Cedar Point- The Preschool Edition

As I mentioned in our Summer Bucket List, we wanted to visit a theme park, so this past weekend we headed to Cedar Point.  I didn’t grow up in Ohio, and I’m not a roller coaster person, so this was my first visit as well as my son’s first visit.

Normally we might not have shelled out all the money to go since neither my husband nor I like coasters, but my husband’s company got us free tickets, so we decided it would be fun to take our 3 year old to check out the kids rides.

We wondered if he would like the rides and worried a little he might get scared.  Well, he wasn’t scared in the least.  Apparently we are raising an adrenaline junkie.  Seriously, he rode all the kids rides and was begging to go on the big rides.  The really big rides.

If you’re thinking of taking some little ones to Cedar Point, here’s a few tips:

• You’re not allowed to take food or drink into Cedar Point… but they didn’t check our bag.  I’m not advocating you break the rules to take a bunch of stuff in, but I did pack an empty water bottle for my son.  We just asked for a courtesy cup of water at any of the food service areas and used that to fill his water cup.  So no need to buy the expensive bottled water, just ask for the free courtesy water.  For ourselves we bought the refillable drink cup.
• If you get early admission (you can get this if you stay on site or have special tickets) just know that the kiddie rides are not open.  But if you’re like us, you will still want to get there as soon as you can.  We used the extra time to go to the bathroom, apply sunscreen, and walk to Camp Snoopy at the back of the park.  We got there just as they were starting the rides and it was a lot of fun being able to get on all the rides without waiting.

• Speaking of walking… be prepared to walk a ton!  Comfortable shoes are a must.

• The kids rides are scattered all over the park.  Camp Snoopy is pretty far from Planet Snoopy and Kiddie Kingdom.  I recommend taking your stroller even if your kid is a little older (3 years old) like ours is.  He normally walks wherever we are, but with so much walking between rides it would have been nice to have it.

• Camp Snoopy was our favorite kid area.  It has all the same rides as Planet Snoopy plus 2 kiddie coasters and a bounce house.  And it has more shade than Planet Snoopy.

• At guest services they’ll measure your child and put a wrist band on that correlates to your child’s height so that they don’t have to be measured before each ride.  Don’t bother doing this.  None of the ride attendants checked his wrist band, they still measured him each and every time, so it doesn’t save you any time.

• The train ride was great for our train-loving boy, but be forewarned, it may be a little scary for some little ones.  There are some staged scenes of an old western skeleton town and these might be a little scary if your child is sensitive.

A had a great time and I’m so glad that we went.  He really enjoyed all the rides and I think he has a thing for Snoopy now.  We’ll have to introduce him to the Charlie Brown cartoons soon.  For now he’s telling everyone about Camp Snoopy and enjoying snuggling the little Snoopy that we bought him as a souvenir.

Have you taken your little ones to Cedar Point?  Any advice to add to this list for other parents thinking of making the trips with their children?