A Cedar Point dining preview

Editor's note: Justin Dietz is a Register correspondent representing CPFoodBlog.com and @FUNFoodBlog on X. What will Cedar Point look like for the 2024 season? Well, of course, the big change is going to be the new Top Thrill 2 roller coaster and surrounding area. While the annual Winter Chill Out event in February for charity normally highlights any new dining information, this year everything was pretty quiet. The main reason for this is a lot of the food and beverage budgets appear to have been cut back, so there will be few changes throughout the park. Hometown favorite Toft's ice cream will now play a new reduced role at Cedar Point, selling milk and soft serve. Cedar Fair now has a new partnership with Blue Bunny, which will provide hard scoop ice cream and novelty products throughout the park. As a result, the signature restaurant next to Starbucks will now be a generic branded ice cream parlor that will sell both Toft's and Blue Bunny products. This will be the same for the parlor inside Hotel Breakers. Typically in years past, Cedar Point has partnered with Toft's to offer a signature ice cream flavor that coincided with a new attraction. This will not be happening for Top Thrill 2. What guests can expect is a new signature beer branded under the Top Thrill 2 license. This will only be available in the park and not for outside retail. Guests looking for other Top Thrill-themed foods will see a rotating menu throughout the park at various locations. Stay tuned for more. While there have been questions coming in about the status of other restaurants opening around the park, we have been assured that Chickie's & Pete's and Panda Express will open as normal, subject to staffing. There have also been concerns about Melt Bar & Grilled since the recent announcements at restaurant locations throughout Ohio being closed. However, we were assured the Cedar Point location will be open for 2024. For the most part, the majority of menu items will remain pretty status quo from what guests expected in 2023. There might be some new menu items or tweaks throughout the year. We also know there will not be a Frontier Festival for 2024, meaning the opportunity to try new menu items will not be on the table. While Cedar Point has opted to bring back a summer special event, now branded as Boardwalk Nights, details about any new menu items have been sparse. Based on all the cuts to live entertainment for the 2024 season, it will be interesting to see if this spills over into the food and beverage department as far as staffing. Typically, food stands around the park stagger opening when enough staff are available to open them.