to level up to that, Tokyo Disneysea is the place to go.
- [23:55]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, I want to get on a plane right now, Robert. All right. We talk about, you know, stocks going up in value, stocks going down in value on the show a lot. What park is winning summer 2026, going
- [24:07]
Robert Niles
back to it, it's going to be Dollywood. Dollywood. I mean, right now I think there are a lot of people who are feeling priced out by Disney, who are feeling a little overwhelmed by how popular Disney has become, who are looking for something that's a little bit more old school on the East Coast. Dollywood is that. And they are debuting one of the most highly anticipated new attractions of the year, a new ride called Night Flight Expedition. If you're like, okay, Robert, what kind of ride is that? I'm like, well, it's kind of a roller coaster. It's kind of a dark ride, it's kind of a water ride. It's everything all combined into one experience about being in the Smoky Mountains at Twilight and kind of all the magic of that experience in that wonderful natural environment created artificially in a brand new multimodal, you know, dark ride experience. But we don't have an opening date on that one yet, unfortunately. But they are saying that it's going to be open sometime this summer. If you're a little bit farther west though, it's sister park, Silverdale City, I think is absolutely winning right now. They did a great new version of their Fire in the Hole attraction a couple of summers ago that's still around. And they do such a wonderful job there with that whole experience and some great roller coasters there. Outlaw Run is another one real winner. Those are two great parks. If you're feeling like, you know, Orlando is not what you're vibing this year. Go take a look at those parks in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri. Those are really good options for people. And you know, I'm in Southern California, so I will always sing the praises of Disneyland. In fact, actually, Disneyland has got some projects coming up in the future that maybe make this a good summer to come visit while they're working on their new Avengers rides that we're hoping for maybe next year or the year after that.
- [25:48]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Why does that make this year so good then?
- [25:50]
Robert Niles
People tend to plan to go to places right when they open big new things. So if you go sleeping on, they open the big new things. A lot of people are sleeping on things. The one complicating factor with that potentially is the economy. And people are now looking for staycations and you've got what, 15 million people in Southern California and their number one staycation destination is Disneyland. So kind of the way Disneyland prices things these days is they have a pricing model that varies by day day that actually makes it so that the summer is one of the best times to visit that park. The annual passes are blocked out. Just look around and see what's a good date for you and check that by the variable pricing and see if you can find a good deal there. And there's a ton of hotels that are within walking distance that aren't Disney that, you know, maybe you're part of that loyalty program and you've got some free nights and you want to spend it in Anaheim, California. Great way to make it an affordable vacation too.
- [26:48]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What's the sleeper park that nobody talks about enough?
- [26:54]
Robert Niles
My stock answer for this one is always Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. That is one of those family owned parks that Herschend hasn't bought yet. It's a sleeper park because honestly, it's a little bit of a haul to get to small town called Santa Claus, Indiana, which is actually about an hour west of Louisville, Kentucky and I think it's Interstate 64 there a little bit south of that wonderful park, really literally in the middle of a cornfield. Great attractions. Again, this is another one that does really well with the customer service. How they find people to work this park I do not know. But they find really good people and I've always had a wonderful time there. Another park that I think gets slept on is honestly, I've got to advocate for the Legoland parks. If you've got those early elementary kids or grandkids, they're in Florida, they're in California, they're In New York, now in Europe. If you're taking the kids for a European vacation, you want to bribe them, get on the plane, throw a day at one of the many Legoland parks in Europe there, and they will gladly go along with all of the museums and cathedrals that you want to go visit as well.
- [28:01]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You mentioned the new ride at Dollywood, but there's got to be another new attraction this year that people are going to be talking about all year. What's the hot new thing? Robert?
- [28:12]
Robert Niles
Honestly, I think one of the hot new things that people are going to be talking about, I don't know if that conversation is necessarily going to be a positive one. But Disneyland has changed its soaring ride for the summer. It's no longer soaring around the world, it's soaring across America. If you remember Disney back in the old days and their America the Beautiful and their circle Rama360, they've kind of gone back to that with an American themed Soarin ride. The original one was just California and then they went around the world. Now they're doing Soarin across America for America 250. And I think that's going to get some people talking. But the one at Disney that I'm actually kind of looking forward to and I'm going to get the opportunity to go on it in a couple of weeks here is they changed. Rock and roller coaster at Walt Disney World used to be Aerosmith and now it's going to be the Muppets. It's Dr. Keith and the Electric Mayhem. Rock and roller Coaster starring the Muppets. I am ridiculously excited for this attraction. I realize that I am the Gen X demographic that they're going for here, but you gimme Muppets anything and I'm going to go.
- [29:19]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's fantastic. I wanted to ask some quick questions. Let's do a quick mini game.
- [29:25]
Robert Niles
Okay.
- [29:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I just want to ask you if these are worth the wait. Do. Is it worth it? Do we skip it? Or does it depend on this concept? You brought it up earlier of Lightning Night Lane, Skip the lane.
- [29:37]
Robert Niles
Worth it Occasionally. Most of the time, no VIP tours.
- [29:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We're seeing those even at regional parks.
- [29:44]
Robert Niles
Worth it depends upon the park at Disney. If you've got the money for it. Absolutely. Go for it. Universal. Go for it. Some of the smaller regional parks, I think I would just do the regular line. Skip pass.
- [29:56]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Let's go. Disney specifically. Well, Disney and Universal specifically.
- [29:59]
Robert Niles
Park Hoppers in California. Yes. Do it for Disneyland. Do not do it for Walt Disney World in Florida. Universal, Orlando. If you're just going between studios and islands of adventure. Do it. I don't think they opera one yet for Epic Universe, but that's way far away. So if you're gonna do Epic, you're just doing that park alone on that day.
- [30:19]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's actually across town, isn't it?
- [30:21]
Robert Niles
Yeah. The funny thing is, it's actually closer to the other two parks than any of the Disney World parks are. But because you're going down, I drive, it's seems like it's a lot farther away. Like, I think Magic Kingdom and Epcot are farther away than, like, that's, well, epic.
- [30:36]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Because it's all on property. You think it's. Yeah.
- [30:38]
Robert Niles
Yeah.
- [30:38]
Joe Saul-Sehy
All right. Character breakfast.
- [30:42]
Robert Niles
I want to skip so badly, but if you have a kid who really needs to meet the characters, that's honestly one of the best ways to do it. You get it done early in the day, you know they're coming by, it's there. It's just such a zoo. If your kid isn't so. Or let's be honest, you. If you're not heart set on seeing these characters today, it's an easy skip. But if you are. Yeah. Then definitely worth it.
- [31:09]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I have to laugh, Robert, because we did a character lunch at Cinderella's castle with all the princesses, and we had my niece and my nephew with us. We were so thrilled to take them. We had no idea until we got there. Robert. Because we didn't do enough planning, because they weren't my kids, that they weren't true Disney fans. I spent time.
- [31:29]
Robert Niles
The nightmare.
- [31:30]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I spent time hanging out with the princesses, which, don't get me wrong, that's fine. That's good. But my niece and my nephew could have cared less.
- [31:37]
Robert Niles
Yeah, that's. Again, you got to know your crew before you do all of this, because there are people for whom that's the trip. I mean, that's the whole thing. That is, everything is just this character breakfast, and you absolutely cannot miss that. And for other people, that is the best time to be going, getting on all the other rides in the park while all the people are doing their character breakfast. And you've got the shorter cues for the roller coaster. And you would never be caught dead in the character breakfast. Gotta know your crew.
- [32:03]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, let's go there. Then. These, you know, everybody's got these upgraded fireworks packages now where I can get my special seating area. Worth it or not.
- [32:13]
Robert Niles
I don't think that they are. But again, there are people for whom it absolutely is. I mean, for me, you can See fireworks anywhere in the park. I mean, they're up in the sky. That's the thing. If you want to see things go boom, you'll see things go boom. The best place to see things go boom is in a queue that you are. An empty queue that you are running through to go get on the roller coaster that you're going to be on with. No, wait. Once the fireworks are over, or even better, to watch the fireworks from the roller coaster that you didn't wait to get on. Honestly, the fireworks from Big Thunder Mountain at Walt Disney World or at Disneyland. And elite level experience. Yeah, but you can't do that if you paid for the buffet over in the Tomorrowland restaurant.
- [32:53]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That is a memory. And it's all about memories. I mean, that's a huge memory. I'm on the.
- [32:57]
Robert Niles
Absolutely.
- [32:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, my goodness. Staying on property.
- [33:01]
Robert Niles
If they're giving you benefits for doing that, such as early park access or extended park access or best value in theme parks. If you're staying at one of the top three at Universal Orlando and they're giving you a free unlimited express pass for it, Absolutely. If there are no benefits for that, like Disneyland, they've taken away a lot of benefits. No, go stay someplace, you know, off property, pay 1/4, 1/3 the price. Use that for a better experience in the park, or just save that and do something else again. It all comes down to the specific benefit package that you're getting with that particular hotel.
- [33:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Meal plans.
- [33:43]
Robert Niles
I hate meal plans. I am. I'm a big advocate against meal plans. That requires you to start doing a lot of math to make sure that the meal plan works. I don't eat that much in theme parks. I just don't. There are very few theme park restaurants anymore that I like, but I'm pretty jaded about all of this sort of thing. Having said that, of course I'm still going to go back that there are people who are perfectly happy to do the math and have figured out the math and have figured out and make this work for them and more power to you. I love you. Go for it. Get it. But for the average person who wants to go on vacation to have a good time and not be doing math to figure out if they're making money on a deal or not, stay away from those.
- [34:23]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, we went to Dollywood following your advice. I'm on Theme Park Insider and I found out we could get this deal where we stayed on site, which was great because we didn't have to worry about parking. You got dropped off right at the Front door with their wonderful little trolley. I think everybody who works at Dollywood is 70 years old, by the way they're spending their retirement, which made it fun because the guy driving it was full of stories and fun. But also for this particular weekday that we went, because we had the ability to go in the middle of the week, they threw in their food pass with it as a perk to get me to stay in there. And I have to say, man, because it was free, I couldn't eat that much food. Robert My problem was there was so much food in the food plan that if I were paying for it, I would have, they would had to roll me out of there.
- [35:09]
Robert Niles
Best thing about math is remembering that anything multiplied by zero is still zero. So if you're getting it for free, it's a good deal. I'm really looking forward to next summer. I think they're going to have their first on site property at Silverado City. I'm looking forward to that because again, Dollywood is one of those where they do do a really nice package for you if you stay on site. So those two park hotels that they've got at Dollywood, those are very often worth it. And also the way that Dollywood is pretty remote in that valley there, it's not like Disneyland where you can just walk across the street from an offside. You're making a pretty long drive to get there and parking and having to deal with all of that. So again, everything is site specific, but in general, again, you're looking for the best deal possible. That's why a little bit of planning is so valuable when doing theme parks. Because there are no rules that apply everywhere. You really have to look at this at the specific site and the time of year that you're looking at visiting.
- [36:06]
Joe Saul-Sehy
One more question. There are these. People look at these sometimes as nickel and dime expenses, but I'm wondering if these add up or not. Things like cooling towels, lockers, sit down lunch, refillable drinks, better transportation. Any of these small purchases that you add on to your trip.
- [36:26]
Robert Niles
The first one that jumped out at me was sit down lunch. Now I'm going to endorse that one as enthusiastically as I possibly can, particularly if it is indoor, air conditioned, sit down lunch, somebody's taking care of you, that is your break. That is a really good break at the middle of the day. That's usually an elevated food experience as well. So that's going to be better nutrition, not just empty carbs. That's going to really give you the real fuel that you need to get through the rest of the day. They'll usually just bring you as much water as you want because you got to hydrate in these summer environments. So just keep chugging all that free water at your table service restaurant as you can. That's the first thing that I'm looking at. Things like cooling towels. It really depends on where you're at, like in the heat in Southern California, those can be a really good thing sometimes. In Orlando you're getting to a point where wet bulb temperatures are so high that water isn't really helping you a whole lot. And what you need is just to get out of it and get into the air conditioning. And that's why I say go with the sit down lunch. Elevated transportation, again, you know, you're just all looking at what you're doing there. In general, just whatever gets me to the park earliest is the thing that I want. If they have. If they've got some sweet transportation system, but it doesn't start running until the park opens, that doesn't really help you. What you want is something that'll get you from your hotel to the front of that park half hour or so before it opens because you can rope drop the thing and get to the best attractions early. So yeah, again, the thing that's really important to me of this is stuff that gets you comfort. And if this is something that is going to bring you comfort, then this is something well worth considering doing and paying for. If this is something that's going to bring you extra anxiety and stress, then that's something you probably want to stay away from. So really just look at that comfort versus anxiety equation. And if you think that this is going to be something that pays off for you, go for it.
- [38:15]
Joe Saul-Sehy
If only there were a place where we could keep up with the headlines, we could find a community of people that have reviewed these places that give us hints about where the planning matters and where it doesn't. I just wish there were such a site like that, Robert. That'd be dream come true.
- [38:30]
Robert Niles
You know what? We've got this thing called themeparkinsider.com which has all of this stuff, has had it for a very long time and Internet years at least. The best thing I love about it is just the community you've built. You said that word, community. I want to hit on that. This is not. This is not some tech bro who just came up with an AI site last month. This is the site that AI is pulling all of its information from created by actual people who've been to Actual parks sharing their actual experiences, ready to connect with you.
- [38:59]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I mean, it is a generally helpful, very helpful community.
- [39:02]
Robert Niles
I mean, we're fans of this stuff, but we're also very protective fans of it. We're not apologists. When something is not going right, we're going to call it out because we want to get that value, we want to have that comfort. We're here to have a good time. We're here to have our sacrifice of time and money respected with a great experience, with a world class creativity, with great storytelling, with great customer service. And when we see it, we love it, we want to protect it, we want to tell everyone about it. And when someone's fallen short, we want to call them out.
- [39:34]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Themeparkinsider.com we'll link to it as we always do in our show notes page. I get all of my information from Robert. And it's funny because I even hear you say Holiday World and I groan because you've told me that one too every year and I still have not met my cousin.
- [39:51]
Robert Niles
You went to Dollywood and you were happy you did it. So you're going to be happy when you go to Holiday World.
- [39:56]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I got to go.
- [39:56]
Robert Niles
And the best part about Holiday World is it actually has a whole water park attached to it that's included with the same admission. It's actually called Hollywood Holiday World and Splash and Safari and they've got the best collection of water coasters in the world. Now you're just shaming your swimsuit and have a great day.
- [40:10]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You're just shaming me now, Robert, you've been doing this for a long time. And I gotta wonder because you know what our goal is every year. The reason I love having you on is the goal this summer really is to create memories, right? We want to create these fantastic times that we remember for a long time. There's got to be some memory that you go back to that you remember maybe for even from early on of a theme park experience that you had. That might be a great way to wrap this up.
- [40:37]
Robert Niles
Oh, God, there's so many, so many of them. But I'll tell you what, is that one of the ones that I absolutely adore. Back when I was a kid and I actually was in Boy Scouts, my Boy Scout troop did a trip to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. They had just opened a coaster a few years ago called Loch Ness Monster.
- [40:58]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And this is another of your favorite parks, by the way.
- [41:00]
Robert Niles
Beautiful park. Beautiful park. And it goes upside down, has a loop, actually has two loops, they interlock. And I'd never been on a roller coaster that went upside down before, but the loops are over water. So I convinced myself that it's like, oh, well, if I fall out, I'll go into the water, so I'll be okay. Which is stupid 9 year old reasoning, but it worked for me. I went on. Of course I did not fall out because, you know, physics, not a class that I took at elementary school, but physics works, folks. You'll stay in the roller coaster. Had a great time. Decades later, I came with my family to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and my daughter was with me and she'd never been on an upside down roller coaster. And we went to Loch Ness Monster and she looked at it and she's like, oh, yeah, it's over water. We'll be okay. So she went on with me. So my first upside down roller coaster and her first upside roller coaster were the same coaster. And I absolutely love that experience. Experience. And we had such a great. It was a great family bonding moment. A great moment where a daughter can learn that her father's an idiot and store that information for the rest of her life and lord that over me forever. But I. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. That is a great memory to have.
- [42:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Hi, I'm Jamila Soufran. And when I'm not helping people launch to financial freedom, I'm stacking Benjamin's.
- [42:25]
Doug
Hey there, Stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And wow, I can't wait to hit the road for some roller coaster action this summer. Sounds like with a little planning, it's going to be a great year. Let's stay on theme parks for today's question. Theme parks often buy insurance to guard against bad weather, but one roller coaster in Abu Dhabi is so fast and the weather is so bad.
- [42:49]
Joe Saul-Sehy
How bad is it?
- [42:50]
Doug
Thank you. This is how I know we work well together. It's so bad you have to wear protective headgear to shield your face from desert sands. That sounds like fun. Here's the question. What brand of Formula one race car does the roller coaster have you imagine you're riding in at 149 miles an hour through the desert. I'll be back right after I go see if maybe I can cash in on this trend and give the neighborhood kids some rides in the El Camino. I mean, like, what could go wrong? Hey there, Stackers. I'm roller coaster lover and guy who you should watch out for on the bumper cars. I'm coming for Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. Ah, Theme parks. Nothing says summer fun like spending a month's worth of paychecks to try to avoid throwing up on the latest and greatest ride to hit the midway. The hotness right now is all the way over in Abu Dhabi, where a roller coaster reaches 149 miles an hour in just five seconds and requires riders to wear protective glasses against desert wind. Wins. How's that for insurance planning? I asked you what brand of Formula one race car does the fastest roller coaster on earth pretend you're riding? The coaster is called Formula Rasa. So now I'm sure you've guessed it. With an Italian name like that, it must be Ferrari. And now here comes the Ferraris of financial podcasting. Yeah, okay, Joe, let's just pump the brakes on that one a little bit. It's Joe and Og.
- [44:32]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You didn't like that one?
- [44:33]
Doug
Ferraris of financial podcasting. I don't. Formula Rosa.
- [44:38]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I didn't know for a long time until I was at Channel 7, was speaking with their meteorologist, Dave Rexroth, about the fact that theme parks buy options. OG against the weather. Like we think about people buying options against different things. Airlines buy options against fuel prices going up. Theme parks by. Against weather.
- [44:59]
Doug
I. I wouldn't know that either.
- [45:01]
Robert Niles
Yeah.
- [45:02]
OG
So do farmers.
- [45:03]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Farmers. Yeah. Futures contracts is insurance against all the things that could go wrong just to make sure that you have a better chance of not having a horrible year for whatever industry traffic.
- [45:16]
Robert Niles
Yeah.
- [45:16]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah.
- [45:16]
Robert Niles
Yep.
- [45:17]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Let's move into our headline.
- [45:19]
Robert Niles
Hello, darlings.
- [45:20]
OG
And now it's time for your favorite
- [45:22]
Robert Niles
part of the show, our stacking Benjamin's Headlines.
- [45:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Either of you guys watch the show that won the Emmy this last year, Beef on Netflix, if you guys watch the show?
- [45:31]
Doug
I haven't, but they've been pumping it quite a bit on my thumbnails. You know, Right. When I log in, I'm tempted. Is it good?
- [45:37]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, I've never watched it either, but this piece in CNBC that we'll link to in our show Notes talks about it, and I love it when things that are hot in pop culture end up teaching us a little bit about the world of money and in this case, also the world of health care. So this piece is written by Annie Nova, and Annie writes. In the new season of Netflix comedy drama Beef. Ashley, played by Kaylee Spani, lands in the hospital due to an ovarian cyst. The waiting area is bleak, with gray decor and patients who look like they've been stranded there for years. Isn't that the way you imagine? By the way, the Emergency room. Just people that have been waiting for the emergency room doctor for roughly 40 days. Ashley's partner Austin, played by Charles Melton, returns from the reception desk with some news. You've a super high deductible $5,000, Austin says. And Ashley of course says, oh, wow, we can deduct 5,000 bucks. What if it costs less? Do they give us back the difference? And Austin says, well, it's kind of the opposite. It is. It's a funny joke, OG but there are a lot of people, you know that a lot of this stuff like 401k. What's the joke? I can't run that far. Like who can run that far? Or the deductible. Like, oh, I get money back when I go to the doctor. Like these, these terms I feel like sometimes are confusing. Like, what's a Roth ira? Why they call it a Roth IRA anyway?
- [47:05]
OG
Is that literally your question?
- [47:07]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Do you know why they called a Roth ira?
- [47:10]
OG
Yeah. Don't you?
- [47:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, of course I do.
- [47:13]
OG
Well, it's here then.
- [47:13]
Doug
You're just testing us.
- [47:15]
OG
Yeah.
- [47:15]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Roth was the name. Where was he from? Connecticut. I think of the congressman who came up with it.
- [47:20]
OG
Yeah.
- [47:21]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Who proposed the rule and ended up having it in his name.
- [47:23]
Doug
His 401k is like the section of the bill. It was like how they numbered.
- [47:27]
OG
No, no, it's the senator's name was. It was a 401k, but it was spelled out. We just abbreviate it now. It's like F, O U, R, oh, O, N E. It's the part of
- [47:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
the tax code section. 401K. Yeah, yeah. Any rights. That's correct. Your deductible, by the way, if you don't know this, and I'm sure there are people listening that don't. Your deductible Z amount you actually need to pay before the health insurance coverage
- [47:55]
OG
before they kick in.
- [47:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah.
- [47:58]
OG
So this is why the juxtaposition of I need to have a high deductible health plan to get an hsa. Like I really want an hsa, but there's a trade off. The trade off is you got to be out of pocket a bunch of money before your insurance kicks in. So know what's going on in your world. Obviously can't predict if you're going to have a ovarian cyst that needs to be dealt with, but you kind of got a general sense of your health. And if you're got some health issues, you may not want to do the high deductible plan. Or if you do the high deductible plan, and this is universal now, I think in our family, 100%, you have to ask for what the cash pay is. And the downside of doing the cash pay is it doesn't count for your deductible. So, you know, I've got to do an MRI on my shoulder and it was 2,200 bucks. And I was like, hold on, I was just there a year ago for my leg. Don't you guys have a cash price? And she goes, oh, yeah, sorry, the cash price, 325. But to put it on the insurance cost, 2,200. And by the way, that's just part of my deductible, right? So it's like, what's the point? I'm saving eighteen hundred dollars by not doing it through the insurance people. But I'm not counting that 300 bucks against my deductible. So I'm still, you know, I'm still at zero, you know, for the year. But if you're not asking for cash price or cash discount even, same thing for prescription drugs. There's a prescription medication that I take. The sticker price is insane. And I just said to the doctor, I'm like, is there a better price for this? And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, probably. We found a pharmacy that'll ship it to me for 90% off what the sticker price was and that I do pay through the hsa.
- [49:39]
Joe Saul-Sehy
But we had that with the pharmacist about a year ago. The doctor actually apologized later going, oh, my God, I forgot that there was a generic. I totally forgot there was a generic that we could have gotten for.
- [49:48]
OG
Well, this is the brand. This is the name brand version. It's not even a generic for my case. But just ask, you know, like, what are they going to say? No, okay, fine.
- [49:56]
Doug
There's so many things to consider when you're figuring out what's the best health care plan. Don't forget, like, we learned on Monday that if you do choose a plan with an hsa, you can use it for auto repair. So, I mean, there's, there's a lot
- [50:08]
Joe Saul-Sehy
of different Y essay H Y.
- [50:10]
Doug
Same thing, same, same thing.
- [50:12]
OG
The why matters.
- [50:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Same, but different. And it's important that people get all that OG because that's actually the point of Annie's piece here. She writes that just 1 in 4 Gen Z adults could correctly identify the insurance term deductible. Yet everyone wants the hsa. Like, we hear the words hsa, we're like, oh, I Want that?
- [50:33]
OG
Well, I want that. Yeah, Yeah, I want the triple tax free.
- [50:36]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Bruh.
- [50:37]
OG
Like bruh.
- [50:37]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's totally cool. There is no free lunch. What's interesting though, if I take that cash plan, I can still use my HSA to pay the cash price.
- [50:48]
OG
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, in our case, I've had a HSA for a number of years, so I've got a decent balance and contribute to it every month. So there's the downside is HSA people make us have a certain amount of money in cash before it can be invested, but there's always money available, debit card that you can use. And so, yeah, you can use that for medical expenses. If you have built up the hsa. If you're just getting started, you haven't built up that HSA yet. You know, I'm not a huge fan of the like save everything till you're 65 idea. That seems like a lot of record keeping that I don't necessarily want to do. And I can't promise that it's always going to be the way it is. Probably will be. But you know, 20 years away is kind of a long ways for me. So who knows? Yeah, you know, I'm not going to play that game. It's easier just to have an auto, you know, have it auto paid. Like I mentioned, that prescription medication, it's auto paid for my hsa. I'm good.
- [51:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Done. Yeah. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Well, and there's another piece to this that I really want to get to as well while we're here, which is lately in my keynote talks, I've been talking about retirement and how, well, a lot of people solve for more. Right. And they expect me to be the guy who comes on stage and talks about more. But when we look at happy, happy for some people does mean you need to save more OG but it also means some lifestyle design. And what's frustrating is when we look at healthcare design, what happens with a high deductible plan, according to this piece, is that we end up with worse healthcare options because we decide that because I have a high deductible plan, I'm not going to go to the doctor as much. And so what ends up happening is instead of solving for healthier, we're solving for more money because we heard this is a great thing. And we end up with outcomes that aren't good at all. In fact, listen to this. Many customers may not realize with a high deductible plan they can face thousands of dollars in Healthcare costs. They didn't even know that piece. Research shows that unaffordable deductibles can also worsen health outcomes. For example, Strauss adds, among cancer patients, cancer patients, high deductible health plan coverage is associated with worse overall survival. So even if I have cancer, if I have a high deductible plan, og I'm like, oh yeah, this is, this
- [53:11]
OG
is the trade when it comes to people ask me about HSAs and investing it and that sort of thing. You need to have your max out of pocket, which is another number that's different than your deductible, by the way. So unbelievable, you know, if you're taking notes at home, deductible, coinsurance, max out of pocket per person, max out of pocket per family. All different numbers, by the way, Spaghetti. And so yeah, you got to kind of match all those. But if you're going to go that route, you need to eat that first level. And so if you're thinking about this over the long term, that first little bit, just like investing, and we talked about this, I don't know, whatever, eight, ten weeks ago, you know, people are like, oh cool, yeah, cash is kind of boring and stupid. Like, just give me to the investing part. Well, you got to have a great emergency fund before you can start investing. Otherwise you're going to blow up your investing plan when you have a short term emergency and then nobody's winning anything because your investment plan sucks and you're going to, you know, blow that up to pay for car repairs. So the person that you know the other day use their H Y essay, did it the right way. And now if you used all that, if you used up your savings, your emergency fund for your car and you're saving money in investment now what you have to do is either shift money back to your short term bucket or dollar cost average in cash to build that back up again. So as this relates to your health insurance plan, if you're going to go the high deductible route, you need to know what those numbers are. How much do I have to have out of pocket? Does my emergency fund count? You know, do I have enough lying around for that? What's my max out of pocket? What's my coinsurance number? What's my deductible number? And if you're going to build it in your hsa, that's all cash. That's all that. You got to get that first before. Because that's what you're saying, you're saying I'm going to pay this out of pocket this year in exchange for the lower premium. That's your trade. And if you're like, oh crap, that number's like 23 grand for my family. I don't have 23 grand. I don't know that you want to be picking the high deductible plan then, you know, because that's what you're promising. That's, that's what you're saying. You're saying I'm going to pay the first 20 grand or whatever the number is. Before y' all kick in anything, don't get yourself into a hurt locker because you're trying to save eight grand into an account that you think you're going to use in 40 friggin years.
- [55:24]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, this is the issue that we're all looking for the less expensive option and it's almost like the long term care scenario. Oh gee, there just isn't, you know, best is truly in the eye of your own health issues. So I think optimizing for happy and well and of course balancing out affordability
- [55:44]
OG
and, and I would, I would also submit to the court that it's not even a universally similar answer year to year within the same family.
- [55:52]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, good point.
- [55:53]
OG
You know, I mean, like, I'll give you a perfect example for us. In the years where Alyssa was pregnant, we changed our health insurance plan because we're like, we know we're fixing to write a big check for all that stuff and births under best scenarios are expensive and if you have any sort of complications then it's, you know, it explodes astronomically in terms of cost. We're like, yeah, we'll pay the higher premium this year so that we don't have that giant out of pocket. So I think it changes based on, you know, what's going on in your world. You know, if you're, you need a knee replacement and you're going to do it in February and your health insurance renewal is in October, I think you should do some research on how much does knee replacements cost and they're both plans and pick the right plan for that particular situation that's going to happen.
- [56:40]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We had the same thing happen when our, when our kids were born. We switched from PPO to HMO because of the pregnancy coming up and the HMO was going to actually cover more of it. This is an area that obviously today we wanted to introduce people to. We have a newsletter called the 201 where we dive into topics such as this. We also have a YouTube channel where we dive more into topics around your health and your money. So subscribe to those as well. All right, we're going to wander out briefly on the back porch because we're going to shine the light today. Doug, on one very specific stacker. Stacker. Marsha has a family that is a theme park in itself. It appears that her teenager is.
- [57:27]
Doug
Well, yeah, fun kid. Yeah. And what I liked about this post was that Marsha showed some self restraint that I have yet to learn because this was a Christmas gift she gave her then 17 year old in 2012. And just now, 14 years later, is she willing to share with the world that this Christmas gift was a a bank picture? Like a round plastic piece about the diameter of a, I don't know, a 2 liter bottle of soda or something. And it's white and you can write on it with a dry erase marker.
- [58:02]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Like a vision board.
- [58:04]
Doug
A little bit like a vision board. And then the, the cylinder has three different receptacles where you could put money. It's a bank where you could. Where a kid could save. So her then 17 year old decides what his focuses are, what his priorities are for saving. Which I thought, you know, that's great. What a great way to teach kids about mean. 17's a little late, but better late than never, right? Goal oriented. Help. Help the young man think about what are the three most important things he should be saving for. And so Marsha's son decides to take that dry erase marker. I'm sure he put a lot of thought into this. Probably they did a little bit of a planning session maybe with mom and dad. And what does he write there? Section 1 Drugs Section 2 Booze Section 3 she was such a proud mom.
- [58:59]
Joe Saul-Sehy
So bad we can't even put it on the show. So funny.
- [59:02]
Doug
So great. What a great post. In the basement. Thanks Marcia.
- [59:06]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yes, and based on the fact that she's sharing, that also sounds like kid has a bright future in entertainment. Thanks not only to Marcia, thanks to everybody for hanging out with us today. If you know somebody who is headed to the theme park with the family, you want to hand them this episode. Because I think Robert always has such a great primer on what to see and what not to see. As we look around the United States and at the end of every episode we asked Doug, Doug, what are the three things we should learn from today's show?
- [59:39]
Doug
First, take some advice from Robert Niles. Start with your plan and then work backward. Can we save money on this? Are there better days of the week to go? What does the theme park insider community think a Little research can yield better spent Benjamins. Second, the deductible on your healthcare. Second, sadly not deductible to you, only to the healthcare world. But the big lesson, don't tell Joe's mom, Robert Niles is visiting again. She'll ask the question, does that mean we're headed to Cedar Point? Hey, Ma, remember the last time we took OG to Cedar Point? Yeah, that wasn't good for anybody, including that one poor worker. Thanks to Robert Niles for joining us today. Learn more about saving at theme parks and spending wisely@themeparkinsider.com we'll also include links in our show notes@stackingbenjamins.com this show is the property of SB Podcast, LLC, Copyright 2026 and is created by Joe Salsihai. You'll find out about our awesome team@stackingbenjamins.com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. And oh yeah, before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don't take advice from people you don't know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And we'll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.
- [61:43]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Foreign. Welcome to the after show. If you're new here, this is the part of the show that doesn't exist. By the way, as an introduction to the after show, welcome to the Overlords at our new home. We are now part of Gamut Media. We were at Westwood 1, Cumulus, and a few weeks ago, we made the. We made the move to Hubbard Radio and Gamut. Thanks to them, it's been very smooth sailing. But here's what's funny. You could tell the engineer over there, huge Stacking Benjamin's fan. When I played maybe the second episode that we had, it had an after show. And he wrote to us the very next day going, hey, I just want to flag this for you. There's like a minute of silence in the middle of your show.
- [62:58]
Doug
You got to get rid of this crap.
- [63:00]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yes. And Tina from our team writes him back and goes, welcome to Stacking Benjamin's.
- [63:04]
OG
Welcome to the party, pal.
- [63:05]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yes, we put one minute of silence in our show on purpose. We're the one show that does the
- [63:11]
Doug
kind of kooky we are.
- [63:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Hey, a friend of mine saw this online about how expensive it is to take your family to a baseball game, and this happens to be in Detroit, right? Comerica Park.
- [63:24]
Doug
Not even one of the more expensive parks.
- [63:27]
Joe Saul-Sehy
No, listen to this. Takes a family of four to the park. Three Pepsis, $2 each, six bucks. I know
- [63:43]
OG
what we're complaining about so far. Let's get to the expensive stuff.
- [63:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. No, four hot dogs, $7 each. Okay, 28 bucks. One cotton candy. Cotton candy. How much you think cotton candy costs at the park?
- [63:57]
OG
Oh, obviously. $4.
- [63:59]
Joe Saul-Sehy
$9 for a cotton candy. 17 Coors Lights, 12.99 each.
- [64:09]
OG
That, there's that one.
- [64:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Taking a family forward to the park is super expensive. Getting pricey for the family, of course. Guy at the ballpark with his. With his kids. Just getting. Getting fortified.
- [64:22]
OG
I took Alex out for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. I was down near College Station, and so I had some stuff to do there. And then I drove over to College Station and we had prearranged this. Obviously. I said, hey, it's your birthday kind of in town. I was about an hour away. So let me take you out to dinner. So we go to a nice steakhouse. We're like the blue hair special. Which means different things, by the way, to people today than it does to our generation. So sometimes people think blue hair and they think, like, it's a political statement of some kind. I think blue hair. And I think, like, old people, right? Like, that's the phrase that it means to me. But anyway, so we got the blue hair special, and he's like. And Alex is like, I don't think we have got a lot of that at College Station. I was like, okay, never mind. It's fine. I was like, see, all the old people were with them, you know, because we got to, like, the five o' clock reservation on us.
- [65:17]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We don't have a lot of old
- [65:17]
Robert Niles
people in College Station at the steakhouse.
- [65:20]
OG
But, you know, it's full of college kids, right? Like, all the servers are college kids. The busboy is a college kid. The hostess stand is full of college age kids and very friendly. And at the end of the dinner, I said to Alex, I said, hey, you should try to get her number. And he's like, come on, Dad. I was like, shoot your shot, man. You know, like trying to pump my kid up. And he's like, nah, it's not my thing. And I said, kind of my thing. And so I decided that it would be a great idea to pretend that I got this gal's phone number. So I take. So I take the receipt and I write in like, thanks, honey, and like, bubble letters as Best as I can with a smiley face. And I write a phone number on there. And then I text it to my wife. My kid's like, what are you doing?
- [66:16]
Doug
Oh, my God, this is gonna be awesome.
- [66:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And so I text the most non awesome way ever.
- [66:21]
OG
So I text the picture. Alex is like, stop, dude. Like, this is just gonna cause chaos for no reason. I'm like, pull the pin. Like, grenade out.
- [66:31]
Robert Niles
Here we go.
- [66:32]
Doug
OG Likes doing better than pulling the pin.
- [66:35]
OG
Pull the pin up the grenade in the. In the fight knoll. And so I just write. I take a picture of it and
- [66:41]
Robert Niles
I write, still got it.
- [66:44]
OG
That's what I send. And I'm thinking, like, this can go in any way, any direction, right? Like, it could be unbelievable rage quitting. Like, I don't know what's going to
- [66:53]
Doug
happen, but I'm here for it.
- [66:55]
OG
Let me read to you the reply. So I send.
- [66:58]
Robert Niles
Still got it.
- [66:59]
OG
With a smiley face and a phone number on a receipt. And my wife, God bless her, goes, wow, that's bold. Was she cute? Well, this went a different direction.
- [67:14]
Doug
Okay, now I know where the guardrails are.
- [67:18]
OG
All right. Okay. All right. So
- [67:22]
Joe Saul-Sehy
that's when you know how many years you've been married.
- [67:24]
OG
Right there, Pretty much, yeah. Where she's like, oh, good job. Attaboy. And then she writes, caroline wants to know if she was young. And so I.
- [67:40]
Joe Saul-Sehy
How far over 80 was she? OG so I call.
- [67:44]
OG
So I call right away, because I'm thinking that answer was so not what I expected that I gotta double check, right? Like, this is like the weird doghouse. Weird. Weird one. But anyway, so they're in the car,
- [67:58]
Doug
and Caroline's like, psychology on you.
- [68:00]
OG
Actually, my daughter was more mad than anything. My daughter's like, why are you getting girls phone numbers?
- [68:05]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Good for Caroline.
- [68:06]
OG
She's taking care of Mom. And I said, ah, it was a joke. She goes. And Lissa goes, yeah, I know. I was like, what? What do you mean? And she's like, you can think of any number better than a Dallas area code number to use. And I was like, well, maybe she lived in Dallas. And she's like, okay, whatever. I'm like, you could have kept it going. Like, you kind of pumped me up there for just a brief moment where I was like, okay, you know, like, this is kind of fun. And she's like, I could dream. She's like, nice try, but she knows
- [68:40]
Doug
you have so little game that that was never going to happen.
- [68:45]
OG
I thought maybe she thought for a second, but I guess not. Anyways, I did not get the waitress's phone number at the steakhouse in College Station.
- [68:53]
Doug
Yeah, we all.
- [68:55]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I do love Doug, though. I do love his moxie and the fact that he's like, no, I'm gonna go for it. There's a. I got these coasters recently that all have pretty fun phrases on them. And one says, exactly. I got this for OG for next time he comes over. It said, you know what? I think I've graduated past the age where you think about stuff before you say it. Now I just kind of go, let's see where this goes.
- [69:20]
Doug
Yeah, what's the worst that could happen?
- [69:21]
OG
Yeah, that was exactly it. You know, I really wanted Alex to do it, but then, of course, I wasn't going to. That would be totally weird. But then I, like, in my brain, I just kind of went through this whole thing of like, how can I use this? And it was like, mess with the wife.
- [69:36]
Doug
You know, our version of that in our family is the. You know, the fin turn had a stretch from, like, late grade school through middle school where the kid had no filters whatsoever. And one wonder where he gets that from. I know, right? And one. One Sunday afternoon and my wife's out of town. But one Sunday afternoon at like, 4:30, he announces, oh, I have a Spanish project due tomorrow. And one of the things that we can do is go to a Mexican restaurant and get, you know, film ourselves ordering in Spanish and having a conversation. Spanish. I'm like, all right. Well, of all the options, you know, there was like a diorama he could have built or write a report, whatever. But that was the easiest one because then I sold it for you, Taco. More food for me.
- [70:33]
Robert Niles
Exactly.
- [70:35]
Doug
So we drive all the way down to Mexican Village in Detroit.
- [70:37]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Wonderful food.
- [70:39]
Doug
Yeah. Like, we're going to make the best out of this. So we kind of COVID the assignment. But then my other son plays the odds game. Do you know odds? It's basically truth or dare, but odds are, hey, odds. You do this really stupid thing. I won't explain the whole game to you, but the fintern takes the bet. And the bet was, mind you, my son's in eighth grade and he has to ask the waitress out on a date. And the waitress is like, 28 or 30, she was pretty cute. And he struggles to ask this girl out on a date in Spanish. Got the whole thing on film. And she burst out laughing so hard like, okay, that's a little much. We can back that down a little bit. This kid's 8th grade just got destroyed by a 30 year old destroyed this kid. She's howling.