Sesame Place

Hey friends! First let me just say, this is not a sponsored post. My family and I just got back from two full days in Sesame Place, and I have a bunch of thoughts that I'd like to share with you all.

I don't know about you but I love Disney World. It's magical. You get transported to different mythical places, countries, periods of history, etc. as you walk through the park. Two years ago we went with my then two year old and got to experience the magic through the eyes of a toddler and it was amazing. HOWEVER, Disney with a toddler is both stressful (especially if you have a kiddo who doesn't nap well in a stroller) and expensive. Since my family would have to get on a plane or drive for two days, it's not a trip we can make every year. And if you've ever been to Disney you know that the trip back to your car alone makes coming and going a lot more daunting if you are staying off property. Now that we have a 4 year old and an 18 month old we felt it was time to do a toddler friendly theme park that was a lot closer to home. Sesame Place.

If you've never been to Sesame Place and you have kids who watch Sesame Street, you have to go. Even if your kids don't watch the show, there is plenty to enjoy between the dry and wet rides, the shows, parades and character meet and greats. So here are my top 10 tips to maximizing the fun and minimizing your budget.


1.) Get the App.  Sesame Place is under the same corporate umbrella as Sea World. Whatever your feelings about Sea World, it does give the much smaller park the benefits of the bigger parks like the App. It gives you a map, schedules and best of all discounts. I'm sure the types of discounts available change throughout the year so I won't list details, but to give you an idea- I saved $15 PER TICKET by purchasing my park tickets in the app, and then I just pulled it up on my phone at the gate. You can also make diner reservations- more on this later.

2.) Bring Snacks. Sesame Place has a policy against bringing picnic style meals, but they do allow snacks. And trust me not only will your wallet thank you, but also your kids who will not understand why you can't get off line for a ride to get a snack. And when you are surrounded by popcorn, cookies and ice cream a bag of frozen grapes will seem like the best parenting decision you've ever made. To make these snacks seems a little more appealing in a world of goodies, I also bought some Earth's Best organic treats with Elmo's face on them. They are single serve, shelf stable (no refrigeration necessary) and feature a character. We went with fruit bars and yogurt pouches. Inexpensive, filling, easy to fit in even a small bag and organic. :-)

3.) Bring refillable bottles and buy a souvenir cup. One thing that I absolutely hate spending money on is drinks. Water has one of the highest mark up prices and it almost always comes in a plastic bottle that I am vehemently opposed to on behalf of our planet. So finding a solution to staying in the park all day and not lugging an entire cooler of water around (which I couldn't do anyway) was something I couldn't quite figure out. But here's the solution I came up with. When you arrive, purchase a souvenir cup at almost any stand that has fountain drinks. We picked Abby but I also saw Elmo and Cookie Monster. They are $14.99. And I know that sounds like a lot for a cup but here's why it isn't. First, it's large. Second, it's a reusable cup so there is a lot more than a single use. And THIRD, the day of purchase you get FREE REFILLS. Technically the policy is that for every day after purchase within the year you get $.99 refills, but we didn't pay for a refill at all. Don't count on that. But even if you have to pay for refills it's worth it. We used our large cup to refill our daughters cups that we brought in with us. You can get water like we did or soda, lemonade, iced tea or apple juice.

4.) Dine with the characters. On our first day we had dinner with the characters. It was easily the best decision we made. The food is meh at best. It's sort of an odd arrangement of ravioli, mac and cheese, chicken tenders, pulled pork and hot dogs. The dessert bar is also ok, not great. But the entire hour of dinner is dancing, singing and playing with Elmo, Abby, Grover and Cookie Monster. Seriously, conga lines, the cupid shuffle, Sesame Street songs- the works. You take pictures and that's great. But you can do that "on the street" as they say in the park. The great thing about dinner is the playtime the kids get with these magical characters. I would spend that money three times over to see my kids jumping and playing with cookie monster like I did. Ok let's move on before I cry... Money wise, it depends of the age of your children to determine whether or not this is much more expensive than the other dinning options in the park. For me, my youngest was free and my oldest was only $9. If you have to pay full adult price for all your family members ($28) it might not be a great choice, but like I said my kids were enchanted and it was air conditioned- no brainer.

5.) Buy character stuffed animals and t-shirts before you go.
This one is self explanatory but just to give you an idea- I got roped into buying two medium sized Abby dolls and it cost me about $60.   -_- The Bert and Ernie I bought from Target before going were $6 each. Although to be fair their sized was more comparable to the small sized stuffed animals from the park which are $16. Still a much better deal to buy from Target. Same with T-shirts. No, they won't say Sesame Place if you buy them from Target. But is it worth the upcharge? You decide.

6.) Go on a Weekday. If you are able to get to the park on a weekday you will have a much smaller crowd. Yes you will deal with camps during the summer, but they are a little easier to avoid than an influx of families every where.

7.) Don't pay for priority parking. There are three tiers of parking at Sesame Place. And if you've ever been to Disney you might think that sounds completely wonderful, but don't bother. The lowest tier ($18) is still plenty close and as long as it's not an insanely busy day you will likely be able to get close to the entrance. There is no tram or anything, again not the scale of Disney, so in my opinion this upgrade is not worth it.

8.) Stay farther away. Ok so I'm going to contradict myself in this part. We did not stay in the partner or affiliate property hotels. However, I do think it offered a lot of great goodies. If you can stay in one of the hotels that are walking distance from the park, it may be worth it to you and your family. For example if you are going with a large group and there are nappers and non nappers, this might be a good option for bringing the younger children back for naps or at bedtime while older family members stay for the later park hours. It would also save you the $18 a day minimum for parking. However once you get off property the prices of the hotels is significantly more expensive than the hotels another 10 minutes down the road. Once you are in the car, what's another 10 minutes right? Since the area is a suburb of Philly it's pretty easy to find quality hotels. We stayed in Bensalem and it was a great area with plenty of family friendly restaurants and even a casino. It was a lot cheaper than it's sister hotel across the street and not all that much more convenient. Again, make the choice that is right for your family.

9.) Bring shelf stable lunch items. So if you are really on a budget, it is totally possible to do a day of Sesame without buying food in the park. The snacks and drinks we discussed, and you can bring in to the park. We've also covered that the parking is not nearly as much of an inconvenience as at other parks. So if you leave pb&j in the car or something in a cooler, you could definitely go back to the car to eat. We opted to eat in the park for lunch and dinner on the first day. However after a full second day we headed home for our two and a half hour drive at dinner time. Rather than spend the money and time doing another sit down meal I made pb&j sandwiches out of our trunk while my husband was packing everyone in the car. It ended up being one of the best things we did. Silly, I know.

10.) Get glow sticks from the Dollar Tree. If your kids stay up past dark, they will want all the glowing souvenirs for sale in the park. Fight off the gimmies with a multipack of glowing necklaces, bracelets and wands from the Dollar Tree. My kids also used them as makeshift night lights on the drive home.