 Welcome back everyone. Today I am going to be doing something long overdue. That is a review of my home park Cedar Point located in Sandusky, Ohio. To address the obvious here I am of course going to have some bias in looking at this park seeing as I do get to go here so often and it is also renowned as one of the world's top amusement parks. In my analysis however I am going to do my best to look beyond those biases and provide a full in-depth look at many areas of the park and give my thoughts on what Cedar Point does great and what areas I think could use some improvement. To break down the experience of Cedar Point I am going to be looking at a few different categories including food, atmosphere, rides and operations. I will say right up front that I have never stayed in or even been in any of the rooms in any Cedar Point hotel property on or off peninsula but I am aware that staying at these hotels in question does come with some perks such as early entry to the park during your stay which is typically something for gold and platinum pass holders. For what it's worth from what I can see and from what I've heard from guests at these hotels their experience has been mostly satisfactory. Nevertheless I can't really give my honest personal opinions of this and that also applies for shores as well. The last time I was even inside of this water park was 2007 and it was still called Soak City. It looks fantastic but I'm typically not interested in water attractions so this review won't include shores. Cedar Point is the second oldest operating amusement park in the United States opening in 1870. This year it is celebrating its 150th anniversary which is certainly nothing to scoff at. As you are driving down the causeway to get to the park you are greeted with a spectacular view of the peninsula with such iconic skyline attractions such as Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster and Gatekeeper immediately catching your eye. You will drive straight ahead and park in the main parking lot or you can drive all the way down the road that runs alongside the peninsula all the way to the back where you will come up to the shores parking lot with Gemini to your right and Magnum straight ahead as you drive into the lot. Either parking lot is fine though I typically choose to park in the back because it tends to be less crowded back there if it is a typical day with crowds that aren't too ridiculous. Another advantage to parking in the back especially if you are getting in right at opening for early entry is that many of the best coasters are situated closer to the back. Immediately upon getting in the back entrance you have Magnum and Top Thrill Dragster and if you take the path to the right and pass up Gemini you can walk back into front to your town and hit up Maverick and Steel Vengeance. For this reason I would suggest maybe parking in the back if you are mainly going here to experience the coasters which is likely what many of you are going to Cedar Point for. When it comes to visiting Cedar Point you will want to plan your trip very strategically as this park boasts very high attendance numbers on an almost daily basis throughout the season. The best times to visit Cedar Point to try to avoid some of those heavier crowds is to visit on a weekday in May or a weekday in general. If you aren't able to do a weekday though any time in May is typically much lighter than the rest of the season. I visited on a couple consecutive Sundays in May of 2019 where there was a bit of rain or in the case of the first Sunday a very heavy downpour for about an hour and as a result the park was dead. During the Sunday when I went in the evening and it rained very heavy I waited a bit for it to let up somewhat and I was able to ride Millennium Force and Maverick three times in a row and I also got four rides on Steel Vengeance. I did all of that within about two hours. This is of course an extreme example typically it is much busier even on a slower day but my point lies in that if you can get in the park around the time there is some bad weather and it clears up enough to ride the coasters it could be worth your time. Obviously too much bad weather could be detrimental to your plans though and many people are traveling to visit the park so they can't just go here on a whim. Because of being unable to predict the weather along with the fact that there is so much to do at this park with just roller coasters alone if you are traveling very far you're going to want to plan at least two full days at Cedar Point to really experience everything. If it is possible I would even suggest coming here for three days to really soak in everything and be able to walk around and experience everything to its fullest potential. Luckily Cedar Point is typically running their rides very well and the crews really do their best to keep those trains moving so wait times sometimes aren't that bad for lines that may be extremely lengthy waits at some other parks. Because of this and also having the option to purchase a Fastlane Plus to avoid long lines it should be completely doable to ride all of the major roller coasters easily within two full days barring any unforeseen issues including mechanical and weather. To touch on the operations here in more detail Cedar Point is always running as many trains as possible on their coasters which is fantastic. Usually you will see three trains on Millennium Force, Magnum, Steel Vengeance, Raptor, Gatekeeper, Valraven and Rugeru and usually five on Topthrill Dragster and Maverick. The park's maintenance crew really does a remarkable job in making sure all of the rides are running at their best and rarely do trains have to come off during the day for maintenance. Typically on the major roller coasters dispatches aren't any longer than about a minute. The longest dispatches out of the major rides may be Steel Vengeance just because of the pouches on the seats which you have to place your belongings in and the dispatches here are still typically no longer than a minute and a half maybe. The staff in general at the park are usually pretty good and helpful as well and I can't recall any super irritating encounters and recent memory. So how is the food at Cedar Point? Well this is one category where I will use a small amount of personal experience mixed in with things I've heard from others and seeing food that people I'm with have ordered and asking for their thoughts as well. This department really seems to be a bit of a mixed bag based on things I've heard but what I have eaten has typically been pretty satisfying. In 2018 I bought a veggie dog and fries at Pinks at the front of the park and I felt very middle of the road with what I got. For Cedar Point it wasn't priced too bad. I think I spent about 10 or 11 bucks for a veggie dog, fries and a drink. The hot dog was okay but nothing spectacular as you may imagine from a Cedar Point veggie dog. On the other hand I have tried the new Backbeat Q barbecue restaurant and I was very impressed with the quality. The food is pretty pricey but the portions are decent and I was left pretty full and it is just really good barbecue food. I ordered the brisket and would definitely recommend that. I have also had the Chick-fil-A back by Maverick and it was also very good and on par with food from the standalone restaurants I've eaten at. Good prices for Cedar Point as well, having spent $11 for a chicken sandwich meal which included a drink. A couple things to note are that Chick-fil-A is maybe the most popular restaurant in the park and lines get absolutely huge at times and it is also closed on Sundays just as any standalone Chick-fil-A restaurant is. One other restaurant I want to touch on is Coasters Drive-In. I haven't actually eaten any of the food here but a group I was with once decided to eat here and I got to see what they ordered and also asked what they thought of it. The burgers looked okay but kind of dry and the lettuce did not seem to be all that fresh either. Their review was basically that it was all right food but they weren't impressed in any way. Overall it seems that Cedar Point has lots of improvement for their food department as I've heard many not so positive things about many of the food places here. Lots of typical amusement park fare but there are definitely a couple very good options available I believe. I am hoping that for 2020 there are many improvements made in this area especially with the focus they were putting on the food items that are new this year. The atmosphere at Cedar Point is definitely very good in my opinion and I think many people would disagree with this but here's why I like it. There is no real theme present throughout the majority of the park disregarding Frontier Town and Frontier Trail. The latter being themed very well and actually being quite immersive as it feels like you are really in a different time and place but the park is overall just presented quite nicely and has quite a bit of charm. Don't get me wrong there are definitely a lot of areas within the park that could use a lot of updating. This is especially prevalent on the main midway I think. Beyond walking under gatekeepers keyholes once you walk beyond the front gate there really isn't anything big or striking to really pull you in and make that huge first impact. All you have is the carousel and ocean motion to greet you with gatekeeper running behind you. I think the park understands this and I think maybe they're going to try to work on this going forward. As for 2020 they are actually getting rid of the generic undescripted refresh stations and stands to the left when you immediately walk in and are replacing those with a pretty phenomenal looking confectionary called French Quarter Cafe. Further down the midway the old chicken stand dubbed the Corral is being rebuilt as a fantastic looking sit-down restaurant which I think is a great step forward in improving the overall atmosphere of the main midway and giving it a needed update. The park overall looks great and is presented very well though there isn't a lot in the way of foliage and scenery. A bit ironic seeing as the park was built on and named after the cedar trees which cover the peninsula. The park is fully developed so much of the foliage has been removed and it would be nice to have more shade available for those hot summer days. The notable exception to this is frontier trail which is still very secluded and feels like a totally different place from the rest of the park largely due to the surrounding trees that surround this area which also help with the immersion. I don't expect a park like this to have any kind of elaborate theming that's definitely not what cedar point does so I'm okay with the general lack of theming in the park but I do like the atmosphere of cedar point as it does have its own charm and there are examples of more thought being put into presentations and storylines with many newer individual attractions which is admirable. The last category I want to go into more detail on is the rides and attractions obviously this is the main draw to cedar point more specifically the roller coasters. As of 2020 cedar point is home to 17 roller coasters the second largest coaster collection in a single park currently and many of them are considered to be among the best in the world. With the likes of steel vengeance maverick millennium force magnum and top thrill dragster headlining this fantastic lineup there is no question in my mind that cedar point has one of the best if not the very best coaster collection in the world. Not only do they boast a huge quantity but the overall quality is phenomenal as well. Besides the previously mentioned headliners there are also many great supporting coasters such as raptor, gemini, gatekeeper, bluestreak, ruguru, and valraven which if these were placed at most other parks would probably be considered the premier attractions at those parks but just because they're located at cedar point they're supporting coasters albeit great supporting coasters. The collection of flat rides here leaves much to be desired in my opinion but there is still a decent few flat rides here such as skyhawk, max air, one seeker, and power tower which give great thrills along with a huge selection of smaller more mild flat rides including ocean motion and pipe scream. The one type of ride that cedar point has been sorely lacking for quite some time now is a dark ride. The last fully dedicated dark ride the park had closed well over 20 years ago now and there is not one dark ride of any sort to be found and I think it would be great to see an indoor ride like this come to the park. One ride that I want to point out here though is the derby downs. This is one of only two of these rides left operating in the world making it a very unique experience basically being a huge carousel that spins around at a great speed emulating the feeling of the classic horse race. When it comes to live entertainment at cedar point I really haven't caught much recently at all though I have seen many shows in years past. The shows found here are typically of pretty good quality and are a pretty entertaining way to escape the heat for a bit and listen to some music. No huge budget productions or stellar riding to be found but generally pretty good entertainment for a large scale chain park that is not universal or Disney and there is also a nice variety of shows offered at different points throughout the season. There is also the annual hollow weekends every season from September through October which offers many different haunted attractions for adults as well as kids events and shows. I always love the atmosphere of this Halloween event at the park but I'm not a huge fan of haunted attractions so I've only experienced a very limited number of them here which have been pretty decent overall. I will note though that in comparison to the one other major Halloween event I've experienced being Haunt at Kings Island hollow weekends at cedar point just seems to pale in comparison as it just doesn't give the same type of immersion and atmosphere that really pulls you in. Even still cedar point does a decent enough job at their own Halloween event. All in all I would say that cedar point offers an elite lineup of roller coasters unlike anywhere else along with great operations and nice charm and atmosphere along with some pretty solid rides and attractions. This is truly a one-of-a-kind park that you should definitely experience at some point if you are a roller coaster enthusiast though I do believe that cedar point could really improve in a lot of ways. I think we may see much needed detention given to fix a lot of these issues in the future to improve the overall experience and compete with the parks out there that have made huge strides in recent years. I for one am excited to see what the future holds for America's rock and roller coast. What are your opinions of cedar point? What do they excel in and what could use some improvement in your opinion? Do you believe that cedar point is the best park in the world or has it fallen in recent years with so much healthy competition in the industry pushing the envelope? Be sure to let me know all of your honest opinions and be sure to check out all of my other park reviews and a playlist on my channel if you haven't seen them and subscribe for more content like this in the future. Be sure to like my page coaster daddy on facebook and follow me at coaster daddy official on instagram. As usual thanks so much for watching. This is coaster daddy. Bye