T shirt?
I really need to plan a trip there again. Maybe when the kids get a little taller.
I haven’t been to CP since all the kids went off to college (DH is not a coaster guy). thanks for re-igniting the memories! Maybe my grandkids will want to go with grandma some day…
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I will be done for tonight. Summary report coming this weekend.
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And a touring plan too, right? Looks like tons of fun!
Summary of hotel:
Hotel Breakers was convenient with a lot of nice on site amenities. 3 pools (one indoor) plus a kids splash area, a few restaurants, Starbucks, bar, lounge, arcade, and right on the beach to Lake Erie plus walking to Cedar Point and their water park.
For us, it was all about convenience, and the lakeside suite room slept up to 6, but 5 more comfortably. Bathroom area was small and not really laid out well, but okay. We did have the toilet clog first night we were there and had to get maintenance to come and fix it while we were out.
Room safe was also not working, and they forgot to leave sheets for the pull out. Minor details, and I think it is partly because the staff was still training since it is start of the season.
More coming in additional posts.
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Summary of CP:
Well, okay. We love CP. But as @sanstitre_has_left_the_building pointed out, it is not a theme park. There is Frontier Trail and Frontier Town, which are overall themes nicely, but the rest of the park is an amusement park.
There is a lot of history at Cedar Point, and there is a nice mixture of old and new. It was started in 1870, after all! Since it is a peninsula, it is fairly landlocked, so they have to use the space efficiently…which they do. But you literally over rides going over each other in places.
The rides span the gamut from areas meant for very young kids, to slightly older kids, all the way up to coaster enthusiasts. Something for everyone, particularly if you go in the main season, when there additional shows, entertainment, character greets (Peanuts), etc.
As far as coasters, which they specialize in, there is a good mix of starter coasters, fun coasters for those not ready for anything extreme, all the way up to some of the world’s best. Again, something for everyone.
There is so much to do, you really can’t do it all in a day. We were there two days and couldn’t do it all!
To be continued…
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Summary of Early Season:
We went the first week the park was open during the week. Weekends are far more crowded, and we did have super short lines, particularly on Thursday. But the downside is that they haven’t yet gotten the staffing in place to open everything. Tons of food places weren’t open, and often the rides we’re running at limited capacity. Gemini, for example, is a racing coaster. But they only had staff to run one side, so it wasn’t racing. Reduces the fun somewhat.
And we also experienced slower load and unload times due to limited staff as well as due to the fact they are in training.
There were unfortunately frequent ride closures sproradically throughout the day. This can happen anytime, but seemed worse than usual. We still managed riding everything we wanted, but only after circling back sometimes due to closures.
To be continued…
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Summary of Early entry:
Because we stayed on property, we were able to enter the park an hour early. This was great…except that only a limited number of rides we’re available, and of those we found only about were actually ready for riders. As a result, some of we had hoped to ride early to avoid longer lines wasn’t actually open.
For young families, I wouldn’t see any advantage to the early entry since almost nothing open kids could ride.
To be continued…
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Summary of food:
We bought ahead of the season the all day dining plan, which allows you to eat every 90 minutes in a select number of locations. Most of the food options were just blah. Got you nutrition. But there are a few options where the food was considerably better than other places.
Was it worth it? Since we bought it early, we got the discounted price of $45 for 2 days per person. This was a decent savings. But if you waited until the season started, the price jumped enough that I just don’t think it would be worth it. Especially when you consider your dining options are limited. So I wouldn’t recommend it in general.
Overall, there is a huge mix of food quality at CP. Nothing of the caliber found at Disney, but not just all food stand quality either.
Btw, we also had the all day drink bands, which came with our hotel, so we didn’t have to buy drinks. You could get a refill every 15 minutes. The biggest issue was finding the places to refill since so many weren’t open.
To be continued…
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Summary of touring plan:
Touring plan? We don’t need no stinking touring plan! Well, okay. The trick is to arrive as close to opening as possible and start at the middle of the park and work counter clockwise backwards, looping around and then hitting the front of the park later in the day. But, the truth is, you bounce around at times based on waits.
Speaking of, CP does have a wait time app, but we found the accuracy to be hit and miss. Again, since it is early in the season, I think this will improve.
If you plan to go, try very hard to go on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Lines are far shorter. Avoid weekends, particularly after schools let out. And do not, under any circumstances, try to go after August. Halloweekends are so crowded, it is like Disney at Christmastime. Only go if you want to go for the scary stuff
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Thank you for taking the time to share your trip. It has been interesting both to see a non-Disney trip and a family @ryan1 trip, as I’ve not seen a trip report from you before.
Similar I guess to some of the UK parks. But it’s made me realise how I’ve become much more interested in theming and much less interested in thrill rides.
Great to hear you all had a wonderful time.
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Thanks.
I forgot to include this. My entire family including DW, DS9, DS21, DIL, DS19, DD15, and DS17.
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Great photo!
You are a lucky man.
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Thanks for sharing your adventure. You have a beautiful family.
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Thanks everyone. It was my first time giving a trip in real time. It was simultaneously fun and annoying. Annoying because I would have to stop interaction with those around me long enough to post. My wife was like, do you have to do that right now?
So, I might, on future trips, be a little less real time about it because it is neat to have folks follow along (which I appreciate when others do on their trips).
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Writing live or near-contemporaneous trip reports is a mixed experience. I’ve really enjoyed it in the past because it’s made me feel like I’m not on my own. People really seem to enjoy following along and that gives me genuine pleasure.
On the other hand, you can feel under pressure to give people want they want. I’ll keep thinking, “better take a photo of that”, or I’ll be completely ignoring the theming of a queue because I’m typing up my next instalment.
On my first trip I wrote daily reports. Each one was written the morning after. It was a nice start to each day. It gave me a chance to reflect on the previous day before embarking on the new one.
But this summer I’ve been bullied into doing early starts each day. Maybe I’ll write them before I go to bed each night.
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