Welcome Ghouls and Goblins,
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Ew no, not the holidays. Halloween. Spooky Season. Football. Orange. While I dread the shorter days and losing the warm sun until May (Ohio probs), I love all things spooky and pumpkin spice in mass amounts. It also signals yet another year for my favorite event at Cedar Point-Halloweekends. We are back to enjoy the Flavors of Halloweekends. This year features 6 savory and 5 sweet items. We also tried a few specialty drinks around the park and at the Grand Pavilion that aren't part of Flavors of Halloweekends, but they're still themed to the event. Note: These are usually not part of the dining plan. I know some of you (like me) wish you could navigate the system to make it cheaper, but specialty event food items are sold individually and not part of a meal. The theme of this year seems to lean toward graveyards and tombs, so we're using tombstones 🪦 (or it may show up as black boxes if you're on a PC or tablet) for our ratings. Enough chatter, let's dig in.
We started with the Butternut Squash & Prosciutto Flatbread located on the second floor of the Grand Pavilion. *This needs to be ordered at the bar, not the food station.* They took away the specialty flatbreads from the Grand Pavilion this year and now only offer cheese or pepperoni, so we were very excited to see this option. These are made fresh to order, so we had to wait about 10 minutes before it was brought out to us. The flatbread was piping hot and cheesy with lots of butternut squash pieces. I had to admire the precision of those small squares. They were roasted perfectly and basically melted in your mouth. It had a slight saltiness from the prosciutto, but the sweetness of the squash balanced it. There were a few pieces of arugula that were used as a garnish, but I wish there was more on it for some peppery flavor. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦🪦
Next up is something I have been waiting for-Buffalo Toes. I am a connoisseur of anything buffalo-flavored, and I've been anticipating Cedar Point jumping on board with menu items like this. These are located at Frontier Inn. They were made to order, so we had to wait about 10 minutes. They came out hot and crispy and were not greasy. My mom liked that the buffalo sauce was served on the side and not smothered all over the cauliflower. Pro tip #1: Ranch dressing is located outside if you want to balance some of that heat. I love cilantro and there was plenty of it as a garnish. I already plan on getting it a few more times before the end of the event. The park lacks a lot of vegetarian and vegan options, so I wish they'd keep this as a permanent item. I'd order it every time. This is at the top of our list this year with 🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦
Another one of my anticipated options was the Fire Stick located at Happy Friar. If you can't tell how much I love heat and spice by now, imagine my glee to see habañero AND ghost pepper cheese inside this. To our surprise, the worker at the window let us know that we could use the dining plan on this item. It just comes with a bag of potato chips, but it was nice to save a little. This cheese stick is made with corn dog batter, which had a sweetness to it that helps with some of the heat. It was slightly greasy. Halfway through eating it, my lips, nose, and mouth went numb so the heat didn't matter. It tastes exactly like you'd expect, but a specialty sauce or honey would've taken it to the next level. Pro tip #2: The Market Garden HalloAle (featured toward the bottom of this post) immediately took the heat away. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦
The Gargoyle Candied Drumsticks were intriguing. They are located at BackBeatQue and come with two drumsticks per order. The chicken was tender and juicy. There was a hint of jalapeño with a touch of sweetness to the sauce. We could not pinpoint what the sauce was, but we didn't get "candied" from it. I wonder if they did a cola-type sauce because you can't really taste that flavor. These were a bit underwhelming. We gave it 🪦🪦
This is the second year in a row that I have underestimated the Maple Sausage stick. It is located at Hot Potato and this year, it is served with maple syrup and blueberries. Not just blueberries, hot blueberry pie filling. Let that sink in. The maple sausage is dipped into a funnel cake batter, which is phenomenal in itself. They gave us a good size cup of the blueberry pie filling that came right out of a hot pot. All together, it tastes like a complete breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausage. Definitely one of our favorites with 🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦
Over at Coasters Diner, one of the two dessert options is the Mummy Roll. It was better than I expected. The chocolate cake was not dry or dense at all. The cookies and cream filling is whipped and not a frosting, so it wasn't super sweet. It tasted like eating a hot chocolate in cake form. The sweetest part was the dark chocolate ganache on top. We argued over this one a little bit because my mom didn't like the ganache topping, so we settled on 🪦🪦🪦🪦
The second dessert at Coasters Diner is the Apple Cider Donut Bundt. It is exactly what you get. It tastes like an apple cider donut with whipped topping. Can I just say I love that they went with whipped toppings and fillings this year instead of frosting? It really helps not make things overly sweet so I can eat more desserts. However, it was too simple for the high price of a tiny bundt cake. I wish it had an apple pie filling to take it up a notch. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦
Back at the Grand Pavilion, we got the Fall Fried Cheesecake. These can be ordered at the food station on the second floor. These are SO good. Crispy, cheesy, sweet, and fried. All the best things. The cheesecake filling is warm and adds creaminess. It's basically the same as the Apple Empanadas last year, but just as amazing. Easily another 🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦
BackBeatQue also features a Pumpkin Mousse dessert. I was excited for this one since I love pumpkin spice, but it did fall slightly short. I wanted it to be all mousse, but it has layers of spice cake and mousse. The spice cake overpowered the pumpkin mousse. Normally, I love a heavily spiced cake, but in this case, it prevented the flavor of the pumpkin from coming through. The topping was whipped and light. It came in a large cup, which was a better portion for the price. The gummy on top was more of a gumdrop and I was not a fan of that. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦🪦
The last of the desserts was the Candy Corn Bark at French Quarter Confections. It is located near the register in little bags which makes it perfect for taking home. Let me start by saying I am a candy corn fan and I honestly wouldn't have been tempted without it. This bark tastes like white chocolate dipped pretzels with chocolate cookies. Then you get a piece or two of candy corn. It is VERY sweet, but if you like sweet that makes your teeth hurt, this will do it. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦
The first of the drinks we tried was at the Grand Pavilion. I picked the Fresh Plot because I love sour gummy worms and whiskey. At first sip, you get sour apple mix and whiskey right off the bat in equal amounts. It's definitely sweet, but not as sweet as the blood bags you can get around the park. It's a fun drink, though. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦
Also at the Grand Pavilion, they have a Cold Brew Martini. I have recently started to get onboard with espresso martinis, so I wanted to give this one a try. It had a heavier coffee flavor than espresso martinis. The Kahlua added to that strong coffee flavor. No real creaminess to the drink, almost like drinking black coffee. However, it was good and added some pep to my step for the evening ahead. We gave it 🪦🪦🪦
We then went downstairs out onto the boardwalk to try one of the Halloweekends mixed drinks. I chose Nightmare on Orange Street. These are pre-mixed and have a dry ice effect. There was no orange creamsicle flavor at all. It had a medicinal flavor that made it difficult to finish. I appreciate the dripping candy rim, but it did run down the cup and was sticky. The glittery drink and dry ice effect is cool, but I'd rather get a freshly mixed drink from the Grand Pavilion for the money. We gave it 🪦
Over by the main stage, we stopped at a pop-up bar to get the Market Garden HalloAle. As I mentioned above with the Fire Stick, one sip took the heat away. 10/10. Just kidding. I've only had heavier pumpkin ales and this one is lighter. It's more of a full-bodied spiced pale ale. We gave it 🪦 🪦🪦🪦
There are definitely some solid and surprising food and drink options this year. The only thing we did not try were the Hellfire Fries, and that is only because I am not a Flamin' Hot Cheeto fan. I am a little sad there is no Nashville Hot Chicken dish as it's been a favorite of ours for the last few years, but the addition of the Buffalo Toes and Fire Stick helped. The prices are still a bit cringey for the portion sizes, especially when they don't qualify under a dining plan. I really appreciate the fact that every year there is almost an equal balance between the savory and sweet items. I do enjoy that the culinary team puts these together every year for Halloweekends and other events because it is still a recent thing. It adds an extra level of excitement and appeal to coming to the park.
Have you tried any of these Flavors of Halloweekends items this year? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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