Friday, March 6, 2015
Tampa Bay Rays sign brief in support of gay marriage
Come to Conquer: Spring Break
Expedia has ranked the Tampa Bay area as one of the most popular Spring Break destinations. Whether your Spring Break is from college, high school or pre-school, Tampa Bay has a horde of deals to unlock.
HOTELS
GRAND HYATT TAMPA BAY: “Stay More Save More” plan offers a discount that grows the longer you stay: 10 percent off the first two nights, 15 percent off for three nights, and 20 percent off for four or more nights.
RAMADA WESTSHORE TAMPA AIRPORT: Discounts are 10 percent on one night, 15 percent on two nights and 20 percent on three nights.
RESTAURANTS & BARS
TEQUILAS: $2 martinis, sangria, and sangaritas until 7p.m.; $9.95 all-you-can-eat steak and chicken fajitas until 7p.m. everyday; $3 Mexican drafts from 6 p.m. to midnight Fridays. Live music everyday
YACHT STARSHIP: March 14 is the Island Fever Party, featuring Caribbean and other music by the band Impulse. The cruise includes food and drink available for purchase on board. The 2 ½-hour cruise boards at 8:30 p.m. and leaves Channelside Bay Plaza at 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person. Guests must be 21 or older with a valid ID.
TAMPA BAY BEER WEEK: Tampa Bay’s craft brewers will be on display all week at venues across the region during Beer Week. A $10 passport (available at specific locations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) provide special deals at the 30 breweries, restaurants and stores participating in Beer Week this year.
BLIND TIGER CAFÉ: Ybor City’s newest coffee shop and clothing store offers 10% off to any Spring Breakers, college or high school.
THE GETAWAY: Specials all month at its tiki bar.
ATTRACTIONS
TAMPA BAY CITY PASS: For a single discounted price, Tampa Bay City Pass gives users access to four of the Tampa Bay area’s most popular attractions: Busch Gardens Tampa, the Florida Aquarium, Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo and MOSI, the Museum of Science and Industry. Passes are $99 for adults, $84 for children 3-11. That’s a 49% discount on the combined ticket price for all four attractions. City Pass is good for nine days from the time of purchase.
BUSCH GARDENS TAMPA: Spring Break visitors can buy an Eat Free All Day package that gets them admission to the park for up to 14 days, free parking, and an all-day dining deal. A Kids FREE package gets a child into the park free with a paying adult or child and includes free parking and all day dining. Children 3 and under are free at Busch Gardens. Busch Garden’s Food & Wine festival will be happening on weekends through the end of April.
TAMPA’S LOWRY PARK ZOO: Visitors who are members of the zoo or aquarium back home get a 10% discount on tickets to Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo during the day. Find out if your zoo or aquarium qualifies. Zoominations, the zoo’s night time Chinese lantern festival exhibit, is available with a discounted combo pass ($39.95 for adults, $29.95 for kids 3-11) that saves $10 on admission to both the zoo and Zoominations.
MOSI, MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: Visitors get $3 off general admission when they check in at MOSI on Facebook. You must show the check in to the ticket agency. Offer is valid for exhibits and a single ticket to the Florida Hospital IMAX Dome theatre. It excludes special exhibits and events, as well as the ropes course and zipline.
DINOSAUR WORLD: Buy an Excavation Pass and get a free Dinosaur World key chain with admission to the park. An Excavation Pass includes: the Lucky Strike bag at the Dino Gem Mine panning for gems at the water sluice, a Fossil Dig ticket for children 3 to 12 and a bag of fish food, also for children 3 to 12. Excavation Passes are $23.27 for adults, $19.21 for children.
TECO MANATEE VIEWING CENTER: No Spring Break special here, actually. It's just a great place to see and learn about Florida's most popular wild residents. And it's free. Just like Spring Break, their time is limited: they'll be heading back out to the coast in the next month or so as the water warms back up.
AIRHEADS: Tampa Bay’s indoor trampoline center offers an unlimited week-long pass during Spring Break for $25.95, less than the cost of two days at the regular price. There’s also a $5 discount on unlimited jumping through Airheads’ Facebook page.
GOLFER’S GRAIL: Tampa Bay’s only indoor golf venue has lunch specials and discounts during Spring Break: 33% on golf and 20% off on driving range balls.
URBAN KAI: Take to the water on a beautiful Spring Break day without going all the way to the beach. Urban Kai offers paddleboarding on the Hillsborough River – a great way to explore the city and get a serious core workout at the same time. During Spring Break, Urban Kai will rent one board a half-price when you rent one for full price.
Q-ZAR LASER TAG: The center will open at noon every day during Spring Break. $23 a person buys four hours of unlimited laser tag.
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Come to Conquer: Gasparilla Music Festival
Tampa Bay's Gasparilla Season hits its stride this weekend when the Gasparilla Music Festival rolls into downtown's Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and Kiley Gardens.
If you planning to go or still thinking about it, here's what you need to know:
TicketsFirst, the Bad News: Saturday's event, headlined by Seattle-based Modest Mouse, is sold out for both general admission and VIP tickets.
Now, the Good News: You can still get two-day passes that will cover both Saturday and Sunday, VIP and general admission for Sunday. Get them before they're all gone.
Your ticket will get you a wrist band when you first enter the festival that lets you come and go as you please over the course of each day. If you're got a two-day pass, plan on sleeping with that wrist band.
ParkingThere'll be no shuttle system from Tampa Heights as there was last year. This year, plan on taking advantage of the city's existing parking.
Lucky for you, downtown is chock-a-block with parking. The city's Poe garage is just steps from the festival gates, but it's also very popular with the families that visit the Glazer Children's Museum and anyone hitting the opening day of the Tampa Museum of Art's Normal Rockwell exhibit. So you might want to try the Fort Brooke garage, which is a short walk, or the Twiggs garage, which is about five blocks away. There's also metered on-street parking -- if you're going to be around for less than two hours (and why would you do that?) -- and private lots scattered throughout downtown. Just don't forget where you left your car.
Better yet, avoid parking altogether and take a water taxi up the Hillsborough River to the festival.
The festival has four stages spread across two parks. The main Soulshine stage stands in the southwest corner of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park with the minarets of the University of Tampa's Plant Hall as a backdrop. The secondary stage, the Channelside Bay Plaza stage, stands in the southwest corner of Kiley Gardens in the shadow of Rivergate Tower. When those stages are between shows, look for performances at the Kiley Gardens amphitheatre and Tibbet's Corner in the northeast corner of Kiley Gardens.
There are general admission entrances at on the Ashley Drive sides of both Kiley Gardens and Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.
VIP entrance is between Tampa Museum of Art and the Glazer Children's Museum.
Disabled visitors will have a drop-off in Gasparilla Plaza behind the museums. Parking is available in the Poe garage. Anyone needing help should contact festival organizers.
Food & DrinkTampa Bay's local foodie scene will hit its groove at the music festival. From downtown's Holy Hog BBQ to Seminole Heights' Refinery to Ybor City's Carmine's and South Tampa's Pipo's Cafe, Tampa Bay's good eats will be with easy reach. Even the guy who runs the Hot Donut Cart outside City Hall will get in on the music festival action. You'll find loads of Tampa Flavors as well -- Cuban sandwiches, grouper sandwiches and stinky bunz to name but a few. Check out the roster of restaurants.
The same goes for adult beverages, with Cigar City Brewing Co. leading the list of beer and spirits vendors.
GMF Kids FestGasparilla Music Festival welcomes families of all types. Kiley Gardens will host musical acts that will have the kiddies up and dancing during the day on Saturday and Sunday. The Kids Interactive Zone in Kiley Gardens will keep them busy from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. They'll be asleep before you get home.
The LineupThe list is impressive and way too long to list here. There's something for everyone: gospel, rock, funk, Latin, even something called Yoga Rhythm Lounge on Sunday morning. So pace yourself.
Chances are, you either know what you're coming for already or will stick around for everything anyway. The short version: Modest Mouse headlines on Saturday, taking the stage at 9:30 p.m. Sunday's headliner is Gogol Bordello, which takes the stage at 5:30 p.m. Special for Sunday is Laritza Ballacao y Su Grupo, who have come from Havana, Cuba, to play this year's festival. They'll be on the Channelside Bay Plaza stage at 4:45 p.m.