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

The Bamboozle Roadshow, with headliners Good Charlotte, Boys Like Girls, All Time Low and Hanson, is headed to Texas this weekend. The show will stop at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington on Saturday, May 29, and Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio on Sunday, May 30.

The music will last all day on two stages and includes many more acts. Tickets are $15 plus park admission. Discounted admission is available if you buy in advance online, so check out the links to the two park’s Web sites above and get them before you get to the gate.

While you are at the Bamboozle Roadshow, be sure to look for this tent:

That’s the Coke “Swelter Stopper” tent, and it’s going to be a cool respite from the Memorial Day weekend heat at the theme parks.

Inside, you can chill out with ice-cold Coca-Cola and a DJ.

Now, that DJ is key, because throughout the day, concertgoers can win Bamboozle Roadshow meet-and-greet passes by answering random questions the DJ asks. The questions will be based on the info provided by Coca-Cola below, so study it now so that you can win:

Many of the factors that make a summer concert so awesome – the warm weather, bright sun and dancing – can take a lot out of someone. Enter “Swelter Stopper” – one of Coke’s secret ingredients that, when combined with the others, make Coke the uplifting refreshment that it is.

To help concert goers make it from the opening to closing acts, Coke will have the “Swelter Stopper” experience stocked with ice-cold Coca-Cola.  Get refreshed with blasts of frosty air, snow falling, and a delicious Coke from the perfect serve sampling bar, along with uplifting interactive games, a DJ and a photo station.  Once their “Swelter Stopper” experience ends, they’ll be ready for crowd surfing at the main stage.

To give you a better idea about what it’s like inside, you can check out some of the images taken from previous events: http://www.flickr.com/photos/coca-cola/

For more details about Coca-Cola’s Secret Ingredient Formula, please go here: www.MyCoke.com

And TODAY, you can win tickets to the Bamboozle Roadshow right here! Coca-Cola is giving away a pair of tickets to the concert at either Six Flags Over Texas (on Saturday) or Six Flags Fiesta Texas (on Sunday) – your choice!

To enter, just leave a comment below, telling me which act you most want to see at the Bamboozle Roadshow. But hurry! Entries will close at 11:59 p.m. Eastern tonight!

Because the concert is happening this weekend, I will be notifying the winner overnight tonight, and you will have to get back to me by noon Eastern on Friday, May 28 to win.

Disclosure notice: This prize was provided by The Coca-Cola Company.  The Coca-Cola Company is not a sponsor, administrator or connected in any other way with this giveaway.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Comment No. 8 was the winning number, according to Random.org. So, Stephanie Shaffer will be going to see Good Charlotte and all the other bands this weekend!

A great friend and former colleague of mine will tell you with complete certainty: San Antonio, Texas, is the most romantic city in the world. He and his wife (who are empty nesters) love to fly there for the weekend to stroll the San Antonio River Walk.

But if you have kids, you’re probably more interested in family entertainment than in romantic strolls. Fortunately, San Antonio delivers family fun in spades, too.

The San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau has teamed up with local businesses to form the San Antonio Vacation Experience or SAVE. What does SAVE do? Save you money, of course!

Register online with SAVE to get special discount offers from hotels and attractions, as well as updates on all of the happenings around town. Or you can sign up to receive a SAVE brochure and some money-saving coupons.

So, what would my ideal family weekend in San Antonio be like? I would visit all the great theme parks there, of course!

Six Flags Fiesta Texas has Wiggles World for the little ones, plenty of family rides for everyone and Poltergeist and Scream for the real thrillseekers in your family.

SeaWorld San Antonio is known for its animal interaction and family favorite Shamu. But this theme park also provides plenty of thrills with coasters like the Great White and Steel Eel. And be sure to ride the Shamu Express, a junior coaster the whole family can enjoy.

I would definitely pack the family’s swimsuits for our San Antonio weekend, because San Antonio has plenty of water slides and splash playgrounds, too. At Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, there are 40 water rides, including three uphill water coasters. There are seven — that’s right, I said seven — children’s water playgrounds, too.

And those swimsuits would also come in handy at Splashtown San Antonio. Splashtown has more than 50 rides and attractions, and its located just north of downtown.

Wouldn’t you have a fun weekend exploring all those parks? Well, guess what? You can. I have teamed up with SAVE to be a part of their San Antonio SAVE Summer Sweepstakes. One lucky Theme Park Mom reader is going to win a fun family weekend in Texas, with passes for four to ALL of the theme parks and water parks mentioned above, as well as a 2-night stay at the Historic Menger Hotel.

The Menger Hotel was built in 1859. No wonder it has “Historic” in its name. This elegant place is right next to the Alamo, and it has hosted many famous guests including President Theodore Roosevelt, Babe Ruth and Mae West.

Here’s how to enter:

• Just leave a comment on this post telling me which San Antonio theme park mentioned above you would most like to visit.

You can earn 2 extra entries by doing the following (leave a separate comment for each extra entry):

• Tweet about this giveaway.
• Share this blog post on Facebook.

Entries must be received by 9 p.m. on May 31, 2010. The winning entry will be drawn through Random.org. The winner will be notified by e-mail. The winner will have 3 days to respond with contact information, or the prize will be forfeited and another winner will be drawn.

And the fine print: Winners must be at least 21 years old and legal residents of the United States. Residents of the San Antonio Metropolitan Area are not eligible to win.

By the way, several other great family travel blogs are running their own San Antonion SAVE Summer Sweepstakes, each with a different prize. Be sure to enter the rest of the drawings to increase your chances of winning!

UPDATE: We have a winner! The winning comment, chosen at Random.org, was No. 96, Dung Nguyen! Congratulations!

We checked out the last weekend of the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival on Saturday. The Flower Power concert with Chubby Checker and the Wildcats was definitely a highlight this year. You would think he is still a teenager with the way he dances and jumps around on the stage.

Chubby’s show had lots of audience participation, as he made his way through the crowd, dancing with the audience and inviting folks to join him on stage. The Theme Park Dad and Theme Park Kid got to do the twist with him. How many people can say that?! They were both thrilled.

It’s time to say goodbye to the Flower Power concerts, topiaries and — our family favorite — the playgrounds of the Flower and Garden Festival. At least we have the Sounds Like Summer concerts to look forward to.

Star Wars fans are going to have to say goodbye soon, too, to the original Star Tours storyline at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. Over at Gadling, I wrote about the closing dates and a special party Walt Disney World is throwing:

• Disney announces closing date for Star Wars rides at Disneyland, Walt Disney World

Also at Gadling.com this week:

• Disney’s new Animation-themed resort reflects success of two recent hotel trends
• Grand Ole Opry’s famed circle survives Nashville flooding
• A taste of Cleveland: Shopping the historic West Side Market
• Panama City Beach, Florida, puts a guarantee on fun, despite oil spill
• Cedar Point delays opening of new water coaster Shoot the Rapids
• Luxe savings in Florida: New summer discount packages at One Ocean Resort
• Legoland California Water Park prepares for May 28 opening
• Holiday World “auctions” staff members for charity
• Dream bachelor party trip: Watch Major League Baseball from the FanCave

Have you heard about the San Antonio Vacation Experience giveaways? There are 12 great Texas summer vacations up for grabs this week and next. Head over to Traveling Mamas to enter to win a 2-night stay at San Antonio’s awesome Riverwalk and passes to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, Six Flags Fiesta Texas and several other attractions there.

And be sure to come back here next week, when I will be giving away my own San Antonio vacation package.

After you’ve entered the San Antonio giveaways, check out my post about Traveling Mamas this week. I’m all for fun spa treatments for kids, but I got a press release from a spa that is trying to convince parents that their kids need massage therapy. So, I did a little venting:

• And now, a segment we like to call ‘Really? with ThemeParkMom’

This week is the International Pow Wow in Orlando. It’s a huge convention where International buyers of travel, like travel agents and the folks who arrange guided tours and such, converge on Orlando to learn more about U.S. destinations and, hopefully, make plans to bring folks from around the globe to the United States. I will be there to cover the action and learn as much as I can to share with you.

Who wouldn’t love a free magical vacation this summer?

Rayovac and Disney have teamed up to give away a 5-day, 4-night vacation for four to the winner’s choice of either Walt Disney World or Disneyland. It’s called the Rayovac Powers Your Vacation-Magic Wand sweepstakes, and you can enter online now through July 31.

Rayovac batteries are sold at Disney Parks to power all kinds of vacation necessities, such as digital and video cameras, and even Molly’s Magic Wand:

You can increase your chances of winning a great prize from Rayovac by attending the #Rayovac Powers Your Vacation Twitter event on Wednesday, May 19. The event will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Central time. More than 20 prizes will be awarded, including Disney gift cards and a summer supply of Rayovac batteries.

If you’ve never attended a Twitter event, it’s easy to participate. Just log into your Twitter account during the appointed time and be sure you are following @Rayovac_Battery, @MomTalkRadio and @CirclePRMary. Look for the hashtag #rayovac and be sure to include it in your posts to be eligible for prizes. It is usually easier to follow a Twitter event through a third-party interface, such as Tweetdeck.

Even if you can’t attend the Twitter event, don’t forget to enter the Rayovac Powers Your Vacation-Magic Wand sweepstakes. The prize includes airfare, lodging, Disney Parks tickets and even a gift card for food and souvenirs.

As I learned last summer, real people do win these contests. But you can’t win if you don’t enter!