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

The new Texas Giant roller coaster has opened at Six Flags Over Texas. The re-built wooden roller coaster now has a steel track and a world record 79-degree drop. It’s getting rave reviews. And now we’ve teamed up with Six Flags to give away a 4-pack of tickets to check out the new ride.

One Theme Park Mom reader will win four tickets to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington to experience all the rides, shows and other fun this theme park has to offer.

To enter this Six Flags ticket giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me how many times you would ride the new Texas Giant if you win. You can score two extra entries by also doing the following:

1. Like Theme Park Mom on Facebook.
2. Subscribe to Theme Park Mom’s e-mail newsletter.

Important! Leave a separate comment on this post for each extra entry.

Entries for this giveaway will close at 11:59 p.m. on May 13, 2011. I will use Random.org to draw the winner for this giveaway, and announce it on my blog on May 14, 2011. The winner will be contacted by e-mail.

AND THE WINNER IS…

The comment number chosen by random.org’s random number generator was Comment No. 16 – Courtney S. Congrats!

Six Flags is providing the prize for this giveaway.

Six Flags Over Texas is opening its revamped wooden roller coaster – The Texas Giant – today, April 22, 2011. The roller coaster has been rebuilt from the ground up and boasts the steepest drop of any wooden coaster in the world at 79 degrees; three bank turns at more than 90 degrees and a state-of-the-art steel track.

“This is the best ride we’ve ever built… bar none,” said Steve Martindale, Six Flags Over Texas Park President. “We’ve taken the best attribute of a wooden coaster: plenty of air time; and the best of steel: smoothness combined with speed, and created a truly remarkable roller coaster experience. As we like to say in Texas, this ain’t your Daddy’s ride.”

The hybrid of a steel track on a wooden coaster is a new idea in the coaster world. Steel coasters give a smoother, sleeker ride, but some coaster purists say they miss the bumps of the wooden track. Here’s a POV video of the 1 1/2-minute ride on the new Texas Giant:

Beginning at noon Eastern today, April 12, you can get a ticket to any SeaWorld or Busch Gardens park for just $39. The special sale is part of the “Daily Getaways” promotion sponsored by DiscoverAmerica.com. The tickets become available at noon at the Daily Getaways Web site. If you’re planning to buy them, don’t wait too long – these daily travel deals tend to sell out quickly.

The SeaWorld tickets are good for a 1-day child or adult admission to your choice of SeaWorld theme parks in Orlando, San Antonio or San Diego.

The Busch Gardens tickets are good for a 1-day child or adult admission to your choice of Busch Gardens theme parks in Tampa or Williamsburg.

The tickets can be used any day over the next year – until April 12, 2012.

And if you pay with an American Express card, you can save an extra 10 percent on this deal.

There’s also a great Discovery Cove discount available today, so be sure to check it out, too.

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!