1st trip to Cedar Point...newbie questions

Glad I found this site before committing to anything...I want to make well informed choices! I value the opinions of those who have the experiece so I have been reading the forum and trying to decide on which CP resort to stay at. It will be my wife and I and my teenage son and daughter. We'll be there three full days so I'm considering a two day "Ride and Slide" with the third day open to do something else in the area.

1. Do the CP resorts offer package deals or is my best bet to arrange CP tickets seperate from the hotel reservations?

2. What would be a good way to spend a day in the area apart from CP? I'm thinking maybe going to one of the islands (Kellys Island?) or something like that...typical tourist kind of thing.

3. I'm hoping mid June is a good time to visit..any feedback on that?

4. What do y'all think of Lighthouse Point as a place to stay...cottages vs. cabins?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Welcome to the site and I hope your CP trip is so fun that you're hooked for life.

Cedar Point's resorts offer both packages with Soak City and Cedar Point or Cedar Point only. Early/Mid June is a great time to go to the park, the lines for the bigger atractions are about an hour or so. If you are planning a longer trip or several trips maybe look in to a season pass[url][url] that is worth a summer of fun. If you're a member of AAA you can receive a discount. For your teens they will enjoy Challenge Park[url][url] on the CP peninsula which offers go-carts, and other thrill rides.

Put-in-Bay (http://www.put-in-bay.com/) is a great day trip, just hop on the ferry or Jet Express and your there. The island has a great winery, and has a beautiful fun center which includes the caverns, mini golf and a butterfly house. It's very nice. I also suggest the Marblehead[url][url] area, it has little shops and the beach. It's a great place to bring a picnic basket and eat your lunch looking out onto lake erie and the lighthouse. Also in the Toledo area you can watch a baseball game (forget the team name sorry) or the Toledo Zoo.

This site offers great ideas http://www.shoresandislands.com/

Staying at a CP resort offers 1hr early entery and make sure you use it. Try not to wait for Dragster to open, ride M. Force and Maverick before waiting.

I hope you enjoy your first visit to the Point and if you have any other Cedar Point questions post them and they will be answered inorder to make your trip to CP great.

Thanks for the great tips and advice! I found a package deal for 3 nights at Lighthouse Point (cottage) with 4 two day Ride and Slide tickets...$1110 and change.

Any feedback on Lighthouse Point would be appreciated... thanks. Still checking a couple of other CP resorts as well.

Also trying to decide on Kellys Island or Put in Bay (South Bass Island). I'd kind of like to stay one night and day exploring one or the other island.

I like Kellys Island Venture Resort and on PIB/So. Bass I like the looks of the Bayshore Resort.

Sorry, hope it's OK to bring up this on the CP forum...

Although I have never stayed at Lighthouse, I've have friends that stayed there that loved it. They stayed in a cottage and just loved the fact that the lake was right there. They would leave the park, cook up some dinner and sit outside in a lawn chair and watch the sunset.

LHP is very nice. I stayed there once and loved it. The pros are the kitchen and grill if you're into cooking your own food to save a little money. The cabins/cottages are very nice, and if you're lucky enough to get (or ask for) one on the bay, the view is awesome. Each one has a bedroom with a queen (I think) bed and two futons in the living room. I forget if it's the cabins or cottages, but one of them has a loft with more sleeping space, but it doesn't sound like you have that large of a party. The only downside would be that the bathroom was pretty small and the hot water ran out if too many people took long showers. It's a longer walk to the gate than Breakers or Sandcastle, but there is shuttle. If you do walk it's less than 5 minutes.

While I've never stayed there, Breakers can be nice too from what I hear. The old section of the hotel gets some criticism for being, well, older. The newer sections and tower are pretty nice from what I hear, and being right on the beach is a plus.

As for the package deals at the resort, I'm not sure if they have a limit on how many tickets you can buy for their discounted price, but that will probably be your best price bet. If they do limit how many discounted tickets you can buy, there are other ways to get discounts. The Getaway Guide, which you can request be sent to you on the CP website, has lots of coupons in it. Also, if you have a vehicle while in town, the local Meijer store always has discounted tickets.

As pointperson mentioned, there are lots of things to do around the area. Put in Bay is nice. It's mostly known for its bars, but there are lots of family fun things to do there too. I've never been to Kelly's Island, but I hear it's pretty fun too. There's of course lots to do in Toledo or Cleveland if you're up for about a 1-1.5 hour drive to get there. This topic from the Employee Lounge has a pretty good list of things you can do on a day trip around the area:
http://www.pointbuzz.com/Forums/Thread/23841.aspx

Another plus to the cabin or cottage is you don't have to worry about disturbing your neighbors if you like to stay up to 3am and watch tv, or vise versa.
Also I would bring a lot of things that you take camping as far as the cooking goes, I like to go all out and make a big breakfast every morning. I love grilling breakfast with a cast iron skillet, and a dutch oven. We usually have bacon, eggs, red potatoes cut up with red onion and cooked in the bacon grease, and some biscuits cooked in the dutch oven. Also if your are a coffee drinker I highly recommend one of these. http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___15774


Thanks for all the advice...I will continue my research and start lining up my choices. I am leaning toward the cottages at LHP tho...

My son is the coaster expert so I will leave the rides etc. up to him, although I appreciate the feedback on the forum for that too. We will be driving in from Washington D.C. and meeting my wife and daughter flying into Cleveland from our home in So. Cal.

Ralph's description of cottages vs. cabins was a bit off. Cottages are all along the waterfront, whereas cabins are all inland around small ponds. The cottage seems to be aimed more towards families with younger kids because they have the bedroom with a queen bed and bunk beds all in one room, plus one fouton in the main room. The cabins have the bedroom with a queen bed, plus two foutons in the main room, plus the loft. I've stayed in a cottage twice and cabin three times. The cabins have more room and privacy for the parents but with the cottage you can't beat the waterfront property.

My bad. I thought the only difference between the two was one had the loft and the other didn't.

Yeah, I looked at a map of LHP and would like the waterfront cottage I think.

Waiting now for April 1 to see what kind of discount Meijer (sp?) stores have for CP tickets. Anyone know how much is the discount?

Could be that the package deal is the best way to go...

I know the discount at the Discount Drug Mart here in Cleveland offered tickets for about 35-38 dollars so I would assume Meijer would be about the same. You can also try contacting the store. This site also has a page of prices http://www.thepointol.com/discounttickets.html

We have done the "Goodtime 1" day trip to Kelley's Island/Put-In-Bay. Leaves Sandusky approx. 9:30am and brings you back around 6-6:30pm. Nice leisurely way to get out on the water and explore the islands (1 1/2 hrs on Kelley's---3-4 hours on Put-In-Bay). If you want to get to the islands quickly---this IS NOT the way to go!

We've also been to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo/Rainforest and love it! We're gonna go to the Toledo Zoo this summer when we visit in July. We were told that it's better than the Cleveland Zoo.

Well, it is almost here! Leave for D.C. on Monday for almost a week and then on Sat. 6/13 head to Cleveland to pick up the rest of the family and then on to Sandusky and CP!

Been looking forward to this for a long time...also spending two days and nights on Put in Bay island. My son is so excited to go to CP...

I'll post my experiences when I return. Thanks for all the advice!

^I hope you have a great trip to America's Roller Coast!