Family, travel, mom blog | Theme Park Mom (Leigh Caldwell)

One of my favorite preschoolers and I attended a preview event at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this morning, where they promised us a big announcement.

And it was big – for Florida parents of kids ages 5 and under: FREE admission.

To celebrate the opening of the Sesame Street Safari of Fun at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this spring, the Tampa theme park is offering free admission for kids ages 5 and under for the rest of 2010!

Here’s how you can get in on the deal:

• Your child must be a Florida resident.
• The child must be 5 years old or younger when you register for the pass. If the child turns 6 during the year, he or she is still eligible for admission, as long as the registration was completed before his or her sixth birthday
• You must register online in advance; these free passes will not be issued at the park gate.
• Go to SesameStreetSafariofFun.com to register your child and print the e-Ticket.
• Bring the e-Ticket and a birth certificate or passport to Busch Gardens, and your preschooler gets in free through Dec. 31, 2010!

The Sesame Street Safari of Fun is a new children’s area that opens March 27. It will feature Sesame Street-themed rides, splash play areas and a brand-new junior roller coaster, Air Grover. Kids can see their favorite Sesame Street characters in a stage show at the Sunny Day Theater, get their picture made in a new character greeting area and dine with Elmo and his friends at character breakfasts and lunches.

I’ll have a sneak peek at the character dining options coming up tomorrow here on ThemeParkMom.com.

Wild Adventures Water and Theme Park in Valdosta, Ga., will open for the season on March 6. Passholder previews are set for March 4 and 5.

Here’s what’s new this year at Wild Adventures:

• Whirling Wildcats – A spinning thrill ride
• Viking Voyage – A 5-story family rollercoaster
• Falcon Flyers – A “flying scooter” ride

In addition to the new rides, The Cheetah, the park’s wooden rollercoaster, has undergone a $1 million refurbishment. Park officials promise they have made The Cheetah a smoother ride without sacrificing the wooden coaster’s chills and thrills.

Wild Adventures is also confirming part of its concert lineup for the season:

• March 13: Lynyrd Skynyrd
• March 20: George Thorogood and Los Lonely Boys
• April 10: Jeremy Camp
• April 17: REO Speedwagon & Styx
• April 24: Josh Turner
• May 8: Wynonna
• May 15: Chicago
• May 29: David Crowder Band
• June 12: Steven Curtis Chapman
• June 19: Tye Tribbett and Kirk Franklin
• June 26: Rodney Atkins
• Sept. 25: Third Day
• Oct. 2: Vince Neil

Concerts are free with park admission. There are reserved seats available for an additional $10.

You can buy a season pass for $59.99, an upgraded “gold pass” that includes free parking is $79.99. Parking costs $8, so if you plan to visit Wild Adventures three times or more this season, the gold pass makes sense for at least one person in your party.

General admission is $45.99. Kids (ages 3-9) and seniors (55 and older) are $40.99. A general admission ticket is good for two consecutive days. If you plan to visit on at least two non-consecutive days during the season, buy the season pass to save money.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am dependent on my phone. I have been an admitted Crackberry addict for years now. And until a couple of months ago, I figured I would continue just upgrading to the latest Blackberry every year or so.

I love my Blackberries. They are workhorses, and they are intuitive. But they are not the slickest when it comes to social media apps, and I have been less than thrilled with Blackberry’s cameras.

As many of my friends adopted iPhones, I resisted. I type quite a bit on my mobile device, and I am just not comfortable doing that on a touch screen.

Then Verizon Wireless started offering the Palm Pre Plus, and the desire to ditch my Blackberry finally kicked in.

Verizon Wireless has recruited me to be one of a team of bloggers reviewing the Palm Pre Plus. I got the new phone this week, and for the next several weeks I will be writing about my experiences with it.

So here’s a bit about me that might explain my need for a mobile device that’s a workhorse. I’m sure many of you moms out there have the same kind of schedule I do:

• I work full-time as the vice president of an energy company.
• I work part-time as a freelance travel writer.
• My husband and I do social media consulting.
• I travel for all of these businesses, a total of 10-15 days out of every month.
• My most important job is as a mom to my 6-year-old daughter, who has school assignments and youth sports activities to keep up with.
• I need to run my household, and I place a high priority on feeding everyone food cooked from scratch as often as possible.
• I am Twitter-addicted.
• I have a large extended family and a network of friends I keep in touch with through phone conversations and text messages.

When I went to the store to pick up my Palm Pre Plus, I was immediately impressed by the looks of this device. It’s sleek and it’s thin. I like to keep my phone in my front pocket, and this one fits great. In addition, it has a really nice feel to it. The rounded edges make it fit well in one hand.

I slid the screen up to try out the keyboard. The keys are a decent size, and I knew I would be comfortable typing on them. Then I tried the keys. Whoa! They have a nice clicky feel when you press them. It makes you very confident that you are hitting the right keys when typing quickly.

But how in the world do I do anything on this phone? The Verizon Wireless salesman had me go through the Palm Pre Plus setup, which showed me the “gestures” used to open and close applications and perform other functions.

I am intimidated. Will I be able to master this thing?

I’m going to take a deep breath and use it for a few days and see. I will report back with how I am doing.

The entire experience of getting the phone at Verizon Wireless was great. My only problem was the withdrawal I experienced between the time when my salesman, Juan, took my Blackberry to transfer the numbers and when he handed me the new Palm Pre Plus fully activated. This was probably a total of 7 minutes See how much of a mobile device addict I am?

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.

One of the biggest questions in the theme park world right now is “When will the Wizarding World of Harry Potter open?”

We still don’t know the answer to that question, but a new vacation package offer released today confirms that it will be before Memorial Day weekend.

That’s because the 4-night Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Package can be booked for stays starting May 28.

The package includes a hotel stay at one of Universal’s on-site hotels, 3-day tickets to Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure, early admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter before the park opens to guests for the day, a commemorative ticket for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a “traditional British breakfast” at the new Three Broomsticks restaurants.

Pricing starts at $648 per adult/$130 per child. That adds up to $1,548 for a family of four. Off-site hotels are also available at a substantial savings – $285 per adult/$130 per child. However, staying off-site means a lesser hotel and a loss of a great benefit – the ability to skip the lines at many of Universal Orlando’s attractions.

Universal officials are quick to say that the May 28th start for this package does not represent the opening date for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The official opening date remains “Spring 2010.”

So what I read into this is that it will open sometime before May 28. I continue to receive questions from readers about whether the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be open during the spring-break season. My best answer at this point is don’t count on it. Look for an opening sometime in May.

If you’re thinking about combining a Wizarding World of Harry Potter trip with a visit to Walt Disney World this summer, I highly recommend using a travel agent who specializes in travel to these resorts. The Magic Makers at Enchanted Destinations can book this Harry Potter vacation package and Walt Disney World resort packages, and help you work out all the logistics of your Orlando trip.