Vacation Tourist traps and deals.

• thavoice

  Went on like a 10 day vacation recently and saw some places with great deals and others were just plain tourist traps.
  
  1. Opryland Hotel. Went to just look around inside for a couple of hours. They had a sign for parking $18, and we drove to ask the guy directing traffic (in his suit and tie) if there is a place to park for free so we could go in and eat. He mentioned they will validate parking, or we could park in the non-posted free parking lott about 50 yards from the paid parking! Of course it was not marked at all.
  Inside was cool to walk around and check things out.
  
  2. Mobile Alabama. Toured the USS Alabama, a sub and saw quite a few planes in the hanger. Wasnt too badly priced inside for what ya got to see. I have toured a few ships before but this also had a sub and other planes to look at. Not too bad considering they receive no funds from the govt.
  
  3. Panama City Beach Florida. Pretty much a ripoff every place you go.
  
  4. Lookout Mountain in Chat. Tennessee. Wow. If there was ever a tourist trap! Man oh man was that horrid. I was waiting for them to charge for taking a piss. About the only affordable thing was the Military Park or whatever. 3 bucks to tour the park for adults. It waas very interesting.
  
  5. Cumberland Falls. That was the best deal of them all. Free, unless you wanted to ride the boats and such and that wasnt too bad actually to pay for that. They had the Moonbow...a rainbow due to teh falls at night on a full moon..which was pretty cool.
  
  
  Where have you gone that were great deals, and some that were just ttourist traps?
• 4cards

  

  ..# 1 rip off
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  to arrive at
  
  
• SnotBubbles

  

  ^^^
  I don't understand what you're trying to say there....
• se-alum

  

  Pretty much any Ripley's Aquarium. Went to the one at Broadway at the Beach, because my bro and I wanted to see the "Shark Exhibit". Waited in line for about 40 minutes, when we got into the exhibit, it was a small room w/ a couple small aquariums, and some random shark facts on the walls.
• Ironman92

  

  ^^^^^score
• thavoice

  There was a ripleys believe it or not in Panama beach..didnt go in tho..figured it would be pricey and pointles
• Ironman92

  

  Yep.....anything decent is usually displayed on the outside
• swamisez

  

  Second Pedro's
  
  Check the Sombrero Space Needle
  
  
• WebFire

  We went to Legoland in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Very disappointed.
• adog

  WebFire;833498 wrote:We went to Legoland in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Very disappointed.

  
  Really?...I have some family going to Chicago in 2 weeks and they were taking their kids (6 - 10 yo's) to legoland......bad choice?
• said_aouita

  

  I'm sure all the people who travel to these tourist traps also like A1 sauce.
  
  
  Wisconsin Dells. [Insert dueling banjos]
• WebFire

  adog;833500 wrote:Really?...I have some family going to Chicago in 2 weeks and they were taking their kids (6 - 10 yo's) to legoland......bad choice?

  
  I guess it depends on your expectations. Their brochure and website make it seem a lot bigger than it is. We talked to some people who had been to the one in CA, and they raved about it. But that must have been a mega one or something. They said they could have spent 2 days there, but we were done in 2 1/2 hours, when we had planned on being there a good portion of the day.
  
  Some of the stuff we thought was going to be cool was an absolute joke.
• gorocks99

  

  said_aouita;833504 wrote:Wisconsin Dells. [Insert dueling banjos]

  
  Winner winner, chicken dinner. That whole place is a tourist trap (Tommy Bartlett's robot show anyone?).
• superman

  Nike Town in Chicago was way disappointing.
• 1_beast

  

  se-alum;833296 wrote:Pretty much any Ripley's Aquarium. Went to the one at Broadway at the Beach, because my and I wanted to see the "Shark Exhibit". Waited in line for about 40 minutes, when we got into the exhibit, it was a small room w/ a couple small aquariums, and some random shark facts on the walls.

  
  THIS...
  
  And the Mermaid show was just as bad...my 8 year old can hold his breath underwater longer than the bimbo in the fishtail. Show lasted about 5 minutes.....
• I Wear Pants

  Do you guys not look stuff up before you go to it or what?
• sonofsam

  

  Went to the Anheusher-Busch in Virginia... Was very disappointed they did not let me swim in the beer vat naked drinking as much as I could for 3 minutes... Absolute tourist trap.
• se-alum

  

  I Wear Pants;833608 wrote:Do you guys not look stuff up before you go to it or what?

  
  For us, the aquarium was just a last minute decision. The kids had a good enough time, so it wasn't a total loss, but nothing I would do again.
• se-alum

  

  Has anyone been to any of the Wonderworks attractions?? I have a feeling they are similar in disappointment w/ the aquarium.
• 1_beast

  

  We walked up to wonderworks...but after thinking it would be a generic COSI...i was able to get the family to walk away!!!
• WebFire

  I Wear Pants;833608 wrote:Do you guys not look stuff up before you go to it or what?

  
  Yes. That's why we were disappointed.
• THE4RINGZ

  

  I stayed at Rosen Shingle Creek Resort last week for a sales conference. $6.50 for a 12 ounce can of beer, $14.50 for a hamburger. Outrageous.
• se-alum

  

  1_beast;833760 wrote:We walked up to wonderworks...but after thinking it would be a generic COSI...i was able to get the family to walk away!!!

  
  My bro and I ditched the kids so we could look into it, ended up telling them it was a museum they wouldn't be interested in...lol.
• Laley23

  

  superman;833587 wrote:Nike Town in Chicago was way disappointing.

  
  I mean....its a clothing/sporting goods store. What was the expectation?
• Laley23

  

  WebFire;833538 wrote:I guess it depends on your expectations. Their brochure and website make it seem a lot bigger than it is. We talked to some people who had been to the one in CA, and they raved about it. But that must have been a mega one or something. They said they could have spent 2 days there, but we were done in 2 1/2 hours, when we had planned on being there a good portion of the day.
  
  Some of the stuff we thought was going to be cool was an absolute joke.

  
  California one is pretty damn big, and cool. Never been to others, but if you were done in 2.5 hours, it has to be about 1/10 the size of the CA one. CA has like 8 sections and a water park with 5 rides or so and 3 roller coasters.
  
  I thought there were only 4 or 5 LegoLands in the world though, and CA is the only one in the USA. So Chicago must be a spin-off or a smaller sister park (which would make sense for the disappointment) because CA is awesome.