Cedar Point just announced its plans to redevelop and rechristen the waterfront midway of the park as The Boardwalk, with the addition of a major new restaurant, the relocation and rethemeing of several popular spinner rides and the installation of Wild Mouse, a new design of a traditional coaster with spinning cars.
This newly-themed area overlooks the oldest feature in the park, the feature that inspired the creation of the Cedar Point Resort over 150 years ago- the Cedar Point Beach.
At a mile in length and well over a hundred feet in width, the Cedar Point Beach has become a major marketing feature for the Resort. The historic Breakers Hotel, which opened in 1905, has nearly 700 rooms, many of which overlook the beach and Lake Erie. Every year Cedar Point has added new experiences to the beach and adjacent properties- beach volleyball, dining facilities such as the Lakeshore Pavilion, parasailing and waverunners, kayaking, and just plain old swimming and sunbathing on the beautiful sandy beach.
This year’s Cedar Point Nights is by far the most complete collection of activities offered for Cedar Point guests. A friend joined me as we explored the beach and got a flavor of the many events that guests to Cedar Point can enjoy. There is no upcharge to enjoy these events- admission to Cedar Point isn’t even required, other than parking. The beach can be reached either from the main parking lot or from the Cedar Point Shores lot (although due to construction of the Grand Pavilion, a portion of the boardwalk that leads from the main lot to the Breakers is closed, forcing guests not entering the park itself to walk a considerable distance in the sand). Suggestion- if you park in the front lot and decide to walk on the beach, take your shoes off. The sand is extremely fine and we ended up with shoes full of the prettiest white sand you’ve ever seen!
Cedar Point Nights run from 7pm to 11pm until August 21st. Some of the activities are free, such as beach volleyball, beach chairs around fire pits and a dance party with a live DJ is held near the Lakeside Pavilion.
The Toes in the Sand Band performs further down the beach in front of The Breakers Hotel Rotunda, next to the Sand Bar (yes, it’s a bar). Gigantic luminaries light the beach and welcome guests onto the sand, and streetlights on the boardwalk gently illuminate the beach.
There are many other activities that have an additional charge- Cornhole, Seashell Dig, Prize Wheel, Ring Around the Seagull, among others- and Cedar Point needed to find a way to handle this considering it’s gone cash-free this year. It resolved it by the creation of the Sand Dollar, wooden tokens that can be purchased in bundles ranging from 5 for $27 up to 15 for $72. Most games cost 1 Sand Dollar to play, and many of these games guarantee a winner.
The Sand Dollars can also be used to purchase items from the Cedar Point Luau, a selection of five food stations located in the open-air Lakeside Pavilion. These stations offer such tropical (and regional) selections as pineapple & teriyaki chicken skewers, perch street tacos (which were a bit messy because the cole slaw added to it needed to be drained better), walleye bites (like perch, a popular local fish) with spicy remoulade, Hawaiian dream cake and pineapple & coconut cheesecake, among many other options. Each cost one Sand Dollar, and many selections were prepared fresh upon ordering.
Beverages, from soft drinks to specialty mixed drinks, were available for between one and three Sand Dollars. The Blue Riptide Fish Bowl, served in - you guessed it- a fishbowl with a glow cube, was delicious. The Henny Raz- served in a ziplock pouch that you could wear on a lanyard around your neck- wouldn’t stay zipped and frankly wasn’t all that great. They both cost three Sand Dollars.
The food at the Luau was very good, but the serving sizes were smaller than I would have liked for the cost. I know you don’t go to a theme park to save money, but I might question the value per portion. The variety of other activities was really excellent, especially for families. I got the impression that many/most of the visitors taking advantage of the beach activities were families staying at The Breakers, and there were a lot of people enjoying the beach. It makes me wish I still had school-age children- they would have had a blast there, and my biggest problem would have been keeping track of them!
We made one mistake with our purchases, and it was our own fault. We reserved a beach bungalow. There are ten available, and they offer a terrific mixture of services- if you have enough people to make it worthwhile. Due to our deciding at the last minute to attend, we only had two in our group, and the bungalows provide options for up to eight people. This is definitely something for a family or a group of adults to take advantage of, and there are a lot of advantages.
The price was $299+tax (weeknight) and $329+tax (Saturday and Sunday). Was it worth it? Possibly, with enough people. They’re located at the far end of the beach, near Cedar Point Shores, and that meant that the beach in front of the bungalows was mostly empty. We had a private beach! This would be great for families or groups of adults that wanted to relax, enjoy the food from the restaurant or drinks from the Sand Bar, and talk without having to hollar over the music from the DJ. Would I want to rent one again? Possibly, but only with enough people to help split the cost.
Cedar Point Nights is a great opportunity to enjoy that part of Cedar Point that is so often ignored. Every year Cedar Point makes more and more effort to recreate itself from a day park into a destination park for the entire family. Very few parks in the nation have such an amazing feature as a beautiful, mile-long beach fronted by a huge, historic hotel, and Cedar Point is making major efforts to encourage guests to spend their non-ride time with their toes in the sand, a volleyball going over the net or riding down the length of the boardwalk on a pedicab.
There is so much more to Cedar Point than just roller coasters!
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We did this a few years ago pre-pandemic, but don’t remember all the upcharges. They had Cornhole, connect 4, and other beach games available for free as well as glow sticks that were part of a “silent disco” (guests are given headphones to listen to different tracks), which was also free. They did have some up charge games for prizes and of course food and VIP areas, but it sounds like Cedar Point is trying to enhance revenue generation of this event.