In March my thirteen year old asked for no party --- just a trip to Cedar Point and last week we hopped in the SUV and took the 1,200 mile trip to the promised land. We arrived in Sandusky on a Wednesday night. In making our preparations I had anguished over staying on property or not. This has always been an issue for me with Disney where I bounce back and forth between staying on property or not. In our case we were only offered Castaway Bay and Breakers Express and based on their locations I am glad we stayed off property and saved what was over a 100% premium over a normal property. Next time we will book early and try to stay at Hotel Breakers which is clearly the place to be and probably worth the premium.
We went on the two day Ride and Slide passes since we were there for two days (Thursday and Friday) and my bride was very focused on getting sun instead of riding coasters – we wanted to be able to jump back and forth between CP and Soak City. I like how they let you in the gate when you get there even when you aren’t a resort banded person. In every other park I have been to they hold you in a pack somewhere (SF typically the gate, Busch it was a short way into the park, MK at the end of main street, etc.) until the magic hour. At CP you were let in and if you had the resort bracelet you got to ride the rides early and if not you were able to queue for the ride of your choice.
The park is Disney clean. The personnel appeared to be predominantly college aged kids with a large international contingent. Super friendly, super helpful and very matter of fact on how things worked at the park. Lots of security throughout the park with CP appearing to have its own police force like Disney. It’s a fine point but I’m used to a much heavier hand at the gate and fewer security personnel in the park --- CP is less of an event at the gate but their security folks both armed and unarmed appear to be everywhere. The pathways among the rides are wide and we never felt packed into any part of the park.
Almost forgot the rides. CP is very good at warning you that if you are big you might not be allowed to ride certain rides. The specific rides that this impact are Millineum Force and Top Thrill Dragster due to their Intamin lap bar restraint system. I’ve never failed to fit a restraint on the parks listed above but I’m about an inch away from fitting the restraints on those rides. I did the MF queue with the kids a couple of times and stepped out at the end and did other things while they headed to TTD. MF was pretty rigid on either buckle yourself in rapidly or go away. I watched a ride op at TTD shoe horn several supersized and well endowed people into the ride on Friday night. If the restraint issue upsets you go over to this site: http://www.rideaccidents.com (especially the Intamin portion) and note that surprisingly enough it is those of us who are large who seem to be thrown from the coasters and not the skinny people.
We loved the rides. Some are like those that we have at SFOT (raptor, cedar creek mine, demon drop) but there are many others that are one of a kind. My kids continue to mention their many rides of Millineum Force as the high point of their trip. We found TTD and its on again/off again status not unlike Mr. Freeze at SFOT or Rockin Roller Coaster at MGM despite their differing launch methods.
This tome has gone on too long but a couple of more points. We felt for what we got the ticket prices were reasonable (we expected Disney pricing and got Six Flags pricing). Also we love night shows (esp EPCOT and MGM) and while it is on a much smaller scale the show at CP is excellent and easy to get to by the train station near MF. Soak City is a fun water park and you can’t beat how close it is to that North Gate of CP for bouncing back and forth. Now to lose about 30 pounds and determine whether it is easier to fly into Cleveland or Toledo and I think we will be back at CP many times in the years to come.
I feel CP doesn't get its due on this site! I would really love to visit it in the future. I have heard only good things about this park!
The two greatest things about that park other than their ride collection are:
1. Personnal Everyone who works there obviously loves their job and is willing to help in anyway they can. Even the people walking around sweeping paths will help you out. They are all very freindly, I was actually talking to a young lady from Ecuador about how it is to work there. I even told her that I was interested in working there in the future and she was more than happy to give me information on it and about how great it is.
2. Waiting Lines All of them are spacious so you aren't crowded by people on your left and right. Also, on all the major attractions, they have misting fans and DJ booths in them. That's right, they'll have one of their DJ's come play music and take request while you're waiting in line.
Cedar Point brings the best of everything to the table. You get great attractions, freindly service, and great food (the best that I've ever had at any amusement park). Cedar Point and everyone associated with it makes you feel welcome.
