X-Flight Giveaway Winner

With our X-Flight goodie giveaway now over, we're happy to announce our winner.  Our question was how many track pieces make up the entire length of X-Flight at Six Flags Great America.

Our winner was Mike C., who guessed a total of 71 track pieces.  The correct answer was 85 track pieces.  Mike C. will receive a selection of X-Flight related items, including carrying bag, water bottle, and luggage tag.

Thanks to all who entered!

X-Flight Goodie Giveaway Reminder

© Carol Holmes

Today is the last day to enter our X-Flight goodie giveaway contest!  Six Flags Great America is celebrating the opening of the new coaster for season pass holders this weekend, and we're having a small giveaway of X-Flight swag to help celebrate!

To find out how to enter, just click to our original story.  But hurry, entries will only be accepted until midnight today!

X-Flight Opening Day Giveaway

To celebrate the grand opening of X-Flight at Six Flags Great America we're having a small giveaway of X-Flight items provided to NPN by the park that one lucky winner will take home.  X-Flight will open to season passholders for a special preview on May 12th and 13th, and then have a grand opening for the general public on May 16th.

© Carol Holmes

The new B&M wing coaster has some impressive statistics, including five different inversions, 3,000 feet of track, and a top speed of 55 miles per hour.  X-Flight is one of only 4 B&M wing coasters in the world, providing a truly unique ride experience.  For more on the ride itself, be sure to check out the great mini-site that Six Flags Great America has set up for the coaster.

The grouping of items (an X-Flight carry bag, water bottle, and luggage tag) will go to the person who can correctly answer this question:


How many individual track segments make up the length of X-Flight at Six Flags Great America?

If you'd like to take a guess, you can send us an e-mail with your answer.  Please include your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be our lucky winner. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry per person will be accepted.  Entries will be accepted until midnight on May 12th 2012, winner announced shortly thereafter.  If two people are equidistant from the correct answer, the person who does not exceed the correct number will be declared the winner. Should there be a tie, we have a special question prepared to use as a breaker.  A special thanks to Six Flags Great America for the items!

Shell Shock Goodie Giveaway Winners

Thanks to everyone who submitted answers to our TMNT trivia contest!  The event looked like a blast, and Scott and Carol were there to cover it all.  Make sure to check out their story if you haven't already.

As for our winners, congratulations to them all!  In addition to the listed prizes, some other surprises are being thrown in for them, too!

The Gerstlauer Polo went to Ryan W., the Gerstlauer towel to Anthony G., and the three brochure/goodie packs to Mike C., Terrance G., and Bryan W.

Watch for more giveaways coming in the future here on NPN!

Shell Shock Goodie Giveaway Reminder

If you haven't had the chance to enter our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock Goodie Giveaway yet, there's still time!  The contest entry period ends tomorrow at midnight.

All you have to do is head over to the post [contest is now over] that details the trivia contest and submit your answers.  If you're having a hard time with the answer, remember, Wikipedia is our friend!

Shell Shock Opening Day Goodie Giveaway

Turtle history will be made this Saturday, March 17th, 2012 when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock ride officially opens at Nickelodeon Universe to the waiting public.  To honor the opening of the new thrill ride, the park will be making an attempt at hosting the largest gathering of Ninja Turtles in the world, and our very own Scott & Carol will be there to take in the festivities.

TMNT Shell Shock will be the first Gerstlauer Sky Fly attraction to open in North America.   Guests will board their individual shell themed car and have the ability to roll as little or as much as they like, all while Shell Shock spins up to 70 feet in the air in a giant circle.

Sounds like fun to me!

To celebrate the opening of the ride we're having one of our giveaway contests!  In order to win, we're going to go a little Ninja Turtle on you all and have a trivia contest.  There will be five (5) prizes, a Gerstlauer Polo shirt, a Gerstlauer beach towel, and three brochure/goodie packs of items collected along our many travels.

Anyone who answers all five of these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle trivia questions correctly will be entered into a random drawing for prizes.

Ready?  Here's the questions:

1 - What year did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon series premier in the U.S.?

2 - What was the name of the red-headed friend of the Turtles that worked for Channel Six News?

3 - Through the years up until today, how many feature films were made based on the TMNT franchise?

4 - What are the names of the four Renaissance era individuals for which the Turtles were named?  First and last name, please.

5 - What were the names of the two musically themed followers of the evil Shredder?

If you are planning on being at the event on Saturday, be sure to watch for an announcement to gather for a NPN group photo!  It will be a great chance to meet two of our writers, and show your love for NPN!

How to enter to win one of the prizes - simply send me an e-mail with the answers to the five questions above, your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be one of our lucky winners. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry per person will be accepted.  Entries will be accepted until midnight on March 17th 2012 [contest is now over], winners announced March 19th 2012.  A special thanks to Gerstlauer for the prize items.  Good luck and have fun - Turtle Power!

All images copyright Mall of America, Nickelodeon Universe, and Nickelodeon. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with any of these companies.

Giveaway Winners: Final Week

As for the answers to our riddles:

1 - I opened in the Midwest with a watery name, only to head South as a snake, then move lightning fast to my last home - and I'm still not operating!

Tidal Wave opened at Six Flags Great America in 1978.  In 1995 it opened at Six Flags Over Georgia, and was called Viper.  Finally, the coaster moved to Kentucky Kingdom where it operated until the park closed.

2 - People like to argue over who my true designer was, but even my electric blue track wasn't fiery enough to keep me from being melted down!

The debate over whether Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg was originally designed by B&M or Arrow will probably rage on forever - even though some experts have thrown in their take!

3 - My name contained only 4 characters and a dash, and I was one of ten coasters built of my style, only five of which still operate today.

Another ride no longer with us, XLR-8 at Six Flags AstroWorld was a suspended coaster designed by Arrow.  Three of these style rides still operate in the U.S., one in Canada, and one in the U.K.

Hopefully you guys had fun with this, thanks to the many folks who contributed answers!

Giveaway Winners: Week 3

Week three's photo answers were: 1 - Cheetah Hunt, Busch Gardens Tampa, 2 - Skyrocket, Kennywood, and 3 - Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion.

Our final week is now live!

NPN Million Visitor Giveaway - Final Week!

Time sure does fly when you're giving stuff away!  The last week of our Million visits giveaway is upon us, though really this last stretch is more than a week... more like 10 days.  That gives everyone more time to enter to win great stuff that we're giving away!

We've done some more closet cleaning and came up with some interesting goodies for our last week.  One thing, especially, is quite unique and not something you can find easily.  And we're just giving it away!  That's how much we love our readers.

The final week called for five prizes, and here they are:

1 - Original wrapping from Custom Coasters wood deliveries, quite large in size and completely original!
2 - Brand new copy of Designing Disney by John Hench, a beautiful book with tons of great Disney Parks art!
3 - SFOG 45th anniversary souvenir map, BBW postcard, Gravity Group post card, Old Indiana tickets and envelopes.
4 - Custom Coasters newsletters ('93, '97, '99), envelope and 10th anniversary sticker.
5 - Assorted park post cards, maps, and brochures, Old Indiana tickets and envelopes.

Awesome stuff, right?  For our last week's giveaway, we'll do three history coaster riddles.  You tell me what coaster I'm talking about for each!  You get them right, and you're in!

1 - I opened in the Midwest with a watery name, only to head South as a snake, then move lightning fast to my last home - and I'm still not operating!

2 - People like to argue over who my true designer was, but even my electric blue track wasn't fiery enough to keep me from being melted down!

3 - My name contained only 4 characters and a dash, and I was one of ten coasters built of my style, only five of which still operate today.

How to enter to win one of the prizes - if you know what the three coasters are, simply send me an e-mail with the names of the rides, your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be one of our lucky winners. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry per week will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries within one prize period, only the first entry we receive will be evaluated. Entries will be accepted until midnight on May 31st, winners announced June 2nd. Remember, you can only win once during the month.

Hopefully you all enjoyed these giveaways as much as I did!

Giveaway Winners: Week 2

And for the answer to this week's question - the only mobius coaster still thrilling riders in the US is the Racer, at Kennywood!

NPN Million Visitor Giveaway - Week 3

The third week of May already!  Yikes.  But at least that means new prizes for us to give away to our readers!  We have another 4 prizes that will go out this week:

1 - Great Coasters Int. Brochure - includes 5 color ride aerial photographs.
2 - Custom Coasters pack - 3 newsletters from '93, '97, and '99, 10th anniversary sticker, and envelope.
3 - Hardcover copy of "The Art of Walt Disney" published 1975, used but in great condition.
4 - Old Indiana Fun Park tickets, envelops, BBW post card, Custom Coasters '93 newsletter, copy of drawing of Custom Coasters proposed ride for Jazzland, Coney Island sticker.

Quite an assortment this week, eh?  So how do you win?  We'll switch it up some this week, and do a photo identifier puzzle.  Here are three photos, all taken by Carol and featured in one of Scott and Carol's articles here on NPN.  Oh, and I messed with the colors - a lot.  Can you name the rides?

1 -

2 -

3 -

How to enter to win one of the prizes - if you know what the three coasters are, simple send me an e-mail with the names of the rides, your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be one of our lucky winners. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry per week will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries within one prize period, only the first entry we receive will be evaluated. Entries will be accepted until midnight on May 21st, winners announced May 23rd. Remember, you can only win once during the month.

Thanks for reading and Good luck!

Giveaway Winners: Week 1

P.S. Our first post was about X-Flight leaving Geauga Lake!

NPN Million Visitor Giveaway - Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of our giveaways, celebrating one million unique visitors to NPN!  Watch for the winners from week one to be announced tomorrow.  Getting stuff for free is fun!

We actually hit one million on Thursday the 5th, so congratulations also to NPN!

As for this week's giveaways, we're upping the ante and giving away four prizes:

1 - Custom Coasters Inc memorabilia, including newsletters, anniversary stickers, stationary, and a train operating safety manual
2 - Dorney Park souvenir park map featuring Hercules and a selection of Cedar Fair brochures
3 - Bolliger & Mabillard Flying Coaster sales brochure, Big Bad Wolf postcard, and Dark Knight magnet
4 - Six Flags Over Georgia 45th anniversary souvenir map, Dragster pin, Custom Coasters '93 newsletter, BBW post card, and Gravity Group postcard with Hades/Voyage

So how do you possibly get selected as the winner of one of those awesome prizes? This week we will play "what coaster am I?"  Here's the clue - I'm the only mobius coaster still thrilling riders in the US, having opened at my beautiful home in 1927.

If you know the answer to that, simply send me an e-mail with it, along with your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be one of our lucky winners. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry per week will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries within one prize period, only the first entry we receive will be evaluated. Entries will be accepted until midnight on May 14th, winners announced May 16th. Remember, you can only win once during the month.

So what coaster am I?  If you know, then enter!  It's that simple.

NPN Hits A Million And We're Giving Stuff Away!

It's late November 2006, and I'm messing around on the interwebs and decide to start an amusement industry blog.  Boom!  NewsPlusNotes was just born.

Now fast forward well over four years later, and the little blog-that-could is about to hit one million unique visitors.

Don't get me wrong - I'm well aware that many, many other sites have hit that number before, and probably way quicker than NPN did.  And they've probably been racking up the additional millions like crazy.  But they're not NPN, we are - and I'm proud of us!

NewsPlusNotes has published over 3,000 posts, and currently has 9 different staff writers.  But why do we crank out all those posts?  Readers, of course.  And as a thank you to the people who got us to a million we're giving away some stuff!

Giving away stuff is fun.  Our involvement in the amusement industry has allowed us to amass a large amount of industry stuff... but not just regular stuff, this is stuff that amusement park fans love!

I've love to give our exact one millionth unique visitor (note I'm not speaking of millionth page load, that'd have been long ago) some huge prize, complete with streamers and balloons.  Sadly I won't know who that is, so instead we're just gonna give away stuff to a bunch of readers!

Each week in the month of May, 2011 we'll run some sort of contest or simple quiz, and those that enter with a correct answer will be eligible to win a prize.  I'll randomly pick winners from the correct answers for each prize, and send out the stuff! (winners may not select their prize) Each person can only win once during the month.

The first week will run May 1st through 7th, and will be a most simple quiz in order to get things started.  Three prizes will go out this week:

1 - Six Flags Great America 45th Anniversary souvenir park map, BGW Big Bad Wolf post card, some random brochures and park maps!
2 - Carowinds' Intimidator press CD in case and Custom Coasters 1997 newsletter.
3 - Great Coasters International canvas tote bag with Gravity Group Hades post card.

Entries will be accepted until midnight on May 7th, winners announced May 9th.  This process will repeat for May 8th-14th, 15th-21st, and 22nd-31st.  If you enter this week and do not win, feel free to enter the following week!

Now for the first week's question.  What was the topic of NewsPlusNotes' first ever post?

To enter, answer this question in an e-mail, along with your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be one of our lucky winners. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry per week will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries within one prize period, only the first entry we receive will be evaluated.

A sincere thank you to all of our readers for sticking with us!

"Four Decades of Magic" Giveaway Winner!

Drum roll please... the winner of our "Four Decades of Magic" giveaway is...  Terry, located in Kentucky!  Congratulations!

Thanks to the many folks who submitted entries! Remember that you can contact Scott and Carol about getting your own copy of the book!

Everyone got the answers correct, but here they are anyway:

It's A Small World, Magic Kingdom

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Disney's Hollywood Studios

Jungle Cruise, The Magic Kingdom

Spaceship Earth, Epcot

Expedition Everest, Animal Kingdom

I like giving stuff away!  Hopefully we can do this more often.  Thanks again to everyone who participated, Ayefour Publishing for the book, and Scott and Carol for getting NewsPlusNotes involved!

"Four Decades Of Magic" Book Giveaway!

NewsPlusNotes loves giving things away!  We especially love giving away great things!

In honor of Scott & Carol's involvement in Four Decades of Magic - Celebrating the First Forty Years of Disney World we're giving away a signed copy to one lucky reader.

The book is a collection of essays detailing just about every aspect of Walt Disney World imaginable.  Resort Hotels, never built rides, attraction histories, parades, shopping, restaurants... the list goes on!  A number of authors contributed essays, many of which write for different websites.  The book was complied by Chad Denver Emerson and features a foreword by Jim Hill.

I've already devoured my copy, and thoroughly enjoyed learning plenty I never knew about the resort.  Scott & Carol's essay covers a long favorite topic of mine - the never built Beastly Kingdom section of Animal Kingdom.  If you simply must get your hands on a copy now (which I would understand), you can contact Scott and Carol directly.

But now for that contest!  We're keeping things simple, but still fun.  Below are five images either of or taken in attractions found in the four theme parks of Walt Disney World.  Simply e-mail what the five attractions are, and you could win.  A winner will be randomly selected from all correct submissions.

Simple, right?  Now here are the five images:

Image #1:

Image #2:

Image #3:

Image #4:

Image #5:

Now that you've seen the images, send me an [contest is over] with your five answers.  In addition to your answers, please include your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be our lucky winner. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries, only the first entry we receive will be evaluated.  I will be accepting submissions until Saturday, April 2nd 2011 at 11:59 p.m. EST.  A winner will be announced Monday, April 4th.

Many thanks to Ayefour Publishing for making the contest possible.  Happy reading and good luck to all!

Freestyle Music Park Giveaway Contest Winners!

We're pleased to announce the winners of our Freestyle Music Park Giveaway Contest!

Our Grand Prize winner of two tickets to the park is Ryan P. from Ohio! Congrats Ryan!

Our two other winners, who will both receive a Freestyle Music Park Tee Shirt are Darron K. and Doug M.! Congratulations to you guys, too!

Now here are the answers to our mystery photos:

Mystery Photo #1, Iron Horse:


Mystery Photo #2, McGillivray Cab Company:


Mystery Photo #3, Polly Nesian's Splash Bash:


Mystery Photo #4, Fly Like An Eagle:


Mystery Photo #5, The Time Machine:


Many thanks go out to all who entered and especially Freestyle Music Park for allowing us to have the contest! Congratulations again to all our winners!

A Freestyle Music Park Giveaway Contest!

NewsPlusNotes is proud to present our readers with a fun Freestyle Music Park giveaway contest! To help celebrate their grand opening, Freestyle Music Park, located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has provided us with two (2) tickets (valid throughout the 2009 season) and two (2) tee shirts to give away!

So how do you enter? Simply identify the five Freestyle Music Park rides and attractions featured in the photos below. Make sure you use their new names! All entries that correctly identify all five rides or attractions will be entered into the random drawing. One first place winner will receive the two free tickets, and two second place winners will each receive a tee shirt.

Contest entries should be e-mailed to contest@newsplusnotes.com. In addition to your answers, please include your name and a preferred e-mail address where you can be reached should you happen to be one of our lucky winners. (Names and e-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than this contest.) Only one entry will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries, only the first entry we receive will be evaluated. All entries must be received by Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Okay, here are the 5 photos to identify!

Mystery Photo #1:

Mystery Photo #2:

Mystery Photo #3:

Mystery Photo #4:

Mystery Photo #5:

Remember to send your entry to contest@newsplusnotes.com with your name and e-mail address. Good luck! Winners will be notified on July 8. We will reveal the full photos as well as the names of our winners as soon as all three have been confirmed. (Please note that if your name is drawn and we are unable to reach you within a reasonable amount of time, an alternate winner will be selected.)

In addition to the contest prizes, Freestyle Music Park has also provided us with a number of discount cards good for $5 off up to six admissions to the park. If you are interested in obtaining one of these discount cards (regardless of whether you enter the contest), please e-mail Carol for details. Available while supplies last!

Again, good luck to everyone who enters and many thanks to Freestyle Music Park for enabling us to have this contest!