SANDUSKY, Ohio, – Summertime fun will officially end on Sunday (Oct. 30) when HalloWeekends at Cedar Point will close for the season.
This will be the last weekend to enjoy the park’s roller coasters and the fun and frights of HalloWeekends.
During HalloWeekends, the park combines its vast assortment of rides with dozens of Halloween attractions that range from scary fright zones and haunted houses to live entertainment and children’s attractions that include the Monster Midway Invasion Celebration parade (4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday afternoon), the Magical House on Boo Hill, the Hay Bale Maze and a sleeping ogre.
With two new fright zones, Blood on the Bayou, featuring zombies and a self-taught butcher, and Screamworks that is inhabited by creatures donning gas masks and goggles, HalloWeekends has 10 haunted attractions, six fright zones and four haunted houses, more than ever before in the event’s 15-year history.
Adding to the fright factor are legions of ghastly creatures and strange-looking characters who lurk in the dark waiting for the proper opportunity to introduce themselves, up close and personal, to unsuspecting guests.
Guests interested in frights can find their fill all weekend long. All of the haunted attractions are ready to scare each night. Plus, the park’s rides and roller coasters will be in operation from open to close. (On Friday night, there will be a reduced ride offering.)
There are also several ways to save money on a visit to the park. A four-pack of tickets can be purchased online for only $156, a savings of nearly $11 per ticket. See cedarpoint.com for all of the details. (Tickets must be purchased in advance online.)
Plus, Sunday (Oct. 30) is also the last day of the park’s Climbing to a Million contest when current and new Facebook fans of Cedar Point will be able to receive a $10 discount on admission to the park ($39.99 per person) by downloading and printing a special voucher from Facebook and redeeming it at Cedar Point.
There is also still time to save money on summer fun for next year. Cedar Point Season Passes and Cedar Fair Platinum Passes for 2012 are on sale for the lowest rate available through the end of the weekend. See cedarpoint.com for great ways to save!
On Friday, Cedar Point will be open from 6 p.m. to midnight; noon to midnight on Saturday; and noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Cedar Point will open for the summer of 2012 in May.
For more information about HalloWeekends at Cedar Point, please visit halloweekends.com or call the park’s General Information Line at 419.627.2350.
Once again...sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I've basically been bouncing around the country on an airplane the whole week. New entries start tomorrow! And btw...today is your last chance to scream at HalloWeekends in 2011. Definitely get out to the park if you can.
Please excuse the lake of updates for the next few days. I will try to post every day like normal, but I may be unable to as I am traveling from Atlanta to visit Cedar Point this weekend. Please check back over the weekend. Like I said I'll try and post as much as possible. Also look for some great photo updates from the park next week! If you're in the park this weekend -
Welcome to the first annual HalloWeekends at Cedar Point!
Be sure to take a look at the show descriptions on this page. None of these shows are running any more.
Here is the map for the event. I think my favorite parts of the event are the Cedar Point Cemetery and the Cedar Point Spooky Express! I really like the idea of transforming the CP & LE Railroad into a haunted attraction.
Finally, here is a great video that I was able to find on YouTube showing off HalloWeekends in 1997. There are some great shots of the Cedar Point Spooky Express!
Hope you enjoyed this post...more to come this week!
Good afternoon everyone. Yesterday we look at the HalloWeekends announcement for the 1997. Today, take a look at the actual brochure for the event. You can tell that this is a very new event, as there is no mention of any specific haunted house, fright zone, or live show. Enjoy!
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the 1997 HalloWeekends Park Guide! By the way, Becca just posted a new OnPoint! entry discussing the operation of Top Thrill Dragster and other rides at Cedar Point. Check it out here! Also, a new video has been posted to the park's YouTube channel and I've also posted it below for your enjoyment:
SANDUSKY, OHIO, October 17, 2011 – Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and active entertainment, is pleased to announce the promotion of Richard A. Zimmerman to the position of Chief Operating Officer.
“During his time with Cedar Fair, Richard has demonstrated the quality of leadership and high standards that make him especially well-qualified for this role,” said Matt Ouimet, Cedar Fair’s president. “As Chief Operating Officer, Richard will be responsible for the execution of our strategic plan, leadership development and most importantly, for ensuring all of our parks deliver the high-quality guest experience that Cedar Fair is known for.”
Zimmerman has more than 20 years of experience in the amusement park industry and most recently served
as Executive Vice President of Cedar Fair. Prior to that he served as Regional Vice President since June 2007 and as Vice President and General Manager of Kings Dominion since 1998. Prior to entering the amusement park industry, Richard served in various roles with Paramount Communications, Inc., including vice president of financial planning and analysis for Paramount’s Madison Square Garden Division and was a member of Paramount’s merger and acquisition team.
About Cedar Fair
Cedar Fair is a publicly traded partnership headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio, and one of the largest
regional amusement-resort operators in the world. The Company owns and operates 11 amusement
parks, six outdoor water parks, one indoor water park and five hotels. Its parks are located in Ohio,
California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan,
and Toronto, Ontario. Cedar Fair also operates the Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park in California
under a management contract. Cedar Fair’s flagship park, Cedar Point, has been consistently voted the
“Best Amusement Park in the World” in a prestigious annual poll conducted by Amusement Today
newspaper.
###
This news release and prior releases are available online at www.cedarfair.com.
From now until the end of October, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the brochures and park guides for previous HalloWeekends.
Today we're going to take a look at the announcement for the first HalloWeekends held in 1997. Below is the official announcement by the park. I especially love that the admission price for the event is roughly half of today's gate price. Enjoy!
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the brochure for the event, and then on Wednesday I'll post the 1997 HalloWeekends Park Guide!
Hey everyone! There's not a whole lot going on today, past or present, so I thought I'd share a recent Funtimes email I received from the park on October 13th. Cedar Point periodically sends these emails out detailing promotions and special events happening at the park. If you aren't a current subscriber, click here and sign up today!
Here's another addition of the CP Time Machine for today, October 15, and boy do we have a lot to cover!
2000 Cedar Point closes for the season. New this year was the record breaking Millennium Force.
(c) 2009 Jacob Hartman
This is also the final day for the 4th annual HalloWeekends event. The event ran Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays from September 22nd, through today, October 15. New for the 2000 season was Pharaoh's Secret (located in part of the Disaster Transport queue), and a not so scary decorated Peanuts Playground for the kids.
2001 Construction begins on Wicked Twister; stadium games (an arcade located on the Oceana Midway) is demolished to make way for Wicked Twister
2003 Cedar Point announces their $10 million capital expenditure plan for 2004 which includes an expansion of Lighthouse Point and the addition of Splash Zone to Soak City...read the original press release below!
Cedar Point to invest
nearly $10 million for 2004 season
LIGHTHOUSE
POINT AND SOAKCITY TO EXPAND OFFERINGS
Cedar
Point Press Release
SANDUSKY, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2003 - Cedar Point
amusement park/resort today announced plans to invest nearly $10 million in
capital improvements for its 2004 season with an emphasis on the "resort
side" of the popular 364-acre Lake Erie peninsula with expansions at its
Lighthouse Point luxury camping complex and Soak City waterpark.
This announcement
comes less than a year after Cedar Point debuted the $25 million Top Thrill
Dragster, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world at 420 feet tall
and 120 mph.
Originally built in 2001 on the west bank of the
Cedar Point Peninsula near the historic Cedar Point Lighthouse and adjacent to
Camper Village RV campground, Lighthouse Point will grow with the addition of
14 lakeside cottages, 30 cabins and 38 luxury RV campsites. This will bring the
total number of cottages to 64; cabins to 40 and luxury RV campsites to 97 at
Lighthouse Point.
The cottages and cabins will be mirror images of
the existing units. The cottages will be one-story units with cedar-shingle
exteriors and will be located along the lakefront, offering sweeping views of Lake Erie. The log-exterior cabins will be situated in a
large oval formation surrounding two man-made ponds and will have a 4-foot loft
in addition to the floor level. The cottages and cabins will have 400 square
feet of living space, including a bedroom, living room, kitchenette and
bathroom, plus a walk-out deck or patio. Each cottage will sleep up to six
people with a double bed, futon and bunk bed; each cabin will accommodate up to
eight guests with a double bed, two futons and sleeping space for children in
the loft. Each unit will have a microwave, refrigerator, two televisions with
cable, telephones and an outdoor grill.
The 38 luxury RV campsites will be back-in sites,
which will accommodate large upscale recreational vehicles on an 80-foot-long
concrete site. Electricity, cable television, water and sewer will be available
at each campsite. The rest room, shower and laundry facilities at the original CamperVillage
will also be renovated.
With the expansion of Lighthouse Point, CamperVillage
will have a total of 171 RV campsites.
"Our vision of developing Cedar Point into a
complete resort and vacation destination continues to be realized with the
exciting expansions at both Lighthouse Point and SoakCity,"
says Daniel Keller, vice president and general manager of Cedar Point.
"These additions, along with our world-class amusement park, will offer
guests the ideal combination for an overnight summer getaway."
For water lovers, the
18-acre SoakCity
waterpark, located on the CedarPointPeninsula
adjacent to the amusement park, will introduce Splash Zone, a multi-story
interactive play area with more than 100 different wet and wild water gadgets
that spray, squirt and drench guests. Racy water slides, speedy chutes, spewing
geysers, activity pools and many other cascading aqua elements will entertain
and amuse water enthusiasts of all ages.
The centerpiece attraction of this colorful aqua
oasis will be a gigantic bucket that will pour 1,000 gallons of water on guests
below every 10 minutes. Located 48 feet above the entire Splash Zone area, this
tipping bucket will be the perfect refresher for those looking for the ultimate
watery cool-down.
With the addition of Splash Zone, this will be
the fourth expansion at SoakCity since the waterpark
originally opened in 1988 with 10 water slides (1990, 1995, 1997 and 2004).
Soak City is already one of the largest waterparks in the country, featuring
everything from inner tube and body slides and a huge 500,000-gallon wave pool
to liquid fun for kids and an adults-only swim-up refreshment center. SoakCity
is a separate- fee facility, and admission to Cedar Point is not required. The
waterpark will open for the 2004 season on Saturday, May 22.
Cedar Point will also renovate its Radisson
Harbour Inn property into a year-round indoor waterpark resort that is
scheduled to open in November of 2004. Additional information about this
project will be announced at a later date.
For more information about the Lighthouse Point
and SoakCity expansions and for general
information about Cedar Point, guests can call 419.627.2350 or visit
cedarpoint.com for the latest news.
2007 The OnPoint! blog posts a wonderful PointCast showing a behind the scenes look at the Monster Midway Invasion Celebration Parade (NEW FOR 2007!)
2010 Cedar Point posted this great video last year showing the making of a HalloWeekends Screamster.
Wow! A lot has happened on October 15th. If you're heading to the park tonight, or perhaps reading this in line (just don't get caught sitting, standing or swinging on the silver hand rails) be sure to check out the park's twitter feed @cedarpoint. Becca has been posting some great ride status tweets today, like this last one..."To recap: Gemini, Magnum, Millennium Force, Mantis, Blue Streak and others are all open! Still breezy, but sunny at the park!"
Thank you for reading this addition of the CP Time Machine, and have a great day here at America's Roller Coast, Cedar Point...RIDE ON!
Welcome to another addition of the CP Time Machine. Today we're digging deep into the history of Cedar Point's parent company, Cedar Fair, L.P. On October 14, 1999, Cedar Fair announced that they would be purchasing White Water Canyon, a water park located near San Diego, in Chula Vista, California. They announced plans to re-theme the park under the Knott's Soak City brand. Today, the park remains a solid contributor to Cedar Fair's balance sheet. Take a look at the park as it currently stands (Knott's Soak City, Chula Vista)
Photo courtesy of Cedar Fair
Photo courtesy of Cedar Fair
Photo courtesy of Cedar Fair
Moving forward a few months, on December 7, 1999, Cedar Fair issued the following press release announcing the completion of the White Water Canyon purchase:
CEDAR FAIR, L.P. COMPLETES
PURCHASE OF CALIFORNIAWATERPARK
SANDUSKY, OHIO, December 7, 1999-- Cedar Fair, L.P. (NYSE: FUN), a publicly traded
partnership which owns and operates five amusement parks, today announced that
it has completed the acquisition of White Water Canyon for a cash purchase
price of approximately $11.6 million.
White Water Canyon,
located near San Diego in Chula Vista, California, is a 33-acre water park that
offers more than 20 separate water rides and attractions, including 16 water
slides, a wave pool, a lazy river and a children's activity area, as well as
food and merchandise shops. The acquisition also includes 32 acres of adjacent
land, which is undeveloped and available for further expansion.
"WhiteWaterCanyon represents an
excellent opportunity for us and will be an ideal addition to our current group
of parks," said Richard L. Kinzel, president and chief executive officer
of Cedar Fair.
Plans call for
the park to be renamed Knott's Soak CityU.S.A. and marketed in tandem with a new water
park of the same name planned on land adjacent to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.
Cedar Fair also plans to retheme the park and add a new family raft ride in
time for the 2000 season, with additional improvements to the property to be
announced in future months.
Cedar Fair owns
and operates Cedar Point, located on Lake Erie between Cleveland
and Toledo; Knott's Berry Farm, located near Los Angeles in Buena Park, California; DorneyPark & WildwaterKingdom, near Allentown,
Pennsylvania; Valleyfair near Minneapolis
/ St. Paul; and Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun
in Kansas City, Missouri.
So there's a little insight into the history of the Knott's Soak City brand of water parks. Hope you enjoyed this entry, although it's not extremely specific to Cedar Point itself.
Cedar Point is open tonight for another weekend of HalloWeekends! If you're in the area, be sure to get out to the park as there are only two weekends left of the 2011 operating season after this one.From the look of the pictures above, there is virtually no one in the park tonight, which makes for some awesome re-rides. Tomorrow we'll be looking at a new Funtimes entry by the park and another not so scary version of the CP Time Machine. Until then...
On this day (October 12), Cedar Point closed for the 1997 season. This date also marks the conclusion of the first annual HalloWeekends event. After the success of the first event, the park would continue to lengthen their operating calendar, and increase the number of attractions for HalloWeekends.
Good morning everyone! If you missed it yesterday, the OnPoint! blog has a new post up called Going Back to My Roots. This is a busy time of year for the park, and many of the full time managers find themselves performing odd jobs like cooking hot dogs and driving floats in the parade (see yesterday's post). Like myself, Becca got her start at Cedar Point working Top Thrill Dragster and she has decided to work with the ride's crew this coming Friday. She will also be posting some entries on the blog coming up about Top Thrill Dragster and what it's like to work as a ride host on the world's first strata-coaster. Be sure to stop by and say hi to Becca if you're at the park on Friday, and if you have any questions about the ride or working at Cedar Point, go ahead a post a comment on the blog.
Let's take a look at the park this morning:
The park has been hard at work yesterday and today on the Sky Ride. Routine maintenance....or early off-season work? I'll keep an eye on the situation and update you when I know. Also, if you haven't heard yet, Mean Streak will be closed for the remainder of the season while crews perform an extensive off-season overhaul of the ride.
Finally on to our feature this morning:
The Sandusky Register posted a great article called Belaboring the Point. Unlike most articles, this one takes a look at the real Cedar Point and what you will experience during a day at Cedar Point. Enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and screams of Cedar Point from the perspective of a park employee. The writer spent about 45 days at the park and digs deep into the heart of Cedar Point. There are three PDF files associated with the article. Be sure to read them all.
First of all, welcome to my blog, Cedar Point: The Amazement Park! My name is Jake and I've been visiting the Sandusky based amusement park since 2002. I even worked as a ride host on Top Thrill Dragster for the 2008 season. Over the course of this blog, we'll look at the vast history of the best amusement park in world and cover current happenings. And of course I've got some cool surprises along the way! Now on to this weeks entry.
Look that way! Coming straight down the midway is the Monster Midway Invasion Celebration Parade...Cedar Point's annual parade during their HalloWeekends event. The parade debuted for the 2007 season as yet another not so scary option for children and their families to enjoy. Before we get to this year's version, take a look at the parade as it was in 2009. This is pretty much how the parade ran from 2007-2010. Take a look:
The parade received a face lift for the 2011 season. I haven't had the chance to visit the park for HalloWeekends yet (I'm going in two weeks), but I caught the parade on one of the park's webcams this weekend. Take a look....Monster Midway Invasion Celebration, it's that time of year...
I'll be taking a ton of pictures at the park in a few weeks. Until then, I'll keep you updated on anything else that happens! Until next time...
