3rd Day of our Pennsylvania Summer Vacation

Today marked day 3 in Pennsylvania. We spent the day back at Sesame Place and had another enjoyable day.

Although we have been having fun and Gabriella has been enjoying herself, I have to say that I am not too impressed with Sesame Place. I think their customer service and attention to detail is severely lacking. They do not have enough staff working the lines (tickets, Guest Relations, food stands, etc.) and the lines are unnecessarily long. All of the workers are unenthused and disengaged including the human actors/actresses in the shows which makes for blah experiences. The park staff are not very knowledgeable about park happenings; when you ask a staff member a question regarding the park they rarely know the answer. There are not enough food choices and it is impossible to get a meal during a mealtime without waiting an insane amount of time. Their systems are not extremely organized and things like getting in for a meal with the characters is a bit discombobulated and frustrating. I have made negative observations and really have been unimpressed. I have been spoiled by having gone to Disney World a million times, and I know that this is not at the same level as Disney World, but it is difficult not to compare and identify areas for improvement. I also, believe it or not, am not a huge fan of theme parks in general. They are fun and I know kids enjoy them, which is why we are here, but the crowds; long lines; rude, obnoxious parents; tired, whiny, tantrum-throwing, children; excessive, inescapable heat; and tired feet aren't my cup of tea! Sesame Place is a small park, though, which I like, and it caters to younger children which is perfect for us. I am also finding the prices of things to be more reasonable than I expected. Costwise, it was advantageous to buy a season pass which gets a 30% discount for all food and merchandise. A bucket of popcorn, a soda, and a bottled water cost around $7.00 which I thought was extremely reasonable for a theme park. But, anyway, I digress...!

The "head-tilt" is Gabriella's newest pose! When I say, "look at mama," and she sees the camera, this is the pose she strikes!:

Gabriella loves Elmo!:

Gabriella's reaction was priceless when we pulled into the park and she realized where we were!:

Striking another pose!:

Perusing the park map to plan out our day!:

Today she wanted no part of the characters close-up. She enjoyed watching them from afar, but did not want to go near them. She and I had been walking in the park when all of a sudden Bert came skipping down the street toward her. She couldn't turn to climb up into my arms fast enough!:

We spent the first half of the day attending three shows and watching the parade. Gabriella had fun dancing while waiting for the first show, a Beach Party show, to begin.:

The star of the show was our very own dada! He was one of three men selected to be part of a Hula dance! Gabriella and mommy were very proud!:

Gabriella enjoyed popcorn while waiting for the second show, Elmo's World, to begin.:

The third show we saw was Abby's Treasure Hunt:

Gabriella enjoyed an ice cream sandwich while waiting for the parade.:

She was peeking down the street to see the parade!:

While at the parade we met another little girl who was also adopted from Guatemala. Her name is Anna and she is two and a half years old. She came home eleven months before Gabriella came home. Gabriella tried holding her hand so that I could take a picture of the two of them together, but Anna was afraid of Gabriella!:

We had a couple temper tantrums during the day so we decided we had to go back to the hotel room for a nap. Luckily, the hotel is only across the street from the park. The tantrums looked like this...:

...and this...!:

After our nap we went back to the park. We had a dinner with the characters planned. It sounded like a great idea at the time but Gabriella HATED it! She wouldn't touch her food because she was on the lookout for the next scary character that was going to sneak up on her! She did, though, enjoy the dinnertime performances by the characters with dancing and singing.:

I think this was the only dinnertime smile that we got!:

After dinner we went on more rides. Gabriella was very patient waiting in the lines for the rides.:

She shocked me today, once again. She enjoyed the rides and was not frightened in the least!:

Gabriella LOVED playing in this matted play area. Of all of the fun activities and shows, this was Gabriella's favorite part of the day.:

We certainly had another fun and memorable but VERY tiring day today. We have breakfast with the characters planned for tomorrow morning. Hopefully breakfast will go a bit better than dinner went! We will spend the morning at Sesame Place, take a steam train ride in New Hope, Pennsylvania in the afternoon, and then head back to Sesame Place in the evening for fireworks. Another busy, fun-filled day planned!