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

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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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.

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.

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.