This last weekend was our first trip to Cedar Point in years. Our son is now three and we decided to let him enjoy the world of Cedar Point. Sunday while he was still at his grandmother’s, Xie and I both went up to the park. I can say it is weird to have a season pass again, yet there are some changes since the last time around. Keep in mind that it has been six years since I crossed into the park where I spent so much of my youth in.

The first thing is that parking is now twelve dollars. On top of that premium parking can be purchased for twenty. Gone are the days I mentioned when we could drive up to the front and get a parking spot. I still need to see how bad the parking is in the back by the Magnum. I opted out of paying to save five minutes of walking.

We went up to the old reliable season pass area to pick up our pass. I think the pass was cheaper than the last time we bought them, but then again I think we got the premium passes last time. Gone are the days when they put your picture on your season pass. That sucks. The season pass with the picture was an instant souvenir. I have most of my passes to this day. This one, I will probably lose after this season. It doesn’t even have the year listed on it.

They do however take your picture. When you go to the entrance your picture comes up on a screen. If the eighteen-year-old forensic detective determines that you are the same person in the photograph then you are allowed entrance to the park. If you leave the park to go back to your car or the Hotel Breakers, you must get your hand stamp. You can only use your pass to enter the park once per day.

This is insane of course. As a teenager who could run home and be back in an hour, there were many occasions I ended up going back to the park on the same day and I didn’t plan on it. We learned this of course by going out to the beach and getting the lecture by a different eighteen-year-old on our way back in. Of course, he was only going to let us do it “this one time”. You have now been warned, not by an eighteen-year-old, but by a thirty-five-year-old that has already been lectured by an eighteen-year-old.

I can understand these rules though. I had plenty of friends that shared passes back in the day. In theory, Cedar Point didn’t lose any money. They only gained it from food and video game sales in the park. We also used to go three or four times a week, if anything they lost admittance money on how often we used the things. Though we also did get the hand stamp and rub it immediately on a friend outside the gate. I’m too old to play those games today, but I wonder how well it still works.

Arrg, five hundred words and we have only just entered the park. I’ll do a follow on this tomorrow.