Hallo-Frozen-Weekends at Cedar Point

Last year, we were unable to attend HalloWeekends at Cedar Point, much to the disappointment of my children. I promised them we would go this year, but we were unable to find anyone to watch Morgan when we were invited. Then, a second invitation came, and I knew we had to make it work. I was excited to go, but a little wary of the weather because fall can be tricky in the Midwest.

Last weekend was absolutely beautiful, by the way. Mid-70s and glorious fall days. Then on Halloween, it snowed with 40mph wind gusts. I mean, seriously? SNOW?


My karate kids were very, very cold but wouldn't stay in and miss free candy.

We left very early the morning after Halloween to drive to Sandusky, our plan to stay at the park until the boys collapsed or we lost our minds. We drove in sunshine until we reached Sandusky, when it started to pour. At this point, I felt like the weather was personally attacking me. Fortunately, it stopped as we got to the park, but when we went to guest services to pick up our tickets, we were surrounded by people asking for money back because so many of the roller rides were closed due to high winds. When we got our tickets and went in, the girl who took them told us that most of the rides were closed. (And she didn't laugh at my National Lampoon joke about the moose out front, probably because she'd heard it 1100 times already.) However, although most of the big roller coasters and some of the rides along the water front were closed, there were many still open. Mostly kiddie rides were open, but we were also able to ride the Corkscrew and Iron Dragon with Luke.

Because we left so early, I had the boys in warm pajamas. When we got to the park, I had them add long pants, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, a winter coat, hats and gloves OVER their pajamas. They were very well layered and I definitely think this helped us enjoy the park more. Aside from their faces, they were insulated and didn't complain too much. First, we went trick-or-treating. So fun!


They also loved the small corn maze and went through it three or four times by themselves, then Luke asked me to go see if he was old enough to ride some of the bigger rides that were open. This resulted on us going on Troika while the winds off of Lake Erie whipped our faces.

I don't like spinning rides at all because I get super queasy, but I was willing to do it for this kid who was taking the closed roller coasters in stride. We admired the crazy angry waves on the lake while we were spinning up high!


We were a big fan of all the Halloween decorations. One nice thing about the weather is that we definitely didn't have to wait to take pictures in front of decorations!


The other nice thing? No lines!

The boys would ride some of the kid rides and just say that they wanted to stay on again because no one else was in line. When Luke and I rode Corkscrew, we walked right up and got on in five minutes. It was like we had a fast lane pass without paying for one! This, honestly, made it such a blast. If there was a line, it was never long and we could get off a ride, get right back in line and be on it again right away. My kids LOVED this. We rode the Scrambler so many times in a row, while sleet whipped our faces. And we all rode the carousel over and over again. (At some point, I also snuck into a gift shop and paid the best $30 I've ever spent for a hooded sweatshirt to put over my two layers.)


We ended up staying for seven hours, at which point we were absolutely frozen. I had thought we would stay later, but when the sun started to go down, we were all wind whipped and weary and ready to go wrap ourselves in blankets at the hotel room. We stayed at Breakers Express, which is a great place to stay if you're going to spend most of your time at the park. We loved their Halloween decorations!


While we didn't spend as much time at the park as I intended and didn't partake in any of the after-dark festivities due to the weather, we had an absolute blast. Last time we were at Cedar Point, it was warm and sunny and of course, we had fun. But I truly think that our frozen festivities were way more fun. We were so cold, but we spent the whole time laughing together as a family. Because so many of the big rides were closed, Luke and Tommy rode SO many rides together and we did so many as a family, too. As we drove away, the boys were already excitedly talking about going to Cedar Point next year and which rides they would ride first. I was initially dismayed at the weather but now in a weird way, I'm thankful for it. We had such an amazing day, and I have to say that all the ride operators were so awesome. You could tell they were cold, but they were all so friendly and accommodating, making jokes about the weather along with us. It was Cedar Point from a different perspective. One where the walkways were so open that we could let our kids joyfully run ahead of us without worrying about them being lost in the crowds, where we rode rides over and over again until we got tired of that particular ride and moved on. And at the end of the day, we were thanked for our weather patience with a glorious sunset that beamed off the rides and spread across the lake.



So, lesson learned. Don't ever bail on an outside activity because the weather is not the best. You might end up having a blast! Other lesson learned: Cedar Point is so much fun regardless of the weather.

Tickets provided by Cedar Point because I'm a CP Blogger. All opinions my own!