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Sesame Place San Diego Review
Sesame Place San Diego is a fun little park that is primarily aimed at children. But.....it has a really interesting history. So.....this place is primarily a water park since.....for most of its history, that's essentially all that it was. It opened in 1997 and briefly was an independent water park called Whitewater Canyon. But 3 years later, it was bought out by Cedar Fair, and turned into one of the Soak Citys. The original Soak City adjacent to Knotts Berry Farm, Soak City Palm Springs (R.I.P. I miss that place), and now Soak City U.S.A (San Diego). That lasted until 2013, when they sold it to Busch and they turned it into Aquatica San Diego. It never really interested me too much back then as.....it seemed like a fun waterpark, but.....nothing too special worth going out of the way for. But eventually, Busch sees just how popular Sesame Place over in Philadelphia is. They thought to themselves, "Hey! People love Sesame Place over on the East Coast! We should build one specifically for the West Coast!". And so they converted Aquatica San Diego into Sesame Place and turned the water park into the Sesame Place water park (they amazingly kept most of the water slides. The only one they demolished for being too extreme was the drop slide. Everything else stayed). And of couse, they also added some regular dry rides and made this into a proper park, including, you guessed it. A kiddy coaster, which is what drove us over there to check the place out. We unfortunately went too late to explore the water park since....I forgot that California Water parks are still seasonal. It technically was open, but only one single water slide was open. Which.....review of that down below. But hey. I at least got to check out the dry section of the park. Check out the rest of the review to see all that that entails.
Rollercoasters
There is a link to a review of all the Rollercoasters at Sesame Place San Diego.
Kiddy Coasters
Super Grover's Box Car Derby Review
Flat Rides
Here are the reviews of all the Flat Rides at Sesame Place San Diego. And......there's not a ton since.....they added a handful of flat rides to make this also a regular dry rides park on top of being just a water park. The only flat ride that's remotely adult was Abby's Fairy Flight. These are some chairswings. Nothing special about them. They're chairswings. They're fun. Standard family flat ride found at nearly all the parks in Southern California (and most parks in general). They also have a carousel, which.....I didn't check out, as well as a carousel, a Wacky Bus, a kiddy condor, a small minature Dumbo-style ride, and a minature power tower ride (Can we make an actual drop tower with this same concept?). Yeah. They're all kiddy flat rides. I know the park is still in its infancy and has a ton of room to grow. But I'm hoping they add more family flat rides. I'm sure they could find some sort of rides like fliers or a scrambler at a discount (especially given that a certain SoCal park just demolished their scrambler with no warning).
Water Rides
Sesame Place San Diego has no water rides. No, the water slides in the water park section don't count as they're a seperate thing.
Water Park
I'm reviewing Seasme Place as a whole, including the water park, up at the beginning as one place. I'm not segregating the park into the dry section and the water park since....it's majority water park with a small handful of rides instead of the other way around like most parks.
The Major Waterslides
There is a link to a review of all the Major Waterslides at Sesame Place San Diego.
(Please keep in mind that there's no review of any of the other water slides since they all were closed thanks to visiting in October).
Honker Dinger Dash Review
Dining
I did not eat at Sesame Place. It doesn't seem like anything here is special though as far as cuisine is concerned. Though if its not the food you want, but special experiences, I do see they have a Dine with Elmo & Friends resteraunt. If you have a young kid who loves Elmo, I bet they'd love that.
Theming and Other Attractions
Here are the reviews of all the other stuff at Sesame Place San Diego. As far as theming goes, it's just Sesame Street theming, which.....is just Sesame Street characters and signs everywhere. For someone like me, it's nothing. But again, it's meant for little little kids, who.....I imagine they'd love it if Sesame Street is their thing. As for other things to do, they have the Sesame Street neighborhood, which....is basic activities you'd find in your neighborhood, such as doing standard chores which are a drag as an adult, but for a little kid, are fun and exciting (Aww. They're still innocent and haven't learned that doing laundry is not exciting and actually quite boring), and there's storytime with Big Bird. That's nice. And of course, there's several shows and parades that would entertain any child who loves Sesame Street.
In Conclusion
Sesame Place San Diego is a cute little park. Yeah. I essentially only managed to check out the dry ride section of the park, barely scratching the surface of the water park, only able to do one major water slide. The dry ride section of the park really is nothing special. Just some basic credit whoring that.....I sure hope you got in with a Sea World Platinum Pass. But I'm not gonna lie. The water park does seem kind of cool. I'm not gonna lie and say that this looks like one of the best water parks of all time. Not even the best in California as I'm betting that New Wild Rivers, Sunsplash, and even Raging Waters all look much better as far as water parks go. But it still does seem like a fun little water park that honestly, looks far better than any water park themed to freaking Sesame Street has the right to be. Almost makes me want to check that out sometime when I hae a Sea World Platinum Pass since.....it'd be free. But on top of that, I could definately see this place grow. The Sesame Place in Philadelphia is bigger, and on top of more rides, has a family wooden coaster called Oscar's Wacky Taxi, which looks like a fun little family coaster. I could unironically see Busch adding a clone of that to here, and I think it would be a good fit. Or perhaps a Vekoma Family SLC. That'd be a good investment. I do see a good future for this place. And of course, if you have young kids who like Sesame Street, they would love it since.....they are the target audience.
Enthusiast FAQs.
*Are there kiddy coaster restrictions? - If you couldn't ride the kiddy coaster here, I would not be reviewing this place.
Tips
*Make sure to get the credit.
*Be sure to check out the water park if you visit in the summer.
*Have Fun!!!!
Theme Park Category:
Credit Whoring
Location
Chula Vista, California, USA
Last Day Visited
October 16, 2022
Video
I do not have enough footage for a Sesame Place San Diego video. There's really no need for a video of a park this small, but it's not impossible to say that this park will ever get a video of its own.
Complete Update List
2022
Sesame Place 2022
Here's a link to the parks website.
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