Cedar Point Advice, Please

Glad to hear you're coming to visit the American North Coast! I'll answer what I can for you, but you seem to be pretty well organized for your needs. Feel free to post more questions in here and I'll do my best for you.

The first thing that many people underestimate about CP is its size. It is huge. Disneyland has 85 acres- Cedar Point is 365 acres, so plan on doing a lot of walking. It has four gates (Main, Beach, Resorts and Marina). Unless you're cruising in on your boat you can forget the Marina Gate. Most Guest Services are located at the Main Gate, under the Gatekeeper coaster keyholes. I don't know which CP hotel you're staying at, but if it is the Breakers it is the most centrally located and convenient. As far as temperature, don't get surprised- it can get really hot there at times. Since the park is located in the middle of Lake Erie it is usually cooler than the mainland, but sometimes only by a few degrees. Bring something like a hoodie or jacket in case it gets cooler in the evening.

Cedar Point is basically laid out as a giant hourglass, with the Main Gate at the bottom of the hourglass. I don't know if you can get your disability passes anywhere else other than at Guest Services, at the Main Gate. If you are staying at any of the hotels you will either have to drive completely around the park on the Perimeter Road to get to the main parking lot to get to the main gate, take a park shuttle to the main gate (and I have no idea how regularly they run), or you will need to enter the park and walk through it to the Guest Services. If I were you, I would check with your hotel and see if there is another way to get your disability passes ahead of time at your hotel.

Two days with disability passes and one day with Fast Lane Plus should get you on everything easily. Also, staying at a hotel gets you in a hour early and they will have a list of what rides are open early. If you are staying at the Breakers and want to hit the rides in the back of the park (Maverick, Magnum,Gemini, Mean Streak (a kidney-breaker, but worth enduring once just because of its huge size) use the Resorts Gate (sometimes call the Soak City Gate because it shares the entrance plaza with the water park. If you are going to hit the front of the park, which is the original and oldest park of the park(Gatekeeper, Raptor, Millennium Force,Blue Streak, Wicked Twister) use the Beach Gate. Top Thrill is located in the middle of the park and either gate will do.

Two things I would recommend you not miss. One is Cedar Downs. It is NOT your average merry-go-round. It is one of the last surviving Racing Derby carousels, and is a lot of fun. Second is Frontier Trail, a collection of log cabins, craft shops, a terrific petting zoo, and other more sedate attractions. It is a cool, relaxing place to decompress and slow down after a long period of coaster thrills.

Looking at the list of parks you've visited, and your ACE membership, I don't need to tell you how to attack the coasters. You've got it in your DNA. The biggest suggestion I would have for you is, if you are going to hit the front coasters in the morning (Raptor, GateKeeper) either do so during early ride time before the crowds are let in , or wait until later in the day when the crowds have moved further into the park. Many people come in and make a beeline to those two coasters, while further back in the park many marquee attractions are still walk-ons.

Let me know how many questions I left unanswered, and I'll do my best to confuse you further ;+) Have a great time at Cedar Point!

Thanks! Our idea of hot is 110 F so we'll appreciate the change.

The park map I'm finding on their website isn't labeled. Is there one that is?

Oh! Are there fireworks, a laser show, or anything like that at the end of the day?

You can get a map on site- I don't know why the on-line map isn't labeled. I bet if you contact them they'll send you a map. As far as fireworks, etc. this ain't Disney, but they have a pretty good end-of-day show called Luminosity every evening on a large techno stage in what's called Celebration Plaza, right in front of the Iron Dragon station and the train station. It's a big dance party show with lots of lasers, some fireworks, dancers, projections, etc. It's different every year, and I don't think it has opened yet this year so I can't tell you how good it is, but it's always been pretty entertaining. You can watch it from a grandstand, or do what lots of people do and stand around the stage. Cedar Point has been doing lots with lighting at night, and some of the rides like the Giant Wheel and Windseeker are pretty spectacular at night

Thanks! I'm trying to think through how this works with the off-line waiting for the disability pass, the fast lane plus, and the parent swap.

Can we include our teen in the parent swap? We've always done that before where the teen, a parent, and the child go together, but we've never used a system where you have to sign up for the parent swap in advance.

I have no idea how the parent swap works at CP. Sorry! I can only assume that they wouldn't really care who the responsible parties are as long as they are responsible and of a reasonable age. I would think that you should be able to call CP from a phone # on their website and be connected to someone in Guest Services who can answer your questions.

If I might ask, when are you going to be there? If not my business say so- no hard feelings. I'll probably be working anyway (not there btw).

I will try calling them tomorrow. Just wanted to collect enough info to have a decent conversation. Thank you for getting me well on the way!

We haven't pinned down which dates, but we're planning on two days from the 21st to 24th. We hope to purchase everything this weekend.

I might be free one of those days if you are interested in a private and totally free tour guide...and if you're not, I totally understand. You can contact me at jim@themeparkinsider.com

That would be great! I'll email you once we get the dates finalized.