Sesame Place (San Diego)

Last updated

Sesame Place San Diego
Previously known as Whitewater Canyon (1997–2000)
Knott's Soak City U.S.A.- San Diego (2000–2013)
Aquatica San Diego (2013–2021)
Location Chula Vista, San Diego County, California, United States
StatusOperating
OpenedMay 31, 1997;26 years ago (1997-05-31) (as Whitewater Canyon)
May 27, 2000;23 years ago (2000-05-27) (as Knott's Soak City U.S.A. – San Diego)
June 1, 2013;10 years ago (2013-06-01) (as Aquatica San Diego)
March 26, 2022;22 months ago (2022-03-26) (as Sesame Place San Diego)
Owner SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (under a license from Sesame Workshop)
Operated bySeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
General managerJim Lake (president) [1]
Theme Sesame Street
SloganGo Before They Grow
Operating seasonYear-round (currently planned)
Area17 acres
Attractions
Total18 (as of April 8, 2022)
Roller coasters1 (as of April 8, 2022)
Water rides10 (as of April 8, 2022)
Other rides8 (as of April 8, 2022)
ShowsNumerous throughout the day and a parade daily with all the characters.
Website Sesame Place San Diego Home Page

Sesame Place San Diego is a children's theme park and water park, located in Chula Vista, California. It opened on March 26, 2022, on the former site of Aquatica San Diego. It is the first theme park in the world to open up as a certified autism center by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES). Sesame Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the first theme park in the world to be a certified autism center. [2]

Contents

Sesame Place San Diego is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, which operates the park under an exclusive license from Sesame Workshop, the non-profit owner of Sesame Street .

History

As a water park

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. [3] 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. [4]

In December 1999, Cedar Fair purchased the park from its original owners for $11.5 million. [5] 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. [6] [7]

On November 20, 2012, Cedar Fair announced it had sold the park to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. [8] The acquisition saw the park transformed into a 32-acre (13 ha) water park named Aquatica San Diego. The refurbished park reopened on June 1, 2013. [8] [9] [10] 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.

As Sesame Place San Diego

In 2017, Sesame Workshop announced that a new Sesame Place park would open "no later than" mid-2021. [11] 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. [12]

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. [13]

The park opened on March 26, 2022. [14]

Attractions

As the park was originally a water park, Sesame Place San Diego contains mostly water attractions, but with its retheming, several dry attractions are included as well.

Dry Attractions

NameOpenedDescriptionManufacturer
Abby's Fairy Flight2022A Chairswing Ride.
Cookie Climb2022Two mini climbing towers, one Cookie Monster themed, the other is Cookie themed. The guest pulls themselves up in a chair and the ride drops the chair slowly.
Elmo's Rockin' Rockets2022An Aerial-Carousel Ride.
Rosita's Harmony Hills2022A play area.
Rub-A-Dub Sub2022A Crazy Bus ride themed after a Submarine.
Sesame Street Soar and Spin2022A Samba Balloon ride.
Sunny Day Carousel2022A Carousel.
Super Grover's Box Car Derby 2022A Super Grover-themed junior coaster. It is a clone of Air Grover at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

In addition to the rides, a replica of Sesame Street called "Sesame Street Neighborhood" is also featured, [15] alongside photo ops with many Sesame Street characters. [16]

Water Attractions

NameOpenedDescriptionFormer names
Bert's Topsy Turvy TunnelsTBCThree 60-foot-tall double-inner-tube slides. Two enclosed and one open air.Kiwi Curl (Aquatica)
Palisades Plunge (Soak City)
Big Bird's BeachTBCA 550,000-gallon wave pool.Big Surf Shores (Aquatica)
Balboa Bay (Soak City)
Big Bird's Rambling RiverTBCA 1250-foot-long lazy river Loggerhead Lane (Aquatica)
Sunset River (Soak City)
Cookie's Monster Mixer2005A 75-foot-tall ProSlide Tornado water slide that drops 60 feet (23 m) into a large six-story funnel.Tassie's Twister (Aquatica)
Pacific Spin (Soak City)
Elmo's Silly Sand SlidesTBCA play area designed for children featuring smaller slides.Slippity Dippity (Aquatica)
Tykes Trough (Soak City)
Ernie's Twisty Turny TunnelsTBCThree 60-foot-tall, single-inner-tube slides. Two enclosed and one open air.Woohoo Falls (Aquatica)
Solana Storm Watch Tower (Soak City)
Honker Dinger Dash2014A six-lane racing slide with guests sliding down on mats through enclosed and open sections.Taumata Racer (Aquatica)
Oscar's Rotten RaftsTBCA 78-foot-tall four-person family raft water slide.Walhalla Wave (Aquatica)
Coronado Express (Soak City)
Snuffy's Spaghetti SlidesTBCA 60-foot-tall water slide complex with six body slides, four enclosed and two open air.Whanau Way (Aquatica)
Imperial Run (Soak City)
The Count's Splash Castle2023A ProSlide RideHOUSE. It replaced the previous The Count's Splash Castle. The new structure is a multi-level, interactive water-play attraction that features 4 water slides, 111 play elements, including three giant tipping buckets that dump over 1,300 gallons of water combined. [17]

Former Attractions

NameOpenedRemovedDescriptionFormer names
The Count's Splash Castle20222023A four-story interactive, area that features two slides, hoses, jets, geysers, and a 500-gallon bucket that unloads every five minutes. The attraction was removed for the 2023 reason, and was replaced with a larger and better version.Walkabout Waters and Kata's Kookaburra Cove (Aquatica)
Dick's Beach House and Gremmie Lagoon (Soak City)
HooRoo Run2000's2019An 80-foot-tall speed slide with two open-air and two enclosed slides. It was removed after the 2019 season, as the slide's drop and speed were deemed too extreme for the Sesame Place retheming. The ride also suffered from maintenance issues and frequent downtime during Aquatica’s last several seasons.La Jolla Falls (Soak City)

Related Research Articles

Cedar Point is a 364-acre (147 ha) amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point, which is owned and operated by Cedar Fair, is the flagship of the company's amusement park chain. Known as "America's Roller Coast", the park features 16 roller coasters, which ranks third among amusement parks in North America behind Six Flags Magic Mountain (20) and Canada's Wonderland (18). Cedar Point's normal operating season runs from early May until Labor Day in September, which is followed by weekend-only operation through Halloween during an annual event known as HalloWeekends. Other amenities and attractions featured within the park include a one-mile-long (1.6 km) beach, an outdoor water park named Cedar Point Shores, an indoor water park named Castaway Bay, two marinas, and an outdoor sports complex called Cedar Point Sports Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knott's Berry Farm</span> Amusement park in Buena Park, California

Knott's Berry Farm is a 57-acre (2,500,000 sq ft) theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In March 2015, it was ranked as the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America, while averaging approximately 4 million visitors per year. The park features over 40 rides, including roller coasters, family rides, dark rides, and water rides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramount Parks</span> Former amusement park owner and operator

Paramount Parks was the operator of Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Kings Dominion, Paramount's Great America, Paramount's Carowinds, and Paramount Canada's Wonderland, which annually attracted about 13 million patrons. National Amusements-owned Viacom assumed control of the company as part of its acquisition of Paramount Pictures in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedar Fair</span> American amusement park owner and operator

Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, thirteen outdoor water parks, one indoor water park, and fourteen resort properties in the US and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings Dominion</span> Amusement park in Virginia

Kings Dominion is an amusement park in the eastern United States, located in Doswell, Virginia, twenty miles (30 km) north of Richmond and 75 miles (120 km) south of Washington, D.C. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the 280-acre (1.1 km2) park opened to the public on May 3, 1975, and features more than 60 rides, shows and attractions including 13 roller coasters and a 20-acre (8.1 ha) water park. Its name is derived from the name of its sister park, Kings Island near Cincinnati, and the nickname for the state of Virginia, "Old Dominion."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sesame Place (Pennsylvania)</span> Theme park in Langhorne, Pennsylvania

Sesame Place is a children's theme park and water park, located outside of Philadelphia in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Busch Gardens</span> American amusement parks in Florida & Virginia

Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The original park is in Tampa, Florida, and the second park is in Williamsburg, Virginia. There were also previously Busch Gardens parks in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California (1964–1979) and Houston, Texas (1971–1973). The "Busch Gardens" name was earlier used to refer to the gardens developed by Adolphus Busch near his home in Pasadena, California, which were open to the public from 1906 to 1937.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California's Great America</span> Amusement park in Santa Clara, California

California's Great America, often shortened to Great America, is a 112-acre (45 ha) amusement park located in Santa Clara, California. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. California's Great America features over 40 rides and attractions, and one of its most notable is Gold Striker, which has been featured as a top-ranked wooden roller coaster in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards publication. Other notable rides include RailBlazer, a single-rail coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction, and Flight Deck, an inverted coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard. The park appeared in the 1994 films Beverly Hills Cop III and Getting Even with Dad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SeaWorld Orlando</span> Theme park and marine zoological park

SeaWorld Orlando is a theme park and marine zoological park located in Orlando, Florida. Although separately gated, it is often promoted with neighboring parks Discovery Cove and Aquatica as well as Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, all of which are owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. In 2022, SeaWorld Orlando hosted an estimated 4.45 million guests, ranking it the 10th most visited amusement park in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SeaWorld San Diego</span> Theme park in San Diego, California

SeaWorld San Diego is a theme park located in Mission Bay Park, San Diego, California, United States. Owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the park is an animal-focused marine mammal park, oceanarium, marine animal rehabilitation center, and aquarium with both indoor and outdoor aquatic exhibits. The park's shared waters of Mission Bay connect directly to the Pacific Ocean, and it is this location which enables the rescuing, rehabilitating and re-releasing of injured, orphaned or stranded marine animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knott's Soak City</span> Seasonal water park in California

Knott's Soak City is a seasonal water park owned and operated by Cedar Fair located in Buena Park, California. The Knott's Soak City name was previously used for two other water parks in Southern California, since sold to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and CNL Lifestyle Properties.

Since the 1990s, Nickelodeon, a worldwide children's television network and franchise, owned by Paramount Global, has had an involvement in the creation and theming of amusement parks rides.

United Parks & Resorts Inc. is an American theme park and entertainment company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. and owns and operates twelve recreational destinations in the United States, including eight theme parks and four water parks. Notable brands within its portfolio include SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. In May 2018, Themed Entertainment Association and the global management firm AECOM reported that SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment ranked ninth in the world for attendance among theme park companies, led by parks SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

This is a list of events and openings related to amusement parks that have occurred in 2012. These various lists are not exhaustive.

This is a list of events and openings related to amusement parks that occurred in 2013. These various lists are not exhaustive.

Aquatica is a chain of water parks owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. Aquatica parks are operating in Orlando, Florida and San Antonio, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voyage to the Iron Reef</span> Defunct 4D interactive dark ride

Voyage to the Iron Reef was a 4D interactive dark ride located at Knott's Berry Farm theme park in Buena Park, California. Designed by Triotech, the underwater-themed attraction opened to the public on May 15, 2015. It was the second release in the Amusement Dark collection, a branded initiative to construct a variety of video-game-based dark rides at Cedar Fair amusement parks. Wonder Mountain's Guardian was the first in the collection that opened at Canada's Wonderland in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abby's Flower Tower</span> Ride at SeaWorld Orlando

Abby's Flower Tower is a flower themed spinning samba tower ride located in Sesame Street at SeaWorld Orlando in the United States. Manufactured by Zamperla, the ride lifts and spins riders to heights of 30 feet in the air. Jazzy Jellies was opened to the public in 2006. It closed in 2018 to retheme the ride to Abby's Flower Tower as part of the changing from Shamu's Happy Harbor to Sesame Street Land.

Super Grover's Box Car Derby is the name for three similar steel roller coasters at SeaWorld San Antonio and SeaWorld Orlando in the Sesame Street sections of each park, a kid-oriented section, with one newly-built model being located at Sesame Place San Diego. The trains were originally designed to resemble the mascot, Shamu.

References

  1. ↑ San Diego Union Tribune (March 22, 2022). ""Big Bird and Elmo call San Diego home as Sesame Place opens this weekend"" . Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  2. ↑ | "Sesame Place San Diego Sensory guide". SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment. p. 6. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Making a Splash in Chula Vista". Los Angeles Times . May 18, 1997. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  4. ↑ "White Water Canyon in Chula Vista Facing Foreclosure After Two Seasons". February 3, 1999.
  5. ↑ "Cedar Fair completes water-park acquisition". Toledo Blade . December 8, 1999. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  6. ↑ Gale, Elaine (March 19, 2000). "Knott's Job Fair Attracts Hundreds". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Soak City Begins Year with Promotion". May 21, 2000.
  8. 1 2 Weisberg, Lori (November 20, 2012). "Soak City to become a SeaWorld water park". Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
  9. ↑ MacDonald, Brady (December 26, 2012). "32 best new theme park additions for 2013". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  10. ↑ MacDonald, Brady (November 21, 2012). "SeaWorld bringing Aquatica water park to San Diego". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Press Releases | Sesame Workshop". www.sesameworkshop.org. December 15, 2022.
  12. ↑ "SeaWorld plans a new Sesame Place theme park in Chula Vista". October 21, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Sesame Place San Diego on Track to Open March 2022. Take a Peek at the Rides".
  14. ↑ Summerville, Krista (March 22, 2022). "The first Sesame Street theme park on the West Coast opens in San Diego". KGTV. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Sesame Street Neighborhood | Sesame Place San Diego".
  16. ↑ "Sesame Street Meet & Greets | Sesame Place San Diego".
  17. ↑ https://www.inparkmagazine.com/the-counts-splash-castle-opens-at-sesame-place-san-diego/

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.