Sesame Place & SeaWorld Entertainment Facts!

Written by Lindsay Tobias

1. Sesame Place was called “the playground of the 21^st century”, which was one way it tried to distance itself from theme parks.
2. Excluding the opening festivities, Characters did not appear in the park til 1985.
3. The original signage for the attractions played off the Sesame Place logo, this continued in the Texas and Japan parks
4. There was originally a bridge system above the park that started from Big Bird’s head. The Texas and Japan parks used this as the park entrance. At an unknown point, the Bridge System was closed and the steps existed til 2007 when Sunny Day Carrousel was installed. Snuffy’s Slides are the vestige of this.
5. Sesame Place Texas was actually bigger than the Pennsylvania Park at the time.
6. There was originally a Sesame Place in Irving, Texas, near Six Flags Over Texas that lasted from 1982-January 1985. It is blamed on the water parks for its closure.
7. Busch Entertainment initially had partnered with Tibidado to build Tibi Gardens in Salou, Spain. However, Tibidado had to back out and The Tussauds group, among other investors pitched in to create PortAventura.
8. Sesame Street has been in two parks in Japan: Tokyo Sesame Place from 1990-2007 and Universal Studios Osaka. Universal Singapore also got a Sesame Street Ride.
9. When Thrills United visited the Gravity Group, Mike Graham said that Oscar’s Wacky Taxi was originally going to be themed to Elmo.
10. Oscar’s Wacky Taxi is SeaWorld Entertainment’s first Gravity Group. The other wooden coasters (Gwazi, Invadr, Texas Stingray) was built by Great Coasters International (GCI)
11. Shortly after SeaWorld Entertainment announced plans for a new Sesame Place, plans leaked that Busch Gardens Williamsburg was interested in adding a third gate that would have involved the Forrest of Fun area and a clone of Sky Splash being a part of a “Sesame Place Williamsburg”.
12. Vapor Trail has a bigger drop than its lift, a unique trait for a kiddie coaster.
13. The ravine Vapor Trail uses splits the park from the preferred parking/Human Recourses lot
14. Aquatica San Diego will become a Sesame Place for the 2021 season.
15. SeaWorld briefly worked with Village Roadshow, who owns a park called Sea World on Australia’s Gold Coast, to build parks in Asia, but nothing came from it
16. Honker Dinger Derby came from Busch Gardens Tampa where it was known as Sandstorm.
17. 1,2, 3, Smile with Me sits on the former site of a theater where a bird show, among other skit style shows were preformed.
18. Murry Monster, who has since been retired from Sesame Street, still appears in the park as of the 2019 season.
19. The park’s Neighborhood Street Party, added in 2011, has seen been cloned for SeaWorld parks in 2018 (San Diego, San Antonio) and 2019 (Orlando, with Hooper’s Store in place of the Slide Float and the “Welcome to the Neighborhood Float” removed). Elmo and Abby pick up Murry’s lines.
20. Big Bird’s Tour Bus is the first ride added in an anniversary year since Sky Splash for the park’s 15^th anniversary in 1995