Happy Spooky Season!
We are back at Cedar Point for another season of Halloweekends. We tried the featured foods of Flavors of Halloweekends and the Fall themed (alcoholic) drink menu at the Grand Pavilion. While I am ecstatic that Cedar Point granted my wish of Mr. Midnight being the official Halloweekends icon, I was disappointed to see that there was yet again no food list or map of where the featured items are located. We did have to do a lap around the entire park to find them all and come up with a game plan. It's a minor inconvenience if you're a regular who knows where every food location in the park is and where they tend to have the specialty items, but imagine it being someone's first time at the park. It's a lot of wasted time looking around. [UPDATE: The OnPoint Blog did post the Flavors of Halloweekends food items and locations on October 8th, the day after we had gone.] This time around, instead of saying if we would or would not order it again, we decided to do a rating scale out of 5 for every food and drink item using the 💀 emoji.
Flavors of Halloweekends
The first item on our list was the Cheesecake Chimichanga with Apple Pie Topping and Caramel ($9.99) located at the Grand Pavilion. We really enjoyed this. They were made fresh to order. The apple pie topping was warm and didn't taste like it came from a can. The cheesecake filling was very creamy and didn't have an overpowering cheesecake flavor. The chimichanga crust was crispy and flakey, and tasted vaguely of funnel cake. Surprisingly, it was not super sweet. Even the person who is not a cheesecake fan in the group gave it a rating of 💀💀💀💀💀.
Next up was the Oktoberfest Pizza ($9.99) at Hugo's Italian Kitchen. I'll admit that I was skeptical, and I was proven wrong. The pizza had mashed potatoes, cheddar, sauerkraut, kielbasa, and caraway seeds. It was SO good. It's like eating a pierogi on a pizza. It wasn't greasy at all. The dough was soft and pillowy without being too thick. My only wish was that they went heavier on the toppings, and someone felt the sauerkraut was overcooked. We gave it 💀💀💀💀.
When I saw Cedar Point's social media post that the Spicy Nashville Chicken and Waffle ($11.99) was on the list, I was already sold. Located at The Corral, the Nashville Chicken with pickles from last year was one of our favorites, so I was thrilled to see it again, but with a twist. This is the flavor profile I am after when I want my comfort food chicken and waffles. The heat from the Nashville sauce was definitely there, but not so much that you couldn't taste anything else. The chicken fingers were tender and had a slight crispness to them. The sweet sugar crunch on the waffle was everything. Top it off with the syrup and it was the easiest 💀💀💀💀💀. This was our favorite this year.
Broccoli Cheddar Bread Bowl ($14.99) from Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill. I am not a broccoli cheddar soup fan so I was not particularly pleased to see this one. I would've preferred a fall themed soup like butternut squash or pumpkin or even french onion. It was nice and hot on a cold day. I liked the flavor of the onion/Gruyere bread bowl and that the edges were crispy. The soup was a basic broccoli cheddar and didn't stand out. The bread bowl ended up soaking up a lot of the soup, so there wasn't a lot of soup for what we paid. We gave it 💀💀, mostly for the bread bowl.
The Farmhouse Chili Bread Bowl ($14.99) also from Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill was redeeming. I always love the chili when they have specialty ones at the Farmhouse. The bread bowl and chili balanced each other out and went really well together. There was a lot of chili inside the bowl and it had the perfect amount of heat from spices. The sour cream, cheese, and onion toppings were perfection to this well-rounded chili. My only issue was that I wish you didn't have to order a bread bowl and could just get the soup or chili in a cup or bowl. I know the catch would've been still having to pay $15 for a cup of soup or chili. so there was no winning that one. Maybe in the future they could consider serving it with cornbread or rolls on the side instead. Anyway, we still gave the chili 💀💀💀💀.
The Spider Cupcake ($7.99) at the Frontier Inn left a lot to be desired. The cake was moist, but I can't get past artificial chocolate flavoring and this had it to the point where I couldn't finish it. I did like the light and fluffy marshmallow topping. Give me a cup of that. The spider on top was advertised as made of chocolate, but it ended up being a gelatin mold with a slight grape flavor. It was also advertised to have a spun sugar topping, which ours did not have at all. Someone else liked the cupcake a little more than I did, so we settled on 💀💀.
The Not So Poison Apple Cupcake ($7.99) also at the Frontier Inn was better than the spider cupcake, but had some missed opportunities. The cinnamon apple filling was delicious. The cake was dense and completely crumbled when we tried to eat it. The candy apple shell on top was a gelatin mold and had no flavor. It could've been an opportunity to add more cinnamon or a red hot flavor, but it was just mushy and strange. The cupcakes were both refrigerated so the buttercream was super hard. There was a hint of salt in the buttercream which I liked, but there wasn't nearly enough to balance how sweet the rest of the cupcake was. We also gave this one 💀💀.
Lastly, we grabbed the Maple Sausage Corn Dog ($9.99) from Hot Potato. I'm sorry to say I didn't have high hopes for this, but I was pleasantly surprised. You get two nice sized dogs for the price. They had a crunchy and fluffy texture and weren't overly sweet from the maple sausage or batter. I am a huge advocate for anything sweet needing salt or spiciness to it, so it really needed that sriracha syrup. They gave a generous portion of the syrup and while someone else said they didn't get enough sriracha, I ended up getting a bunch of it to the back of the throat and choked, so I disagreed. (Note: I love spicy so choking on it does not affect our scoring.) We gave it 💀💀💀💀.
There was only one item we missed, which was the Ring of Fire Smoked Chicken Wings from BackBeatQue. We were supposed to have more people with us, but they ended up getting sick before we went so there was only two of us. It was a lot of food for two people, so we ended up having to veto this one.
Now back to the Grand Pavilion for some fall drinks. A lot of them were just spins on the summer drink menu. All specialty cocktails are $14.99, and some are served in 9 oz cups and others in 16 oz cups depending on the type of liquor.
The Apple Cider Mimosa (9 oz) had more cider than champagne so it was very sweet. This was our least favorite because of what you get vs the price. 💀
The Apple Butter New Old Fashioned (9 oz) was my personal favorite. I loved the hint of fall spices and it was strong enough to feel like I was getting what I paid for. I had to refrain from ordering 3. 💀💀💀💀💀
The Cable Car (9 oz) packed a punch of spiced rum. We liked the cinnamon sugar rim and it had one of the strongest alcohol flavors in the group. 💀💀💀💀
The Salt Air Margarita: Blackberry and Rosemary (16 oz) was the same as the Breakers Bellini over the summer (which was my fav). They just switched it from prosecco to tequila. It has a sweet and sour flavor and it was a nice alternative, but we like the bellini version better. 💀💀💀💀
The Cranberry Ginger Mule (16 oz) tasted like a Christmas Shirley Temple + vodka. While I wasn't complaining, it felt misplaced and less fall themed. 💀💀
The Toxic Waste (16 oz) was recommended by the bartender if you like a fresh flavor. It tasted a lot like a melon ball and since you can't taste the alcohol, be careful with this one. 💀💀💀
The Red Rum Runner (16 oz) was one of the featured drinks of this year. I appreciate the Shining reference since it is my favorite Stephen King book. It is a twist on rum punch. Not as sweet as the Toxic Waste, but it still has a fruity flavor and you can't taste the alcohol. 💀💀💀💀💀
As always, Halloweekends is a great time. The food always has some hits and misses. I'm sad we missed the hot wings and wish we would've vetoed the cupcakes instead. It's difficult to get a good theme park cupcake. The Nashville Chicken is still standing strong two years in. I feel guilty for not having confidence in a maple sausage corn dog being a surprise underdog. There was definitely a good amount of food and portions, but I still wish it was a lanyard/map type of event. I know staffing is difficult, but I feel that Halloweekends deserves something grander as far as the themed food and beverages. We also did try a Midnight Syndicate themed alcoholic drink at the new bar set up by the main stage at the last minute. We really enjoyed it and may focus on those next year since the newness of the Grand Pavilion will be over.
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| Mr. Midnight and scare actors during the Opening Scareymonies |
Shout out to Mr. Midnight for being an icon and an iconic host of Halloweekends again this year. I am absolutely a fangirl.
Let us know if you made it out to try the Flavors of Halloweekends and what your likes/dislikes were! Also, feel free to give us some feedback on what you think of the emoji rating system for future food festivals/events and if you'd like us to cover any other parts of Halloweekends (kids activities, shows, etc...) in the future!
Sounds like a success 2023. Always look forward to your posts
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