My first membership, was at Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida. The gardens were a gift to the city from the Harry Leu, a successful local business person who traveled the world, collected plants, and created elaborate gardens and native natural gardens on 50 acres on a small lake on the border between Orlando and Winter Park. I grew to love an hour walk in the gardens, and the annual membership easily paid for itself.
The last few years that I live in Orlando, I started buying annual passes to Disney parks. As I recall it was around $200 year, and included unlimited admission to all of the parks and parking. My middle brother worked at Disney, and he could get take me as his guest (and did many times) but this was different. I could go alone. Anytime the mood struck me. I went out several times, had lunch, watched the crowd, rode the train around the Magic Kingdom and went home. By the time we left Orlando, I was rather burned out, escaping to Disney for a couple of hours was a way of recharging on a day off.
When we lived in Kentucky, we maintained a membership at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. It was a 30-40 minute drive out there, so we probably went 6 times a year. The membership was a nice way of supporting the preservation efforts, and a good value for anyone who attended more than a couple of times a year.
Since I moved here to the DC area, I have maintained a membership at Mt. Vernon. Mt. Vernon was George Washington's estate. It is about 8 miles south of where we live. I enjoy a nice walk in the gardens there. I can take a friend, let me know if you are in the area.
Do you maintain memberships in local attractions?
I have a membership at Bioparc Fuengirola. They're not very clever with incentives. San Diego Zoo would send us a renewal option for an upgrade after 4 (or maybe 6) months. It added an entire year at a partial prize and each upgrade included tremendous incentives. We started at a family membership and were very quickly up to Presidential or something like that. Very clever marketing.
ReplyDeleteMt Vernon is good at renewals and asking for more-more-more
DeleteI will occasionally buy an annual pass to an art gallery or museum but I rarely get my money's worth out of them.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to support the arts
DeleteYes, I have memberships in three local museums and the Desert Botanical Garden. The garden membership gets used the most because I tend to go at least once a week. I even maintain a membership to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. They do a lot of online exhibit tours that I enjoy seeing.
ReplyDeleteSo many fun things to see and enjoy
DeleteIn England many older people join "The National Trust" or "English Heritage" to access hundreds of historic sites, gardens etc. without charge. However, I am not one of them. For some reason, I am not into joining organisations.
ReplyDeleteI see this more as buying a benefits package than a membership.
DeleteWe do at Bok Gardens which is just a few miles from us. Always with a vow of walking there more - which we rarely do - but we meet friends every few weeks there for lunch. They've also a good concert and lecture series we take advantage of about half as often as we should. Been to Leu Gardens - it is still lovely. Was a member of the St Pete Museum of Fine Arts when we lived in Tampa Bay. Doesn't take too many visits to make that worth the money.
ReplyDeleteI have been to Bok, the last time back in the early 1980's.
DeleteI have a membership to Longwood Gardens, and the Philly Art Museum currently and that's it for now.
ReplyDeleteI can't think there any memberships here. Maybe the Pearl.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on, and stay safe.
No memberships. I can't think of anything local that offers them or I would want to be a member of.
ReplyDeleteSassybear
https://idleeyesandadormy.com/
I suppose if I had a membership to something I would go more often. Only one I have is the car wash.
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