Planning
Oscar's Rocking Eel is closed — Bay of Play became Sesame Place
Oscar's Rocking Eel was the rocking boat in SeaWorld San Diego's Sesame Street Bay of Play kids' area. That area closed and became Sesame Place San Diego — a separate, separately ticketed park that opened in March 2022 — so the ride no longer exists inside SeaWorld. This page says what happened and what a young rider does instead.
If you are planning a SeaWorld San Diego day around a toddler or a young Sesame Street fan, you have probably seen Oscar's Rocking Eel on an older list of rides. Those lists are out of date. The ride — an Oscar the Grouch-themed rocking boat that swung back and forth over a U-shaped track — was one of the anchors of Sesame Street Bay of Play, the kids' area at the back of the park.
Bay of Play closed as a SeaWorld area, and the site became Sesame Place San Diego, which opened in March 2022 as its own gated park next to SeaWorld. Sesame Place requires its own admission. The character rides did not stay inside SeaWorld — they moved with the concept.
So the honest answer to whether Oscar's Rocking Eel is still at SeaWorld is no, and it has not been since early 2022. What follows is what a family with young riders should do with that information.
The short version
- Oscar's Rocking Eel closed with Sesame Street Bay of Play; the area became Sesame Place San Diego, opened March 2022.
- Sesame Place is a separate park with its own ticket — SeaWorld admission does not include it.
- Inside SeaWorld today, the young-rider anchor is Rescue Rafter, a swinging and spinning rescue-boat ride with a 42-inch minimum.
- For Sesame rides specifically, Sesame Place San Diego next door is the destination — combo tickets exist if you want both parks.
- Height charts that still list Oscar's Rocking Eel inside SeaWorld are pre-2022 artifacts and should not be planned around.
What happened to Bay of Play
Sesame Street Bay of Play was SeaWorld San Diego's young-kids area: a handful of character rides sized for preschool riders, including Oscar's Rocking Eel, plus climbing structures and a splash zone. SeaWorld Parks — renamed United Parks & Resorts — converted the site into Sesame Place San Diego, the West Coast's first Sesame Place, which opened in March 2022.
The conversion was not a retheme of the old area behind the same gate. It is a separately ticketed park. That distinction is the one that bites at the turnstile: a SeaWorld ticket buys you no Sesame rides at all.
What young riders do at SeaWorld now
SeaWorld San Diego still works for families, but it is not a toddler park the way it briefly was: the coaster ladder starts at 54 inches with Emperor and Electric Eel. The current young-rider anchor inside the park is Rescue Rafter, a swinging, spinning rescue-boat ride with a 42-inch minimum in the park's rescue-themed area.
If your day was really built around a two-to-five-year-old and Sesame characters, the right plan is Sesame Place San Diego, not SeaWorld: it is the character-dense day that Bay of Play only hinted at. Visiting both is what the combo tickets are for.
Which height charts to trust
Any chart that still lists Oscar's Rocking Eel or the other Bay of Play character rides under SeaWorld San Diego is drawing on pre-2022 data. The same goes for roundups that describe Bay of Play as a current area of the park.
For current minimums, the park's own ride pages and access guide are the sources worth planning around — heights at United Parks properties do shift with rethemes, which is exactly what happened here.
One day, young rider: how to pick
Pick SeaWorld when the party is mixed-age and the 54-inch riders matter: Emperor and Electric Eel are the reason to go, the orca and dolphin presentations anchor the middle of the day, and Rescue Rafter plus the exhibits carry the under-54 crowd. It is the better single park for a family whose tallest rider is counting coasters.
Pick Sesame Place when the youngest rider sets the itinerary: the rides are character-dense and preschool-sized, the parade and meet-and-greets are the headliners, and nothing on the map requires a height debate. Families with a two-to-five-year-old and no coaster agenda get more out of it per hour than out of SeaWorld.
Doing both parks
Sesame Place sits directly adjacent to SeaWorld San Diego, so a two-park day is physically easy — the hard part is ticketing, since each park sells its own admission and combo products exist for exactly this case. Check the current combo pricing on both parks' official sites before booking anything a la carte.
The realistic split is not both-in-one-day with young riders. SeaWorld mornings, Sesame Place mornings on the second day — young kids and midday lines do not mix, and each park's first hour is its best hour.
Last verified October 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is Oscar's Rocking Eel still at SeaWorld San Diego?
No. It closed in 2021-22 when Sesame Street Bay of Play was converted into Sesame Place San Diego, the separate park that opened in March 2022. The ride is not operating under that name inside SeaWorld, and SeaWorld admission does not include Sesame Place.
What was Oscar's Rocking Eel?
A young-kids rocking boat ride in the Sesame Street Bay of Play area — a swing-style boat that rocked back and forth over a U-shaped track, themed to Oscar the Grouch. It was a preschool-tier ride: gentle, short, and sized for the under-48-inch crowd that Bay of Play served.
Can my kid ride something like it today?
Inside SeaWorld, the closest current young-rider option is Rescue Rafter, a swinging and spinning boat ride with a 42-inch minimum. If it is the Sesame characters your child actually wants, Sesame Place San Diego next door is the park built for exactly that.
Do I need a separate ticket for Sesame Place San Diego?
Yes — Sesame Place is its own gated park, not an area inside SeaWorld. Combo tickets covering both parks are sold, which is the practical route if you want SeaWorld's coasters and the Sesame rides in one trip.