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Aquatica San Diego was an Australian themed water park in Chula Vista, California. The park was owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, now called United Parks & Resorts.

Aquatica San Diego originally opened on May 31, 1997, as independent park White Water Canyon. At the time it featured 16 water slides and a wave pool, with a western theme applied to it. The park suffered from many management and construction problems, and the poor attendance led to the park filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in June 1998.

In December 1999, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company purchased the park from its original owners for $11.5 million. Under its new ownership, Cedar Fair gave the park a new beach-theme and a rename to Knott's Soak City U.S.A. for its reopening on May 27, 2000.

On November 20, 2012, Cedar Fair announced it had sold the park to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The acquisition saw the park transformed into a 32-acre (13 ha) water park named Aquatica San Diego. The refurbished park reopened on June 1, 2013. It features a wide array of attractions for all ages and swimming abilities, one of which passes by a flamingo habitat. The water park was featured on the episode, "Appalachian Splashin" on Xtreme Waterparks.

In 2017, Sesame Workshop announced that a new Sesame Place park would open "no later than" mid-2021. The location of the new park was soon revealed in 2019 when SeaWorld announced that Aquatica San Diego would be re-branded as Sesame Place San Diego park for the 2021 season. The Sesame Street-themed park would feature tame roller coasters, carousels and other family-friendly rides, the street made famous on TV, a parade, live shows, character interactions, and other attractions. The park retained the Aquatica water attractions into the new park, although one of the rides, "HooRoo Run", was removed for being deemed too extreme for the retheming.

Construction took place in phases, allowing Aquatica to remain open for the time period. The park's opening was soon delayed to 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting construction. Aquatica soon closed for its final season on September 12, 2021, and the remains of the park were transformed into Sesame Place San Diego.

In November 2021, it was confirmed that the newly themed park would open in March 2022. The park opened on the 26th of that month.

Attractions

Caption text
Attraction Opened Description Other Name(s) Status
Kiwi Curl TBC Three 60-foot-tall double-inner-tube slides. Two enclosed and one open air. Palisades Plunge (Soak City),

Bert's Topsy Turvy Tunnels (Sesame Place)

Operating
Big Surf Shores 1997 A 550,000 gallon wave pool Balboa Bay (Soak City),

Big Bird's Beach (Sesame Place)

Operating
Loggerhead Lane 1997 A 1,250 foot long lazy river Sunset River (Soak City),

Big Bird's Rambling River (Sesame Place)

Operating
Tassie's Twister 2005 A 75-foot-tall ProSlide Tornado water slide that drops 60 feet into a large six-story funnel. Pacific Spin (Soak City),

Cookie's Monster Mixer (Sesame Place)

Operating
Slippity Dippity 1997 A play area designed for children featuring smaller slides Tykes Trough (Soak City),

Elmo's Silly Sand Slides (Sesame Place)

Operating
Woohoo Falls 1997 Three 60-foot-tall single-inner-tube slides. Two enclosed and one open air. Solana Storm Watch Tower (Soak City), Ernie's Twisty Turny Tunnels (Sesame Place) Standing
Taumata Racer 2014 A six-lane racing slide with guests sliding down on mats through enclosed and open sections. Honker Dinger Dash (Sesame Place) Operating
Walhalla Wave 2000 A 78-foot-tall four-person family raft slide. Colorado Express (Soak City), Oscar's Rotten Rafts (Sesame Place) Standing
Whanau Way 1997 A 60-foot-tall slide complex with six body slides, four enclosed and two open air. Imperial Run (Soak City), Snuffy's Spaghetti Slides (Sesame Place) Operating
Walkabout Waters 1997 A four-story interactive, area that features two slides, hoses, jets, geysers, and a 500-gallon bucket that unloads every five minutes. The attraction was removed for the 2023 season, and was replaced with a larger and better version. Dick's Beach House (Soak City),

The Count's Splash Castle (Sesame Place)

Removed in 2023
HooRoo Run 1997 An 80-foot-tall speed slide with two open-air and two enclosed slides. It was removed after the 2019 season, as the slide's drop and speed were deemed too extreme for the Sesame Place retheming. The ride also suffered from maintenance issues and frequent downtime during Aquatica’s last several seasons. La Jolla Falls (Soak City) Removed in 2019
Kata's Kookaburra Cove 1997 A standard pool. It was reserved for cabana guests only during the 2018 and 2019 seasons, and is now open to the public as a Sesame Place attraction with no name. Gremmie Lagoon (Soak City) Operating

References

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