Planning our first Trip July 10th

My family and I are planning our first trip to Cedar Point Next week. We are doing it as a family trip before my son heads off to college. We are going to get up there around 1:00 or 2:00 on Tuesday and then stay all day Wednesday. So we are planning about a full day and a half at the park. We are definitely going to do the fast pass the second day to maximize our rides.

Here are my questions.

Do they ever sell out of fast passes? Should I go ahead and buy my tickets online now and pay for my fast passes now? or should I wait and see what the weather is going to be like?

We have never been to the park. I have been trying to find a good map online, but the only one I can find is the one on the cedar point site and it does not have any labels. I would love to have a map and plan what we should visit.

We looked at staying on property, but the cost of the rooms are $120 more a night than the Hampton Inn and it sounds like the rooms are similar or worse.

Any links to sites or helpful hints to first time visitors would be appreciated.

If I were you, I would FOR SURE stay on sight at one of the hotels. Breakers makes it so convenient. If you did that, you may not even have to get the fast pass because you'll have the early entry. So, you can hit all the big rides in the morning and take your time on the second day. Its a bit more pricey but you get so much more for it. No hassle of going back and forth and you have the convenience of being at the hotel. I'm staying there the 12 - 17th.

Are you interested in riding all big rides? If so, hit the big ones first. If you end up staying at hotel Breakers/Sandcastle....go in the entrance near magnum. Top Thrill is straight ahead. After you do that, Magnum is right there. Just work your way over to gemini and stay on that path. It'll get you to some of the wooden coasters and get you on Maverick.

Also, if you google old maps...you may come up with one from years ago where they would number what things were. That might be helpful.

For a different opinion . . .

I think saving the $120+ a night (minus the parking fee) by staying off-site is a good plan - especially since you are planning on buying fastlane. If you want to pre-buy fastlane passes you could do that a couple days before once you have an idea of what they are predicting the weather to be. If you get fastlane passes I wouldn't worry about the hour of early entry.

I would recommend packing a cooler with drinks and snacks and leaving it in the car to go back to once or twice throughout the day. Frozen water bottles are great.

I think they covered it all. It just depends if you want convenience (more money) or you really don't care, so that would be offsite. If you plan on taking breaks during the day, stay on the peninsula since you can rest in your room for a bit. Rather, if you are just wanting to sleep in rooms, offsite would be the better choice.

As well, you can find many park maps around the park as you enter. These ones are large and easily labeled. Or you can look for the signs with the map on it throughout the park. Hopefully everything works out for you and you have a good time.

Hotel Rooms at the Breakers are Crazy expensive. I can stay of site and buy Fast lane and it is still much cheaper than staying onsite.