If you had the opportunity to visit any of the Cedar Fair Winterfest events, the experience is absolutely fantastic! Live entertainment, specialty food & beverage items, great photos ops, and even limited ride availability. In 2021, Winterfest will return to California’s Great America, Canada’s Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island. Sadly Winterfest has been dropped from the Worlds of Fun lineup. Knott’s Berry Farm will also host their annual #MerryFarm event.

For years guests have been asking for some of the other Cedar Fair parks, notably Cedar Point, to offer a Winterfest style event. While guests may want it, a ton would need to be done to accommodate such an event. For example, many of the facilities are not outfitted with heat, which means bathrooms would not be able to be opened. Factor in the often wild weather that can come in off Lake Erie, hosting a Winterfest event can be unpredictable.

Back in 2020, Valleyfair partnered with a company to bring Christmas in Color, a drive-through experience featuring over one million lights synched to music to the park. While not a full-blown Winterfest event, the experience brought income to Cedar Fair for use of the facility.

Christmas in Color has announced for 2021, the event will be brought to Valleyfair and Dorney Park. Tickets are available for November 19, 2021-January 2, 2022, closed Thanksgiving day and Christmas day.

The Christmas in Color takes place in the parking lot of each park and not inside the gates.

So the question than becomes could we see something like this come to Cedar Point in the future?

While it is interesting to think about a drive-through experience coming to the Cedar Point parking lot, it is even more interesting to think about the park doing their own version inside the park.

They could bring guests into the park via the employee GateKeeper gate, then bring the vehicles onto the Wicked Twister midway. Turn up the drive in front of Melt, then turn down the midway in front of Scrambler and under Cork Screw. Guests could then drive around the park, through Frontier Town, past Millennium Force, and then out the gate where the food trucks often reside (across from Iron Dragon). Taking vehicles back down the front midway could be problematic to getting them back out of the park.

The potential Cedar Point drive-through experience would have Christmas lights and decorations throughout the drive path. Keeping guests in their vehicles maximizes through-put, while also minimizing the required work force. Some gate operators and security throughout the drive path, as well as some techs on hand should some lights go out. There would be no need to open restrooms, or food establishments. Overhead costs could be minimized in terms of labor.

The real question is would there be enough demand from locals. The big appeal of Cedar Point during the May-October season is friends and family make full vacations out of visiting the park and staying in the resorts, drawing crowds from around the world. With no resorts open, would there be enough draw to bring in the out-of-town guests.

If the majority of your attendance from a Cedar Point drive-through Christmas light event would be from season passholders, you are not necessarily seeing the incremental dollars brought in to justify the cost. Lets be honest, how many guests are going to buy a season pass to Cedar Point just because there is a winter drive-through without rides?

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