Sesame Place

One of our favorite trips last year was Sesame Place.  We went in June and it worked out great.  With the Cavs in the finals and us hoping there would be a parade this year it was hard to plan Seasme Place.  I finally decided on a weekend that the price was reasonable but knew there could be a chance we would need to cancel it depending on the Cavs.  Since the Cavs ended up loosing before the deadline to cancel, our trip went on as scheduled.

The next issue with it was the weather.  It has been a very wet summer so far.  The weekend we went, a topical depression was coming up from Texas.  It was supposed to rain all day Sunday.  We decided to leave early on Saturday and spend Saturday evening in the park to make up for what we may miss on Sunday.  By some miracle, it only rained Saturday night for 8 hours while we were sleeping.  We had no rain, just it was very hot and humid.

We left around 8 am on Saturday.  We arrived around 3 pm to our hotel.  It was about 30 minutes away from Sesame Place.  It was a very nice Holiday Inn Express.  After we checked in, we went to Burger King for dinner.  The kids were being rotten.  They were excited about getting to the park.  After a quick dinner, we went to the park.  The weather was perfect, cloudy and warm.  The kids rode some rides.  Then we watched the night parade.  The night time parade is awesome.  The kids love it!

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel.  Austin enjoyed using the pancake making machine.  He would push the button and a pancake would be made.  After breakfast, we went to the park.  In the morning, it wasn't too busy.

 The kids rode on amusement rides.  Austin loves the roller coaster.  He rode that over 10 times during the weekend.  Sydney liked flying rockets, flying Elmo's, and the flying swings. She was scared to try the swings but we tried it with her and she loved it.  Austin and Sydney also enjoyed going down the slides there.  Brian and I only let them do that for a while because they can do that at home.  Finally we convinced them to ride other things.

In the afternoon, it was hot.  Then we went to the water park side.   The kids liked the lazy river.  It was nice because the inter tubes were their size.  Then we convinced Sydney to ride the big rubber duck slide with us.  She was a little scared at times but in the end she even said it was a "little fun" (although we couldn't convince her to ride it again).  Then the kids played in the smaller water slide area with the big bucket.  The only issue was the pavement was extremely hot and rocky.  Next year, I'm bring water shoes to walk from area to area.

After the water park, we had dinner. We rode some rides.  Then it was time for the nighttime parade again.  It was a fun day.

Monday was the hottest day.  We knew that going into the trip.  We planned to see some shows and send more time in the water park.  Again in the morning we rode rides while the lines were not long.  Then we saw a show.  Sydney just loved it especially seeing Elmo.  Sydney really likes Elmo!  Austin was just okay with it.  He was getting tired and hungry so that didn't help.  Then we had some lunch.

After lunch we went to the water park.  This time Brian took Austin on some bigger water slides.  It was 3 ft deep at the bottom of the slide.  Brian was nervous about that because Austin can't swim.  He watched other kids do it.  The lifeguard comes closer when asked and it worked out fine.  We were impressed that Austin did it.  He rode it 3 times.  Austin really enjoys more adventurous rides.  Sydney not so much.  We hung out in the little slide area with about 3 bathroom breaks in between.

After the water park, Sydney took a nap.  Austin couldn't fall asleep.  They kept making announcements about lost children.  It's actually interesting because even after being home for a few weeks Austin can recite that announcement verbatim.

We had to wake Sydney up from her nap for our character dinner.  That did not go over too well with Sydney.  She was slow to wake up.  The character dinner was okay however I enjoyed it better last year.  It was a mess because they changed our seats after we had already setup and were getting food.  Then Abby came over early at our new location and we were not quite ready, but it worked out.  I'm not sure next year we are going to do the character meal.  I guess it will depend on if Sydney still really enjoys the characters.

After dinner, we decided to leave.  It had been a busy 2.5 days.  Austin really wanted to swim in the hotel pool.  It was his choice on whether to see the parade again or go swimming at the hotel.  He chose swimming.  After swimming, we even took the kids for ice cream,  We ended up at Friendly's. Per Austin's request, we ate inside.  It ended up to be a very nice evening.

It was a great weekend in Sesame Place.  I highly recommend it for anyone with young kids.