Sesame Place to spotlight Cookie Monster

MIDDLETOWN TWP. Watch out, Elmo and Big Bird. Cookie Monster is slated to get more of the spotlight in May.

About 25,000 square feet at the Sesame Place amusement park near Langhorne will be transformed into Cookie's Monster Land by next spring. The park is to announce the move Thursday, and it will make the grumbling cookie hoarder one of Sesame Place's most visible characters.

After one of the largest renovations in Sesame Place history, Cookie's Monster Land will feature new play areas and five new rides. They will include Captain Cookie's High "C's" Adventures, which will transport riders along a track set to mimic swales in the ocean, and Flying Cookie Jars, which will spin them in a giant cookie jar 40 feet above the ground.

Sesame Place officials would not provide specifics on how much the renovation would cost. The park opened in 1980.

According to Paul Ruben, North American editor of the trade publication Park World, Walt Disney World is doubling the size of Fantasyland in its Magic Kingdom, and Universal Studios, also in Orlando, added a Harry Potter section in recent years.

"Essentially, every park, or most parks, will add a new attraction each year to give people a new reason to visit," he said. Such additions, he added, are made possible by growing attendance.

More than 130 million people visited the 20 largest amusement parks in North America in 2012, according to the Theme and Museum Index Report. In 2009, that number was about 121 million.

Ruben said the recession didn't stop people from visiting amusement parks, but may have made people attend parks closer to home.

Sesame Place is not among the 20 parks included in the report's figures, and Morgan Jones, a Sesame Place spokesperson, said the park does not provide attendance figures.

Michelle Hunt, also a Sesame Place spokesperson, said Cookie's Monster Land is part of an increasing number of new attractions.

In 2009, for example, the park added the Count's Splash Castle - its last major renovation project - and in 2011 it debuted "A Very Furry Christmas," a holiday celebration.

The park, Hunt said, is "trying to offer our guests a new attraction" with each new feature.

More information is available on www.sesameplace.com.

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