Dutch Wonderland or Sesame Place?

[HIU8]

One of the gifts that DD and DS will be getting for the holidays is a spring/early summer trip to either Dutch Wonderland or Sesame Place. They are both roughly 2 hours from us, but we can't decide which one to go to. DD will be 3 next June and DS will be 5 1/2. Which one is better for children that age and more worth the drive--Other things to do etc...?

[AnnieW625]

I am no where near PA, but on another message board I frequent a mom who has three boys aged 11 to 3 (I think) didn't care much for Dutch Wonderland because they charged an arm and leg for everything. She also mentioned you can't bring your food into the actual park. Unfortunately the message was posted before the message board was moved to a new site so I don't have access to the post.

[egoldber]

I love DW. It's a nice park, but older. I am just not that impressed with SP. It's dirty and not that fun if the weather is at all cold. Most of it is a water park BTW, whereas DW is a lot of rides, with one section of water park.

[clc053103]

I live 15 minutes from SP and I've never taken DS there, for the reasons Beth mentions- particularly the dirty part, and that it's really more water park than rides and attractions.

[writermama]

Dutch Wonderland. We've taken our kids to both DW and SP and much preferred Dutch Wonderland. The layout of the park is better at DW, it's clean, when we were there it was nice and cool under the trees, staff was friendly, and prices were reasonable for amusement park. Parking is free and reasonably close, so if you can't bring your own food in, it's not hard to go back to the car and go somewhere else.

As parents, we liked that the place was low-key, there were plenty of rides for both the 2 year old and the 5 year old, and the water park was small, but nice, and separate from the rest of it. We took the kids, got them in suits, did the water stuff, then changed and went back to the rides.

At Sesame Place, which we also enjoyed, the water-park activities are everywhere, so you're always getting onto a ride where someone has been sitting in a wet swimsuit. When we were there, also, it seemed like there were many more older kids, tweens and young teens, whereas DW was pre-school and young elementary.

On edit: If you go to Dutch Wonderland, you can also do other Lancaster-area attractions ... we're planning to go back and make a stop in Lititz, PA to go the the pretzel factory famous from a Mister Rogers episode -- DH and I went there about 10 years ago and they had a nice tour and taught us how to make pretzels.

Sesame Place has Sesame Characters, which is cool. Sesame place has a nice parade and some good shows. The "Sesame Street" is pretty small, though, and it's in the style of when I was a kid and not the one familiar to my kids.

You can't go too wrong with either one, but after going to both, we want to go back to DW.

[MamaKath]

We also like Knoebel's Grove. You buy tickets for rides, so only as much as you'll use in a day. There is no entry fee, so if a family member doesn't ride, it isn't an expensive day of walking around for them. There is great food too! For a family of 6 (4 adults, 2 kids) including food, souvenirs and a scooter rental, we were able to keep the day well under $150. Might be worth a look.

[neeter]

We love DW, go there every year. Parking is close, so you can go back to your car and they have a shaded area with picnic tables, if you want to bring a cooler for lunch. Its a small park, but tons to do; its very walkable, which is great with little kids. Staff are really friendly and its really cute.

[K-Bear]

Another vote for Dutch Wonderland. It's a nice, clean park. As other people mentioned, it has a great layout and I prefer the pace of DW. It feels much slower and not as much a madhouse as other amusement parks (say, Hershey). Perfect for going with young kids.

There's lots to do in the area too. Outlets are across the street if you think you can squeeze in shopping time. Strasburg Railroad is about 15 mintues away from the park if your kids are into trains. There is also a big farm close by, but I forget the name right now.

DW and the other Lancaster attractions make for a great weekend getaway!

[Clarity]

I think that's the perfect age for Dutch Wonderland. We took our 3yr old this summer and had a wonderful time. I thought it was a beautiful little park. There are lots of trees and shade so you wouldn't bake the entire day in the sun. It wasn't so crowded that waiting for rides became a hassle. I hope we can do it again in two years time when dd2 will be 3 and dd1 5. Oh, and yes, we were able to hit the Strasburg Railroad and the Strasburgh Railroad museum the very next day. The museum was pretty cool! I actually climed into the cab of a Conrail train.