Trip to Cedar Point: Cincinnati

Yesterday, my 13 (soon to be 14) year old daughter and I completed a 1500 mile, 4-day venture to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, with a stopover in Cincinnati.

For those who are roller coaster fans, Cedar Point is probably the US destination with the highest concentration of roller coasters, and some of the largest in the country. Since we're pretty much bored with the local Six Flags over Georgia offerings, we decided the trek would be a fun way to cap off the school year, and semi-celebrate a birthday (hers) as well.

With an eye on the weather, we left Wednesday, headed for Cincinnati, the goal being to make it their in time to check into our hotel (The Hyatt Regency) and walk to Great American Ballpark for the Reds vs. Astros game. Despite rainy travel on Wednesday, we made the 7+ hour trip in plenty of time to check-in, swim for a bit, watch the rain taper off, and head to the game, where the skies parted, and we enjoyed a victory for the home team. GABP lived up to its reputation as a hitter friendly park, with 3 homers hit by the Reds, 2 by star player (and Braves-killer) Jay Bruce. For baseball fans, his two homers would not have cleared the fences in most other parks.

It's a great place to see a game, and students get in for half price, and, military receive free admission to outfield reserved seats (not sure if that was a Memorial Day week promotion or always available), so we got in for $7. They also offer a meal deal of a hot dog, coke, chips, and a snack for $7, so, for $21, we got admission to a major league baseball game, and dinner! If you know of other great ballpark deals let me know - this one would be hard to top.

The Hyatt was reasonably priced for an upper-end, downtown hotel, but I have a couple of complaints:

1. Why these higher end hotels can not seem to offer free wi-fi in their rooms, or in the Hyatt's case, wired access, is beyond me. You're already charging a premium, get with the program. When Microtel offers free wi-fi, you can, too.
2. After the game, we wanted to grab a quick snack in the hotel sports bar. Apparently, we weren't good enough customers to be waited on, so we had to forgo that experience.

The next day, Thursday, we would be leaving early enough to arrive at Cedar Point in time to enjoy their Starlight park hours (4-8pm on this day). More on that experience in a subsequent post.

If you're in Cincinnati for only a short time, and have the desire to see a Reds game, by all means, do. It's a new park, so all the seats are good, and it's a small park, so you'll see some offense. The location is right on the Ohio River, so you can watch the barges and pleasure boats pass by, and the fans are knowledgeable and friendly. The homeless are also well behaved, unlike some cities where they are very aggressive.

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