SeaWorld San Diego one-ups Orlando with an entire Sesame Street park
SeaWorld Entertainment and Sesame Workshop revealed Monday that they are opening the country’s second Sesame Place park in San Diego in spring 2021, a bigger project than the Sesame Street land it opened in Orlando earlier this year.
The new 17-acre Sesame Street Place will be an adjacent park next to Sea World San Diego. The space is currently occupied by the water park, Aquatica San Diego, which will have its final season next year.
The company is not closing Aquatica Orlando, said Orlandobased SeaWorld spokeswoman Suzanne Pelisson-Beasley on Monday. Aquatica Orlando has invested in new attractions recently, opening two new water rides in two years.
Pelisson-Beasley said she couldn’t speak to the business decision about why San Diego got the full park and Orlando didn’t. Monday’s announcement is important to the company because it puts Sesame Street on both the east and west coasts, she said.
Orlando’s 6-acre Sesame Street land was the largest expansion inside the company’s parks, Pelisson-Beasley added.
The first Sesame Place theme park opened almost 40 years ago outside Philadelphia.
The announcement continues a pivot by Orlando-based SeaWorld away from live animal shows.
It also is part of an expanding partnership between SeaWorld and Sesame Street, which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. Officials wouldn’t disclose the cost of the park.
Steve Youngwood, president of media and education and chief operating officer of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, said the two brands have common objectives.
“We want to engage and educate families. We mutually respect each side’s expertise and we collaborate together to make it work,” Youngwood said.
SeaWorld revealed the end of its breeding program in March 2016, after years of pressure from animal rights advocates and shifting public opinion about orcas being held in captivity.
The protests intensified after the release of the 2013 documentary “Blackfish,” which focused on the life of Tilikum, a killer whale responsible for killing trainer Dawn Brancheau when he dragged her into a pool in front of shocked visitors in 2010.
The company in the past year, though, has seen a reversal of fortune. Attendance was up 8.6% during the 2018 fiscal year, as was revenue. For the first half of this year, attendance was up 1.7%.
San Diego’s new park is also the first major announcement made after SeaWorld’s CEO Gus Antorcha said he was leaving the company in mid-September after feuding with the board of directors. Antorcha’s departure means the company is once again searching for a permanent leader.
In the past year, SeaWorld also has been offering specialized services at its parks for visitors with autism, and Sesame Street Place in San Diego will also offer those services.
The San Diego park will be slightly larger than the Sesame Street park near Philadelphia. Construction will start in Aquatica’s offseason and resume after Aquatica closes for the season next year.
The park’s opening in San Diego will open the Sesame Street experience to the western U.S., as well as to visitors from Mexico and Latin America, said Marilyn Hannes, president of SeaWorld San Diego.
“I think we will pull a more international audience,” Hannes said.