Aquatica San Diego to Become Sesame Place

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BGWnut

BGWnut

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Sep 24, 2018
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SEAS has announced that the second Sesame Place will be opening in 2021 in San Diego on the site of the current Aquatica San Diego.

California Family Theme Park & Water Park | Sesame Place San Diego

With a mix of theme park and water rides, shows, games and fun activities for all ages, come see why Sesame Place is the best family theme park. Located in Chula Vista, California.
sesameplace.com sesameplace.com

www.sandiegouniontribune.com

SeaWorld plans a new Sesame Place theme park in Chula Vista

Theme park based on Sesame Street characters to open in 2021 at the Aquatica water park site. It's the first on the West Coast.
www.sandiegouniontribune.com www.sandiegouniontribune.com
 
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I guess it makes sense why they have felt they were still on track time wise. They are apparently removing adult rides and retheming Aquatica into Sesame Place which should take less time than building a new park from scratch.
 
Aquatica San Diego will be closing at the end of the 2020 season to make way for Sesame Place San Diego in 2020.

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Aquatica San Diego to Become Sesame Place

SEAS has announced that the second Sesame Place will be opening in 2021 in San Diego on the site of the current Aquatica San Diego. https://sesameplace.com/san-diego/ https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/story/2019-10-21/seaworld-plans-a-new-sesame-place-theme-park-in-san-diego
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Wow. This is really unexpected. That park was literally bought less than ten years ago with the sole purpose to be a water park and now it’s going to be converted to a theme park. I imagine based on the success of this we’ll see how Williamsburg will play out, but I think with San Diego being a much bigger tourism market and the negative connotation of the SEAS brand in California this is a very smart move.
 
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I understand why they chose this. But I'm still sort of disappointed it wouldn't be going somewhere closer.

But, and I doubt anybody could honestly answer this, but why is Sesame Place mostly a water park? Like I understand having a splash pad or water playground for kids like FoF and LotD has. But this is just a water park themed the Sesame Street. PA's is the same thing. I just wanna know why they picked water park as their park of choice, instead of going with a dry park with some water attractions.
 
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Unless I'm mistaken, isn't the climate in that part of the world hot and humid for most parts of the year?

I'd figure it's easier to get kids and their parents interested in getting in a water park for them over a dry park with some water based rides.
 
Jonesta6 said:
Unless I'm mistaken, isn't the climate in that part of the world hot and humid for most parts of the year?

I'd figure it's easier to get kids and their parents interested in getting in a water park for them over a dry park with some water based rides.
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Yeah, you're mistaken. San Diego has probably the nicest weather year round. Hardly gets above 80 in the summer and it's not the convection oven humidity we have here.
 
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It sounds like they will be adding in a number of dry rides. I am not sure why it was ever this way.

Currently SPL is roughly 50/50 water and dry rides. My guess is that the original developers wanted to have both because they felt it would keep the people coming back and allow them to have more variety then just a water park or just a dry park.
 
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Connor said:
Wow. This is really unexpected. That park was literally bought less than ten years ago with the sole purpose to be a water park and now it’s going to be converted to a theme park. I imagine based on the success of this we’ll see how Williamsburg will play out, but I think with San Diego being a much bigger tourism market and the negative connotation of the SEAS brand in California this is a very smart move.
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I do agree. I think it's a smart move to help bolster business in Southern California. They have been heavily investing in rides there especially. The combo of new rides and a be family park should be an interesting combo that will probably greatly increase pass sales.
 
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BGWnut said:
It sounds like they will be adding in a number of dry rides. I am not sure why it was ever this way.

Currently SPL is roughly 50/50 water and dry rides. My guess is that the original developers wanted to have both because they felt it would keep the people coming back and allow them to have more variety then just a water park or just a dry park.
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Yes but it wasn't always 50/50, the dry rides have been added over the years at the PA park.

I'm asking in general as to why for Sesame Street they chose water park versus a dry park. Sure for San Diego I suppose it makes more sense to have it be more of a water park than a dry park. But for PA? From my vaguest of memories (which of course means it's not entirely accurate at all) sesame place was more of a water park that they've slowly added dry rides to. Having a water park based for Sesame Street just doesn't make a whole lot of sense in my mind, especially for PA where it does actually get cold. Sure now they have enough to operate like BGW does for Halloween and Christmas. But it's still mostly a water park.

That's where I'm saying it's an odd choice. Idk to me meet and greets with characters and kids in soaking wet swim suits aren't a good mix for the costumes.
 
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The more I look into this, the less and less I am impressed by it. It's more or less the existing water park minus one intense slide, a Zamperla kiddie rides package, and a new entrance with a small Sesame Street Facade.
 
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Shane said:
Ok, so based on the concept art I've taken the current Aquatica park map and relabeled some things roughly and marked in blue where it appears they are planning to "drop in" some dry rides within the existing park.View attachment 18472
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In the article that I posted on the original post that are quoted as saying that the only existing ride that will be removed is HooRoo Run. It also says that there will be coasters and other rides. My guess would be that there will be additional information coming.

Here is another quote from the article
Screenshot_20191021-161827.png
 
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I just wanted to throw it out there that the timing of this announcement makes a lot of sense - the 3Q results/meeting is just a couple of weeks away
 
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