Hotel Breakers at Cedar Point

 Hey All, 

    I was one of those lucky people who grew up less than an hour away from America's Rockin' Roller Coast-Cedar Point. My mom's company used to have picnics out there during the summer. My middle school used to have incentive field trips at the end of the year. I had a season pass from 2008-2011. I could even recite the pre-ride safety speech by heart. We didn't live far enough away to stay overnight, but I was always curious about the Hotel Breakers. You can't miss it even when you're in the park. It's a beautiful resort-style building right on the beach. It became a Bucket List item for me, so I was very excited to finally get to experience staying there during my favorite time of year: Halloweekends. 

Photo source: ICE Portal 2018 via tripadvisor.com

    I chose the time of year carefully. I knew I wanted to go for Halloweekends because I love this time of year in general, but I also love what's all happening in the park. We stayed in mid-September, which was the second weekend of Halloweekends. I have had plenty of October experiences at Cedar Point in 40 degree weather and winter jackets. I wanted to enjoy the beach and boardwalk so I wasn't taking the chance. We arrived on a Friday around 4pm and walked down the long hallway to the lobby. I was immediately pleased to see that along the hallway were creepy pictures leading into the lobby that was also decorated for Halloween. I hadn't expected the hotel to go along with the park theming so I was ecstatic to see it. Check-in time is 4pm for everyone, so there was already a long line. The front desk staff were great about keeping the line moving at a good pace. We were greeted at the desk by Joe who was incredibly warm and friendly. He asked if we had been to the hotel and park before and was incredibly helpful with his instructions on our park tickets, parking information, and our room location. He really set the tone for our entire weekend. 

Hallway to the lobby

        We had a Lake View room with a balcony. When we first walked in we immediately noticed how spacious and clean it was. We were happy to see that there was only carpet by the beds and not in the main room entrance or bathroom area. The bathtub is high and being a tall person, I loved it. The shorter people in my party didn't like having a large step in and out of the shower. They would've preferred a handle to help them. One small detail that bummed me out was it was missing a bench to set your luggage on so it doesn't have to be on the floor. There was plenty of room for one next to the dresser. The balcony is screened in so you don't have to deal with bugs in the evenings, which is a huge plus in my opinion. The balcony itself was more narrow than I expected and had 2 chairs with a little table. The view of the lake though, was the best part. We spent a lot of time with the balcony door open so we could hear the waves on the beach. One of my favorite things was being able to hear the music from the boardwalk down below. A detail I gushed over was that the music was fun and upbeat during the day, but at 8pm when all the haunts started inside the park, the music on the boardwalk and in the hotel changed to spooky ominous music. 

    The first activity we did after arriving and getting situated in our room was to take a ride on a rickshaw bike along the boardwalk. We had seen people taking rides and it looked like fun. After walking down to the outside of the main building/lobby area, we met David in front of the pool bar. We asked him if could have a lift to the park entrance and he gave us some fun facts along the way. He made us feel like we were arriving to the park in style and was another great personality that made our entire weekend so enjoyable. 

    I could honestly spend a whole week on the boardwalk and beach without even entering the park. During the summer there a lot more activities going on the beach during the day and at night, but this time of year it's very chill and relaxed. The boardwalk and beach were both in pristine condition. At night they lit fire pits located behind the main building and just before the boardwalk around sunset. People pulled up chairs and got drinks from the bar to bring over and just hung out with their group. I enjoyed it so much that I looked forward to it every night after the park. 

The view from our 3rd story balcony

    The hotel has a few chain restaurants inside. I hadn't really planned on eating there because I was more interested in eating at the park. However, I had some hardcore breakfast people with me who wanted to eat at Perkins. We arrived slightly after typical breakfast time to avoid a long wait. The food wasn't anything to get excited over, but there were two things I wanted to call out. Our waitress was Caquya. She was so attentive and kind that she left a lasting impression on us. The other thing we were impressed by was the staff in the restaurant were constantly cleaning. Wiping down counters, benches, boothes, tables, vacuuming in every nook and cranny, etc...Everyone knows you hope that a restaurant is clean, but you never really know what is happening behind the scenes. We have NEVER felt so comfortable eating in a restaurant as this one. 

    Hotel Breakers exceeded our expectations. We felt like we were VIPs from the second we were greeted. The front desk staff, the cleaning staff, and the restaurant staff all were so nice and told us to enjoy our day that we just felt so special no matter what we were doing. Being someone who drags my feet on check-out day, I appreciated the email check-out option instead of having to run down to the lobby with all our luggage. I was sad that we couldn't keep our special 150th anniversary celebration of Cedar Point room keys as a souvenir. Our whole experience with the balcony, the lake, the boardwalk, etc...made it feel like we were not in Ohio. It felt more like we had taken a trip to the Carolinas. I was really bummed out on check-out day and was actually a bit cranky (sorry, fam) because I didn't want to leave. We were all in agreement that we would return in a second if we could. 

    For all Hotel Breakers information, check out their website here.