July 23, 2015

A day at Cedar Point

Yesterday morning, I got a Groupon email that was advertising Cedar Point tickets for $40 each. That's a really good deal, and we had planned to go to Cedar Point some time this summer anyway, so I bought four tickets. I started thinking about when to go, when I realized that yesterday was the perfect opportunity. Jerry was off work, it was midweek (weekends are super busy at Cedar Point), and the weather was great.

About an hour after buying the tickets, we were loaded up in the car and off to Sandusky, Ohio. If you're not familiar with Cedar Point, it's a huge amusement park known for their roller coasters. It's about 90 minutes from my house, so it's great for a day trip. The last time we went was in 2013, and it rained harder than I'd ever seen (they ended up shutting down all of the rides because of the weather). (The Santa Hustle Half that I did with my brother in December was actually at Cedar Point as well, but the park was closed for winter).

When we got to Sandusky, it was lunch time, so we stopped at McDonald's to eat before going into the park (the food in the park is uber expensive). I got a Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad (my go-to). After lunch, we headed into the park.

My kids are scared of most of the rides, but I asked them to please go on ONE roller coaster with us. My very favorite roller coaster is the Raptor, and I hadn't been on it for years. It's a smooth coaster, which I hoped would be nice for the kids. The older coasters are very rough rides, and painful to ride in my old age ;) The kids agreed to ride it, so I said we should do it first, so that they wouldn't have to worry about it all day.

We got in line, which was stated to be about an hour and a half long (not unusual for the coasters to have lines 1-2 hours long, which is crazy). We slowly made our way toward the front of the line.


About an hour and half later, I noticed that I hadn't seen the coaster go by, and the line stopped moving. A guy came out to tell everyone that the coaster had stopped, and they were working on the issue--he said it could be 10 minutes or an hour, he had no idea. We were only about 25 people from the front of the line! We decided to wait about 15 minutes and hope that it was fixed.

Twenty minutes later, it still wasn't resolved, so we sadly got out of line to go somewhere else. I was SUPER bummed, not just because we wasted two hours of our time, but because it would be hard to convince the kids to ride something else. We walked to another roller coaster next to the Raptor, called the Blue Streak. It's very old (over 50 years), and is known for being a small, not-very-thrilling ride. I'd never actually been on it, but assumed it would be fine.

It was awful! It doesn't do anything crazy (just several hills), but I kept getting lifted off the seat and then slamming back down with each hill, and my back was KILLING me after that. The kids both cried, and said they would never go on another roller coaster again. After that ride, I couldn't even blame them.

We walked over to some of the other rides--the Scrambler, the Matterhorn, and non-coaster rides--and we had a lot of fun doing those.



I noticed a sign that said to text a particular number to let them know how your day at Cedar Point was going, so I decided to write about the Raptor. They were super nice, and said that they would allow us to go straight to the front of the line of any ride we wanted (just once); so, we chose the Raptor because we had waited so long to ride it.

When we got there, kids both said they didn't want to go on it after their experience on the Blue Streak, unfortunately. We were told to walk up the exit ramp all the way to the coaster, and they'd put us on the ride right away. They even let the kids stay right there next to them while Jerry and I rode the Raptor. It was as fun as I remember it being, and I wished that the kids had gotten to experience it! Hopefully next time.

We let the kids choose all the rest of the rides, and we rode one more roller coaster called the Iron Dragon. Noah loved it, Eli did not. It made me kind of thankful that I hadn't put him on the Raptor after all, because if he didn't like the Iron Dragon, he would have been terrified on the Raptor! The day flew by, and before we knew it, it was nearly 8:00 pm. I felt like I could actually fall asleep while we were on the Sky Ride, because it was so quiet and relaxing!


We were all starving for dinner, and we'd ridden all the rides the kids wanted to, so we headed home. We stopped at Subway for dinner (I had a veggie sub with avocado, which was delicious), and then got home at around 10:00. It had been such a long, exhausting day, but so much fun! I had been really tempted by the funnel cakes, frozen custard, french fries, etc. at the park, but I stayed on track and didn't eat anything at the park. We got in over 20,000 steps, which was nice!

I slept like a rock last night, and only woke up at a decent hour this morning because I had to drive my brother to the airport. It's interesting how I can run 12 miles or so, and not feel anything the next day; but walking around an amusement park all day was totally exhausting. The kids had a blast, though, and had gotten braver about the rides since the last time we were there. Maybe when we go again next year, they'll ride the Raptor with me :)

8 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 23, 2015

    I'm glad you guys had fun. I love amusement parks and roller coasters -- especially the old rickety ones. My dad and I used to go to Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm at least once a year and ride as many coasters and other rides and attractions as we could. The parks and sports were our bonding time (I was the son he never had -- 3 girls).

    Knott's is now owned by the Cedar Fair. They took out several of the attractions we used to love (haunted shack in Ghost Town), but they did add some cool new coasters. I'm sorry to hear that Noah and Eli were nervous about the coasters. Hopefully, they'll want to go with you on Raptor next year.

    Thanks for bringing back such fun memories for me!
    Martine

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that you're so spontaneous that you'll plan a trip to Cedar Point in an hour, lol! Meanwhile, my family is opposite of yours...I hate roller coasters, but my kids want to do them all! Or at least, my older one does. He conned me into the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Disney and I swore I'd never do another one...ever! ;)

    So glad you got to ride the raptor..,I love how they actually made modern communication work for the customer!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amanda K.July 24, 2015

    Wow, the boys look so grown up here!! Glad you had a great day. Looks like a fun time!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hate all rides, they either terrify me or make me nauseous. Fortunately my husband loves them so he rode with our kids. I feel for your boys, but at least they tried. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah I LOVE roller coasters!! My friends often get industry night type deals for Six Flags near us, and I go every time. No lines, barely any people, aaalll the roller coasters? Yes please!

    My boyfriend doesn't like them as much, as he gets motion sick pretty easily. But I will ride all the roller coasters as often as possible. Love them!

    www.slowandsteadykandm.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. The blue streak makes you feel beat up afterwards! I could almost feel my back reading your post. Sounds like your family had a nice day tho. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved the Blue Streak
    I think they used to have
    Shoot The Rapids (?)
    the mine ride
    and the old log ride

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. p.s.
      I think the log ride
      was at Bob-Lo Island

      Delete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive