Hotel Breakers Renovation

Anyone else remember that there was a bench at the bottom of the stairways. During Halloweekends Beetlejuice was always lounging there.

^Be careful saying that name. Only two more and who knows what might happen.

^^Shhhhhhhh.... don't bring up the bottom of the stairways, there are people that get all butthurt there isn't a free coffee station anymore.

/\ That coffee station was a great place to grab a stack of cups to take to your room for whatever drinks you brought in. ...ans napkins for pizza!!

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Google Maps still has the original on street view.

https://goo.gl/maps/W5mNgdzD4svjZAA38

If you ‘drive around’ towards the east wings, there is a side door about halfway through the building that is almost level with the parking lot.

Cedar point might seem like a flat piece of land, but like everywhere it’s rolling terrain to some degree especially before the midways were built. I’ve seen an old topo map (forget where at the moment) and while there not any drastic elevation changes they are there.

I think the answer to OP’s question is the original entrance was on a slightly lower piece of land compared to the lobby (it doesn’t look like much, maybe 4 feet. My guess is 8 steps with a 6in rise each). Also one of the original lagoon's took it a very close path to the entrance, so makes sense it could be lower there.

They could have sloped the hallway, but I feel that wouldn’t make sense much to build up an entrance just to slope it downward to connect to the lobby, as that would make everything in the building a nightmare to square/plumb. When constructing the new entrance, they could have also filled that area up a foot or two to be level with the lobby.

One annoying thing I feel about the new entrance is they kept the door really small. For a hotel which can hold 1000’s of people you can barley fit two people through at a time.

The narrow door width is likely on purpose to slow people down at a busy exit point leading directly to vehicle traffic. Think children and adults not paying attention. The doors do swing open in an emergency fire type situation to allow for greater egress.

Breakers is not one of the better hotels in the area, and there are plenty of nicer, brand new hotels in town.

Like what? With the exception of the the HI Express near Thirsty Pony, Kalarahi, and Great Wolf, all the other Sandusky hotels seem like dumps to me. Not trying to be snarky, just honestly wondering if they built some hotels I'm unaware of that are new and not dumps, which ones? And where are they?

I can't vouch for the Sandusky area, but more broadly speaking, Breakers is nowhere near the quality of other hotels that command $~350 and up per night. But, you know, location matters.

All the CP hotels were much better quality and service while Mr. Ouimet ran the show, they have gone down a lot since then with poor upkeep and amenities.

Other than CP properties... The city hotels suffer from the high use and abuse of being a theme park market and the associated clientele that come with it.

Kalahari is nothing really special even in their high end suites. The Holiday inn is new but the hotel that was ran there before was easily at the bottom end in the city, so we will see what longterm care is taken with that property.

I just wish Matt Ouimet was back with his attention to detail and amenities.

Breakers is at best "adequate." You're paying for location there, certainly. Hopefully they will continue the refresh cycle (in LHP too) that was established when Ouimet was there. They should really appreciate how necessary that is now that they have Sawmill Creek in the portfolio, which I hear was neglected for a very long time.

Sawmill Creek was a mold infested dump the last time I was there, in 1986.....

The fact that they have invested in overhauling Castaway Bay and Sawmill Creek (and Breakers Express just before that) seems to point that the importance of refreshing their properties is not lost on them. Then again, we'll see what happens over the next few seasons.

After years of being Breakers' regulars we've been LHP (Cottage) guests the past few years we have stayed, with one trip to Express. I can happily say that both were in good condition.

I’ve always loved Breakers, and I still think that the Ouimet renovation is holding up reasonably well.

I know that a lot of people feel that the hotel remains overpriced, and I do hope that CF continues investing in it to keep it nice; however, I question how much occupancy rates need to decline for CF to feel pressured to do that…

Scott Cameron said:

Like what? With the exception of the the HI Express near Thirsty Pony, Kalarahi, and Great Wolf, all the other Sandusky hotels seem like dumps to me. Not trying to be snarky, just honestly wondering if they built some hotels I'm unaware of that are new and not dumps, which ones? And where are they?

Well, the 4 brand new hotels out on 250 are far nicer than Breakers. Fairfield Inn, Tru, remodeled Super 8 right on Cleveland Road, and that is just for starters. How many of our hotels have you walked through to come up with the conclusion they are all dumps? Because you are way off the mark on that.

My guess, and this is with not having been to the park since pre-COVID, a lot of what may be perceived as dumps may depend on which way you come towards the park.

If you come in from Rt. 2 from the Rye Beach exit and then drive to the causeway via US 6, aside from Sawmill it's pretty much all lower-end brands like Motel 6 and Knights Inn or much older unbranded properties all the way to Castaway Bay.

If you come in from Rt. 2 onto 250, the first things you see are the old Holiday Inn on the left that became the Maui Sands and as far as I know is still abandoned, and the old brick Ramada on the right that at least seems to have made a marginal step up to being branded as a Days Inn as opposed to an America's Best Value Inn. And really aside from the Great Wolf and the new Fairfield, it's all still old hotels from there to the causeway.

I feel like most of the new hotels or renovated hotels that have stuck to a mid-tier franchise are between the Turnpike and Rt. 2, so really the only way you're going to see them is if you come off the Turnpike.

Granted in general I get borderline annoyed that chain hotels seem very keen at just building vaguely prefab looking hotels de novo instead of renovating older and more unique properties, but I'm still sort of sore that Holidomes are no longer a thing. That being said there are definitely a good amount of older properties and parcels around CP that could probably stand to be torn down and built anew, though I think most of the oldest hotels closest to the causeway entrance either have been or have been repurposed as dorms, like the motel immediately next to Castaway Bay.

XS NightClub said:

Kalahari is nothing really special even in their high end suites.

At the beginning of April, we were looking into booking an August trip to Kalahari, and were shocked at the price for their King Living Room Kitchen Suite, which came out to around $550 per night with resort fees and taxes. On previous visits as "recently" as 2016 we paid a reasonable $300-ish per night all in for the same room for a May visit, so we were pretty stunned at the price hike, since inflation would only bring that up to around $360. But, we figured, going in August would certainly account for some of the difference, and since our youngest hasn't yet been, and because our first choice of a Muskegon beach house was booked solid, we very reluctantly booked a 3-night stay at Kalahari.

Cut to yesterday, where I was preparing to vehemently agree with your comment based on the above painful experience. But first I wanted to refresh my memory on their rates, so I headed to Kalahari's site, where I found the same suite, on the same dates, for $364 per night, all in. So, naturally, I booked 4 nights instead of 3 for the same room and cancelled the previous reservation, and still came out saving nearly $200.

All this to say, Kalahari may have been thinking that they were something special, so raised their rates substantially, probably trying to cash in on pent-up travel demand. But it would seem that most people agree with you, so they had to adjust their rates accordingly.

I want to clarify that my opinion about Kalahari, Great Wolf, and Breakers is similar to Jeff's as in their "adequate" but of course Breakers has location going for it. And Brandon it's nice to hear that Kalahari's rates have become more realistic because as you said, I stopped looking after seeing how crazy those had become. Not because I can't afford it but basically because I've stayed there several times before and although I like the property, it's no where near worth the $500+ rates they thought they could command. Perhaps I'll start looking again based on your experience.

As for the other hotels in town, I think Dan hit the nail on the head. I haven't been down 250 past (from CP) Kalahari in ages so if there is nicer hotels down there, I wouldn't know. And quite frankly wouldn't care because I'd never stay that far from the park anyway. But all the ones from 250/2 to CP are, in my opinion, dumps. I know opinions are subjective though and one person's view of a "dump" is different than another's.

Sonic, if you're talking about the Super 8 on Cleveland that used to be an Econo Lodge, I haven't stayed since the brand change. I did stay there several times when it was an Econo Lodge though and I actually thought that motel was just fine, and one of the better "low tier" properties I've stayed. But it's still just that, a "low tier/2 star" property. So that's what I mean by dump. The property is fine for what it is, but to say it's "nicer than Breakers" is definitely a stretch. But again, opinions are subjective and I haven't been there since the brand change so I could be wrong.

I guess I just wish there were more higher tier properties in the area like Hilton, Marriot, Crowne Plaza, etc. Obviously though the hoteliers in the area don't think it's worth the investment as they're commanding higher rates with mid tier brands like La Quinta, and low tier brands like Super 8 anyway due to location.

I feel like it's increasingly tricky to woo the higher tier brands to an area if you don't have -some- sort of business/conference appeal, and I think the easiest way to gauge that is to search for the full-service chains on Hilton or Marriott's websites and see where they actually are. Sure, you'll have Hamptons and Fairfields and the extended stay chains everywhere, but you're practically never going to find the full-service Hyatt/Hilton/Marriotts outside of large city centers, major airports, or year-round resort areas, and I think that year-round factor is the biggest thing keeping any larger chains from committing to Sandusky.

This risks going back to that whole thread about Sandusky allegedly being a dying town blah blah blah, but it's not even so much that so much as if you're a Hyatt/Hilton/Marriott, you're pretty much guaranteed lousy business from November to March at a minimum. Kalahari and Great Wolf are exceptions to that, but I think the Kalahari pretty much has grabbed the convention/conference business the area can support, and even aside from that the indoor waterpark market for the area is pretty full.

Probably the most feasible would be trying to attract a mid-upper brand like a Doubletree, and to be armchair hotelier for a moment, I'd probably try to find a waterfront parcel either somewhere immediately around the causeway or between the causeway and sports force, and then just aggressively market towards the teams using sports force as my backup to the CP off-season. Something like where the KOA is, or the conglomeration of dead motels across from the Thirsty Pony (though I think CP already bought some of those lots).