My first trip to Cedar Point Amusement Park was a summer vacation with my family when I was about 15 years old. I was long overdue for a return visit when we decided to take our family road tripping to Cedar Point Amusement Park.
Located in Sandusky, OH, Cedar Point Amusement Park is the oldest operating theme park in the US. The park boasts 18 rollar coasters and 69 rides – which is a world record for most rides – on over 334 acres and a mile-long beach.
Inside the Roller Coaster Capital of the World
Nicknamed the Roller Coaster Capital of the World, the park does not disappoint when it comes to thrill rides. The 18 roller coasters within Cedar Point are some of the highest and fastest around. In fact, it’s the only amusement park in the world with six coasters that are at least 200 feet high.
The Magnum XL-200 was the first hyper-coaster and first ever coaster to top 200 feet. At 205 feet, it reaches a top speed of 72 MPH. My seven-year old niece talked her dad into riding the Steel Vengeance coaster with her. After her trip on the 205 foot high, 74 MPH mixed wood and metal coaster, she stuck to the kiddie rides for the rest of the trip. She’s a champ for doing it though!
On my first trip years ago, I did brave the Corkscrew and the Raptor coasters.
Guests with Autism at Cedar Point
You can view a complete Guest Assistance Guide that outlines all of the accessibility options at Cedar Point for guests with austim. They offer extensive information on their rides and attractions including a ride rating system.
The rating system provides a scale for rating the thrill factor of each ride. Using this scale, families can determine which rides or attractions to ride based on their experience, physical condition and abilities. The rides ratings start with a 1 representing low thrill rides that are generally calm and gentle up to a level 5 for the most aggressive, high speed, rapid direction thrill rides.
Guests with Autism have the opportunity to request a Disability Pass at guest Services. The boarding pass is used to schedule times to ride an attraction. They also offer a KidTrack wrist band to help you locate your family member if someone gets lost.
Cedar Point offers a Rider Swap option as well. Rider Swap lets one person ride while another guest waits with the person who did not ride. When the ride is complete, the guests swap and the person who did not ride gets to ride.
For guests with sensory needs, the park offers a Quiet Room at the Frontier Town First Aid. There are private restrooms in various areas around the theme park as well as wheelchair, stroller and ECV rentals. Sensory headphones or helmets can be worn on only select rides, but the park does offer disposable ear protection at Guest Services.
Additionally, there is an option for any park guest to purchase a Fast-Lane Pass with their ticket. It is not a disability service, but for familes with members who have a hard time waiting, the extra feee might be worth it. Fast-Lane pass is an option that allows any user to bypass regular lines on many rides. We visited the park at the end of the summer when Ohio schools were already back in session making it a much less congested and a fast-lane pass was uneccesary for us.
Not Just Thrill Rides
It’s not all thrill rides at Cedar Point. There’s plenty for the littles too. We took our time making our way through the Camp Snoopy area, a section with many “Peanuts” themed rides. There are plenty of kid and family friendly options. Closer to the main entrance, many of the old school kids rides are front and center. The slower paces motorcycles, police cars and dune buggies that take it easy on the littles ones who like slow speeds. As always, we took our que from Charles about which rides to try and where to go. He not big into rides, but did enjoy a few.
In addition to the rides, access to Cedar Point Beach is included in park admission. If ripping through water slides is more your speed, the Cedar Point Shores Water Park hits you with all of the splishy-splashy summer fun you can take.
The Road Trip
Leaving from our home base of Rochester, NY, the drive to Sandusky, OH is about 5 hours. From western NY to northern Ohio, the route on I-90 West cuts right through Cleveland and travels along the shores of Lake Erie.
On this visit it was me, my husband, our two kids, my parents and a cousin in our rented Chrysler Pacifica mini van. In a separate van my older sister, niece, nephew and great niece and nephew. My sister and her crew actually left a day early and stopped in Cleveland for a look around and quick trip to the Cleveland Zoo. If you have a few days, you can visit multiple stops in Ohio from Cleveland down to the Cincinnati Zoo or even a stop at Great Wolf Lodge.
For travelers who fly in, the closest major airport in Cleveland Hopkins International airport about 55 miles away. Another option would be the Toledo Express Airport, 65 miles away but with limited flight selection.
Hotel Breakers and Lighthouse Point
There are a few options for on site accomodations. Hotel Breakers and Lighthouse Point campgrounds are located onsite with walking access to the waterpark, beach and amusement park. Nearby you will find the Express Hotel and Castaway Cay accessible via shuttle service. Although Express and Castaway are not onsite, they still qualify for the vacation package discounts and are Cedar Point properties. Guests staying at Cedar Point properties get one-hour early entry into the park, complimentary parking and tickets discounts.
Hotel Breakers
Hotel Breakers is a renovated beachfront resort with 669 guest rooms and suites. My sister and her crew decided to stay at the hotel in a suite. They had a great view of the beach, enclosed balcony, bedroom with 2 queen beds, and a pull out sofa bed. In addition there was a microwave and small fridge in the room. Although we didn’t spend time on the beach, the views were beautiful.
In addition to the awesome location, Hotel Breakers has five onsite restaurants: Perkins, TOMO Hibachi Grill, Surf Lounge, TGIFriday’s and a Starbucks.
Autism-Friendly Lodging at Lighthouse Point
The cabins at Lighthouse Point are essentially tiny houses. There are multiple floor plan options available to choose from with the 156 cottages & cabins. We found the opportunity to spread with some outdoor space to be an autism-friendly lodging experience.
The kichenette made keeping safe foods around much easier. For anyone with dietary needs or limited diets, the option of being able to cook some food and access to a fridge can be a game change for special needs families on vacation.
Lighthouse Point water-front cabins can sleep up to six, family cabins up to eight and the Deluxe cabins can accommodate up to 10 people. For my group of seven, we chose a Deluxe cabin.
The two-level Deluxe loft cabin consists of a 42” flat screen, two futons, a bedroom (queen size bed with TV), two full bathrooms with tub/shower combos a kitchenette with a sink, microwave and small fridge, all on the first level. When you travel up to the second floor loft space, there are two separate sleeping places, each with a queen sized bed and two televisions. Complimentary wi-fi is included.
Linens and toiletries are included in the room. Another thing that sold us on the cabin experience was the outdoor patio space for each tiny home that includes a picnic table and charcoal grill. My favorite part of the trip might have just been the cabin itself. It felt so cozy and comfortable. I loved the wood! The cabins was also very clean.
We spent a good portion of one evening at the Lighthouse Point pool. In addition to the swimming pool, the kids splash pad had many cool sprinkler additions to it.
Choosing a place with a pool and outdoor experiences is important for my family. We like to be outdoors and it is a great way to help my son regulate.
Camping at Lighthouse Point
The cabins are located in the RV park that also has 145 full hook-up campsites. Cedar Point was actually one of the first trips we took in our family RV trailer all those years ago when I was a teenager. On that trip, my parents, my best friend and I spent three days camping at Lighthouse Point. We had an 18-foot Real-Lite travel trailer that was comfortable enough for the four of us. I remember the comfort and convenience of coming and going from the park to the RV and waking up to the smells of my mom making breakfast in the RV.
While you can hear the occasional fun screams from the nearest roller coster, the campgrounds were otherwise peaceful getaway from the hustle and bustle of the parks. The cottages are lake front, the cabins are in a section that surround small man-made lake and he RV hook up sites are all in the middle.
What to Eat
Inside of Cedar Point you will find all of your amusement park favorites, from Auntie-Anne’s/Cinnabon to Chick-Fil-A, Dippin-Dot’s to Dominos. When eating out we stick to his safe food like pizza, fries and noodles for our pickey eater. As long a there are french fries and pizza, we are in the safe zone!
Since this family road trip also dubbed as an anniversary trip for the husband and I, we ditched the kids for a nice meal at TOMO Sushi and Hibachi. The morning before our departure we all met for breakfast in Hotel Breakers at Perkins. Perkins is a breakfast place similar to an IHop or a Cracker Barrel. You can get breakfast anytime of day and they have the most awesome pancakes! We no longer have a Perkins location in western NY so we were pretty excited to eat there.
Ready to Return
The short drive from upstate NY, the reasonable ticket prices and the campground make you feel as though you are getting multiple vacations in one. The autism-friendly accessible options for navigating the theme park rides, access to outdoor acivities for non-riders and multiple lodging choices made this an autism-friendly vacation.
