Aquatica_San_Diego

Sesame Place San Diego

Sesame Place San Diego

Theme park and water park in California

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]

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Sesame Place San Diego is owned and operated by United Parks & Resorts, 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

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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

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Former Attractions

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References

  1. [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. [2]
    |"Sesame Place San Diego Sensory guide". SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment. p. 6. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  3. [3]
    "Making a Splash in Chula Vista". Los Angeles Times. May 18, 1997. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  4. [4]
    "White Water Canyon in Chula Vista Facing Foreclosure After Two Seasons". February 3, 1999.
  5. [5]
    "Cedar Fair completes water-park acquisition". Toledo Blade. December 8, 1999. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  6. [6]
    Gale, Elaine (March 19, 2000). "Knott's Job Fair Attracts Hundreds". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  7. [7]
    "Soak City Begins Year with Promotion". May 21, 2000.
  8. [8]
    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. [9]
    MacDonald, Brady (December 26, 2012). "32 best new theme park additions for 2013". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  10. [10]
    MacDonald, Brady (November 21, 2012). "SeaWorld bringing Aquatica water park to San Diego". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
  11. [11]
    "Press Releases | Sesame Workshop". www.sesameworkshop.org. December 15, 2022.
  12. [12]
    "SeaWorld plans a new Sesame Place theme park in Chula Vista". October 21, 2019.
  13. [13]
    "Sesame Place San Diego on Track to Open March 2022. Take a Peek at the Rides".
  14. [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. [15]
    "Sesame Street Neighborhood | Sesame Place San Diego".
  16. [16]
    "Sesame Street Meet & Greets | Sesame Place San Diego".
  17. [17]
    https://www.inparkmagazine.com/the-counts-splash-castle-opens-at-sesame-place-san-diego/
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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Aquatica_San_Diego, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.