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So i got an email from Sesame Place that intrigued me. They are doing special weekends for Peppa Pig and PJ Masks. That alone isn't that exciting, except it makes me wonder if those are other IP the park could build on? An expansion into the Germany lot, as previously mentioned, is much more interesting if it's a brand new PJ Masks land. That would push the age demographic up from the normal sesame street range.
 
My guess is that whatever this is, it will be limited* to some character appearances or the like.

Merlin actually has exclusive rights to Peppa Pig IP for theme parks:

Merlin Entertainments (“Merlin”)...announces it has entered into a multi-territory partnership with Entertainment One (“eOne”) to license the Peppa Pig brand exclusively for use in developing and operating location-based entertainment attractions across multiple formats and themed accommodation.

Under the terms of the deal, Merlin will have the exclusive multi-territory rights to roll out new attraction formats and themed accommodation which will include Peppa Pig and all her family and friends. The deal covers all territories excluding the UK and in China, rights will be licensed to Merlin on a non-exclusive basis.

The deal will see the creation of fully branded, standalone attractions in different formats as well as the development of dedicated branded areas within existing Merlin’s Resort Theme Parks. Merlin expects to open in-park areas in two Resort Theme Parks in 2018 and it is expected the first standalone attraction will open in 2019.
Source: https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/news?Tag=Peppa%20Pig

*Well, limited future use unless you want to revive last summer's Merlin rumors, in which case SP may have access to more Peppa Pig IP in the future... ;)

Edit: But it is interesting, and perhaps an acknowledgement that SEAS knows they need to better address that middle age demo.
 
So over the weekend I was thinking about something. This month every weekend is a special Sesame Street theme. I wonder if this is a test of the waters to see the turnout for SS type attractions. I went there Saturday on the way to KD just to look at the expanded area for the event, shall I say a waste of time and space. While FoF was slammed packed the are for events was deserted. In fact when we walked back there I almost felt as if I was trying to go somewhere I wasn't suppose to be. We were there at about 3pm and it was hard to find. Once we found it the team member as we walked in says " can I help yall find something?". I told him we were just looking around. There was literally one other person back there and they were laying across one of the benches. The rest of FoF was packed, but I didnt see anything more than a normal day there, nothing special. There were a few extra decorations but mostly alot of people standing around the splash pad.
 
warfelg said:
Eh.  Really hard to use a quick snapshot for what the event was like.
The reason I went to the park was because I saw numerous photos of the area completely empty. I went there personally to see what it was about and there was nothing back there going on. The sign that had what looked like all the special events for the weekend pointed to the backstage area and we didn't see anything special. We walked the rest of FoF and saw nothing but the normal rides and meet and greet. They did turn on the splash pad while we were there so that was fun to watch people scramble to get away from the sudsy over chlorinated water. I wouldnt call what we did a snapshot, did we miss something? We were there in the middle of the posted times for the events.
 
I am very excited by the idea of a Sesame Place in Williamsburg. The one thing that still bothers me is the association between Sesame Street and asphalt streets. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is known for going through many hurdles to not have any asphalt in their park.

The scenic style of Sesame Street on TV has changed a lot recently in favor of a more colorful, sterile look, with more shrubbery and less pavement. The streets themselves have shrunk, giving way to fancy pavers and lush grass. This style fits the Busch Gardens brand perfectly.

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I see Sesame Place Williamsburg as an opportunity to fix the mistakes made in the early years of Forest of Fun, with no shade and flat scenery. I hope they choose a more thoughtful approach to the design this time around.
 
snowman6996 said:
TPR is posting on their main page that Sesame Street is coming to Sea World Orlando.  I guess that means its not coming to Williamsburg.

Mo they already had a Sesame Forrest of Fun section planned. It's just a section inside the park like what we already have. This would be a whole new park built off of what we have.
 
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snowman6996 said:
TPR is posting on their main page that Sesame Street is coming to Sea World Orlando.  I guess that means its not coming to Williamsburg.

SWO initially announced their new Sesame Street area in March. More information came out this week. As horsesboy said, isn't a full Sesame Place like the proposed park in Williamsburg.

We have a thread on the project here.
 
Gavin said:
What would happen to the cemetery in the France lot if they did this? I can’t imagine it’s something they would want in the middle of a new park.

There’s an easement on that land I believe so...honestly...I doubt vacating the easement would be that easy. Great question.
 
tursiops said:
You could build structures around it to hide it i bet.

Looking at the map of the proposed park, and attempting to scale and overlay that looks like exactly what they did. They just have either a building around it, or have it at the crossroads of the paths, to just be open space.
 
snowman6996 said:
TPR is posting on their main page that Sesame Street is coming to Sea World Orlando.  I guess that means its not coming to Williamsburg.

Ummm....

not for nothing but post hoc ergo propter hoc is considered a logical fallacy for a reason.
 
InParkMagazine.com said that SeaWorld will announce their second Sesame Place in a column about things happening in 2018. Assuming they know anything that we don't, I guess that means that SeaWorld will give the announcement in 2018. I don't know if this is correct, but it is an exciting possibility.

inparkmagazine.com said:
SeaWorld will announce the location of a second Sesame Place theme park, modeled on the original in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

Source. (page 28)
 
With the rush put on the Orlando sesame project and solid news for first quarter performance, maybe they will announce something soon to capitalize on momentum.
 
Just throwing this out but assuming that what we have heard about WCUSA Project 2019, BGW Prodject 2019 and Prodgect Madtid are all true it seems to me that its entirely likely that these 3 large thrill seaker targeted projects might be an effort to appeal to that demographic before taking off year or two to build Sesame Place. Just my two cents worth of speculation.
 
Just throwing this out but assuming that what we have heard about WCUSA Project 2019, BGW Prodject 2019 and Prodgect Madtid are all true it seems to me that its entirely likely that these 3 large thrill seaker targeted projects might be an effort to appeal to that demographic before taking off year or two to build Sesame Place. Just my two cents worth of speculation.
It was recently reported that as part of the earnings report, it was said that SEAS has vowed to spend $150 million a year on new capital expansion projects for the parks in order to raise attendance levels by adding a new ride, show or event attraction to each of their parks every year.
 
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This really has me excited. Like the BGWFans twitter put out there:
Invadr 2017
BfE 2018
Project Ireland 2019
WCUSA Project 2019
Project Madrid 2020 (?)
Sesame Place 2021 (?)

It's rather exciting that they are looking to stay dedicated like this to growth. And it's nice that we get a family coaster, family flat, thrilling flat, and possibly a thrilling coaster in a 4 year span. And if that's the setup to do Sesame Place and they move forward with having a kid centeric park, I think that means only great things for the future of SEAS.

Obviously having a lot of time to process the idea of a Sesame Place Williamsburg....the more and more I hope this is a reality. I know how many people would rather see an 'all inclusive' park that has area's for all ages. And while I don't disagree with that notion, I still feel there needs to be a certain amount of 'separation' that goes on for the long term health of the park. They can have more 'adult' things going on at BGW (Summer nights, Beer Fest, Halloween events) and having kid friendly versions of the same thing going on at SPW is something that can really boost SEAS as a whole.

And personally (I do admit to not having kids, but I have cousins and friends with kids) I don't think the two park thing is as big of a problem as others want to make it out to be. And I got to say, it worries me the people that say they still want to do something like the Halloween nights with their young kid. Some of that is not the best for them. And if the complaint is two parks in one day, what did you do with your younger kids when you went into Haunts/Mazes that weren't all that great for them? Theoretically couldn't you still do the same? Just now there's the chance for more kid friendly (or bigger) area for your little ones to enjoy their time too!
 
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