Cedar Point first welcomed its first guests as a public bathing beach in 1870. The park's modern era began with the installation of the Blue Streak roller coster in 1964 - the first of a line-up that has earned the lakeside park the nickname, "America's Roller Coast." Cedar Point's daily operating season typically runs from early May through Labor Day, with the park then opening on weekends through the end of October for its HalloWeekends Halloween event.
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In addition to the "grown up" coasters, in the Camp Snoopy children's area Cedar Point offers Wilderness Run, an Intamin children's coaster with a height requirement of 36 inches, and Woodstock Express, a Vekoma junior coaster with a height requirement of 36 inches with supervising companion and 48 inches otherwise.
In addition, you can find dozens of carnival rides throughout the park.
Cedar Point is located in Sandusky, Ohio - on a peninsula in Lake Erie about an hour west of Cleveland.
Cedar Point offers one hour of Early Entry to guests staying at its hotels. Last year's coasters eligible for Early Entry were Millennium Force, GateKeeper, Iron Dragon, and Wild Mouse. So if you do not have Early Entry, save those for later in the day as their queue will be filled when you arrive. But if you are staying on site, take advantage and check off at least Millennium Force and Wild Mouse before the park opens.
Otherwise, Steel Vengeance is the long wait time here, so if you can beat everyone back to the far end of the park (no running!) and rope drop this for little-to-no wait, go for it. You will have to store loose items in a locker, so factor in that time, too. Parking in the water park lot is a huge advantage here.
Plan B is to leave Steel Vengeance for later in the day and hit Maverick first. In general, working your way from back to front with the coasters helps. Leave the carnival rides for last, or just skip them to focus on Cedar Point's many top rides.
Cedar Point's line-skip pass is called Fast Lane and it's probably worth the investment if you are visiting on a weekend. There are no single-rider queues here, so that's out as a time-saving strategy. But if you visit on a weekday, you should be able to ride at least the park's top 10 coasters without needing Fast Lane or Early Entry.
The debut of Siren's Curse and return of Top Thrill 2 will shake up crowd patterns in the park, especially if one of them is offered for Early Entry. We will update this Strategy plan once the park opens for the season in May.
