Sesame Place 30 Great Years - Album 1

Over on the Sesame Place Facebook page there is an album of photos titled "Sesame Place 30 Great Years - Album 1".

All images property of the Sesame Place Facebook page

The description is:

The first of hopefully many albums of nostalgic photos of the park over the past 30 years

Sadly, the album has been up for a couple years and "Album 2" has yet to materialize.

I wanted to show the images here so we can look at them a little bigger (they are very small on Facebook) and so they can be archived here in case the album ever gets deleted from the Sesame Place page.

This attraction was called Herry's Hands Over Water.

 This shot shows Big Bird's Rambling River, but more interestingly shows how much empty space the park at this time. Look at all the grassy area!

 This shot shows the back of Sesame Neighborhood, likely from Big Bird's Rambling River! Notice the blue inner tubes stacked up on the right.

Here is a nice shot of the Sesame Brass band in front of the entrance to Big Bird Bridge. Look closely at the mouth and you can see the bridge was still open at this point.

 This photo shows a large crane raising the centerpiece of the Nets 'N Climbs into place.

 Another nice construction picture of the Nets 'N Climbs. This looks like a reverse angle of the previous picture.

Here is a nice picture where you can see kids jumping on Rubber Duckie Pond and a few people walking across Big Bird Bridge.

This tower was in the center of Big Bird Bridge and had the name Sesame Place Water Tower. It was a place where kids could pump water to the top of the tower and watch it flow down the water wheels.

The green tarp in the foreground was Twiddlebug Hop, a rope swing attraction.

Here kids are seen climbing through a giant plastic maze of geodesic shapes. This attraction was called Crystal Climb.
Notice the employee in the green and yellow polo shirt with red shorts.

This is a great shot of the old entrance looking towards the parking lot. Today this would be facing the "fire station" facade of Sesame Neighborhood.

This is Twiddlebug Hop, an attraction where kids would swing on a rope over a series of bumps.

Make sure and visit the Sesame Place Facebook page and click "like"!

Big Bird's Nest

Big Bird Court does feature a play area that is called Big Bird's Nest, but there was once another nest on property.

Above is a shot of Big Bird's house at the end of Sesame Neighborhood. It looks essentially the same as it did when Sesame Neighborhood was added to the park in 1988... with one exception.

Peep holes.

Small holes had been drilled into the doors so that kids could see inside. Inside was a large Bird Bird nest and a few other props.

Big Bird's nest appeared to be made from wood and rope. There were always kids trying to peek in there to see if Big Bird was taking a nap.

Today the holes are gone and the backdoor sports a deadbolt.

I believe the inside of the house is actually used by the janitorial staff.

It's not really a problem. I'm sure Big Bird can afford a better pad by now.

Street Performer: Handy Man

I found a Sesame Place YouTube video from July 1994. It shows this man performing in front of Sesame Neighborhood for a group of kids:

Images from YouTube

Sporting an upturned baseball cap, short orange coveralls, a tool belt full of props and a Sesame Place name-tag; he entertained a group of kids on a hot summer day. For lack of an actual name or character, lets just call him Handy Man.

First he performs some slight of hand magic for one of the kids (who is draped in a pretty cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles towel):

He then bonks the kids on the head with a toy hammer:

Then when the kid says he 'knows how the magic trick was done', Handy Man changes the subject by doing a little juggling:

I don't think I've ever seen any similar street performers at Sesame Place. Disney has plenty of (what they call) Atmosphere Entertainment at their parks.

I love the idea of it. It can siphon off crowds and gives a real vibrancy to the street.

Have you ever seen any similar performers at Sesame Place? Let me know in the comments.

1988 coupon and advertisment

Image from Vintage_ads

Above is a magazine ad from1988. In addition to giving us the chance to save $3 (from May 7 to July 8, 1988) it mentions many attractions including Sesame Streak water slide and Ernie's Bed Bounce.

It also mentions the debut of Sesame Neighborhood, the outdoor Sesame Street replica set. There was already an indoor one:

Images from YouTube

The indoor replica was part of Sesame Studio, but has since been closed down. 

Also, the ad mentions two new walk-around characters: Prairie Dawn and Grover.

Images from GoPhilla & Blogspot

The ad mentions they join the other characters at the park,: Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster and The Honkers.

Sesame Place still distributes coupons like this today and you'll save more than $3:

Of course, admission prices were different in 1988:

$14 for children, $12 for adults. Children under 3 are admitted free. Parking is $2.50

2012:

Single-Day Admission   $57.99 (plus tax)                    

Children 23 months & younger                                    FREE

Seniors (55+) (single-day admission only)               $52.99 (plus tax)

AAA Walk-Up Discount (with valid card)                     $54.99 (plus tax)