Sesame Place???

[Memaw2Wm]

We're going to Disney in August, but my 19 month old grandson is a huge Elemo fan. So I was thinking a two day trip to Sesame Place might be a great way to introduce him to a theme park with overly large characters.

Anyone been? Liked it? Hated it? Why?

Thanks!

 

[deejohn]

Sesame Place is about 1 hour north of us. We have been there twice. It is more of a water park then anything eles. We have not been there in about 3 years, and I know they have added some rides.

There is a lot to do there. Any kid under 6 would have a great time, whether they like sesame or not.

 

[Mommytink]

I live about 5 minutes from there. We have been season passholders for years. My kids love it. It tends to get crowded but it is still fun. I have heard people complain about it being dirty yet I have never seen that. People are constantly walking around cleaning. We have always loved the parade and there are many new Elmo rides. I think your grandson would love it. Try to go before school lets out to avoid the crowds.

 

[Gillian]

Sesame Place is fun! What we do is take a small stroller for the stuff. We try not to bring too much though. For the parade everyone lines up along the route with a towel on the ground, which works well.

One of those waterproof around the neck moneyholders is also convenient.

 

[beattyfamily]

We were disappointed when we arrived, seeing that it was a glorified water park but our kids at least enjoyed seeing the characters and their cute show.

There is the grover rollercoaster which is one of the only non-water rides.

I think it would be good exposure to big characters for a little one.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

Thanks ... neither DD or I are big waterpark fans so that may play into our decision.

Are the new Elmo's World rides "wet" or "dry"?

Fun for a 12 and a 10 y.o. (older siblings)?

I figure two days will cost us close to $1,000 with getting a hotel room, admission, gas and tolls (we live in Northern VA) ... so I want to make sure it's worth the cost!

 

[beattyfamily]

Thanks ... neither DD or I are big waterpark fans so that may play into our decision.

Are the new Elmo's World rides "wet" or "dry"?

Fun for a 12 and a 10 y.o. (older siblings)?

I figure two days will cost us close to $1,000 with getting a hotel room, admission, gas and tolls (we live in Northern VA) ... so I want to make sure it's worth the cost!

Looks like they have a few more 'dry' rides than they did when we went about 5 years ago.

HERE is their list of both 'dry' and 'water' attractions to help you decide.

 

[jrmasm]

Thanks ... neither DD or I are big waterpark fans so that may play into our decision.

Are the new Elmo's World rides "wet" or "dry"?

Fun for a 12 and a 10 y.o. (older siblings)?

I figure two days will cost us close to $1,000 with getting a hotel room, admission, gas and tolls (we live in Northern VA) ... so I want to make sure it's worth the cost!

No way is that place worth $1000. It we went in Oct so crowds weren't too bad but it was filthy at the end of the day. And if you're going for chararcter interaction, keep in mind that there are no handlers. Repeatedly at the character breakfast (disgusting btw) as a character attempted to get to our table, someone would jump in front of our children (sitting in their seats) and then have the gall to ask us to take their pictures.

We drove about and hour to get there and our youngest (about 18mts at the time) enjoyed it but we never felt the need to return.

 

[KJF]

I agree - don't spend that much just to go there. I live within a 1/2 hour from it & the rest of my family is within 10 mins of it, so we have season passes for the kids. It's nice for our needs - a place to go once in a while to get wet & meet up w/ the cousins. But, definitely not worth $1000. It can get really crowded (to the point of being annoying). The 12 & 10 yr olds may get bored - there's 2? bigger slides I think, but not enough to keep them occupied all day. I'd spend the $ adding a day to your Disney trip & do the water park there! They did add 3 elmo rides, but the only one I think I'd take him on is the Dumbo-type one at that age.

I'd recommend keeping an eye out in your area for Sesame Street Live to get a taste of seeing the characters in person.

 

[design_mom]

We went there a few years ago (when DS was 3) and it was *horrible*. We are generally open-to-close park-goers and by 3pm we said "forget it" and went back to our hotel and swam in the pool. Oh well, it's definitely a memory.

My complaints:
-- I am not sure what age group this park is for. One would think it's for the preschool crowd, but there were a lot of things that my DS was still too little to do.
-- There are several "water playgrounds" and dry playgrounds with ropes/climbing things, etc. My DS is not quite as rough-and-tumble as many and he had trouble doing some of the stuff on his own -- and there were a few older, very rambunctious kids who would scramble by on the ropes (making everything wobble) and scare the smaller, less rambunctious kids. (The rambunctious kids weren't necessarily doing anything wrong -- ropes wobble... But that really left *nothing* besides the shows for my DS to do.)
-- It was very crowded and very hot while we were there (late August). There were *very few* water fountains and bottled water was exhorbitant. There was no place to fill up the bottles we brought with us except the restroom sinks (eeww!)
-- There was very little shade. The landscaping was gorgeous, but anyplace there was a tree, it was fenced off so you couldn't get near the shade. Sigh.
-- The place was not designed for strollers. There were no stroller parking areas, so strollers were parked everywhere. The doors were not automatic, and sometimes we had trouble getting in/out of buildings because strollers were parked in front of the doors so they wouldn't swing.
-- Many of the playground type rides were self-paced. They limited the number of children who could go in at any given time, but there was no time limit. When a child came out, another child could go in. However, nobody was coming out!!! Lines moved very slowly, in the baking sun.

In order to be fair, the shows were pretty cute and we met Elmo and Cookie Monster in the character meeting area and they were both great. (However, this was also self-paced...if one child wanted to talk to the character for 20 minutes, the staff didn't seem to mind.)

I won't be going back to Sesame Place.

 

[Andrea from PA]

I live near by Sesame. We enjoy it, but it is probably the smallest theme park owed by one of the Big Amusement Co (Busch Gardens Park)

The characters do have Handlers during the "summer" The beginning & mid season are great, but once the college crowd heads back to school mid August service goes down hill.

My 11YO doesn't get bored. There are 6 sldies + the large family "Duck" ride that he will still do.

If you are going to SeaWorld while in Orlando, then Sesame may be worth going to with a Season Pass -- there are pass options that cover Sesame, Sea World, Williamsburg Busch Gardens and Tampa Busch Gardens. The pass will also cover parking.

You may want to consider hotels outside of Langhorne PA (Sesame) -- many hotels in a 7 mile radius. The hotels with shuttles charge way too much money -- and the shuttle service, though nice, isn't necessary.


There are many outside the park places to eat -- Sesame Place is right on the outskirts of Oxford Valley Mall.

We also found the park clean. Our biggest complaint has been day care/summer camp trips because I don't think there are enough chaperones/child.

 

[tblmom]

We've tried it twice and vowed to NEVER go back. We found it way over crowded and the bathrooms definitely smelled. My husband waited in line for over an hour to get lunch. The water areas were so crowded you couldn't even move. Both times we went were during the summer, so maybe if you could find a less busy time you would have more luck.

 

[Gillian]

Even though we have passes and are getting them again this year, I don't think I'd spend that much for a short trip, especially with the older kids.

Last year my kids were 3 &5, and it was great for them. We're getting passes again this year, but I figure that will be it for us. Because we live close by, we tend to get there early and leave early, which makes a difference in my mood. We bring snacks. There is a picnic area near the preferred parking lot if you want to bring lunch.

Food is expensive and not really worth it.

I kind of like the no designated stroller parking. We usually leave ours in a central location and get it when we move to a different area. I bring as little as possible in the way of valuables and "stuff." It also helps that both of my kids are out of diapers.

 

[ehrn]

Do any of you season passholders know if they ever have specials like GA(or used to anyway)? I can't believe I live 30min away and NEVER see or hear about any discounts for the place! It's quite expensive really! I want to try Storybook Land this year w/ ds too.

 

[LJRJR]

I have been to Sesame Place quite a few times, we live pretty close. For two years we got season passes. A daily pass might cost $60.00 per person (I am not sure on the price) but you could buy a season pass for $80.00. It worked well for us because if it was horribly crowded (which it can be) we would leave and come back another day. I would really think twice about spending a lot of money going there, you could be disappointed. It is what it is, it is not Disney, and I really dont think older kids would enjoy themselves. If you do go, definately go early in the season, as you get close to the end of July and August, it gets really packed especially on the weekends. I hope you are able to make an easy decision, I know the reviews have been mixed. Its not an awful place, its just not Disney.

 

[KJF]

Do any of you season passholders know if they ever have specials like GA(or used to anyway)? I can't believe I live 30min away and NEVER see or hear about any discounts for the place! It's quite expensive really! I want to try Storybook Land this year w/ ds too.

We got ours for the first time last year either in July or August, Can't remember right now. They had a special - buy a pass for 2007, get the rest of 2006 for free. We were just going to do a day trip, which we had done the year before (2-day pass). It worked out cheaper than a 2-day ticket for last year & 2-day for this year. We did end up going more - at opening til about 1 or so & then leave for the day. Plus, we went for Halloween - which I don't think would be worth a full day admission. I got parking included in just my pass - well worth adding that to one pass since parking was $10 a day at the time.

 

[kathyanderson28]

I went to Sesame Place when my son was three and had a baby with me as well. We went in August with my brother and sister and their families, as well as my parents. We were fortunate in that my sister in law knew an employee who got us tickets for $20/each. I think this park was well worth a $20 ticket, but not worth more than that. My 3 year old had a great time, lots of water play areas, but it was very crowded and hot. I thought to myself if I went back, I'd go at a cooler time of year, but for a mostly water-park, I don't know how much we could do if we didn't want to get wet.
With our group, I had 2 nephews ages, 11 and 12. They thought initially it was a really lame place to be going, but they did have a good time, just took them a little while to get past the idea they were going to Sesame Street, which they are way to cool for. LOL.
It's about a 4 hour drive for us, we also did that in one day. What a long day!!! We did not feel the need to close the park.
So, my advice is, go if you can find yourself a deal, or combine your trip there with something else fun to do, but don't spend $1000 to go there.

Good luck, and have fun at Disney.

 

[jcc0621]

We get a season pass to Sesame place for me, DH and DS (3.5), He loves it! There are alot more dry rides than what has been posted, but I don't think it is worth a $1000.00 trip. You could look at their website, sesameplace.com. I know they have some partner hotels so the cost may not be as much as you think. The SUper Grover passposrt is about $135.0 each, whihc is what we get because it is also good for admission to all other Anhauser Busch Parks (Sea World, Busch Gardens (Tampa & Williamsburg, and Water Country USA). We hit Sea Worl at least once a year so the SUper Grover pass more than pays for itself with us. (It also includes free parking for all the parks too)

 

[emh1129]

We've been twice. I'm not sure if we will go back or not.
There were so many camp groups with unsupervised children and I didn't feel that there were enough staff around to keep things under control. People cut in front of almost every ride and parade.. it was frustrating.
If we could go very inexpensively in the early, early part of the summer I might try it again, but only because my 2 yr old dd LOVES Elmo and has never been. I wouldn't go back in July or August, though.
And I would never stay at the Knights Inn again..

 

[Rustysmom]

We've been there a few times and it's ok, but I wouldn't spend $1,000 to get there. We usually go to Hershey, then Lancaster and stop at Sesame on the last day. Last year our neighbor gave us free tickets for Sesame that he got at work, so we made a vacation out of it.

Like the others said, it's mostly water rides, which my DD and I don't like. Only DS likes it and he's 11 now, so not too much for him to do. DS and I like the Grover rollercoaster. We must have gone on it 10 times in a row. The shows are nice and the parade is cute, but I wouldn't really go out of my way to go there.