Is California ready for a Sesame Street theme park?
That is what we are getting with the opening this weekend of Sesame Place San Diego in Chula Vista. Owner SeaWorld Parks has converted its former Aquatica water park to a Sesame Street theme, making it the first Sesame Place theme park on the West Coast.
Why the switch? It’s not like we are seeing anything close to another Baby Boom that would drive a theme park company to go hard after families with young children. If anything, the aging population in Southern California and the western United States should be driving companies to develop attractions for older audiences.
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But just because the population of toddlers and early elementary children is not booming does not mean that there are not many of them in the huge Southern California market. SeaWorld San Diego long has positioned itself as one of the county’s top family attractions, but nearby Legoland California has been winning over many local families and area visitors since it opened more than two decades ago.
SeaWorld has a Sesame Street play area for kids, but with Legoland, Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood developing more immersive lands and attractions, it was time for SeaWorld do so something more with Sesame Street. Rather than commission some new ride or show for the Mission Bay park, SeaWorld decided to go bigger by transforming its Chula Vista water park.
The newly designed park will keep its water rides and play areas while adding Sesame Street names and decorations for them. But SeaWorld also has installed an actual Sesame Street neighborhood in the park, complete with Hooper’s Store and the 123 Sesame Street stoop, where families can pose for photos.
Big Bird hosts story time in his nest, while Super Grover’s Box Car Derby is a new roller coaster ride for kids. Sesame Place also features the award-winning Sesame Street Party Parade that debuted at SeaWorld Orlando. Along with opportunities to meet several Sesame Street characters, Sesame Place should provide plenty of attractions for young Sesame Street fans. All that’s missing is Elmo throwing hands with Zoe over that oatmeal cookie.
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To that end, a Sesame Street attraction does not have to aim solely at little kids. The franchise retains enormous appeal among the Gen Xers and Millennials who grew up with it … and continue to share Elmo memes online. Other companies that hold the theme park rights to Sesame Street in Europe and Asia have developed dark ride attractions aimed at wider audiences.
But all-ages attractions do not create the safe space for small children than one designed specifically for them can provide. Legoland does this brilliantly, with attractions that do not leave kids feeling like pint-sized interlopers in a grown-up’s space.
To compete with Legoland, SeaWorld has focused Sesame Place sharply on kids, and not laid up with a pure nostalgia play. We will find out in the months ahead whether that was the right call.