Our day started early Saturday morning. I woke up with a mild migraine, took some meds and a hot shower and that seemed to help (a little). A quick stop for food at Tim Horton’s and we were at the middle school at 6:50 AM, ready to get on the bus at 7.

However, the bus company was unable to get ahold of the driver and the bus was not there. A few phone calls to the charter company and they were going to send another bus driver out. Henry and I sat and played crazy eights until the bus showed up a couple hours later.

On the ride down, the group voted to watch Into the Spider Verse. The bus was noisy and they didn’t have closed captions on, so I opted to read my book, Three Body Problem. It was the beginning of what looked like a beautiful day in Michigan, but the skies were getting darker the closer we got to the park.

Just before we arrived, a heavy rain storm hit the park and most of the rides were not running. We got our tickets, figured out how the meal plan worked and set off to get some lunch. We ate at a chicken and pizza place, Henry got a mega slice of pepperoni he said was very greasy (probably not a great choice) and I had some pretty good chicken tenders.

Then the big decision came, what do we ride first? I was hoping to get Henry on a mild ride to ease into roller coasters, but they were all down due to weather. Magnum was open on the app and the wait time was reasonable. We got in line and they announced the ride would be closing for weather and a safety check. We decided to wait it out, it wasn’t that long, and Henry seemed very excited to go on his first “real” rollercoaster.

Everything was fine until we were on the train and buckled in. He took one look at the lift hill and his face turned white. As the coaster started moving he sunk down into his seat and wanted to be anywhere else. We got off the ride and he was very angry and had an upset stomach.

I did bring a bag with us into the park and read about the “moving lockers”, but of course I was a “user” and we had to find help to get our locker opened. When using the phone to pay for a locker, it asks for a 7-digit and a 4-digit number. Apparently, the 4-digit number was the on needed to unlock the locker. Once we figured this out, the lockers are pretty awesome. They have various areas throughout the park and you need to move your stuff every 3 hours.

After we got our stuff, we headed over to Iron Dragon. Henry was a bit nervous, but once we got on the ride, he seemed to be having some fun. The band director was posting challenges throughout the day, one of which was getting Dippin’ Dots. We got our ice cream of the future and headed off to our next ride.

Henry didn’t want to go on anything that went upside down or anything that went very fast, so I figured Skyhawk would be a good next ride. On the way there, we got to send the glassblower. I can’t remember how many times we went to Cedar Point in the past and the glassblower was not in, but we did get to see him finish up a vase.

Just as we reached Skyhawk, the ride had re-opened and the wait was very short. Henry took one look at how high the ride went and was like “nope”. I got a little frustrated and said fine, we are going on Maverick.

We headed over that way, went in the wrong entrance (handicap one, whoops) and got in line. As we are waiting, Henry notices the ride does in fact go upside not once, but twice. I said well it’s only for two seconds. We get on the ride and strapped in and Henry looks grumpy, but he’s not freaking out. As were get to the upside parts, he turns to me and says it’s 2.5 seconds… lol After we get off the ride, I asked him how he counted 2.5 seconds… .5, 1.5, 2, 2.5… of course, what was I thinking? He was less angry about this ride (I think he might have actually liked it, it was a lot more fun than I remember).

After Maverick, we passed by the hanging swings that go in a circle, there was no wait for that one and we got right on. There was a huge water puddle under some of the swings and we both hoped we didn’t finish the ride directly above it. It was close, we were just on the outside of the puddle.

Another one of the challenges were to ride the scrambler, so we went to that side of the park next. On the way we got a selfie with snoopy (challenge completed). Henry really liked the scrambler, I liked that it stopped when it did, I was starting to get a little nauseous.

We got dinner at Panda Express and went on Iron Dragon for the second time. Afterwards we headed over to Blue Streak, because it’s a classic. Well, even though it’s a classic, it could use some updating. I barely fit in the seat, still not sure how I was able to get my seat belt buckled and the ride was not very smooth at all. Henry was not a fan either.

Henry wanted to ride the carousel, so we got on the faster one at the park. The ride has 64 horses (fun fact we learned while waiting in line for Magnum), with 4 rows of horses. I wanted to ride “lightning”, but Henry got on that horse before I had a chance to. The one I picked was the winner between us and we both had a good laugh on that ride.

Next up we went on the antique cars and Henry got to drive. He was having a hard time going straight and kept bumping the rail (I’m very scared what he’s going to be like driving for real in a few years).
Gemini was finally opened, but it was getting close to the end of our day. We made it over there and decided picked the red train. We lost the race, but man that is a fun ride. Henry didn’t really like that one either.

We looked like we had enough time to ride Iron Dragon one more time before we had to meet every at the front of the park. Unfortunately when we got on the platform there was a delay getting riders onto the ride, we also had an extended wait to get off the ride, but it was Henry’s favorite ride and I’m glad we were able to do it one more time.

We grabbed the bag from the locker and booked it to the front of the park. We were a few minutes late, but were not the last ones to show up. After a quick bathroom break and group photo, we were on the bus and heading home. The movie for the ride home was The Lorax and Henry kept falling asleep, but he thought he just “blinked” and missed most of the movie. We got home around 1:00 AM. It was a long day, but we had a lot of fun, maybe next time Henry will be more willing to go on some of the bigger rides.