Sesame Place

Sesame Place

Slogan	Be a Kid or Be a Kid Again
Location	Langhorne, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates	40.185808°N 74.871976°W / 40.185808; -74.871976
Owner	SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
Opened	July 30, 1980
Operating season	May through October
Area	14 acres (5.7 ha)
Rides
Total	17 dry rides & 10 major water rides
Website	Sesame Place Home Page

Sesame Place is a theme park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania based on the Sesame Street television program. It includes a variety of rides, shows, and water attractions suited to very young children. It is one of 10 parks operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, a division of The Blackstone Group.

Overview

Sesame Place first opened in 1980 near the Oxford Valley Mall and initiated the expansion of the commercial complex in the vicinity. It was designed by Eric McMillan, a Canadian designer, Sandra Hanna of Lambertville, New Jersey, and several other designers . The park is open from late April through Halloween, and is also open on Thanksgiving weekend and some days in December. The original park was 3 acres (1.2 ha) and featured play areas and large computer labs where kids could color their favorite Sesame Street characters. Since then, it has expanded to 14 acres (5.7 ha) with rides and water attractions. The expansions included the construction of Sesame Island and Twiddlebug Land.

In 2007, it became the first theme park in Pennsylvania to become completely smoke free.

Related parks

Sesame Place is one of 10 parks operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. Others include SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld San Antonio, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Discovery Cove, Aquatica Florida, Adventure Island (water park), and Water Country USA.

For about 30 years, Busch Entertainment operated Sesame Place in Pennsylvania. In 2009 and 2010, under the new ownership, kiddie areas in Busch Gardens and Sea World parks were converted to Sesame themes. A second Sesame Place park also existed in Irving, Texas from 1982–1984 (a Walmart Supercenter now sits in its place), closing its doors due to poor attendance and a large number of water parks competing for its business. A third one in Tokyo, Japan was open from 1990 until December 31, 2006.

There are also several international Sesame Street themed attractions in Monterrey, Mexico (Plaza Sésamo) and São Paulo, Brazil inside the Hopi Hari theme park.

Attractions

The Count's Splash Castle

Park Entrance Area

• Grover's Vapor Trail - a roller coaster geared toward small children as young as three years of age. A custom Vekoma family roller coaster with several helixes.
• Twiddlebug Land - an area themed to the Twiddlebug characters. Everything seems oversized here.
• Sky Splash - a large raft water slide that stands more than 6 stories high, from which one can see the Philadelphia skyline on clear days
• Teeny Tiny Tidal Wave - a 10,000-square-foot (930 m²) wave pool formed from Ernie's wild garden hose.
• Slimey's Chutes - two spiral tube water slides. Single and double tubes are used.
• Silly Sand Slides - three giant slides; A large watch, a spoon on a bag of marbles and a dumped bucket of sand.
• Mix n' Match Twiddle Tracks - a kid-powered railroad for the little ones.

River Area

• Big Bird's Rambling River - a slow-moving, 1,000-foot (300 m) waterway winding through Sesame Island.
• Ernie's Waterworks - a small water play area for the little ones.

Sesame Neighborhood

• Sunny Day Carousel - A carousel with Sesame Street designed horses. Its location was formerly the home of the famous Big Bird Steps.
• Sesame Studios home to Elmo's World Live

Splash Castle Area

• The Count's Splash Castle - The park's largest attraction opened in the Spring of 2009. This multi-level, water park attraction features over 90 play elements, including a 1000 gallon tipping bucket.
• Sesame Streak - A pair of tube water slides, one for single riders and the other for double riders.
• Slippery Slopes - Four short vertical water slides that drop into a three foot pool.

Elmo's World

• Peek-A-Bug - riders spin and slide from side to side on the back of a smiling bug.
• Blast Off - a frog hopper, tower drop ride in which riders travel to Planet Elmo with the furry red monster himself.
• Cloud Chaser - riders fly around in swings.
• Flyin' Fish - two people can ride together on the fins of an Elmo fish.

Near Elmo's World

• Snuffy's Slides - two long dry tube slides for kids 12 and under.
• Bert & Ernie's Slip & Slide - two intertwining body flumes that empty into a splash pool.

Nets Area

• Nets & Climbs - hundreds of yards of cargo netting connected by 200 feet (61 m) of suspended net tunnels.
• Ernie's Bed Bounce - a huge, springy yellow air mattress.
• Grover's World Twirl - a character-themed teacup ride.
• Big Bird's Balloon Race - a 40-foot (12 m) high balloon tower ride that affords a view of the park.
• Cookie Mountain - a tall blue mountain that kids seven and under can attempt to scale on their own.
• Big Bird's Court - a small playground and Big Bird's Nest, a large padded area with blocks kids 5 and under can build with and run around on.
• Monster Maze - a small, sand bottom pit with large "monster" bags kids can run around in.

Shows

• Neighborhood Street Party - A parade with all costume characters and has special stops during Halloween and Christmas time
• Elmo's World Live! - An interactive show that encourages audience participation and imagination. It is about 15 minutes long.
• Elmo Rocks! - An all new Rock 'n Roll show starring Elmo, other Sesame Street characters, and two out of costume characters.

There are also a few holiday-specific shows: Elmo's Halloween and Elmo's Christmas Show - Elmo talks about the holidays. Countdown to Halloween - An adventure where The Count leaves his castle to YOU! The WSME Radio Show - Halloween is celebrated on an old time radio show Other seasonal shows include 1, 2, 3 Christmas Tree, Elmo's Christmas Wish, and A Sesame Christmas Show.

Costume characters

Families can have breakfast with the characters an hour before the rest of the park opens. This isn't included in regular admission price. The entire Sesame Place crew struts down Sesame Street twice a day in the "Neighborhood Street Party" parade. This features all of the Sesame Place characters, large floats, dancers, and music. The characters include:

• Elmo
• Baby Bear
• Big Bird
• Ernie
• Kermit The Frog
• Bert
• Grover / Super Grover
• Abby Cadabby
• Rosita
• Zoe
• Barkley
• Cookie Monster
• Count von Count
• Telly Monster
• Prairie Dawn
• Oscar the Grouch
• Murray Monster

Discontinued characters:

• The Honkers (removed in an unknown date)
• Hoots the Owl (removed in 2009)
• Jackman Wolf (removed in 2010)
• Don Music (removed in 2013)

Further reading

• Chris English (2007-05-03). "What's new at Sesame Place?". phillyBurbs (Calkins Media, Inc.). Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. 
• Manasee Wagh (2008-11-05). "Variety Kids Celebrate Halloween at Sesame Place?". phillyBurbs (Calkins Media, Inc.). 
• Crissa Shoemaker Debree (2008-08-18). "Psst…Oxford Valley isn’t closing". phillyBurbs (Calkins Media, Inc.). 
• Jo Ciavaglia (2008-08-28). "Abby Cadabby…a baby girl born at Sesame Place". phillyBurbs (Calkins Media, Inc.). 
• Jacqueline Burt Wang (2008-08-08). "We're Outta Here! Four Fantastic Day Trips For Families". New York Post (NYP Holdings, Inc.). 
• Kristie Rearick (2008-06-27). "'Hip Hop Harry' takes stage at Sesame Place". South Jersey News Onlin. 
• Kara Mcguire (2008-05-02). "Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Place?". Star Tribune. 
• "Durham-Wahlberg family at Sesame Place". People Magazine. 2007-08-20. 

External links

• Sesame Place Official Site
• Sesame Place at the Roller Coaster DataBase