Posted by ThemeParkMom on March 11, 2010 | No Comments
Adventure Island opens for the season later this week, and the Tampa water park is offering two new ticket deals this year:
The Adventure Island Weekday Pass allows you to pay for a day at the park and come back on weekdays for the rest of the season. You can buy this pass online for $41.95 for both children and adults.
The weekday pass is obviously a great deal for local residents who want to visit several times during the season. But it’s also a good deal if you are vacationing in Tampa and think you will want to go to Adventure Island more than once.
If you live in Florida, the water park is also offering an Online Exclusive Florida Resident Offer, which gives you a free ticket to Adventure Island if you buy a ticket to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. This ticket costs $74.95, and you must buy it online before you get to the park. Choose this deal if you are a Florida resident and you just plan to visit each of these Tampa parks once this year.
Adventure Island opens March 13-14 for a preview weekend and will be open for the season from March 22 through Sept. 6.
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Posted by ThemeParkMom on March 11, 2010 | No Comments
I know, I know. I can’t stop talking about the webOS operating system on the Verizon Palm Pre Plus smartphone. But it’s just so different than the other cell phones and mobile devices I have used before.
In the broadest sense, I would say that my old smartphone was compartmentalized, while this new one is integrated. Everything on the Palm Pre seems to work together. This is particularly impressive (and useful!) for moms in two areas:
Integrated search. I can slide open the keyboard on my Verizon Palm Pre Plus and just start typing. I don’t have to have the address book or the Internet open at all. If I type “Stefanie,” she is found in my address book and my Facebook account. I can e-mail, call, send her a Facebook message or text her right from the same screen. If I type something that’s not in my address book, say “Six Flags,” I am presented with the choice to search for that phrase on Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia or Twitter.
This feature is such a time saver for me! I will admit that I simply don’t have room in my brain to have a bunch of phone numbers memorized, so I am constantly looking up my contacts. On many phones I have used, it seems like you have to go through three to five different screens just to look up a number and place a call. The simplicity of this is beautiful.
Also beautiful? The calendar on the Verizon Palm Pre Plus. Once again, the word of the day is “integrated” kids. I am a Google calendar fanatic. I keep my work calendar, family calendar, and editorial calendars for my blogging all separately on Google. With one step (one step!) I gave the Palm Pre my Google sign-in and password and voila! all those calendars are integrated on my phone. I can easily add to them and edit them directly from the calendar feature on the Verizon Palm Pre Plus.
And that group Yahoo! calendar that I have to monitor separately on my laptop? It’s integrated here, too. In fact, I have pretty much stopped working with these calendars on my laptop and use them exclusively on my phone, because it is actually easier there.
I don’t know about you, but for me, there will never be enough time in my day. Give me a device that’s going to save me a few seconds here and there, and it’s worth a mint to me. I am finding the Verizon Palm Pre Plus to be a major time saver.
Disclosure notice: Verizon paid for my Palm Pre Plus and is paying for one month of my service in exchange for me trying the phone and posting about my experiences on my blog. I’m still thinking for myself, though, and you can count on me to provide my honest opinion of this product.
Posted by ThemeParkMom on March 9, 2010 | 1 Comment
Here’s a theme park concert to respect: Aretha Franklin is singing this weekend at Universal Studios Orlando.
The Queen of Soul performs March 13 as part of Universal Orlando’s Mardi Gras celebration, which runs Saturdays through April 17. Mardi Gras means Cajun cuisine, authentic New Orleans music, concerts, and, of course, a parade with plenty of bead throwing.
The Mardi Gras parade starts at 8 p.m. Saturday night, and Aretha’s concert will begin at 8:30 p.m.
The concert lineup for the rest of the Mardi Gras season includes:
- March 20: Miranda Lambert
- March 27: 3 Doors Down
- April 3: Beach Boys
- April 9: Sheryl Crow
- April 10: Flo Rida
- April 17: Chicago
Universal is running a special hotel package in conjunction with Mardi Gras this spring: Book 3 nights and get 2 more free. You can still book this package online through the end of March.
Posted by ThemeParkMom on March 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
You can now book a room at the brand-new Coco Key Water Resort in Orlando, which opens April 15.
The resort has 386 rooms and is built for families, with dozens of options such as two-bedroom suites and rooms that connect side-to-side or back-to-back. Larger families that book adjoining rooms will get a $30 price break over the cost of two individual rooms.
And then there’s the water park! CoCo Key Water Resort will have 8 water slides, children’s play areas, a teen area and a quiet pool zone, all under a canopy.
There’s also a full-service restaurant, food court and grab and go market on the property, so plenty of options for eating.
Here’s how the pricing works: You book your hotel rooms (rates range from $99 to $149 per night), and then pay an additional $19 per day, per room resort fee, which covers unlimited access to the water park for up to four people, as well as your in-room Internet and other children’s activities at the hotel.
This new hotel and water park is centrally located on International Drive in Orlando. Coco Key will offer free transportation to and from Universal Studios Orlando, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica and Wet n’ Wild. It’s about a 20-minute drive away from Walt Disney World.
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