I like to frequent CP as often as possible in May before schools let out, but the earliest we could make it this year was Saturday, 5/24. I was a little worried about the Memorial Day crowd, but figured if we got there early enough we'd get at least a few of the big rides in.
Packed up my girlfriend, the kids (ages 6, 10 and 12) and a cooler of snacks/drinks late Friday night and left Cleveland at 7:30 Saturday morning. Made excellent time - we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast on the way and still made it to the Point a few minutes before Early Entry at 9am. We stopped for our Parent Swap pass at Town Hall and went straight for Millennium Force, which was a 15 minute wait and an incredible rush for our first ride of the season. That ride will never get old to me. Our next stop was Maverick, but it wasn't running when we walked by, so we went to Camp Snoopy. We let the kids play around for a good hour and a half. Pipe Scream was a 30 minute wait and LE Eagles had a decent line, so we skipped both. My 6 y/o's first time on the Woodstock Express was priceless. He was excited to go on the ride when we were in line, freaked out and begged to get off when we boarded, then ended up loving the ride! Wilderness Run was next (he went on with his older brother) and while they were riding, a big glob of sap from one of the pine trees fell into my girlfriend's hair. You wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but the smell from the sap was so strong and it was so sticky that she needed to wash it out right away. So we went back to the car and changed into our swimsuits for Opening Day of Soak City!
All three kids are fish and LOVE the water, so Soak City is a must-stop every time we go to the Point. My youngest enjoyed Splash Zone and Choo Choo Lagoon while I took the older two on Zoom Flume. We immediately hiked up the steps for a second ride and were next to board before the raft lift stopped working. We had to exit the queue and CP Maintenance was called out to Zoom Flume a few times throughout the day to fix the same issue. In total, we ended up getting 2 rides on Zoom Flume, and few on Dragster H20 and the other water slides. It's always fun watching the kids do the Adventure Cove Lily Pad Walk. Great day at Soak City with a very minimal crowd and little wait (if any) for the slides.
After Soak City, everybody was starving so we left the park to grab lunch. One of my only gripes with Cedar Point is that the food prices are outrageous. I absolutely LOVE Cedar Point fries, but I simply can't justify the price. It's expensive enough buying Platinum Passes for a family of five, so I rarely end up spending money on food inside the park. I remember going to CP as a kid and bringing $20 to cover my food for the entire day. Today, it would cost almost that much for one meal alone. As an alternative, we often pack a cooler and bring food to picnic in the SC parking lot. We didn't pack a full lunch (only snacks), so we made another McDonald's trip (ugh... kids choice).
We got back to the park around 5pm, walked through Frontier Town, rode the Train and some of the smaller coasters and rides. We checked the line for Dragster, but the crowd really picked up in the evening, so we didn't end up doing any more major coasters. Got a few rides on Gemini and Iron Dragon, but those were the only highlights of the evening. Our little guy was pooped by closing time at 10pm, and although we didn't get many big rides in, we still had a great time together as a family! Great sun, great fun!
@RyanRufe
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