Niagara Falls, Ontario

[Ngwira]

We are at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. Left Niagara this morning. Yesterday we did all 4 activities included in the adventure pass. Got some great pics of the falls. They had fireworks in queen Victoria park too, last night. Fireworks are on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights. We had our last dinner at the keg in the embassy suites fallsview. That dinner was amazing. Highly recommend that restaurant.

We did Niagara's fury, the hornblower cruise, journey beneath the falls and white water walk. The cruise is a must do. We walked around Clifton hill again and bought souvenirs.

It took us 5 hours to get to the Poconos. There was no traffic which was great. No lines on the rainbow bridge. We sailed right through.

I had a good time but unlike Disney we won't return for a few years. I don't think this will be an annual trip. Maybe we'll return in 5 years. Hope this trip report held someone.

Regrets are all the wasted money on gross food. oh well.
In other news I make my fast passes tonight! Hope everyone who is traveling soon has an amazing time.

 

[Ngwira]

We left Tampa 3 hours ago. Headed to my moms in SC for the night, then to PA to pick up DD from camp. Will be in Niagara Saturday by lunch.

My kids passports are expired so I keep telling them they will be lucky to make it back into U.S. HaHa. Christmas 2014 they let my daughter back in from Canada with an expired passport. Sons was not expired then. We were in Belle River Canada for the day. I offered other documents and told him the passport was expired but he said to hand him the passport to see if it would still scan and it did. DD is 13, DS is 14. After DD turns 14 we will get new passports for both since we have a few overseas trips planned. I just like teasing the kids. My kids are half Mexican and born in South Korea but have the consular report of birth abroad certificates and military dependent ID cards.

Safe trip.

 

[Eureka]

We are at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. Left Niagara this morning. Yesterday we did all 4 activities included in the adventure pass. Got some great pics of the falls. They had fireworks in queen Victoria park too, last night. Fireworks are on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights. We had our last dinner at the keg in the embassy suites fallsview. That dinner was amazing. Highly recommend that restaurant.

We did Niagara's fury, the hornblower cruise, journey beneath the falls and white water walk. The cruise is a must do. We walked around Clifton hill again and bought souvenirs.

It took us 5 hours to get to the Poconos. There was no traffic which was great. No lines on the rainbow bridge. We sailed right through.

I had a good time but unlike Disney we won't return for a few years. I don't think this will be an annual trip. Maybe we'll return in 5 years. Hope this trip report held someone.

Regrets are all the wasted money on gross food. oh well.
In other news I make my fast passes tonight! Hope everyone who is traveling soon has an amazing time.

Any recommendations of where to have (decent) lunch at the falls?

 

[Ngwira]

Any recommendations of where to have (decent) lunch at the falls?

When you say decent, is price a factor? We wasted so much money on inedible food. Just yuck. What type of food are you looking for?

 

[Eureka]

When you say decent, is price a factor? We wasted so much money on inedible food. Just yuck. What type of food are you looking for?

Price would be a factor but not the only factor. Being edible is the first factor. Probably just a quick lunch, we only have one day to do all the adventure pass things.

 

[Ngwira]

Price would be a factor but not the only factor. Being edible is the first factor. Probably just a quick lunch, we only have one day to do all the adventure pass things.

There are several restaurants near the attractions. There is also a Hard Rock Cafe in Clifton hill which was nice.

 

[Ngwira]

We leave next Saturday.

Do you think there would be any issues if my kids and I walked over the bridge from US to Canada while my husband drives over?

We did get the $2.00 per 24-hour traveler's package from Verizon so we will not be charged roaming. When we have visited DH mom grave in Canada we have been charged roaming fees before.

Our DN family is not coming, so no 3 year old or 7 year old. We are sad that they are not joining us, but we are going to cancel one of the rooms and have DH sister and her husband room in the Kid Suite (sleeps 7) at Great Wolf lodge. Saves about $1200 keeping the other Family Suite we booked (I am paying for hotel stay for everyone). I did buy the firework cruise ticket for DN and the 7 year old (3 year old free) so now I have extra tickets.

My auto insurance stopped requiring Canadian ID's several years ago. Maybe it depends on the carrier, I didn't think any carriers required Canadian ID cards anymore.

How's your trip so far?

 

[Eureka]

I still have not gotten any unemployment or payment for some of the freelancing I've started, so can't buy any more tickets right now. BUT I got a lot of questions answered. We have Allstate for car insurance and we are covered in Canada . We can add an AT&T passport plan for each phone ($40 each) that gives us unlimited texting, $1/min talk (which we don't plan on doing much of) and 200MB data (which should be fine bc hotels have free wifi). Not cheap, but not horrible either. I'll add that the day before we leave. And, our health insurance carrier is going to send us a letter (I'm not quite sure what it's going to say; I was a little unsure of what she was talking about) that we bring with us and if we need to go to the ER or urgent care, we can submit receipts to them when we get back. And I put on my calendar for next week to notify the debit and credit card companies that we will be out of the country so they won't red flag foreign charges. And finally, I have decided I'll have the bank change $200 USD to bring with us. Should get us at least $225 CAD, I'd think.

 

[Ngwira]

I still have not gotten any unemployment or payment for some of the freelancing I've started, so can't buy any more tickets right now. BUT I got a lot of questions answered. We have Allstate for car insurance and we are covered in Canada . We can add an AT&T passport plan for each phone ($40 each) that gives us unlimited texting, $1/min talk (which we don't plan on doing much of) and 200MB data (which should be fine bc hotels have free wifi). Not cheap, but not horrible either. I'll add that the day before we leave. And, our health insurance carrier is going to send us a letter (I'm not quite sure what it's going to say; I was a little unsure of what she was talking about) that we bring with us and if we need to go to the ER or urgent care, we can submit receipts to them when we get back. And I put on my calendar for next week to notify the debit and credit card companies that we will be out of the country so they won't red flag foreign charges. And finally, I have decided I'll have the bank change $200 USD to bring with us. Should get us at least $225 CAD, I'd think.

That sounds like a great plan. I brought our us health insurance cards just in case. Thank God we didnt need it. I got $125.00 Canadian for $100 us at the fallsview casino.

 

[Eureka]

That sounds like a great plan. I brought our us health insurance cards just in case. Thank God we didnt need it. I got $125.00 Canadian for $100 us at the fallsview casino.

Duh, I can't add. 25% exchange rate would be $250 from $200, not $225...I was using $100 in my head. Lol.

 

[NinaBella]

Any recommendations of where to have (decent) lunch at the falls?

Queenston Heights Resturaunt. Open for lunch to the public. Evenings for private parties. Nearly everything is from the local area. Food was fantastic! If you are using the Wego bus its the green line very northern stop.

 

[NinaBella]

How's your trip so far?

I do wish I changed hotels. Great Wolf Lodge is great but since the 3 and 7 year old did not come, we have no need for a resort targeted for little kids. My teens went down all 4 water slides and their hair didn't even get wet. LOL.

We did everything on the Adventure Plus pass except Hornblower and Floral House. DH and I wanted to do both but his sister and her husband are struggling to keep our pace and we have slowed our pace quite a bit. We did the Hornblower Firework cruise and got soaked. LOL. We heard others saying day boat you get soaked worse so no one else really cared about day boat since we did the night boat. Wego is simple to use and friendly drivers. One veteran driver saw us and others after their end time at the stop so he circled back around to get is. We were late because we were on firework cruise. He dropped us off at the lodge instead of aero car saying it was to late to walk those dark streets to the lodge.

Overall, its been a great trip. We also walked into the casino hotel and shopping mall. I think that is the best place to stay if you are traveling without little ones.

 

[NinaBella]

I forgot to tell DH tos have them take off the tourism tax. On my hotel bill its $163 so I will ask for that to be removed before we leave. In a shirt $30 shirt I bought at the mall it was $4.16 HST. DH has been using his card at the register and I forgot about it.

 

[Eureka]

I forgot to tell DH tos have them take off the tourism tax. On my hotel bill its $163 so I will ask for that to be removed before we leave. In a shirt $30 shirt I bought at the mall it was $4.16 HST. DH has been using his card at the register and I forgot about it.

I forget, is that only certain parts of Ontario that has it?

 

[NinaBella]

I forget, is that only certain parts of Ontario that has it?

They refused to remove it. Nick at GWL said its a mandatory government tax not the tourism tax. But this tax is the only one that came up at every single gift store etc. Its listed as HST Harmonized Sales Tax. I found article saying it is suppose to be removed if requested.

 

[Debbie]

They refused to remove it. Nick at GWL said its a mandatory government tax not the tourism tax. But this tax is the only none that came up at every single gift store etc. Its listed as HST Harmonized Sales Tax. I found article saying it is suppose to be removed if requested.

HST is the government sales tax. I'm not sure if you can apply for a HST rebate when you get home or not. Save your sales slips just in case. If you can, you would likely have to mail it in to 'somewhere' to get that back.

It is the Tourism Improvement Fee (check link for other names) that you want to have removed, and, likely, most stores don't add that. Just look at the receipts. http://www.torontosun.com/2016/03/31/niagara-falls-tourism-improvement-fee-angers-visitors

 

[NinaBella]

Whats interesting about the Adventure Plus Pass is you get 48 hours Wego bus. Its suppose to be 48 hours from the first use. For us that was Sunday June 26 around 10AM. But the Wego bus scanner says they expire June 29 at 3AM.

I tried giving away our 6 passes, 6 Hornblower tickets, 6 Flower house tickets but everyone I asked at hotel said they were leaving. Several said they never heard of Hornblower boat. Stopped by the Aero car but everyone there said they had tickets (different color adventure pass lanyards from ours. We had the plus.).


The only extra we did to the adventure pass was the carriage ride at Butterfly Conservatory School of Agriculture. SIL has difficulty walking so we opt'd for the carriage tour to see the property. The tour guide was very informative.

I bought the pre-paid (discounted) meal coupons for GWL when I made reservations. The only place outside of hotel we ate was Queenston Heights Resturaunt which was fabulous. We did get popcorn, drinks, and some candy at different stops during the day.

We do not like the tourist resturants like Rainforest Cafe. Living so close to Orlando we feel its overprice food that is slightly below average food quality.

We also had no interest in Clifton Hill tourist traps. We did take the incline railway up to the Casino Hotel and Galleria to look in the shops. But other than that only saw Clifton Hill when we drove through once for curiosity.

GWL resturants close early by 8, 9, 10 depending on the night and season. I would say a benefit of Clifton Hill is maybe restaurants stay open later?

 

[Ngwira]

Duh, I can't add. 25% exchange rate would be $250 from $200, not $225...I was using $100 in my head. Lol.

yeah..lol

 

[Ngwira]

I do wish I changed hotels. Great Wolf Lodge is great but since the 3 and 7 year old did not come, we have no need for a resort targeted for little kids. My teens went down all 4 water slides and their hair didn't even get wet. LOL.

We did everything on the Adventure Plus pass except Hornblower and Floral House. DH and I wanted to do both but his sister and her husband are struggling to keep our pace and we have slowed our pace quite a bit. We did the Hornblower Firework cruise and got soaked. LOL. We heard others saying day boat you get soaked worse so no one else really cared about day boat since we did the night boat. Wego is simple to use and friendly drivers. One veteran driver saw us and others after their end time at the stop so he circled back around to get is. We were late because we were on firework cruise. He dropped us off at the lodge instead of aero car saying it was to late to walk those dark streets to the lodge.

Overall, its been a great trip. We also walked into the casino hotel and shopping mall. I think that is the best place to stay if you are traveling without little ones.

That's where we stayed! There is a food court downstairs. The 4 points and the Hilton are separated by a walkway to the Fallsview casino. It was the best place. Glad you are having fun!

 

[Ngwira]

I forget, is that only certain parts of Ontario that has it?

Only in Niagara Falls and Toronto.