New "Ultimate" Lighthouse Point Sites

TwistedWicker77 said:
I’m very curious why Breakers is not “flagship” nice in your opinion. What does it need to have the flagship nice feel that you’re longing for?

Simply put, Breakers is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars on the 5 star scale. And considering they seem to have little trouble filling rooms at several hundred dollars per night, it would seem that a property closer to 5 stars would be popular.

Breakers' common areas are top notch, but the rooms, while a huge upgrade from before, aren't quite as nice. I don't expect to see red plastic chairs and IKEA-style furnishings in a flagship hotel. Breakers (the rooms, anyway) has more in common with Pop Century than, say, Grand Floridian. That seems like a missed opportunity.

Brandon is spot on in his Assessment of Breakers.

In regards to room quality, the bathrooms mostly just got new wallpapers and are essentially ‘KinZel Era’ facilities with low grade fixtures and minimal design.

And as other have mentioned, they have an opportunity to construct a true jewel at the tip of that peninsula. Then the park could offer rooms across the spectrum; Economy (Express), Mid-range (Breakers), and something better.

I travel a lot each year and consider myself a bit of a hotel snob and will always try to find a good deal at a nice hotel. I agree with what Brandon said and if I had to stay in Sandusky right now the winning option for me would be the Holiday Inn Express. It honestly is going to have a higher quality room than Breakers would at this point. I have always expected more out of The Breakers and each time it lets me down about as much as the Indians do. The park has a long way to go to get The Breakers up to a 5 star status (if they even care about that) because as of now its at a 3 in my opinion.

Why does it need to be a 5 star hotel? Apparently people are willing to pay several hundred dollars per night for what it is. Is there a market for $1,000/night for a 5 star hotel? Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. I don't know.

It doesn’t have to be a 5 star but in regards to what “flagship nice” is, in my opinion it would take being a 5 star. As it stands now The Breakers is just another hotel and not the flagship or jewel it could be.

Trip Advisor would tend to disagree with you. They ranked Hotel Breakers among the top hotels for families in the US.

http://www.wkyc.com/mobile/article/news/local/ohio/cedar-points-hot...-510828803

From an economic standpoint, Breakers is more expensive mainly because of the convenience. A family can quickly get in and out of both parks, take an afternoon nap in an air-conditioned room, have sit-down restaurants (not good, but convenient), and have easy access to the beach and pool. It feels a lot more relaxed to get a Breakers room, as opposed to people like me, who'll just run around and ride rides all day nonstop.

I find that, in terms of accommodations and overall value, Express is the way to go, though maybe that's just because it's newly upgraded. I would definitely stay there if I wasn't young and didn't live a reasonable distance away.

Shane Denmark said:

Trip Advisor would tend to disagree with you. They ranked Hotel Breakers among the top hotels for families in the US.

Trip Advisor ranking (based on reviews by parents) the hotel #22 for families doesn't mean they disagree with anything said here. It simply means its a good hotel for families to stay at while visiting the major amusement park next door.

The regulation is that you can't have ground fires. We took a raised pit last year and had a fire one night. We'd spent most of the time going in and out of the park that it was only feasible to start a fire the one night. Can't leave a fire and go back into the park. I've seen many people with raised pits on our previous visits. Some with pretty large fires in them.

I think what some people are missing is that they only announced an upgraded option as to the Ultimate sites. Since they haven't made a public announcement. I would figure that they'll expand standard sites also. This just isn't being talked about because they are already available to book. With the land available I'd guess on 50-75 new standard sites and 25 Ultimate sites. Our first trip is in May before Memorial Day so this is before the project is finished. Planning another trip in August after the rates go down again. I'll be interested to see if the campsites are completely booked during our weekday trips this year. We've always gone on the weekend. But after our most recent trip during Halloweekends we are looking at going on less crowded days. I hope it will allow us more rides on Steel Vengeance.

It's about time they replace the sites they took our when they put the deluxe cabins in. The old electric only sites were outdated, and that section would flood very fast during a heavy rain. New full hook up sites will sell easily and are in demand.

Didn't notice it mentioned here, but why do they not have any type of tent camping sites? Not saying they should, just wondering why.

Because when a Lake Erie storm whips up, tents tend to blow away.

Shades said:

Is there a market for $1,000/night for a 5 star hotel? Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. I don't know.

Between the success of Breakers (at, as you noted, several hundred dollars per night), the popularity and pricing of FL/FLP, healthy attendance at ~$60/ticket, premium parking, and so on, there's no logical reason to believe there's not a market for something more upscale.

Does it need to be a huge, 669 room monstrosity? Probably not. But if Breakers can regularly fill it's 669 rooms, surely they could fill a ~200 room hotel at a higher price point without issue.

I tend to agree with Brandon on this one. I've always been abit jaded about Breakers because before the upgrade it was criminal what they would charge for rooms. So the first time getting a room after the upgrade was just jaw dropping. Now having traveled more and staying at more places I think 3 1/2 is fair. It's the location and convenience that can make it seem like a 4 or 5.

I've stayed at some Courtyards that blew me away for the price, especially the new ones.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog/coming-to-lighthouse-point

I know that it's just a rendering, but it looks like that there won't be enough room for an entirely new hotel in Sandcastle's former spot. There might be small stuff added in the future, but I think CP won't be changing its lodging arrangements after this anytime soon.

There’s actually a lot of room left over after the RV sites being added.
The rv sites are mainly in the area that occupied the Breakwater cafe and parking lot.
Sandcastle itself had an overly large footprint, in addition to space for a gazebo, tennis courts, retention pond and storage shed/employee workspace before you got to the Magnum pretzel.
The hotel was laid out in a giant X forming the wings with a lot of green space around it and between the beach area.

I liked that there was the wide shot rendering, gives some idea of the space used. Does look like most of the Breakwater, parking lot wing like said above.

In 2019 (as long as Run/Ride is still doing it) my wife's family is going to all come in for the CP Half Marathon and I was going to put up the in-laws at a camp site since they have a huge 5th wheel but I think I'm going to go with these upgrades ones now. Going to go take a look over there this summer to check them out in person.

Additionally, any hotel that is built would not need to take up that much space, like Pete had mentioned a taller hotel with an elevated pool deck could still fit 200 rooms into a small space.

I still go back to the thought that while we would all love to spend all day at the Park there are others that instead want a Beach and Pool vacation. If you have a family (or couple to be honest) that have differing wants out of their trip giving them an option where one can spend the day riding roller coasters while the other can sit by to pool or get a massage would broaden your clientele. Which I believe was one of Ouimet's goals for the company.

Another of which was to institute "Good, Better, Best" lodging options. So far I think they have their Good, Breakers Express and Castaway Bay, and Better, Breakers, but they don't have a Best Hotel property. This parcel would be the perfect spot for such a venture.

So they take up essentially half of the parking lot of the old Sandcastle Suites, and ya'll still believe an additional hotel will be built on the remaining space? Where are the parking spaces going to be?

Again- I appreciate y'all wanting another hotel, but I think we need to place that next to our 500 footer rumors.

The new 6 story tower was built next to Breakers as the Sandcastle replacement. If anything a pool and more cabins will be added in 2019 to the remaining space where SS was, but there is no way an additional hotel will be built. If anything, I'd like to see premium lodges built beachside ala Wilderness Lodge. Disney has seen massive interest in these types of resort offerings. This is what I'd rather pay premium rates to stay in at least.