Oct 19, 2008, we took the kids on a Friday and Saturday to Cedar Point for HalloWeekends. I was concerned about the scary zones being too spooky for the kids. It really depends on personality, but I would rate the fright zones ages 12 and up. We went in the Pharaoh’s Secret and The Fright Zone (only those two, I’m not sure what went on in the others). I would have loved to go into more haunted houses, but the roller coasters needed riding. One thing that I noted was that they didn’t use the ‘gross you out’ type of scares. They were the ‘sneak up and surprise you’ scares. The ‘pound on the walls and make you jump’ scares. I didn’t see any bloody death massacre scenes (thank goodness). Sure, the costumes were scary, but not too disgusting. Before entering the Pharaoh’s Secret, they made it a point to tell us about the ‘no touch’ rule. “The monsters won’t touch you, and you must not touch them either.”
I found that if you don’t want to ride all the ‘little’ rides, Friday night is much less crowded. On a Friday evening, not all the rides are open, but the ones that my kids like were operating. We didn’t have to wait more than twenty minutes for any ride on Friday evening. Now, the line for the Millennium Force did eventually reach an hour wait time, but that is because it is the best roller coaster on the planet and totally awesome!
On Saturday, the place was packed. The lines were huge, taking well over an hour to ride the roller coasters. There were so many people that we found it difficult to simply walk around. That took some of the fun out of it. We waited well over an hour to ride the Mean Streak. The kids loved it, but the grown-ups found it way too bumpy. Cedar Point should have an ibuprofen dispenser at the end of that ride. We didn’t even bother with the more popular coasters, which had over a two-hour wait. On Friday evening, it was excellent. The park was open for fewer hours, but we actually got to ride more of the big coasters because of the small lines.
I’ve been to Cedar Point more times than I could count over the years, but I’m telling you, this last visit on a FRIDAY for HalloWeekends was the best time I ever had there.
Cedar Point has been voted “Best Amusement Park in the World” by Amusement Today for the past ten years. As of 2008, Cedar Point is the only park in the world with 75 rides, becoming the park with the most rides. It currently holds the world record for most roller coasters with 17, one of them being the world’s second tallest and second fastest roller coaster, Top Thrill Dragster, which reaches speeds of 120 mph and a height of 420 feet. I rode it and recovered nicely.
