Sesame Place or Dutch Wonderland????

[phlydude]

Originally Posted by Pinktomboy

Thanks PhlyDude. What is meant by Center Philadelphia? Is that downtown Philly? Does that mean Sesame Place is about 25miles from the Philly Airport? Could I get from Langerhorne back to Philly without difficulty to at least see the museum? Sounds like the Crayola Factory is going to be out of reach for us but Sesame Palce should be fun.
thanks again

Yes, we call downtown Philly "Center City" - it quite literally is in the center of the city (since the city spread out from this area after colonial days).

Sesame Place is about 36 miles from the Philly airport - it is closer to Trenton, NJ than it is Philadelphia. Here is a map with directions to give you a better idea:
from: PHL to: 100 Sesame Rd, Langhorne, PA 19047 (Sesame Place) - Google Maps

From "Center City" it is about 27 miles:
from: 1500 Market St, Philadelphia to: 100 Sesame Rd, Langhorne, PA 19047 (Sesame Place) - Google Maps

You can get to Sesame Place by public transportation but the service from the mall to the park is sporadic and you might have to walk over from the Oxford Valley Mall which is adjacent to the property where Sesame Place sits (I'd say it is a good mile from the bus stop through the mall, through the parking lot and to the entrance of the park).

On Septa:
You'd want to get to the Frankford Transportation Center (this is the northend terminus of the Market-Frankford Elevated-Subway line) and take the 14 bus that is going to Oxford Valley Mall. It will take over 1 hour to make this trip. Once at the mall, you would take the 127 route to Sesame Place. All maps, schedules, fare info, etc. can be found on septa.org

I'd really recommend renting a car if you have the means...Sesame place was really set-up like other theme parks in the area - make it close to both Philly and New York and close to the interstate but don't worry about public transportation. Just like Great Adventure and Dorney Park - they are in the middle of some areas that, at the time of their construction, we mostly rural and not suburban.

[pennsynative]

My experience was that taking my son at the age your daughters are was a huge, expensive waste of money. While we had fun, he has absolutely NO memory of it. Of course, another negative was that kids that age tire more easily. We went again when he was about 8 and he remembers all of it (he's 19 now). We stayed at the All-Star Sports resort onsite and loved it. There are other hotels that are more beautiful onsite but we knew we would only be in the room to sleep and shower so we wanted to spend our money on other things than a hotel. We've stayed on site and off site and will always do on site. You don't need to drive the entire week and can pick up the bus right at your hotel which will take you all around the property. Another bonus is getting in to the park before people who don't stay on site. We always headed to the most popular rides first before the rest of the crowd got there.

As for Dutch Wonderland and Sesame Place, they are two different types of parks IMO. Sesame Place has their characters roaming around and it was a neat experience. Dutch Wonderland is more of the old-time park which is family oriented also. Both are somewhat expensive, but isn't everything these days? You pay for the experience.

[Jennifer19027]

Knoebel's Grove is a schlep but worth every single minute of the car ride! If you're not familiar with it, google it. It's roughly 3 hours away, in a valley surrounded by trees, only the riders pay so if you don't love the rides you don't have to pay to watch, the food is great (think fair food) and as an added bonus the lines are long when you wait 10 minutes to get on.
You'll LOVE IT.

[TwilightMom]

Knoebel's is AWESOME! The very best thing is the free admission! You only have to buy tickets or a bracelet if you're going to ride. TONS of rides and other attractions, plus a small water area (seperate, but reasonable, fee)

Knoebels Amusement Resort

We love it up there, and the clientele is a lot nicer, too. We usually go up for a few days, we have family up there as well. The kids also enjoyed visiting Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine, which is a real coal mine you go in and everything, it's not too far away...

[SXMGirl]

My dentist just told me about Knoebel's. It's apparently very family friendly including dog friendly. She said that the wooden roller coaster actually came from Texas and was put together by the Knoebel family who owns lumber yards. Free admission and fun for every member of the family. Sounds like the perfect place.

[aprilb182003]

where is the sesame place located at? Do they have a website?

[phlydude]

www.sesameplace.com (google is your friend )

It is located in Bucks County, PA in Middletown Township (Langhorne - outside of Oxford Valley Mall just off of Oxford Valley Rd)

[TwilightMom]

Just got back from our Knoebels vacation. What a great time! This park is so big, we were there for a day and a half, and STILL didn't visit everything!

[billb7581]

I live about 25 minutes from SP and 3 hours from Knoebels.

Been to SP exactly once, and will never return.

Go to Knoebels annually

[TravelSheila]

Originally Posted by cp292

After reading the posts about dutchwonderland and sesame place now I am wondering if anyone can give me some information about disneyworld. My main question is if there are resorts where you stay directly on disneyworld property. Names of the resorts would be great. I am thinking about taking my kids next year. They will be 4 and 5 not sure if they will be old enough to enjoy everything. Any comments and suggestions will definitely be helpful. p.s. I really wanted to take them this year but some people have told me that they are too young (3 and 4 year old girls)

We took our kids, then 3 and 5 to Disney World and stayed at the most economical 'on site' All Star Resorts, which were motel style. They were neat and clean and the kids loved the pool. We were on the meal plan and the quality of the food there was "fair" not great - you get what you pay for. The biggest downside was the All Star resorts were the furthest from the parks so you had to wait in line to catch the shuttle bus and then it was another 20 minute ride. A lot of time was spent waiting for transportation when we just wanted to "be there already" and it made it inconvenient to go back to the room mid-day for a kids nap or downtime, for example.

We were there for a long weekend and did a park each day: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, & MGM... skipped Epcot. We determined this was too much for our kids at that age because after a couple hours all they wanted to do was go back to the pool at the hotel. They're older now, but I suspect it would be the same. What is it about kids and pools?

Our lessons learned were: 1) We need to pace our days and plan 1/2 day at the park and 1/2 day lounging around the pool, 2) We want to pay extra next time and stay along the Monorail which is centrally located and zips you right into Magic Kingdom (Have our eye on the Polynesian, which is less expensive than the Victorian styled one... can't remember the name at the moment).

About the other two PA parks, our kids loved both. The Sesame Place water features are great - even for the toddlers, who have shallow splash areas where they can sit and play in a couple inches of water. The parade is great and the lunch buffet had EXCELLENT food (I remember salmon to satisfy the adult palate, which I was happy to see! But of course included is all the kid friendly stuff too... Mac & Cheese, etc) Really cute deserts (elmo cupcakes) etc. And characters walking around. Lots of happy memories there.

We grew up going to Dutch Wonderland - loved it then and our kids do now. It hasn't changed much over the years. Has a wide variety of rides including those antique cars that the kids love to drive on the rails. I highly recommend both of these PA parks!