Sesame Place

Sesame Place is a children's theme park and water park, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and San Diego, California. It is the oldest of two theme parks in the United States based entirely on the children's educational television program *Sesame Street* and includes a variety of rides, shows, and water attractions suited for young children. It is also the first theme park in the world to become a certified autism center.

Sesame Place is one of the twelve theme parks owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, which operates under an exclusive license from Sesame Workshop, the non-profit owner of *Sesame Street*.

## Sesame Place Philadelphia

Currently the park encompasses 16 acres, employs a staff of over 1,500 and is home to more than 30 rides, shows and attractions. However, the park began in 1980 as a small 3-acre theme park with just over 100 staff and very few attractions. The original park featured play areas and large computer labs where visitors could play educational video games and use basic art programs. Walk-around characters would not appear until years later.

The original plan for the park was developed by Children's Television Network, Jim Henson and his team, and Busch Entertainment Corporation (now SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment). Those on the design team included Milton Glaser and Eric McMillan.

Sesame Place added Sesame Neighborhood, a replica of Sesame Street in 1988. The neighborhood is the nation's only fully functioning replica of the street.

Over the years, water rides were added to the park, the first being Slippery Slopes. The park grew as a water park, adding more than 15 water rides, slide, playgrounds and pools. A large and elaborate lazy river, called Big Bird's Rambling River, opened in 1990. Twiddlebug Land's Sky Splash, the park's biggest water slide, opened in 1995.

In 1997, the park began investing in more "dry" rides. Although the park had several playgrounds and stage shows, the park was primarily a water park. In 1998 the park opened Vapor Trail, a Super Grover-themed roller coaster. Big Bird's Balloon Race and Grover's World Twirl, two other dry rides were added in 2002. In 2006, the park opened Elmo's World, a new area themed around the Sesame Street segment of the same name. Elmo's World opened with three new rides.

Choreographed musical parades began with "The AmaZing Alphabet Parade" in the early-1990's, and was followed on with "The Rock Around the Block Parade" (1997-2010) and the current parade at the park - "Neighborhood Street Party" (2011- ), which is held twice a day at the park. Additionally, new live stage shows have been introduced repeatedly throughout the years; including the currently running "Elmo Rocks!", "Let's Play Together!", and "Elmo the Musical Live!". A new area, Cookie's Monster Land, opened in May 2014.

In 2018, the park added another roller coaster, Oscar's Wacky Taxi.

On October 21, 2019, it was announced that a new Sesame Place theme park would open in San Diego, California by Spring 2021, by way of retheming the previously existing Aquatica waterpark.

Beginning in January 2021, the park began its year-round operation. The park's previous operating season ran from April through early January; however, 2021 was the first time the park has ever been open during the winter months. Each weekend was a limited capacity event that featured rides, dance parties, and a parade.

In July 2022, the park faced criticism after a family claimed in an Instagram post that the character Rosita snubbed their two young black children by ignoring them as they waved to her. The video went viral as other users posted similar incidents of costumed characters and black children, with those on social media calling for a boycott of the park. The park released a statement that the costume had made it difficult for the performer to see the girls. They later followed with another statement that the performer had not intentionally snubbed the girls, but instead rejected a request "from someone in the crowd who asked Rosita to hold their child for a photo, which is not permitted." On July 19, Sesame Place Pennsylvania formally apologized to the family and invited the family back for a personal meet-and-greet with the characters. They also announced that their employees will undergo racial bias training to ensure park guests have an "inclusive, equitable and entertaining" experience.

In 2023 and 2024, Sesame Place did and will not continue year-round operation but only closed between mid-January to mid-February.

## Sesame Place San Diego

Sesame Place San Diego originally opened on May 31, 1997, as White Water Canyon, being operated independently. At the time it featured 16 water slides and a wave pool, with a western theme applied to it. The park suffered from many management and construction problems, and the poor attendance led to the park filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in June 1998.

In December 1999, Cedar Fair purchased the park from its original owners for $11.5 million. Under its new ownership, Cedar Fair gave the park a new beach-theme and a rename to Knott's Soak City U.S.A. for its reopening on May 27, 2000.

On November 20, 2012, Cedar Fair announced it had sold the park to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The acquisition saw the park transformed into a 32-acre water park named *Aquatica San Diego*. The refurbished park reopened on June 1, 2013. It features a wide array of attractions for all ages and swimming abilities, one of which passes by a flamingo habitat. The water park was featured on the episode, "Appalachian Splashin" on Xtreme Waterparks.

In 2017, Sesame Workshop announced that a new Sesame Place park would open "no later than" mid-2021. The location of the new park was soon revealed in 2019 when SeaWorld announced that Aquatica San Diego would be re-branded as Sesame Place San Diego park for the 2021 season. The *Sesame Street*-themed park would feature tame roller coasters, carousels and other family-friendly rides, the street made famous on TV, a parade, live shows, character interactions, and other attractions. The park retained the Aquatica water attractions into the new park, although one of the rides was removed for being deemed too extreme for the retheming.

Construction took place in phases, allowing Aquatica to remain open for the time period. The park's opening was soon delayed to 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting construction. Aquatica soon closed for its final season on September 12, 2021, and the remains of the park were transformed into Sesame Place San Diego.

In November 2021, it was confirmed that the newly themed park would open in March 2022.

The park opened on March 26, 2022.

## Walk-Around Characters

The park is home to more than a dozen characters from *Sesame Street* who wander around the park greeting guests, in addition to appearing in shows and parades. Occasionally the characters sport different outfits and attire depending on the occasion, including formalwear, beachwear, safari attire, hipster threads or just their traditional garb.

The first characters to appear in the park were actually animatronic figures, who debuted in 1981. Cookie Monster appeared out of a cookie jar at the Sesame Street Food Factory dining area, and an animatronic Oscar the Grouch had his own mobile junk cart, which could be moved around to multiple locations. Frank Oz and Caroll Spinney recorded dialogue for the characters, who would talk and sing.

Walk-around characters first appeared in 1983, starting with Ernie, Bert and two Honkers (Green and Pink). The characters appeared in "The Bert and Ernie Show", which was performed in front of Mr. Hooper's Emporium from 1983 to 1984.

Big Bird joined the cast in 1986, debuting in the "Big Bird & Company" show staged at the Big Bird Theater. Cookie Monster was added to the park in 1987, and two characters debuted in 1988: Grover and Prairie Dawn. A new Purple Honker arrived in 1989.

The cast expanded in 1992 with the introduction of Elmo and The Count. The three Honkers were retired after the 1992 season. When Twiddlebug Land opened in 1993, Tessie and Thomas Twiddlebug appeared as walk-around characters, and they stayed in the park until 2000. 1994 saw the addition of Telly Monster, Rosita, and Oscar the Grouch. Oscar originally appeared as a puppet before making the transition to walk-around character in 2012. Further introductions included Zoe in 1996, Barkley in 2004, Baby Bear in 2005 (semi-retired in 2018), Abby Cadabby in 2007, Murray Monster in 2011, a Dinger and a new purple Honker in 2014, Julia in 2018, Mr. Snuffleupagus in 2019, and Tango in 2022.

**List Of Characters**:

* Abby Cadabby (2007)
* Barkley (2004)
* Bert (1983)
* Big Bird (1986)
* Cookie Monster (1987)
* The Count (1992)
* Dinger (2014)
* Elmo (1992)
* Ernie (1983)
* Gonger (2019)
* Grover (1988)
* Honkers (Pink and Green 1983-1992, Purple 1989-1992, Orange mid-2000s; Another purple Honker debuted in 2014)
* Julia (2018)
* Murray Monster (2011)
* Oscar the Grouch (first appeared as a puppet in 1994, transitioned to walk-around character in 2012)
* Prairie Dawn (1988)
* Rosita (1994)
* Mr. Snuffleupagus (2019)
* Super Grover
* Tango (2022)
* Telly Monster (1994)
* Zoe (1996)

**Seasonal Characters**:

* Lightning (2016)
* Baby Bear (as of 2018)

**Discontinued Characters**:

* Tessie Twiddlebug (1993-2000)
* Thomas Twiddlebug (1993-2000)
* Jackman Wolf (1997-2010)

## Attractions

Each attraction is split into a category. Dry rides are open during Elmo's Springtacular, the summer season, The Count's Halloween Spooktacular and A Very Furry Christmas. Water rides are open only in the summer season. Other rides are only operated during Elmo's Springtacular, The Count's Halloween Spooktacular, or A Very Furry Christmas.

For the map of Sesame Place Philadelphia, click here.

## Trivia

* Muppeteer John Tartaglia performed in stage shows as Cookie Monster and Bert.
* Brian Henson and Bill Barretta both worked at the park in 1980. Henson often jokes that the two met while cleaning toilets.
* Local Boy Scout council, Bucks County Council, issued a Sesame Place council strip as part of their uniform in honor of the area landmark. Several variations of this council strip and an Order of the Arrow lodge patch were also created for the 2005 National Boy Scout Jamboree.
* An episode of reality show *Jon and Kate Plus 8* was filmed at the park, as was an episode of *Dinner Impossible.*
* Original video content featuring the Muppet characters was shown in the park during its opening in 1980. These pieces featured Ernie, Bert, and Grover. A series of at least six shorts shown in the park featured a group of AM Monsters (including the monster that would become Elmo, with appearances by Grover and Ernie) performing instrumental music pieces. Many of these clips were subsequently used as Muppet inserts on international co-productions, including *Barrio Sésamo* and *Iftah Ya Simsim*.
* A second Sesame Place park opened in Irving, Texas in June 1982. The $10 million Texas park was located on 30.3 acres near State Highway 183, and differed from the Pennsylvania location in that most attractions were indoors. The Texas park never reopened after the fall season ended in October 1984 and was shut down permanently in January 1985 due to unprofitability and declining attendance.
* In 1994, a *Sesame Street*-themed amusement park called Parque Plaza Sesamo (based on the Mexican co-production *Plaza Sésamo*) was opened in Monterrey, Mexico. According to TEA's Global Attractions Attendance Report, Parque Plaza Sésamo is one of Latin America's highest ranking theme parks by attendance, with 1.2 million visitors per year. On May 18, 2022, the park announced that it would rebrand as Parque Fiesta Aventuras for the 2022 season following a two-year period of closure. The reason for the rebranding was not disclosed by the park, but is likely that the park terminated its license to use the Plaza Sésamo branding and characters.

## Sources

Sesame Place (Pennsylvania). (2023, November 26). In *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame\_Place\_(Pennsylvania)

Sesame Place (San Diego). (2023, December 1). In *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame\_Place\_(San\_Diego)

*Sesame Place*. (n.d.). Muppet Wiki; Fandom, Inc. Retrieved December 9, 2023, from https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Sesame\_Place