This last weekend, I had the chance to go to SeaWorld thanks to them and IZEA. I haven’t been to SeaWorld since I was probably ten years old. Any chance to get out of Chicago in February is a good one, but to SeaWorld?! I was saying “SQUEEEE!!!!!” for weeks until the day to leave arrived.

I almost feel bad about how much fun we had on this trip – I don’t really want to rub it in. But we got the VIP tour of the park with front of the line ride access, lunch with the Sharks, dolphin petting and feeding (OMG), and center-stage seats for the Shamu Believe show. I normally try to put some kind of ‘constructive criticism’ into my review posts to keep them real. But this trip? Flawless.

I asked one of our tour guides how much the park has changed in the last 30 years. I knew it was a lot, but didn’t expect her to say, “Hmmm… well, I think the Penguin Experience was here back then. But that would be it”. But if you think the reason they invited us is because of all the new stuff they have added over the years, you would be wrong.

They invited us because of The Manta. I seriously can’t do this ride justice in a post. Ted comes close in this video of our hard hat tour of the construction of this unbelievably cool new roller coaster:

The Manta is opening in May of 2009. And someone who enters this giveaway is going to be one of the first people to ride it!

It is so completely easy to enter this giveaway that it’s not even funny:

1 – Blog Comment:
Leave a comment on this post sharing why you want to take your family or friends to SeaWorld to ride Manta.

2 – Twitter Tweet:
Tweet out why you want to go to SeaWorld and ride Manta in 140 characters or less. Be sure to include http://urlbrief.com/f4fae1, #mantamania and @eMom in your tweet to be registered. For example:

@eMom I want to go to SeaWorld because @tedmurphy made the best Manta video ever! #mantamania http://urlbrief.com/f4fae1
(But you really should put in your own reason, because, well, just because we want to know. )

3 – Blog Post:
Write a post about why you want to take your family or friends to SeaWorld and ride Manta. Be sure to leave a comment or trackback on this post with the URL of your post.

Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration. A person can enter up to three times. The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all valid entries.

We will be giving away a SeaWorld Schwag Bag to one winner who enters on Momsational. IZEA will choose the grand prize winner randomly from all entries on the 6 blogs participating in the giveaway. The bloggers participating in the giveaway are the ones who went on the SeaWorld trip with me – Julia Roy, Sarah Austin, Lucretia Pruitt, Alex Schek and Ted Murphy. There we are!

The Manta Mania Contest (the “Contest”) is open to anyone who (i) is a legal U.S. resident and legal residents of Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, or Dominican Republic and (ii) is at least eighteen (18) years of age. Official contest rules.