210605 Dorney Park Midway Eats Cedar Point Options ©JR

While visiting the collection of Cedar Fair amusement parks, guests will notice the parks are far from cookie cutter and all offer their own ambiance with different collections of rides and roller coasters, landscape and terrain, and entertainment. In addition, each of the parks caters to their community demographic, offering a variety of menu options guests will typically only find at that park.

For years we have been quite surprised to not see some overlap as far as promotion of the sister parks within each location. However, over the past couple of years, we have started to see some of that interaction in the form of themes. For example, Copperhead Strike at Carowinds, and for the most part the entire new County Fair section, is full of Easter Eggs related to the other parks. The same goes for Mystic Timbers at Kings Island and the new Snake River Expeditions at Cedar Point.

What we have been surprised to not see is more of the sister park menu items and take home products not available across the parks. For example, the Knott’s Berry Farm product line of jams, sauces, and boysenberry items would be great to be able to pick up at your local park. With the cost of shipping, buying directly from the Knott’s online portal is doable, but not always cost effective to ship a heavy bottle of boysenberry concentrate across country.

With all that being said, we are excited to see Dorney Park testing out a new promotion out of their food truck on weekends starting June 5-6 and running through September 4-6, 2021.

The concept is to highlight menu items from the sister Cedar Fair parks. Love the idea to show just a little bit of what guests could expect when visiting the other parks and a chance to promote guests upgrading to a Platinum pass to enjoy the benefit.

Cedar Point | June 5-6

Dorney Park kicked off the promotion highlighting Cedar Point June 5-6. The two menu items of choice were the Four Porksman and Cilantro Lime Garlic Fresh Cut Fries.

The Four Porksman consists of a skewer with onion, mozzarella, meatball, two pepperoni, ham and kielbasa. Then the entire skewer is dipped in funnel cake batter, fried and topped with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. Price is $9.99. Note none of the menu items are available with dining plans.

Really cool menu item that was highlighted on the Cedar Point blog during the off-season. Somehow ours was served without marinara, which really would have tied it all together.

210605 Cedar Point Four Porksman ©JR

Then they also served their fresh cut fries topped with a cilantro garlic lime sauce, jalapenos and Parmesan cheese. This was a modified version of the Day of the Dead Fries from the 2020 Tricks and Treats Fall Fest. Price is $8.29.

Good flavor of sauce. Only suggestion would be to serve topped with some minced cilantro.

210605 Cedar Point Cilantro Lime Garlic Fries ©JR

So these two highlighted menu items appear to be coming for the 150th Anniversary Taste of the Point food tour running June 26 through August 15. While we are really excited to see what Cedar Point debuts during the new event, honestly, it seemed like an odd choice of menu items to serve. Not only are both options not even currently served in the park, they are not even considered food that optimize the bread and butter of unique eats at Cedar Point. Looking at menu items that will be highlighted from all the other parks, at least they mostly correlate with options you can get at the parks. We would have expected to see some chili cheese fresh cut fries and a cheese on a stick as Cedar Point staple menu items; but then again maybe they are not all that exciting to try and drum up interest.

Can we also take the time to acknowledge something so small that makes us so happy about the execution of the Midway Eats program? Notice they served the food on the Cedar Point printed paper. This little detail really subtly reminds people of the foods origins. Great job!

Carowinds | June 12-13

For years shrimp has been a staple menu item throughout Carowinds and a specialty menu item guests will typically find during special events. The Dorney Park food truck will offer shrimp & grits and a sweet battered shrimp.

180609 Carowinds Great Carolina Fest Frog Legs ©Butch Bennett

Worlds of Fun | June 18-20

The Dorney Park food truck will offer two of the menu items from Oceans of Fun, the attached water park to Worlds of Fun, that debuted in 2019. Look for a bacon wrapped pork on a stick and the atomic sausage.

190526 Oceans of Fun Bacon Wrapped Pork on a Stick ©Dan Grelinger (3)

The Atomic Sausage sandwich is prepared on a fresh hoagie style white bread bun holding a piece of spicy sausage covered in sliced onions, coleslaw, and a sweet and sour sauce. The sandwich is topped with large dried pepper.

190615 Oceans of Fun Atomic Dog ©Dan Grelinger (2)

Kings Island | June 25-27

Over the past couple of years, we would say the biggest transformation of dining at Kings Island has been at the Miami River Brewhouse. Good food. Ample portions. Indoor seating. The facility in general gets great reviews.

The Dorney Park truck will feature the Miami River Brewhouse London Bridge and the Brewhouse Wings.

210509 Kings Island Miami River Brewhouse London Bridge

We will be really interested to see how Dorney Park presents the Kings Island London Bridge this year. We tried it again this year, and the sandwich was quite the disappointment. In addition to being undercooked, the sandwich is not served with tartar sauce (or any sauce) and getting them to provide some upon request can often be difficult.

Schlitterbahn | July 2-4

We are really excited to get our hands on this week’s menu items, the Texas brisket cheesesteak and stuffed turkey leg. It will be interesting to see how the cheesesteak holds up the area staple.

210703 Schlitterbahn Brisket Cheesesteak ©JR

210703 Schlitterbahn Stuffed Turkey Leg ©JR

Kings Dominion | July 9-11

Dorney Park will present the Blues Burger and Dominion Dog from Kings Dominion.

210725 Kings Dominion Blues Burger

210710 Kings Dominion Dog ©JR

Canada’s Wonderland | July 16-18

If poutine was not on the representative list of menu items from Canada’s Wonderland, our heads would explode. Thankfully the Dorney Park food truck will offer Classic, Pierogi, Cheesesteak, and Hog Town Poutine on this special weekend.

210717 Canada's Wonderland Cheesesteak Poutine ©JR

210717 Canada's Wonderland Classic Poutine ©JR

210717 Canada's Wonderland Pierogi Poutine ©JR

Then the program pauses for Grand Carnivale, July 24-August 8.

Valleyfair | August 13-15

Dorney Park will celebrate the famous regional Juicy Lucy stuffed burgers in August. The food truck will present the Vegan Juicy Lucy and Hash Brown Bacon Cheeseburger.

210718 Valleyfair Vegan Juicy Lucy ©MC

210812 Valleyfair Hashbrown Burger ©MC

California’s Great America | August 20-22

The northern California park will be highlighted with the Banh Mi Wrap and Turkey Burger Sliders.

Knott’s Berry Farm | August 27-29

The gates of heaven have finally opened up and we will get to try boysenberry products on the east coast! Dorney Park will offer Boysenberry BBQ Pulled Pork Brisket, Pastrami Tater Tots, and Boysenberry Dippin’ Dots.

Dessert Week | September 4-6

The for sure topper to the end of the season will be highlighted for dessert week! Guests will be able to try the Canada’s Wonderland Deep-Fried Brownie Tart, Cedar Point Cherry Cheesecake Chimichanga (which has been a fan favorite this year), Kings Island blue ice cream, and Knott’s Berry Farm Fun Bun!

170401 Knott's Berry Farm Boysenberry Festival Funbun

If you area fan of Cedar Fair you will see Michigan’s Adventure has been left off the list. Sadly the park does not really offer anything outside of your standard options. It is really interesting that the park does not capitalize on the cherry region and offer more options with the tart fruit. We would expect to see many if not all of the menu items from the 2021 Cedar Point Frontier Festival a staple at Michigan’s Adventure.

If we are talking about more missed opportunities, we are also sort of surprised to see nothing from the managed Gilroy Gardens park in California, which is synonymous with garlic.

Read more about the Midway Eats program on the Dorney Park blog.

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