Aquatica San Diego to Become Sesame Place

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Something I noticed on the website that SEAS made is that there will be 11 water attractions, 7 dry rides and a wave pool. The more I think about this it makes a lot of sense. I know when I take my daughter to Sesame Place she primarily wants to do the water rides. So it makes sense for a park geared specifically towards younger kids to skew towards water rides. That being said I will imagine that in the coming years the park will remove some of the older water rides for dry attractions.

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I’m kind of confused by some of the water rides that are staying. Tassie’s Twister, the ProSlide funnel slide, for example, has a 48” height requirement. I get that part of their pitch is having attractions for older siblings and parents too, but that slide in particular excludes pretty much everyone in their target demographic.

That said, I love the way Cookie Monster is peering over the funnel like it’s a cookie jar. A+ for creativity right there.

Overall this is a strange but intriguing concept. Personally, I think the idea of taking an existing park and making it a “new theme park” by basically overlaying it with Sesame Street characters and dropping in some off-the-shelf kiddie rides is a sort of clever and cost-effective move. Cheap? Maybe. Effective? Probably.

The thing that gives me the most pause about the whole concept of how it’s not a divided theme park/water park combo like most two-in-one parks, including the existing Sesame Place. It’s a single park with water slides and dry rides right along next to each other. I guess it works because the water park attractions can operate year round in San Diego, but I feel like it’ll create some interesting new logistical concerns. Will guests have to take their shoes and shirts on and off between wet and dry rides? Will they be able to just ride in their swim attire on the dry rides? It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.

This park is definitely going to be an intriguing project to follow.
 
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This is all basically my issue with it. I don't have a problem with them re-using the existing property or even leaving some of the existing water rides there. My problem with it is that they are literally retheming the existing park and squeezing some flat rides in where ever they can fit them without altering the existing layout.

My other big issue is that the main theme'd area of the park The Sesame Street is being tucked into a corner next to the original entrance. The main Street of Sesame Street should be the core of the park with everything branching off of it. Even if SEAS wanted to save as much of the existing park as possible I feel like they should have razed everything in the center of the park; tear down Kiwi Traders, tear down Waterstone Grill, Mango Market, and Big Surf Snacks and run your Street through the center of the park in that area that is just a sea of concrete. Build brand new shops and eateries within the Sesame Street buildings. You can leave your wave pool, and your tamer slides and then spread your dry rides in the open spaces.

Instead they are taking literally the cheapest option they could get away with.
 
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I completely agree with you @Shane. This park has some land around it suitable for expansion, and the way the concept art makes it appear is that the only Sesame Place connection is with the cramped front entrance. This park has enough space right in the center of the park for a SWO replica to solidify the theme. Instead, they're cramming it all in the corner. I get wanting to be cost effective, but this just feels uninspired. They want to take an under performing park and make something out of it, and you want to sell multi-park tickets/passes. What they're doing just feels cheap and, in my opinion, not enough to garner the result they want. Just because it is not Orlando does not mean you can't put effort into it.
 
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This guy.

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Shane said:
This is all basically my issue with it. I don't have a problem with them re-using the existing property or even leaving some of the existing water rides there. My problem with it is that they are literally retheming the existing park and squeezing some flat rides in where ever they can fit them without altering the existing layout.

Instead they are taking literally the cheapest option they could get away with.
Click to expand...

Let me throw in a quick $0.02 on this:

They were really closing in on how much time they had to get a second SP gate open right? Building a new park from scratch was going to be a huge challenge within a year IMO. Their few options then were to pay out the backside to get something built, pay very little to convert an existing park with minimal changes, or pay in-between to buy a small park and convert.

If you are still struggling the way SEAS is financially doing to convert of an existing park is the best option then.

And I've been thinking bout the future of a SP location and Williamsburg is the next best option:
SWO: Lack of space
BGT: Unless they do away with the zoology department, there's no space
SWSA: Has the space, but the main park is going to need some love first

Therefor I bring you the riskiest idea I can give you from a SEAS perspective -

Buy what used to be Six Flags New Orleans. Build a new Busch Gardens from scratch. In the space opposite from the parking lot, there's the space for a near 1million sq ft SPNO to be built.
 
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Financially this is a no brainer. Most infrastructure is already in place. You are converting a seasonal park to a year round park (increased revenue). In addition, waterparks have a lower price point than traditional theme parks. So probably about $20 to 30 increase in daily ticket price (increased profits). All for the cost of rethemeing and cheap family and kiddie flats and a small coaster. I don't know aquatica's attendance figures but just the gate cost increases will pay for the flats within a year or two.
 
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Biggest thing i can't get behind is the giant wave pool. Takes up too much space and makes it too water parkish for me.
 
tursiops said:
Biggest thing i can't get behind is the giant wave pool. Takes up too much space and makes it too water parkish for me.
Click to expand...

Maybe they'll redo that part somewhere down the road, but for the timeline they're obligated to use and likely cap ex they're likely to have available that wouldn't be year 1.

Also, assuming they have plans to remove/redo it a la Coconut Shores, it could be a good option for future marketing to new rides and/or experiences in the future.
 
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So I spent some time drawing up how I think they should have done this Aquatica to Sesame Place transformation. I think that my concept really makes the Sesame "Street" the central point for the park as a Sesame themed park should instead of having it sit off to the side as an afterthought. I still retain all but two pieces of the original water park ditching the giant funnel and the body slide complex.

This is roughly based on the Willaimsburg concept for a Sesame Place using available space.

Areas
Purple
Arrivals and Ticketing
Red
"The Neighborhood"
Green
"Forest of Fun"
Includes a nice little amphitheater
For ease of creating this concept I've inserted a mirror image of Vapor Trail from the PA park
Yellow
"Central Park"
A carousel at its center
Blue
"SeaSide"
Basically the original water park
I've added a boardwalk themed area to SeasSide with a small Gravity Group wood coaster

SesamePlaceConcept.png
And for reference purposes I am including the original unaltered Aquatica aerial.
Aquatica SanDiego.png
 
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