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Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH


DonRocks

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This isn't inside of Cedar Point, but many people going to the amusement park will be having dinner elsewhere, and believe it or not, I found a good restaurant in Sandusky.

I can't imagine there's a much better place to have dinner here than Crush Wine Bar (warning: the website is brashly noisy, and there doesn't even seem to be anything to click on, other than the Facebook logo).

Website aside, the food here was surprisingly good - although my memory is sketchy (I went here on July 1st), I remember very well how delighted we were to have found this diamante in the Ruffino.

I had a two three drafts of The Wright Pils ($5) from Great Lakes Brewing Company. Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana are wonderful states for beer lovers - there's almost always something local and good, and many of the beers don't make it this far east.

Ordering a bunch of small plates, we split Bacon Wrapped Dates ($6), Beets ($5), Brussels Sprouts ($6) a Watermelon Salad ($6), and Chicken Wings ($10), all of which were worth ordering. The only miss of the evening was a Margherita Pizza ($13) which came after the other items, and bordered on being gluttonous (well, we did have a long day riding Top Thrill Dragster (the second-tallest and second-fastest roller coaster in the world (*), and yes, I did get peer-pressured into riding it - my "rite of passage into manhood," quoth he), Millennium Force (the absolute bestest roller coaster ever - ask anyone who's ridden it), and then driving around in a thunderstorm looking for somewhere to buy Advil).

(*) Looking from the launching point up to the top of the 420-foot hill (the Washington Monument is only 555 feet tall), it seems almost against the laws of physics that you get there as quickly as you do - it accelerates you from 0 to 120 mph in *4 seconds*. People's tongues have been known to pierce the back of their neck, fervently licking the headrest as they're catapulted up the hill.

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Could you come up with a list of road-trip worthy amusement parks (less than 8 hrs. drive away)? I'll need it when the kids get older.

Cedar Point is worth it, if your kids end up liking roller coasters!!! As an east coast snob, I literally looked down my nose at this "little Ohio park" until I actually went there and was forced to take it back and repent my pride (all day long, and to this day, sigh). Just driving up to the park is *gulp* inducing when you see the Millennium Force, which is a thing (and experience) of stomach-dropping beauty. I think they have more of the better roller coasters than anywhere else in the world (Joe - confirm?). They just have SO MANY roller coasters - it is, as they say, the roller coast! The Maverick and Raptor are my favorites, but those plus the MF and the Dragster round out a selection of amazing, and amazingly different, rides. When we go, we just surrender to the funnel cakes, dippin' dots, boardwalk fries, and Pierre's iced treats (with some antacids thrown in now that we are older), but but's nice to know that there's something different available in town.

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Because of my business I have literally been in every amusement park in North America and most in Europe. For me Cedar Point is the best. Europa Park in the southwest corner of Germany is a very close second but for different reasons.

FWIW the best wooden coaster in the world is The Voyage at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. Holiday World is also an incredible park that is an absolute love of American Coaster Enthusiasts, perhaps overall-along with Cedar Point-their favorite parks anywhere. Knoebel's Grove in Elysburg, PA is also a love of their's.

Until several years ago when the trains were changed the Superman ride at Six Flags New England was the best steel.

I must say that the former CEO and COO of Cedar Point who are retired now-after 35-40 years each-are as passionately in love with their park as anyone who has ever visited. Dick Kinzel and Jack Falfas both rode the front seat of every coaster in their park with their hands up just as they did in their teens when they started. For that matter Dick Kinzel literally lives in the parking lot of Cedar Point; his house backs to Lake Erie and is, perhaps, 200 yards from the front entrance. Jack has a second home in Marathon Key but lives in Sandusky eleven months out of the year. For him and for Dick Cedar Point is their life.

I grew up with they and others going back 30+ years. There is an absolute love and passion for Cedar Point shared by anyone who has been a decision maker there. And, they all grew up with it, starting in their teens, too. Several of them even met their wives while working at the park in the summer.

On one level the park and its 1200 hotel rooms, 1000 camp sites, 20 or so sit down restaurants (Bay Harbor Inn is the best-have not been to Crush)water park and perhaps America's largest amusement park is a $200 million dollar a year business. (Cedar Fair, the parent company named after Cedar Point and Minneapolis' Valleyfair, is a $2 billion dollar business.) But on another it is a continuing love story for those who engineered its growth.

It is well worth the drive from here. Frankly, I think it is worth the drive or flight from anywhere in America.

The single best week of the year to go to Cedar Point is the week before Labor Day. Serious. Next week. (Again, I AM SERIOUS.) The worst are the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays in October when if the weather cooperates they'll have over 50,000 each day.

I should also add here that a close friend sold them Millenium Force, Top Thrill Dragster and Maverick. He is an engineer who like Dick and Jack rides with his hands up. In the '40's his father was a pilot who owned an open cockpit airplane that he did loops and freefall in.

His wife won't go near a coaster. Nor mine.

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If you're serious about getting on as many rides as possible or have young or mixed-aged kids, it's worth thinking about staying at the Hotel Breakers, which is pretty much on the park property. I think it's relatively expensive but you get discounted tix, an extra hour in the morning in the park before it opens, and super convenient access to/from the park for naps, meltdowns etc. It's an older property but my husband's family stayed there a bunch of times in his childhood and they only have fond memories. Apparently that extra hour buys dad a temporary god-like status...

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If you're serious about getting on as many rides as possible or have young or mixed-aged kids, it's worth thinking about staying at the Hotel Breakers, which is pretty much on the park property. I think it's relatively expensive but you get discounted tix, an extra hour in the morning in the park before it opens, and super convenient access to/from the park for naps, meltdowns etc. It's an older property but my husband's family stayed there a bunch of times in his childhood and they only have fond memories. Apparently that extra hour buys dad a temporary god-like status...

Crowds no longer matter - Cedar Point has Flash Lane Passes. Expensive, but worth every penny.

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Crowds no longer matter - Cedar Point has Flash Lane Passes. Expensive, but worth every penny.

Wow, yes. With the Flash Pass (regular and plus, the plus taking you into the special line for the big 4 rides [currently Gatekeeper - the new 2013 coaster, Maverick, the Dragster, and the Rougarou, which was the Mantis but now has new, dropped-bottom cars], and the regular getting you the special lane every where else there is one) you can ride and ride and ride, without enough wait time to re-combobulate your atoms, such that you can feel extremely, wonderfully ill for most of the day. Expensive, yes, and with surprisingly many takers, but you will definitely ride All The Rides as much as you wish and perhaps even leave the park early, shaking your heads at the the cruelty of aging. Speaking of aging, our favorite new ride wasn't the Gatekeeper, which is a very good winged-coaster that does not match the X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain, but the swings! This ride is somewhat similar to the small swings ride, which they still have deep in the park, but instead of seats on chains they are in pairs on hard bars. Then, it takes you up 350 feet to swing you gently in a circle! It's a magnificent, breezy view of the park and lake and you are higher up than everything but the Dragster. For a battered roller-coaster fiend, this was the perfect way to start and end the day.

As for food, I like the fresh-cut fries and the salt water taffy (buy as you leave to enjoy later). The frozen lemonade is now the inferior Minute Maid and no longer Pierre's :( Funnel cake fries are much more convenient than the original, but with a far smaller crunchy/soft ratio. They still have elephant ears at a couple stands and a thing called a Beaver Tail, which is sort of a plank of fried dough covered with toppings not very dissimilar from the elephant ear or funnel cake. They have a Pink's (the LA hot dog place), which I didn't try, but found amusing. Also, they have a Panda Express, which, as far as I can tell, is the only stand in the whole park selling vegetables  :P

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