An 8-Year-Old’s First Visit To Cedar Point
I took my 8-year-old son to Cedar Point for his very first time and I learned one thing from my son, he is a daredevil.
I have been going to Cedar Point for so long, I can remember when the Blue Streak was the big coaster, then the Cork Screw, the Magnum and so on. The Point has come along way since I was a kid and you can literally spend an entire day just riding roller coasters alone.
This year I wanted to do a little something different for the first couple days of our summer vacation since most of it is spent with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew up in Arcadia by Lake Michigan. We have an amazing family retreat each year together.
Knowing that my son loves the water and that Cedar Point has both the ride park and water park, we wound up going for two days.
I have always been a big fan of going to Cedar Point early in the week since less people seem to be there which means we get to ride some roller coasters more than once. After a year where people could not go anywhere, the amusement park was slammed both days with guests.
Definitely plan ahead if you are thinking of making the trip to Sandusky, Ohio. When I purchased out tickets, we had to reserve our space at the park for the days that we planned on being there.
We stayed at a hotel near the park since the hotels at the park were booked solid but we were only minutes from the front gate so it was nice waking up fresh for 12-hour days at the park.
So we get in Cedar Point when the doors open, grab a locker then I ask my son, "what do you want to ride first?" He looks over and see's the Raptor and says "that one." I though we should ride something a bit smaller right out of the gate since I had never been on any rides with him except for some small rides at county fair's. I was shocked when we got off and he says, "wow, I didn't know it was gonna go upside down so much." I thought, well maybe he will not want to ride anymore of the big stuff.
So we walk a few feet and my son Evan says, "let's ride the Valraven." This is a much bigger coaster with a much steeper drop but he rides it and loves it.
While we were waiting in line for the Valraven he see's the Millennium Force and he's goes we will ride that one next. He's taller for an 8-year-old so he's big enough for all the big rides but I sure thought he might chicken out on some of them, but he didn't.
I remember being pretty small at Cedar Point and I was terrified waiting in lines for the Blue Streak and the Cork Screw and those rides now are considered kiddy rides.
My son and I rode pretty much every thing the park had when it came to big coasters except for the Top Thrill Dragster. They spent most of the day working on that and we didn't want to wait in line to wait for them to fix it.
The Maverick was another nice coaster and even though it does not go very high, it makes up for that in speed, twists and length of ride.
The Steal Vengeance was a first time coaster for me. Its in the back of the park where the Mean Streak used to be. It is a beast of a wooden roller coaster. Its much smoother than the Mean Streak was but just as long of a ride. This turned out to be my sons most favorite ride we went on that day.
We spent day two at the water park and it was ok but the lines were longer than what the water rides were worth. The next time my son wants to spend two days riding roller coasters, and especially on the Millennium and Steal Vengeance.
For an 8-year-old, I can tell you this kid has some guts.