Water main break closes Cedar Point

June 7, 2014, 8:22 AM · Revised and updated from original post: A water main break just beyond the tollbooths forced Cedar Point to close its theme park and hotels today, as the break cut off the water supply to the peninsula just before the park was to open to the public today.

Cedar Point

Some hotel guests were in the park for early ride time when officials made the decision to close the park. Hotel guests at the Hotel Breakers, Sandcastle Suites and Lighthhouse Point later were sent away as officials moved to close the hotels due to a lack of water supply. Guests are asked to contact the Cedar Point reservation office at 419-627-2106 to cancel or reschedule their reservations.

The Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort and Breakers Express remain open, as their water supply is located before the break in the main.

Cedar Point has announced that the park and affected hotels will remain closed Sunday, June 8, as repairs continue and the required water system flushing and testing follow. The park said that it intends to reopen on Monday.

The closure comes on what would have been a highly popular weekend, with excellent weather (finally!) in northern Ohio. Theme Park Insider Cedar Point correspondent Jim Koehl emailed: "This weekend here is absolutely gorgeous, and everybody I talked to was going to Cedar Point today. Not any more."

"From a very reliable source, the hotels won't open until Monday afternoon at the earliest, and that is if the health dept. gives the OK. boil warnings, etc. Nobody, not even the maintenance supervisors, are allowed on site, only fire dept. personnel and health dept. at least in the hotels. And everything was booked solid for this weekend. There was a terrible traffic jam this morning trying to get out of the park. They lost a huge amount of money. It sounds like Cedar Point is trying to do the best they can with a terrible situation, refunding money, honoring tickets later, etc. but some people still want to punch the moose! Most people, at least those on social media, are being understanding that this is an unforeseeable situation and Cedar Point is dong the best they can."

Cedar Point has said that not only will tickets for today be honored at the park on dates later this season, but Cedar Point tickets can be used this weekend at Wildwater Kingdom or Kings Island as well.

Were you affected by the closures at Cedar Point this weekend? Let us know in the comments.

Update: Here's a video from some fans who were there:

Replies (19)

June 7, 2014 at 8:35 AM · Sounds like the makings of some National Lampoon's Vacation material.
June 7, 2014 at 8:38 AM · Another item of news for Cedar Point is that Top Thrill Dragster went down earlier in the week. Might be a prolonged closure as they may need to order a replacement part or parts. Nothing confirmed at this time other than the fact that it is down.
June 7, 2014 at 9:07 AM · That's really a shame -- unfortunate timing as this happens to be the first Saturday of summer break for the majority of school districts in OH. I read on FB that Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora & KI will be honoring CP & Soak City tickets today, but making the drive down to Cincinnati is not ideal for those already up at the lake, I'd guess.
June 7, 2014 at 9:09 AM · James, someone on their Facebook page said that they had ridden Top Thrill Dragster this morning before the park was shut down during early ride time. Can't verify that. Other reports are saying that calls to the park are being answered that they are expecting to have the park open on Sunday.

Cedar Point has (reportedly)announced that tickets are being honored at Wild Water Kingdom (their water park that is all that's left of Geauga Lake in Aurora, Ohio), and at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio (about 4 1/2 hours away). I don't know if they will honor them only today or throughout the summer.

This is a really changing situation and I'll find out when I can (when I'm not mowing the lawn today).

June 7, 2014 at 10:08 AM · My question is: what's the situation in the hotels? Do they have water now?
June 7, 2014 at 10:11 AM · They do not have water in the hotels and are evacuating all guest due to health department requirements. It's a bad situation, but not sure what else they can do and it's out of their control. They are refunding your hotel charge for last night as a courtesy to do what they can.
June 7, 2014 at 10:18 AM · No. There is no water to the entire Cedar Point peninsula. All of the water comes from the City of Sandusky- Cedar Point has no water supply of its own (in spite of being surrounded by Lake Erie).
June 7, 2014 at 10:18 AM · James, if TTD was running again, it would be great news. I don't want to miss any of the fun when we visit in August (I ended up skipping Magic Mountain last year when I went to Disney because X2 was down). If you are a coaster park, your featured coasters MUST be running.

As for the water main issue... I wonder if the city or insurance will recoup some of CP's losses for the day. I am guessing upwards of 20k people would have been spending money in the park today....

June 7, 2014 at 12:08 PM · A water main break is not a crisis! Using terminology like evacuate suggests there was a disaster and people were in harms way. That's not the case.

Not being able to take a shower, flush the toilet, or get a drink of water out of the faucet in your hotel room is not a disaster. They've been without water for a day, so it's not a health and safety crisis either. Furthermore, we all know that the theme park is well stocked with bottled water. If a guest were in dire need of water there is plenty to be had.

Please give it a rest! It's valid news to report that Cedar Point is closed on a Saturday, but let's not portray this situation as something that it is not.

June 7, 2014 at 12:56 PM · "Evacuate" is a common industry term for removing people from an attraction. And not having a water supply is a huge health and safety issue. No water = no sanitation and no firefighting ability.
June 7, 2014 at 4:09 PM · Someone submitted photos of a backed up men's room to newsnet5.com, a local Cleveland news station. They also stated about the stench. This is a huge deal, and not some minor inconvenience. I feel bad for all the affected guests.
June 7, 2014 at 7:18 PM · I was in the shower at Hotel Breakers around 9:00AM when the water pressure dropped down to a trickle. At first we assumed something was just wrong with our wing but after calling the front desk it quickly became apparent that the issue was much larger than that.

We had plans to visit Put-in-Bay today anyway, so we just left the hotel and park around 10:00AM. There was the usual line of cars heading into the park up the Causeway but we had a feeling that the day might not play out well for them.

June 7, 2014 at 8:28 PM · Hey, Tim, what's the word on TTD? Was it running prior to the water main break, or has it been down for a few days?
June 7, 2014 at 8:43 PM · Top Thrill Dragster was not running. I was at the park yesterday and today until the closure. Must be waiting for parts as I didn't see anyone working on it. We were told by an employee that it was really windy the other day and there were a lot of rollbacks. He said that they may have done some damage to the ride. Fact or fiction, I don't know. We were staying at Breakers Express. Got a refund for tonight, but not for last night. Park was handing out lots of bottled water.
June 7, 2014 at 11:18 PM · Top Thrill Dragster has indeed been down for at least the past couple days. Millennium Force took its place for the evening ERT during CoasterMania on Friday.
June 8, 2014 at 4:52 AM · Thanks for the update. I just hope all the issues the park is having are fixed soon.
June 8, 2014 at 5:29 AM · That person on Facebook fibbed when they said they rode TTD! Must have been delirious from dehydration. Today it's pouring rain in northern Ohio- good thing I stayed home and did the yard work yesterday.
My daughter will be working at Cedar Point again this summer- a park sweep (until she can get a better job)- I hope that everything is back to normal by Tuesday, when she processes in to work.
Yesterday they were taking water from the Breakers Hotel indoor pool up to the guest rooms to flush all the toilets in the hotel. That was the only way to be sure that the entire hotel didn't become a smelly mess until the water is restored. And if you haven't been to the Breakers, it is a huge hotel, with hundreds of toilets.
The water main that broke was a 16" main located near where the Causeway meets the parking lot. A large area of the parking lot was flooded by the break. A Cleveland news station reported that they have had problems with that main before, including a break this past winter. It reportedly had been checked within the past few weeks and seemed to be in good enough condition- obviously not the case.
June 8, 2014 at 6:51 PM · I stayed at The Breakers Tuesday and Wednesday night. As a bit of foreshadowing, maybe, our bathroom ceiling sprung a leak and flooded the floor and brought down a saturated ceiling tile.
Had a great visit on a day with lousy weather only missing TTD. I feel terrible for the people whose vacations were ruined by this.
June 10, 2014 at 4:52 AM · FYI - It has been reported that TDD reopened with the rest of the park on Monday.

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