Elmo’s World- A Day at Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Not quite ready to make the financial and time committment of the big theme parks with your little one? Try Sesame Place first! Based on the beloved children’s show, Sesame Street, this theme park is also a water park. Perfect for the 7 and under set, Sesame Place is also a Certified Autism Center park. Read on for the 411 on Elmo’s World and beyond!
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Located about 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia, Sesame Place is an adorable theme park featuring all of your favorite Sesame Street characters. A perfect weekend destination, this park has both standard theme park attractions as well as a full water park for one entry fee! Here are all of the facts on this little park.
Sesame Place is a Certified Autism Center
So, does this mean only Austitic children are welcome? Of course not! What it does mean however, is that someone who is Autistic is able to have an easier time visiting this theme park. Sesame Place has staff specifically educated on autism, as well as low sensory spaces and rooms for those needing a break througout the day. Anyone can use these services. Read more about accessibility options available here.
Admission, Hours and Park Info
Hours
Sesame Place’s hours of operation change sesasonally. Due to their Pennsylvania location, they do close each winter, with the water park closing earlier. They often change their hours due to weather. I highly recommend following them on social media for park updates prior to your trip. In addition, they offer the ‘Sunny Day Guarentee’ in case things have to shut down during your visit. For all of the details on this great policy, click here.
Tickets
Tickets are available online and are ofted discounted if buying in advance. As mentioned before, your park ticket includes both the standard theme park and the water park (both are at the same location). Sesame Place offers plenty of opportunity to upgrade your tickets with season passes, priority ride access, reserved parade viewing, a VIP experience and more.
Sesame Place Policies of Note
- Sesame Place recommends paying for parking ($32) in advance on their Upgrades page. When we visited we stayed at the hotel across the street and were able to walk right over! (More on this in a minute)
- As of 2023, Sesame Place has gone cashless.
- No outside food or drink, other than water, is allowed in the park. If you have allergies or would like more information on this policy, see their website.
- Upon entering the park you will go through the security screening process, including bag checks. For details and a list of prohibited items see here.
Meeting Sesame Street Friends
Sesame Place offers a variety of ways to get up close with your favorite furry friends. Additional charges may apply.
- Character meets around the park- The characters meet in several locations throughout the park. Specific times and locations are available on the daily schedule online or on the app. Lines form quickly!
- Character meals- Available by reservation only, Dine with Elmo and Friends is a great way to meet the characters without standing in line. Prices at time of publication were $19.99 for children 2-9 and $39.99 for 10-adult. Ages 23 months and younger are free.
- A Sesame Place Birthday Party!- Host your child’s birthday at Sesame Place and you’ll get to choose one character for a private meet & greet. Packages start at $600 and do not include admission. Details and reservations are available online.
- Special seasonal events- Each year Sesame Place has special events for different holidays and seasons. The events are only held on certain days, see the calendar for details.
Christmas in July at Sesame Place
When we visited the park, they were hosting a Christmas in July event. It was super cute, but I will say I was a little disapointed that the only Elmo meet & greet available was on a full Christmas set with Elmo dressed as an elf.
Theme Park Rides & Attractions
This park is obviously geared to Sesame Street’s core audience- kids 7 and under. We visited the park when my children were 12, 9 and 3 years old and everyone was able to enjoy themselves. While the rides are generally of the kiddie carnival variety, there are a few small coasters thrown in to keep things interesting. There are still a few that have height requirements and/or require someone 14 and up to accompany a smaller rider. Be sure to check their website or app ahead of time so you know what your child will be able to ride.
Water Park
The water park is one half of Sesame Place. We chose to enjoy the theme park side in the morning and stored our towels and bathing suits in a locker. After lunch we changed into our swim gear and headed over to the water fun!
There is something for all ages here, including a lazy river, giant splash pad and even fun family raft rides. The kids really enjoyed this part of the park and it was a great introduction to water slides before going to a bigger water park. Life jackets are available to borrow and proper swim attire must be worn. Water shoes are recommeded but may need to be removed depending on the type for certain rides.
Swim diapers are required for children not yet potty trained. While we were visiting several parts of the water park had to be shut down due to a bathroom accident.
Shows
Offered daily throughout the park are special shows featuring the characters. Be sure to check the daily schedule for times and availability.
Parades
The parade travels down the main street of Sesame Place park. Characters dance along to the music and wave to the children. The parade was very cute, however crowd control was nil. Our usual parade experiences at Disney did not leave us prepared for a Sesame parade. The staff did little to keep guests in order and it seemed very chaotic to us. For an additional $24 per person, you are able to reserve a parade viewing area. If the parade is a very important part of your day I would recommend this extra upgrade.
The Neighborhood
Upon entering the park, you will pass through Sesame Plaza and onto Sesame Street Neighborhood. We arrived at park opening and had the opportunity to enjoy the many photo opps before the crowds filled up the park. Iconic Sesame Street locations include:
- Cookie Monster’s Food Truck (also a dining location)
- The Newstand
- The infamous 123 Sesame Street street sign
- Hooper’s Store
- Big Bird’s Nest
- Oscar’s Trash Can
- The Sesame Street steps/front door to the apartment building
Eating at Sesame Place
As mentioned above, you may not bring your own food into the park, leaving you to visit one of the many restaurants available. Character Meals require a reservation but there are plenty of quick service choices as well. We grabbed standard theme park faire from a cafeteria style restaurant (I don’t even remember the name!). This was another part of our day that made us realize we’ve become Disney snobs! Even for a quick service restaurant, the food and service were disapointing. If we visited Sesame Place again I think we would try the character meal and hope the level of quality is better.
All Day Dining Deal
According to their website,
“This convenient dining deal allows you to eat around Sesame Place Philadelphia at participating restaurant locations as often as once every 90 minutes until the published closing time. Valid locations include: Big Bird’s Burgers & Bites or Elmo’s Pizza Kitchen. All-Day Dining Deal is only valid for one day.”
Rates for this are currently $30 per child and $45 for ages 10 and up. A wristband is provided and more details apply.
Where to stay when visiting Sesame Place Philadelphia
The Park’s website offers several hotel packages – check out current offers.
For our stay, we chose to book the Springhill Suites Philadelphia-Langhorne. We drove to the hotel the morning of our park day from Philadelphia (making a quick pitstop at a Walmart because I forgot to bring towels for the water park!). We were able to park at the hotel (check at the front desk for a parking pass) since we were staying there that evening.
The hotel has a walking path that connects to Sesame Place Park. It was perfect and a great way to avoid the extra parking fees and traffic!
Final Thoughts
My husband and I spent a lot of our day here comparing it to Disney World due to the similarity of it being a character based attraction. This is probably an unfair comparision since I think this park is more on par with a Six Flags type amusement park than Disney or Universal Studios.
We had a really fun day here enjoying our little one’s enjoyment. This is certainly a destination for your child and you need to go into the day with that expectatation. We arrived at opening (10am) and stayed until after the afternoon parade when a rain storm chased us out. We felt like we were able to ride everything we wanted in that time period sans one coaster. I do think you could stretch this into an entire weekend if you had smaller children and wanted to do the theme park on one day and the water portion the next. For my olderish kids we were set in the one day.
If you are visiting the area and have kids who still love Elmo and the gang this is definitely worth the time!
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