Top 10 Cedar Point news stories of the 2010s

In 2016, Rocky Mountain Construction started a 20-month overhaul of Mean Streak, a troublesome wood coaster located in Frontier Town. The result was Steel Vengeance, the tallest, fastest and longest hybrid roller coaster ever built. Steel Vengeance opened to rave reviews and quickly became one of the most popular coasters in the world, debuting at #3 on Amusement Today's Top 25 Steel Roller Coasters list and at #1 on the CoasterBuzz Top 100 Coasters list.

After a couple of days of speculation and rumor, Reuters reported that Cedar Fair turned down a $4 billion cash-and-stock offer from Six Flags Entertainment. Six Flags had offered to acquire Cedar Fair for around $70 per share, to be paid for the most part by using Six Flags shares as currency. Cedar Fair rejected the offer as inadequate.

With three difficult quarters in 2009, and a unit price that dipped below $7, Apollo Global Management attempted to buy the company at a price of $11.50 per unit. At the start of 2010, minority investment holder Q Funding led a shareholder revolt to reject the buy-out. In April, 2010, Apollo walked away, and Cedar Fair wrote a check to them for $6.5 million for their trouble.

CEO Dick Kinzel announced his retirement in 2005, after famously working his way up through the ranks throughout his career until he became CEO in 1986. He grew the company from two parks to 11. With the acquisition of Paramount Parks in 2006, it was announced that he would stay on until January 2, 2012. In those last years of his leadership, during The Great Recession, the company experienced drops in attendance and revenue, the unit price dropped below $7, the Apollo deal failed and a fallout occurred with COO Jack Falfas that resulted in a lawsuit that lasted for years.

In the summer of 2011, Cedar Fair announced that Matt Ouimet would be the next CEO, bringing 17 years of experience at The Walt Disney Company, including leadership at Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line and Disney Vacation Club. Ouimet would serve in that position for six years, before switching to an executive chairman role for two more years.

Cedar Point started a multi-phase renovation of Hotel Breakers in late 2013 that included upgrades to the exterior. Phase two took place over the 2014-2015 winter season and featured upgrades to both the exterior and interior of the hotel. In 2016, Cedar Point announced a new six-story tower for Hotel Breakers that opened in 2018. The tower included 158 new rooms bringing the hotel's total to 669 rooms.

The end result was the return of Hotel Breakers as one of the top resort hotels on the Great Lakes.