So we just got back from a long weekend to Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA which isn’t far from Philadelphia. Not going to do my usual “clues, tips, and thoughts” all broken out but will give you how we went about out trip and you can take what you like from it. You always learn a bit from each trip you take somewhere and get some ideas how you might change the next time! Prepare for a longer blog post!

Trip –

Day 1: Since it is about 6 hours away if we didn’t stop, this definitely isn’t a one day trip. Because of that, we decided to leave Friday morning and come back Monday morning after breakfast.  She was good in the car and I created little prize bags for her for every hour on the trip.  A board book, set of Sesame Street Characters, toys that I had gotten in kid’s meals…just little things.  After checking into our hotel, we headed to the park to get the lay of the land, ride a few rides, grab some food and even caught one of the shows. Grab a map when you get in.  Easy to miss, but ask at Guest Realtions if you can’t find them.  There we almost no lines so M was able to ride almost all of the “dry” rides (there were a few down because they had just opened Monster Land this past week and still needed a few tweaks). After dinner and a show it was back to the hotel. On the way out we scoped out a shady spot over by the Count’s Splash to stake out when we came back to ride the water rides the next day.

Day 2: Maddy decided she wasn’t sleeping in the portable crib the hotel supplied the previous night so she woke us up early at 6:30 by getting two inches from our faces saying, “Mom!” “Dan!” (She sometimes calls him what should be Dad but sounds like “Dan”…they are pretty close. You can’t blame her!). We got up and ate our free breakfast provided by the hotel.  They had everything from waffles to bacon to yogurt. All three of us were happy campers.  We then got ready and headed to the park for opening at 10. We wanted to make sure we could park our stroller and stuff in a nice shady area for the day while we enjoyed the water stuff. The bad part? The Count’s Splash Castle was ICE COLD. Soooo…after riding a dry ride while we were still dry we went off to explore the other water stuff.  We hung out at the park until about 2 and Maddy fell asleep on the way to the car.  She was out enough for me to gently scoop her into the car seat.  That night we headed to Iron Hill Brewery in Phoenixville to meet my college roommate and her family for dinner.  Good food, good friends, and good beer.  The trifecta!

Day 3: Ok, here is where I might change things next time and go…5 days with 2 full days in the park and one in the pool or somewhere an 18 month could just run. At this point she was a little short on sleep from getting up early (even though she was sleeping better in the pack n play that we switched to and put the hotel crib mattress in it to help cushion) and not taking full naps. She couldn’t touch a lot of stuff at the hotel, had to sit in a stroller a lot, and had been in a car seat for 7 hours on the way out. Too much being confined. With all that said she was still better behaved that 3rd day than some of the others we saw having full on melt downs…the beauty of going to a place full of kids under the age of 8. The other thing I might change is not going to the “special” show that Sesame Street had that weekend. M just isn’t familiar with Max and Ruby and she spent more time crawling on the bleachers than watching the show. We spent the 3rd day going on more “dry” rides and when M got sleepy we headed to the car. This time getting her into the car seat didn’t go as well.  Instead of popping her in the seat we just chilled in the air-conditioned car and M fell asleep on me. It was a good rest for Dan and I as well. We had planned on eating out of the park that night and were going to try an Italian restaurant we saw. Again maybe not the best choice. Ended up being lots of adults enjoying a good quiet Italian meal. Next time we will head to Red Robin. We finished up the night watching the parade that she loved and “spending” her treat money on an Abby doll. Heading back to the hotel for a quick swim and bed. All in all it was a good trip, but it wasn’t Disney. But is anything? 🙂

Hotel-
There are a bunch of choices that you can stay at close to SP that are considered “preferred hotels”. I chose the Comfort Inn. Few positives…
-I’m a preferred member there so with that and the AAA discount it was cheap. $105 average a night.
-They provided breakfast. It was a little buffet but all of us were happy with it. One less thing to pay for and we ended up being three doors away so it was quick in the morning too.
-New outdoor heated pool. Very nice. Almost too warm for Dan but M and I loved it. Like bath water.
-We called before we booked because I had seen some reviews on the website about a shuttle. They confirmed it would run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. This however turned into a negative. They no longer do the shuttle and the person have us wrong info.
-It says on the website that they have entertainment for the kids Friday and Saturday mornings but when we were there it was Saturday and Sunday. Face painting and balloon animals. Nice touch.
-Fridge and microwave in the rooms. Fridge was nice. Microwave not really used.
-They gave us a sheet with stuff about the area, bottle of water, and a bag of chips.  Nice touch.
-Staff was very nice and accommodating. Helped with anything we asked.

Now some negatives…
-Rooms seemed a little run down…chipping in the tub, hole in the couch, bathtub wouldn’t drain, rooms seemed high in humidity even though the ac was running. Rooms were also a little smaller than what I’m used to at a Comfort Inn
-The lack of shuttle.
-Area wasn’t the best. Besides a 7-11 and a weird Italian place, there wasn’t a lot right there.
As you can see the positives out weighed the negatives. I might look at a different hotel next time, but maybe just end up there anyway.

The park has both “Wet” and “Dry” attractions. A lot of people wore their bathing suits under their clothes. I’m not big on being squishy all day so we split it up but it’s possible.

“Dry” rides-Lots for M to ride even at her age. Dan and I were able to go on with her. There are 15 dry rides and she was able to go on 11. She even tried the bigger kid slides and was super proud of herself for going down!

“Wet” rides- Lots of baby pools and splash parks that the bigger kids and little ones can enjoy together. We went on the lazy river and they provide life jackets but it wasn’t so lazy. Be prepared for waterfalls, sprays and more! There were also a bunch of water slides but it was too cold and M was just a little too little to try them. Next time!

Shows-SP has 3 shows that are about 20 minutes long and feature the characters. M enjoyed those. She however did not enjoy their “special” show that they brought in for the weekend. I didn’t mind it because I knew the characters but if your kiddo doesn’t know them skip it. There is enough other stuff to do at the park. If your kids do like the theme of the show for the weekend jump online ahead of time and reserve. It doesn’t cost and you skip the line. Know that some of the shows are not indoors. In the shade but it was still warm. Especially when you pack people in. As for the parade (there is an afternoon and night), it was super cute! Don’t sit any further to the entrance than Abby’s surf shop. We sat closer to the firehouse and it was a great spot. The characters stop 3 times to do some dances. Take a towel, blanket or something to sit on.

Tickets-Because we were going to be there for 3 days we saved money by buying a season pass. You can look at all the ticket choices here or season pass info here. We just bought the lowest level of the season pass (Maddy was free because she was under 2). If we would have thought about it ahead of time I would have bought one of us the next level up (you can buy different members in your party different levels) because it would have saved us on parking. The middle season pass gives you free parking (would have saved us $17 a day but buy online before you go because benefits aren’t retro active!) and have saved us 30% on the dine with the characters if we had wanted to go. M isn’t too fond of the characters up close. She likes to wave and blow kisses from across the street. The lower pass did give us 30% off of food and merchandise. They have these waterproof wristbands that you can get and it loads your credit card on so when you buy stuff they just scan it. It would have been very convenient if we could load our season pass on too. But when you went to buy something to get the discount they still had to scan your pass. No use in getting a locker. We just took the minimum in valuables and were able to keep an eye on the stroller most things we did.

Food- It was amusement park food. Just okay. Nothing like Kennywood. No potato patch fries or fried Oreos. Eating is one of my favorite things at Kennywood. Can’t say that about SP. Every meal includes a drink which was kind of annoying for me. I would rather see it separate because I tend to share with Dan or M. The kids meals at half the size of the adult meals but not half he price because they come with a character plate and cup. Eh…not impressed. We didn’t try the ice cream but M did get an Elmo cupcake. I’m picky on my bake goods but this was pretty good. Also, they have a cup you can upgrade too for $2.99 with a meal. It’s then $.99 for the rest of the season for refills. Dan bought it separately for $7.99 before we knew you could upgrade. Still a good deal for us because Dan drinks a lot of Coke Zero.

All in all, it was a good trip!  Will do it again!