Springhill Suites in Langhorne is my new favorite place!

We haven't been this year- which was a bummer. We had a week of time off due to the daycare being closed - so I decided last minute that we should take them to Sesame for an overnight as a end of summer mini vacation treat.

I started by looking at packages online through their site. First I thought of staying 2 nights - then I decided on 1 since we can get 2 full days by driving there for opening since we are only an hour and 15 away. (3 might have been overkill)

I knew we DIDN'T want to go on the weekend because end of summer + water park + poorly behaved parents and other kids + crowds = NO FUN for any of us.

Let me be clear - I believe this is a problem at ANY Theme park and not a problem specific to Sesame Place so it's not the parks fault - it's a society thing! You have to know what to expect when you are around large crowds of people. I much prefer an outdoor park to an indoor because you can't beat sunshine and fresh air.

So we booked for a Thursday overnight - added a Breakfast with Elmo the second morning (kids eat free so you CAN'T beat that for a deal) AND added Season Passes because we get to go now for the rest of this year through their Christmas events and ALL OF NEXT YEAR through Dec 2014. You also get a free picture at the photo booths which is a nice touch with a package.

BE CAREFUL when booking a hotel and make sure you know which hotel you are staying at. My number one pick is the Springhill Suites which is directly across the street from the park and brand new. It is literally the same amount of time to walk to the hotel as it is to walk to your car in the Sesame parking lot. Some of the hotels SAY they are close but are actually in Philly - which is like 40 minutes away. So if you are going to do it - Splurge on the ones that are close by either with a shuttle service or even better - the Springhill where you don't have to worry about waiting for a shuttle with screaming tired kids - you can just stick them in the stroller and walk on home.

If you stay at Springhill - it's an all suites hotel with an AMAZING indoor pool that was seriously about 90 degrees warm (heaven for me - the picky pool goer) and EMPTY - both times we were all alone. They also have a little play room dedicated for the kids which I thought was a nice touch with toys and Sesame stuff and Sprout on the Big Screen.  The pool and playroom are open from 6 am until 11 pm. They have an amazing spread for Free breakfast - fruit, cereal, waffle machine, yogurt and other hot stuff. If that wasn't enough - on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - they have a balloon artist that comes around the tables at breakfast and gives out AMAZING sesame creations.
They have a little computer area for printing things and searching the web. The staff was very friendly albeit young. And the free valet was PROMPT. I thought it would be annoying but I understand why they do it. You have to pay to park at Sesame and people will park just about anywhere close by to avoid paying the parking fee and I wouldn't put it past people to try to park in their lot and use it for the park. You text them your ticket number and the sweet young kids bring them right up and are super super friendly which I wasn't really expecting.  They even talk to your kids - which is an added bonus because how many highschoolers do you know that want to talk to a 2 year old about Elmo?

 My only complaint for the hotel were the Pool Towels - I don't know about you but when I think of Pool Towels I think of really big towels that wrap all around you - you can see from the picture above that's not what they had. They were like hair towels and I had to use like 3 to get dry.

To say that we had a good time at this hotel is an understatement - It's very swanky for a Sesame hotel and perhaps they could have designed the bathrooms a little better for wee ones (the sink was too high for both my kids to reach) but at the end of the day the King Size bed and awesome pull out couch was perfect for us to split up with our 4 year old and the Toddler.  They were so tired that by 9 pm they were asking to go to bed - which is VERY unlike my kids. See the little chaise section of the pull out - made for a PERFECT toddler bed when we stuffed some pillows next to the edge. The mini fridge is a nice touch as well. For a place full of kids - it was super quiet which was an added bonus as I was nervous all the toddler meltdowns would be heard from room to room. We slept totally peacefully and were ready for the next day!

 Here's my boys on the path the goes from the hotel to the park.

Seriously - I can't say enough good things about this place. Since we are season pass holders - I hope to go back during the Fall and Winter and I plan to book this hotel for one night during the winter so we can go to the park and enjoy the pool and play room and have a nice place to warm up. It will be a much needed respite from the winter and I'm super excited already!