Hey everyone, so because I grew up within a reasonable driving distance to Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio, and that meant that I went to Cedar Point rather frequently for special events; my mom's side of the family would go once a year with everyone (Aunt, Uncle, Tanman, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, and VikingPolak), my school would go there for special field trips (I went there with mskate for a physics class trip and I went there with my band class), and some times I went with the boy scouts. Since I was able to get a decent deal on a season pass I decided to get one for the 2023 year and not just for the summer. I'm very glad I did because I was very busy over the summer and only was able to get there at the end of September. I asked my mom if she wanted to go and we went over the weekend. I thought I could get a reduced ticket due to my season pass, but because it's special Halloween Saturday events (called "Halloweekend"), mom had to get a full price ticket, but that was OK because we got a special bundle of "all day dining, ticket, and parking" (my pass already had parking, but it was cheaper to get this bundle than to get the 2 separately, like "all day dining and a day ticket was $110" while "ticket and parking and dining bundle was $100"). Whatever, we were going to have 13 hours in the park for food and fun.
Mom got to our condo so we could get to the park right when it opened, and we got going almost right when she got there. We ended up having a problem because traffic put us like 30 minutes later than expected. That sucked, not just because it was less time for rides but also meant the all day meal was going to be less than we could fully maximize (we can get another meal 90 minutes after the previous meal), and while there is 1 hour of leeway for max use that gets eaten up by the lines. Oh well, we got to the island and scanned my QR code for the parking. We parked at row 33 section C, kind of far from the entrance but it was OK. As we were going in there was a marching band that was parading around the parking lot. It was kind of interesting. As we were going in I saw some people in costumes and I didn't really connect that people were going to be wearing costumes, then mom told me and it made sense.
Once we got in we got some pictures with the 150 year sign and other memories, and I made a dash to the first restaurant, Hugo's Italian Kitchen. I got a slice of pepperoni pizza and cheese bread and we split it. Since this was kind of close to the entrance we'd come in from the Breakers (the on property hotel), our first ride like always was the Ocean Motion (or "Ocean Potion" because it was Halloween themed). This is the ride where you get on a ship and it swings you back and forth. It was a pretty short wait, only had to wait about 10 minutes which was pretty great. The next ride we wanted to go on was the Sky Ride (cable cars), but unfortunately it was closed (get used to this statement). Oh well. After the ride we found our way to what used to be Bearenstain Bear Land and is now Peanuts Land. When I was little this was THE place, and my favorite think was the sandbox backhoe thing (or as we called it, "the digger"). I apparently spent hours playing on it, because I wanted to make as big a hole as possible, and my uncle tried to bribe me to go do something else. Unfortunately the sandbox (or maybe it was a gravel box) wasn't there anymore, so mom and I spent time an appropriate amount of time looking for it but unsuccessfully. We did get to meet Sally from the Peanuts, which was fun.
After the bust with the digger we went over to what is kind of "the pier area," where it has a bunch of rides that are reminiscent of pier rides and carnival games. The funway arcade was in the area and while I didn't have any a lot of desire to spend the day playing arcade games, I might have wanted to play a round of pinball since I love pinball and it's not exactly easy to find anymore, and I remember it having a pretty good selection of games. Unfortunately they downsized A LOT and was more a mirror maze now. Oh well. The main things we did was ride "scrambler type" rides; troika and calypso. Troika is basically the normal scrambler but also goes up in the air in a fun way of the 3rd dimension. Calypso is also like the normal scrambler only it's on an angle and can only hold one person. It's pretty cool. We were going to ride MaxxAir, but unfortunately it was closed. After the rides it was time to eat again, and since we were close to the new Cedar Point Grand Pavilion Restaurant and Bar, and we had unlimited food, we decided to give that a try if we could. It presents itself as a high end restaurant and we were unsure if it was going to work for us, but it did support the meal plan and it was really high quality food. This time we got the steak and lobster bisque; I had the steak and mom had the lobster bisque. It was really good, and not just for amusement park food. We both thought "Gog and Pop (the grandparents on mom's side) would love this place."
Next ride I wanted to do was windseaker; the amusement park swing ride that goes up 300 feet in the air. Like, the amusement park swing ride is kind of "a step up from the carousel" where it lifts you up like 20 feet in the air and swings you around in seats on a chain, and while it's fun it's a very calm ride. Windseaker on the other hand is that, but they strap you in like a thrill ride, then it lifts you up 300 feet and swings you around high above everything else in the park. Like, it's scary because the only thing between you and death is a heavy metal cable. It's not even that fast, it's just "I am actually hanging high above the ground, this isn't an illusion like a roller coaster." Oh well, maybe next time. Since this is Halloweekends and we don't like getting scared, we worked our way to the "scary section" before it got scary. The "scary section" was in the back of the park so we started going back there with the plan that if there was a walk on we would ride it. While walking to the back in true Halloween fashion there was a graveyard decoration set-up, but the headstones were very creative. Instead of puns or famous people, it was rides that are no longer there. I got my picture with my favorite gone ride, the Demon Drop. It's a ride that puts you in a cage, drops you in a free fall that then angles into a slope, and then brings you back. When they were selling it a friend wanted to buy it and put it in his backyard. His backyard was really big (like a triple lot), so it's possible it could have fit, but there were probably zoning laws that would prohibit it, plus, it is probably a major power consumer and expensive. Here's my picture with the tomb stone.
On our way we road Iron Dragon, the smoothest and easiest roller coaster in the park probably. It's a fun hanging boat cart roller coaster, and it didn't take very long for us to get on. After Iron Dragon we found our way into frontier land (the start of the scary part), and while there wasn't much there we did find a fun family joke with pony rides (my my, aunt, and her cousins were at some place with pony rides and my one aunt didn't want to ride the pony, and it's been something everyone has teased her about for 50 years). There was also a peting zoo, and I petted a camel and a llama. One of the llamas had an underbite and I tried to do an impression of it.
We didn't find much else in frontier land, but we did find the wave swinger; the amusement park swings. Sure, it wasn't super great, but it was still a fun little ride. After that it was time to eat again, and we went to the Frontier Inn where we got pizza on a half role and a salad cup of grapes. It was good to have some fruit and split pretty well. After eating we went to the cedar creek mine ride; a mine cart themed roller coaster. It was a 20 or so minute wait, and it's an old ride that didn't really work for "modern American bodies" where we weren't really able to fit (mom couldn't get in and I barely got in and was rather uncomfortable the entire time). Oh well, wouldn't recommend. After that we made our way to the back of the park and there wasn't much for us. There were only 3 rides, Maverick, the train, and Steel Vengeance (Maverick and Steel Vengeance are both roller coasters). Maverick is a pretty new ride (12 years now) and has a 95 degree drop, but the fast pass line was a 45 minute wait and the stand by line was like 2 hours. Uhh no. Then Steel Vengeance was closed, and the train had to wait for the ride to get there and was just a train, so this area was kind of a bust.
We made our way over to the Camp Snoopy area where they have Gemini, Soring Eagles, Monster, and the Happy Fryer. We walked around Camp Snoopy because Camp Snoopy is great, a place for slightly older kids. We almost met Lucy in her witch costume, but it was right as she was leaving. I did get a picture with the therapy desk.
Camp Snoopy is mostly kids rides that we wouldn't be able to get on (camp bus, woodstock express, red baron airplane ride), but then there was Linus's Beetle Bug which is just the tilt-a-whirl. Mom was like "we don't have a kid" and said "it's just the tilt-a-whirl, they'll let us on," and they did let us on. I got kind of dizzy and remembered "I don't really like the tilt-a-whirl." After the ride we went to the Happy Fryer, a restaurant that specializes in French fries and corn dogs. I always wanted to try it since the mascot looks so friendly, but could never justify spending that much on fries. However, since we had the all day meal deal, we got the mini-corn dogs and fries. I'm not a big fan of corn dogs (if I eat a hot dog I want some char), but these were pretty good, and the fries were amazing. We each ate about half of the mini corndogs and half the fries.
After food we went to the pipe scream. It's a ride where it spins you around and goes on a half pipe back and forth. The other time we went on one of these rides was at Universal Studios in the Nickelodeon section. I remember my cousin didn't want to go on it because "it was in the little kid section," but we managed to convince him that it was an actual ride for big kids (because it is). It was quite fun. After that we went to the eagles ride, a kind of swing ride but where you control the beak and control how high and low you go. We were going to go on Gemini but it was closed. While waiting for the eagles we saw them test Gemini, and mom heard someone saying that the Gemini was opening up, and since I wanted to go on it I decided to get out of line and wait for it to open since it would be a walk on. Unfortunately it was just a rumor, and I waited around for about 20 minutes for it to not open. Oh well. After giving up on Gemini it was time to eat again and we went to BackBeatQue, a barbecue place. We got brisket and a salad. While I was getting the food Mom met a nice family and started dancing with them. It was the kind of fun thing that her recently deceased friend would have done, and she made a good temporary friend with the mom. The food was pretty good, a decent "normal restaurant quality." Cedar point is doing REALLY good with the restaurants and having "real food."
With this we're now out of the scary part of the park, back sweet dreams. There were some pretty cool pumpkin art pieces, and no more "scary clowns" things. There wasn't much in terms of rides on our walk for a while, but there was a lot of cool decorations, like the pumpkin art. The first ride we road was another classic, the Corkscrew. It's a really simple roller coaster, a hill and dip, a loop, and a cork screw that goes over the walking path. Can't say for certain, but it was likely one of the earliest looping rides in the park. After the corkscrew we went on the Super Himalaya. It's a ride that spins around going up and down while playing a vintage pop song. Really fun ride. Then we next ride was the Power Tower, a ride that drops you or shoots you up. It's also one of the few rides that can be seen from the Breakers, I remember watching it from our hotel room when I was little. Years ago I did the "shoots you up" one and didn't like it, so we did the "drop you" one. Since mom and I were 2 riders, we got pulled ahead of the line because there was an opening for 2 people. As we were riding it I regretted keeping my crocks on, they didn't fall off and if they did they would just fall down where there weren't any people (because safety zone for falling objects), but they didn't fall off so I was good. After Power Tower we went to Coasters, a diner themed restaurant that sells hamburgers, fries, onion rings, and some other things I don't remember. Mom and I got the cheeseburger and frings (half fries, half onion rings), and a pile of pickles from the condiment bar. Quite good. After dinner we watched a little bit of the live show just to say we did. In the past it was a laser light show and I really enjoyed it, but because Halloween it was a live stage concert. It was pretty good, the music was Halloween themed I think, and if it wasn't the costumes sure were.
Now we made our way over to the first "really big ride" of the day, Valravn. I think the story of this ride is it's like Norse or something, but whatever. It had a posted hour wait, but we were OK with that since we were kind of getting to the end of the rides we haven't done anyway, and the queue line time estimate didn't seem like it was getting updated. The wait was shorter than that, maybe like 45 minutes, so that was a bonus. However, even if it was an hour it was worth it. It's kind of an "open train" ride, where your seat is isn't in a ride car and there isn't much of a floor. But the real thing is that there's a 90 degree drop and multiple spins and loops. REALLY fun. After that I road the Blue Streak, probably the oldest roller coaster in the park and maybe one of the original ones. It's a very basic wooden one, big drop with some bumps and turns, but it's history and I had to ride it. Mom didn't join me though because the old rides hurt her, and I wasn't feeling the best afterwards either, but still fun. Since it was time to eat again we made our way back to Cedar Point Grand Pavilion so Mom could get the funnel cake shrimp, and I got the baked sweet potatoes because I like sweet potatoes some and wanted to see what these were like. They were a nice sweet side, but I'm not sure I'd get them again (texture was kind of weird for me). Once again, real food with the meal plan.
This is when things got pretty lucky. GateKeeper, one of the newer roller coasters which is another "open train" coaster with a left and right view of either Lake Erie or the park depending on which side you're on, had a 5 minute wait. Earlier in the day this had like a 1 hour wait, but now it was basically a walk on. We road on the one side that gave us a view of the park, and then we road on the side that gave us a view of the lake. It was really cool. After that we had maybe 1 ride left in us (it was like 11 PM now), and so we ended the day by riding the Giant Wheel (generic name for Ferris Wheel). Since it's a nice calm ride and everything would be lit up, we wanted to do this as our last event. It ended up being a good way to end the day since we were right, there was a lot to see. Because of science and balance we ended up riding around multiple times, but that was OK, gave us a lot of time to see things. After the wheel we went to wild mouse to see if it was a walk on but it wasn't and we were done. I got one last meal for the night back at the same restaurant we started at, Hugo's Italian Kitchen. I got a pizza pocket thing and a Caesar salad with the intention of eating it the following day. However when we got to our hotel I'm like "I want to see what this is like," and so I ate the pizza pocket thing and it was great, and then after showering I passed out because I was so tired.
The following day we had some continental breakfast and headed home. I was still really sleepy so I mom drove home while I slept. The only thing of interest is we didn't think about checking our gas so we had the fuel light come on and had to find gas quickly. Thankfully there was a gas station within eyeline of where we were and made it. Once we got home we said our goodbyes and went about our Sunday. It was a really fun day trip. We rode a fair amount of rides and gorged ourselves. I kept track of how much we saved using the dining plan, $109. Considering the meal plan was $33, we ate $142 retail worth of amusement park food. Granted, ever meal was like $16.50 or $21, and "not captive customer" prices would probably be $10 or $15 for what we got, but it's still an amazing deal. Multiple times I asked mom "I wonder what the high score is." And the Sunday after our fun I had like 1 actual meal because I was so full. Definitely worth it if you ever go to a Cedar Fair amusement park, but only get 1 band for 2 people. Even if you don't split everything like Mom and I did, alternating works well too. We basically paid for the hotel with what we saved in food, yay. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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