Cedar Point in the Fall: Is It Worth It?

Hello. I'm planning on going to Cedar Point on Sept 21 with a couple friends. I was wondering, since it's a saturday, would we want to get fast lane plus to ride everything or would it not be necessary?

"Is it worth it" is an impossible question to answer without understanding what your expectations are.

we want to ride everything. i've never been on a weekend so i'm just curious on how crowded it could potentially be.

What are you planning to do? Will you be able to take advantage of early entry? Can you make it for Friday evening or at least a partial day on Sunday?

That weekend is when I typically go for my Halloweekends trip, and Saturday (baring bad weather) is typically crowded, however I stay the whole weekend and do not usually feel the need for FL as I’m a Platinum passholder and get EE, and I’m there as much for the Halloween stuff as I am for the coasters. As always the first and last two hours of operation is when you need to focus on the big rides, the middle 9 hours are the issue. Are you going to be willing to do 30+ minute waits to continue riding coasters or are you content to do flats and shows and be willing to potentially miss some big coasters?

Personally, that day I’m going to be the latter plus I’m going to get a Fright Lane because I love going through the haunts. If you can go either Friday Night or Sunday FL+ is not worth it in my opinion, but I go to and have been to CP so much that I’ve never bought a FL there. I personally will have a FL+ on Sunday but that’s only because I’ll be using my free one for renewing my Platinum pass for next year.

Planning on getting FLP and maybe do a couple haunted mazes. Already been this year so not a HUGE deal if my group doesn't get to go on everything. More of my question would be around the fact of ride operations. For example, I'm assuming TTD will operate even less then it already does due to temp. Also, we're coming from the Cincinnati area, so early entry wouldn't be worth it unless we left at like 5am.

Are you not from the area? You say you’re coming from Cincinnati. TTD will operate as normal. It will not be cold on Sept 21 unless it’s a “A Day After Tomorrow” disaster situation.

I'm not really aware of cold stopping Top Thrill Dragster. On the coldest of days, it can be a bit "cranky" and roll back a bit more, and take quite a bit longer to fill the trains, but it will typically run. In my experience the weather can be a bit more windy in the fall, and that will slow Dragster down more than anything. It shouldn't have weather cold enough to impact ride operations until the last couple weeks of October.

Just realize CP is always short staffed in the fall due to their labor force being back in school.

You're asking a few different things, but if you're wondering if it will be crowded, it all depends on the weather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNkKq9mVeVc

If it's a nice day, you will likely see Cedar Point busier than you ever have. Halloweekends' Saturdays are insane.

However, with you going in Sept it usually is ok. The absolute worst day of the year is Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving (same weekend) Saturday. You couldn’t pay me to be at the park that weekend but especially Saturday.

I had no idea Columbus Day weekend was also Canadian Thanksgiving... Interesting.

We used to go to CP every year for Columbus Day weekend. It’s the only time during HalloWeekends that the resorts are open Sunday night, which worked well for us to stay the night then drive back to western NY on Monday. We would get as many rides in on a Friday night, grab a few early rides Saturday before the crowds came in, then catch some shows and eat some food truck delicacies until dark, then enjoy the HAUNT activities. Sunday was usually a little bit of a late start but was always a good day for rides. We did this routine almost every year since 2003, watching it get crazier and crazier, crowded-er and crowded-er until 2016. That trip the park was so crammed with people that even the food lines were 30-45 minutes. We would get turned away from shows 20 minutes before the show started because they were full, or miss the shows starting time because we were stuck in a food line. It was ridiculous.

We went to Kings Island Columbus Day weekend in 2017. Friday night and Saturday night were at least as crowded as Cedar Point, at least until the monsoon started.

And Canada’s overlay/holiday is racism free!

Just did it today for the first time. It was odd to me. We haven’t been since 2002 and back then, one of the “get right on” rides was Iron Dragon. Today, there was a LINE. I mean a 45 min ride!! There were lines (as in waiting through bars) for the stupid Tiki Twirl thing and Matterhorn...and Sky Ride..stupid carousel???? .WTF?! The only thing I could guess was maybe they are all in the big coaster areas so people stayed there. Gemini was on-off as was Mine Ride, Magnum, Corkscrew. 2 hours for MF (early afternoon) and FL for that was 30mins. The later the afternoon, the busier it got...maybe because of Halloween stuff and people want to go when it’s dark? Nope. Won’t do it again. We have always gone in May before schools get out so I’m pretty used to that....not a fan of all these people.

Between the perfect weather, the day after rain, being Saturday and Point Fest I decided to not even try the park. I just assumed it would be crazy. I may try tomorrow.

The only time I have seen 45-60 minute waits for rides like Iron Dragon, Mine Ride and Corkscrew and 2-3 hour waits for the star attractions in the past 8-10 years is during Halloweekends. Even in subpar weather they pack them in and fill the parking lot on a Saturday. On a gorgeous weekend like this past one, it’s even worse. Add in the fact that the waterpark is closed and everyone is in the main park - you see crowds during Halloweekends that you don’t ever see during the main season.

I love fall and Halloween in the parks. But if I want to get some riding time in and have a fully functional park, I am there between June and August.

Fridays and Sundays... Never go to Halloweekends on a Saturday.

Even Fridays last year produced some causeway backups to Thirsty Pony and further. And when you finally get in, keep in mind only about half the park is open.

Sundays can get as busy, if not busier, as an above average summer day if the weather is nice. The glory days of an empty park in October are long gone.

Just to add to prosperity how last weekend went:

Friday: weather was nice, 80s to start the night, 60s to end it. Also there was no wind and high humidity so the fog in all the zones hung there and got really thick by the end of the night, truly fantastic. It was fairly busy, the bigger rides had 45 min-1.5 hr waits for part of the night and I’m glad I bought a fright lane ($55.)

Saturday: Warm and windy highs in the middle 80s. As expected very crowded, so I avoided the coasters for most of the day and concentrated on flats, shows and haunts (again with the aid of a fright lane-$60)

Sunday: Best weather of the week, high 70s and a nice breeze. Park was pretty dead (everything but SV and Valravn had under 15 min waits the whole day.) got a lot of riding in, did all the haunts one last time (no fright lane needed) and rewatched Midnight Syndicate and the Garter show. Great day, great weekend, only bummer was Maverick was down the entire weekend (second train testing Friday night never cleared the tunnel, the trains never got parked the whole weekend and they didn’t staff anyone for it on Sunday.) On the plus side, new cornstalkers is much better, it is a very narrow (1 person across width with corn touching you the whole time, boo holes are next to impossible to anticipate) and longer, huge upgrade. I also think that the Garter show is the best one they have done in a long time.

Those 60 minute waits for Millennium Force and 45 minute waits for Raptor last Sunday would disagree.

They weren’t when I was there, no where close. What time of day was it? I didn’t hit the main midway until the afternoon and only was by MF at the start and end of the day.