Cedar Point Winter Chill Out 2021
Feel extremely lucky to be able to say this, it’s that time of year again! Despite what has been without a doubt the most difficult year in recent memory, it’s so great to start 2021 with a small bit of normal with the return of Cedar Point’s off-season Winter Chill Out tour!
Despite an abbreviated season and being forced to put most 2020 plans on hold until 2021, Cedar Point did not hold back on giving us a sneak peak at the excitement that awaits of this spring! So let’s get into it!
Arrival
Entry into the park was similar to what we’ve grown accustomed to in 2020 with temperature checks, mandatory face coverings, and reminders to social distance. The process went smoothly as they’ve had a season to learn what works best to do this in the least obtrusive way that still prioritizes guest-safety. We got our lanyard with a schedule, map, and goodie bag from CP and A Kid Again (a not for profit helping kids with life-threatening illnesses, check them out please!) we were ready to explore the park!
Stop 1: Point Plaza
In typical theme park fashion, the day started at the gift shop! Even though CP had released a line of merch for the 150th anniversary of the park, turns out that they held quite a bit back since the shop was packed with new for 2021 CP gear, art, buttons, pins, snowglobes, models, you name it! Particularly of note is a new collaboration between CP and our friends at Made to Thrill who made a special line of posters themed to CP’s most iconic rides. Trust me they were popular and the park already announced that they will be ordering more!
Stop 2: Mac Shack
Our first real stop was the Mac Shack, a new for 2020 restaurant. This quick-serve place features fully customizable mac and cheese dishes! Think of it as chipotle, but for mac and cheese! The park let us go behind the line and see the kitchen and a few back areas.
Stop 3: Games
Next we got to go behind the scenes of some of the park’s midway games. While it is mostly a storage warehouse, it was still very cool to see how everything is arranged and getting a peek at what will be on offer in 2021. Some games will offer exclusive 150th items like individually numbered bears, hats, squishmallows, and more! We even got a change to play a game ourselves for some coupons to use during the season!
Stop 4: Parade Tent (NO PHOTOS!)
This will be a bit trickier since as the titles says, we were not allowed to take any photos of the new parade floats for the 150th parade! Called "the “Celebrate 150 Spectacular” the parade will truly be like no other parade seen at the park before. These floats are huge!! The feature iconic references to cedar point with themes such as the Breakers hotel, Cedar Downs, floats mounted with actual cars from the Gemini roller coaster, and so much more! The parade will take place in the summer and will make sure that every day at the park ends with a deserving celebration of over 150 years of operation.
Stop 5: Jack Aldrich Theater
Stop 5 was a bit of a sadder one as the park’s main theater has remained largely identical to how we saw it last February as there were no performances held in it in 2020. They are still set up to perform Snoopy Beach Blanket Beagle for the 2021 season! See our 2020 report for a more in-depth look at the stage!
Stop 6: Ballroom (Presentation and Q&A Session)
A perennial high point of WCO is the Q&A session hosted by the park’s director of communications, Tony Clark, and park general manager, Jason McClure. Photos were not permitted, but we learned quite a bit about the park’s intentions as they prep for the new season. Their goal is to run as close as possible to 2019 as is safely possible. This means that they will look to see what changes were made in 2020 in order to stay safe and re-evaluate whether it is something that is appropriate/needed based on what we have learned in the past year. This touches everything from the sale of Fast Lane passes, the use of access passes on certain rides, early entry, festivals, Halloween, and operation of the waterpark. Some notable points of interest include the addition of small lockers near the station of Steel Vengeance meaning that guests will not longer be forced to purchase a locker to store anything the size of their keys or larger. These lockers will be free and be placed somewhere in the queue so you will be able to have a phone while waiting potentially hours to ride. Guests will then pass through metal detectors just like before but now after depositing their items in these small lockers. Also we can expect the park to receiver a new entrance sign!
Stop 7: Tour Experiences
Inside the Park Services building were a few park associates volunteering their time to tells us about some of the tours that will be on offer this year. Introduced a few years ago. the boardwalk cruisers bike service will return. This is a bicycle shuttle service that will take you and a friend from one end of the boardwalk to the other. They also offer morning mimosa, and afternoon wine tours that take you to the pier at the end of the peninsula for a truly breathtaking view of Lake Erie. Also the park will again offer Segway tours on the boardwalk and have debuted an app that is an audio tour that provides information about the park’s history as you walk around!
StopS 8&9 FOOD!
Now for the most important part of any theme park event, the food!! Melt served as our home for coffee and hot chocolate and when it was lunch time, the park served up some samplings from this years Frontier Festival which will start the same day as the park opens on May 14th! We got the change to try the cherry buffalo chicken tenders, deep fried ribs, and cheery chimichangas, and they’re all absolutely worth a visit just for the food alone!
Stop 10: Maintenance Building
Right next to Corkscrew’s lift hill, is one of the parks maintenance buildings. This one breaks down and inspects rides like Millenniums Force, Top Thrill Dragster, and Maverick to make sure that they are always running smoothly and safely for us!
Stop 11: Top Thrill Dragster Hydraulic Room
A rare sight, inside the belly of the beast. The park was nice enough to open up the garage door to show us a peek into the absolutely massive hydraulic engine that powers Top Thrill Dragster, a goliath 420ft tall roller coaster that travels at 120 miles per hour!
Stop 12: Sign & Annimation Shop
The park’s sign and animation shop is truly the definition of “where the magic happens.” Here is where they create all of the park’s signs, both big and small, inside the park or on the roadways, and also the animatronic figures seen throughout the park. Inside is essentially a museum of the past few decades of the park as told by signs of now defunct rides that hang on the walls drawing out an incredible sense of nostalgia for those of us lucky enough to have gotten to experience these attractions when they were still around. But this place isn’t just a warehouse for old signs, we got a first view of the sign for the park’s new attraction, Snake River Expedition! This boat ride will take us on an adventure around the island in the center of the park and is said to be very interactive and a unique experience every time!
Stop 13: Steel Vengeance
A constant in CP’s winter events is to allows us to step into some areas of the park that guests would normally never be allowed to go, and this year is no different. The park opened up the infield area inside of Steel Vengeance, the park’s newest roller coaster for some incredible views!
Stop 14: Frontiertown First aid
Another thing that the park got to introduce in 2020 was a quiet and sensory room in order to reduce sensory stimulation in a controlled environment for guests with various disorders, disabilities, and conditions while accommodating them to have a great day at the park. It’s great to see this be a growing trend among amusement parks In the past few years.
Stop 15: Maverick Launch Tunnel
More behind the scenes! Now this was for sure an up close and personal experience getting to walk right under the track and peer into the tunnel that shoots our riders at over 70mph!
Stop 16: Millenium force first drop
They keep on coming! We were given the opportunity to walk directly under the first drop track of the park’s 310 foot giga coaster, Millennium Force!
Stop 17: Boneville fire scene
This was a first for us! We got the opportunity to walk over to one of the animatronic scenes that’s normally only seen while riding the park’s train! It was a very cool experience getting to see all of the detail put into the scene that passes you by since you’re usually moving pretty quick past it.
Stop 18: Cedar Downs
Back to the front of the park we got a unique view at the park’s oldest ride, the built in 1921 Cedar Downs horse racing ride. The maintenance crew was working on keeping this classic up and running, giving us a look at the details of how it works and continues to thrill guests to this day.
Stop 19: Park Services
It may not be a glamorous job, but the crew at the park services department at Cedar Point are passionate about keeping the park looking clean and brand new every single day! They’re responsible for keeping the midways clean, providing cleaning equipment and materials, and as a fun fact they work in the former home of the park’s Pirate Ride!
Stop 20: Maintenence building on the lake
This was a bit of a surprise! Outside the park gates near the Cedar Point Maria is a large building that we’ve never seen the inside of, and today we got that chance! Inside was our first official look at the ride vehicles for Snake River Expedition! While this is to be confirmed and we did not get the best look at the boats as they were far away, it seems that each boat is themed to the lore surrounding other Cedar Fair parks. Most clearly we saw a boat (Lil’ Miami) with cargo on top with references to both Mystic Timbers and Orion, rides at Cedar Point’s sister park, Kings Island. Another Boat seems to contain a reference to a neighboring Cedar Fair park Canada’s Wonderland with a crate labeled “Wonderland Expedition Company.” We’re excited to see how the ride may incorporate this lore into its story!
Stop 21: Creative Studio & amazement shop
The last stop! located off-site the park’s second main maintenance facility keeps rides like Steel Vengeance, Raptor, Gatekeeper, Rougarou, Magnum XL-200, Corkscrew, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, and dozens of others in perfect and safe condition!
Wrap up
Thank you so much to everyone at Cedar Point for having us, showing some really cool stuff, serving delicious food, and doing it all without taking a single cent from our donation to A Kid Again. Cedar Point opens to the public for its 2021 season on May 14th with its Frontier Festival food and drink event. Find out more details at their website. Be sure to check the site at the 14th approaches as many details about your visit may still be in flux as state guidelines are constantly changing as we learn more and react to current situations. In 2020 Cedar Point had 0 contact trace events linked back to the park and they are working hard day in and day out to keep us safe and make sure that we can have a wonderful time when visiting!