Halloweekend 9/21-22 Trip Report

I've been coming to Cedar Point my whole life, and it's been my favorite place in the world. We'd come from the Detroit area and make the 2+ hour drive... get there around 11:00am and leave around 10:00pm to make the drive back. We never stayed in a hotel near the park and only once did we stay until closing time. We always came during the summer, which meant it was always HOT.

My dream has always been to stay overnight, close the park down and crash at the hotel. Now that I live in Atlanta, it isn't so easy to do. So this year, I planned the trip... about three months in advance.

I figured we'd get cooler weather by coming during September, and the midnight closing time would be a nice bonus. I knew nothing about Halloweekends... didn't even know they did haunted houses at CP.

Because we were driving from so far away, and given what I'd read here on the forums about how crowded Halloweekends can be, I bought FL passes for all five of us for Saturday. After doing that, all I had to worry about was the weather. Because I have to plan my business schedule several months in advance, there was no room to reschedule. If it rained, we were screwed.

So what happened last weekend? Well, it rained. A lot.

But we STILL had a great time.

How? Here's what happened...

Friday night we arrive a bit too late to take advantage of ERT, which bummed me out, but the park was pretty empty so it really didn't matter much. None of my friends had ever been to CP before, so right away we hop on Raptor - NO WAIT.

We then make our way back to MF. Someone had honked on the ride, causing a delay, so we headed back to Maverick... where we had maybe a 5-10 minute wait. We hit Skyhawk, PT and swung back for a ride on MF right as the rain started coming down. I mean, we got PELTED by rain on that ride... there was a moment coming down the first hill where we could see the rain sort of "hover" or stand still for a split second before it came straight at us like lasers. Amazing.

The rain really started to come down after that... just to get out of it we stopped at that GOD AWFUL diner (NOT Johnny Rockets) and made the mistake of eating there. $29 for my wife and I to eat food that was worse than our high school cafeteria. Really? I know theme park food is sub-par... but this was so horrible as to defy reason.

We tried to wait out the rain but to no avail... so headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The next morning, we hit a place called "East Side Cafe" for breakfast. Very good food. Went back the next day for brunch on our way home.

We hit the park a few minutes after 10am for ERT, but thanks to FL, we were able to ride MF, Maverick, Magnum, Skyhawk, TTD, PT (each side), MaxAir, WT and Raptor all by 2:00pm when it started to rain - again. Longest wait was about 10 minutes for TTD.

I told my friends that during all my previous trips to CP, I'd consider it an amazing feat to hit all those rides in 12 hours, let alone 4. So that made the mid-day siesta at the hotel (Castaway Bay) much more satisfying. Took a nap. Recharged the batteries and bundled UP for the evening... as temps dropped into the 40s by dark.

The sky cleared up by 6:00pm and we had enough time to ride everything we liked AGAIN... including Gemini, which my friends loved (it still rides great)... taking the extra time to ride front seat on MF, Mav, Raptor and TTD. Well, hold off on that a sec... because after my 4 friends rode front seat on TTD, it was my turn. I rode with a kid who's a BIG coaster freak, and as we get buckled up and our train pulls onto the track, I let out a big pre-emptive scream... and then, well... someone pulled the plug. The ride dies.

We sit on the track for about 5-10 minutes before they pull us back in the station. BUMMER. I chose not to wait for them to fix it, since my friends were waiting on me and there was a lot more to do.

How long were the wait times without FL? Raptor was 45+ min... MF was about the same... Maverick was 75-90 minutes... TTD was about 45 min. Other rides were very reasonable wait times. Overall, though... we would've had a lousy day without FL. Never would've been able to ride everything - let alone multiple times.

The Scare Zones were AWESOME. My wife must've screamed 100 times between the midway and the back of the park. The strobe lighting and smoke was very well done... the scares were plenty... the weather was cold and crisp - perfect fall evening.

In spite of the rain and cold, this was by far the best time I've ever had at Cedar Point, and we will DEFINITELY be back for Halloweekend with our trusty Fast Lane wristbands (whatever they cost).