mommy rainbo.....Bo 41 Posted August 11, 2013 Report Share Posted August 11, 2013 What Rita said. I started talking to the hubs about maybe, just maybe making a trip. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Awesome trip report! Love the pictures! thanks!What Rita said. I started talking to the hubs about maybe, just maybe making a trip. I would highly recommend considering it and before your LO gets too old. There were a few pre-teens/teenagers that looked bored, but then again they probably would have looked that way regardless of where they were. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 After the Skywheel we headed over to The Upside Down House (another tourist trap!). Normally, I wouldn't have gone to something like this, but Adam and I have been reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle stories and she lives in an upside down house, so I thought he would really enjoy it. The floors were sloped so it really made you feel dizzy walking in there. It was pretty neat until you were done walking around the house and had to walk down a flight of stairs dizzy. They really should have made a normal room with normal floors before having you walk down the steps. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Across the street there was a place that you could pan for "stuff" they had different sized bags of dirt with stuff in them, (gems, fossils, arrowheads, etc, but no fake gold). Anddddddddddd because of some book we read, Adam was totally into panning for stuff, so there went another $10 or so. This was the card that came with his bag of stuff, he chose to pan for fossils. His bag of dirt to pan. One of his finds This was the last thing we did on Clifton Hill, it was getting late, someone was getting cranky (*ahem me*) and we had spent enough money on stupid crap at that point. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 We headed back to the hotel, from 4:30-7 (or something close to that) they have a managers reception. You get 2 vouchers per room, per night for a free cocktail. They also had free soda and juice. They had light snacks out, chips, pretzels, snack mix, pickles and carrots with ranch dressing. Nothing too fancy but hey, it's free and was good if you needed a little something before dinner. Because we ate lunch so late, we just got some snacks and drinks from there and later on ate some stuff we had in the room. We probably saved $75 by not eating dinner somewhere. The hotel was brilliant, there arcade is in the same room as the free breakfast and afternoon snacks. There is no way to avoid it. We promised Adam he could play a little, Brian didn't realize the games were only 1 token a piece. He assumed they were 2 or 3 so he got $20 worth thinking they would be done quickly. It actually took them over an hour to use them all. While they were playing arcade games, I was enjoy the view eating my pickles. I took a few pictures of the room. We had been tipping the housekeeper $5 daily and she hooked us up with shampoo, conditioner and towels. I loved the shampoo and conditioner and will probably see if I can buy it and ask for it for Christmas or my birthday. Here was our tub. It was a huge 2 person Jacuzzi. We filled it up and let Adam swim in it. You can see the window in the left, it opens into the bedroom, but you can't see anything out the windows but the sky. Rainbow over the falls It was awesome because you could actually see the beginning and the end Unfortunately, I don't have any decent night shots. I put Adam to bed and Brian and his mom went to walk down to see the falls at night. There is normally a incline train that takes you down the steep hill that would have been awesome to use because it was right by our hotel but it was closed for refurbs. So to get to the falls it was a long hike down the hill and I wasn't up to making it. I should have sent my camera with Brian but I wasn't thinking. So here's my blurry night shot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AC in A2......Aaron 693 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 The mohawk is awesome. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 The mohawk is awesome. Adam lovesssssssss it. The day my parents came over to see us after our trip, my dad took off his hat, and guess what? He had one too lol. I need to upload that pic. I love my dad. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Rainbow over the Rainbow Bridge. How awesome is that? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Friday was our last full day. The plan was the same, up early for breakfast, and get ready to go to Marineland. I found the place by googling places to go in Niagara Falls, the reviews were pretty awful, but they had beluga whales that you could feed and pet. Adam is obsessed with them. I always sang that to him as a baby, he still enjoys the song and now we sing it to my belly. So I figured, we'd just ignore the reviews, suck it up and pay the money (Adam was free, yeah!) and go. Bonus, parking was free! Marineland was about 5 mins from the hotel, so it was a short drive and we were there by 9:15, ticket booths didn't open until 9:30. So I've never made a rope drop in Disney but we did here! Getting there early was brilliant, we got so many rides knocked out. The feeding of the beluga whales didn't start until 11, so the goal was to do everything we could and then head back there at 11 (It was at the back corner of the park) Funny story about the ferris wheel, there was only about 3 rides, I could go on. The ferris wheel being one. We got to the top and stopped for loading, all of the sudden I felt something fall down the front of my shirt (I had a tank top on under my shirt and it went between my skin and the tank top) I start digging and then freak out realizing a SPIDER had falling down my shirt and was trying to make it to second base with me!) Brian is on the ground laughing because he can see me digging down my shirt like a crazy person. Thankfully I got said spider out and he is now squished. The park was really clean and pretty, it was kind of a mix between a state park and an amusment park, but it was HUGE. Everything was really spaced out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Nice to hear that Marineland is being kept up these days....it had gotten run down when we still lived there. They had terribly annoying tv commercials too. If the groping spider had landed on INC she wouldn't have survived the ordeal. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 By 11 we had done all the rides pictured above and a few of them were done 2 or 3 times. It was all walk on. This is where the belugas were I think it was about $9 to feed/pet the belugas. It included 3 pets and feeding them 3 fish. The whale we interacted with was named Aurora. The difference in color is because of their age. Adam was loving it so much, I let him have my turns to feed and pet, and then we ended up paying to do it again. We ended up with an awesome trainer the second time and she let Adam do some behaviors with them.Singing. I do have video, I just need to find it Spinning Waving This was the end of that section, everything else was so pretty and this just kinda ended like they forgot to finish it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Nice to hear that Marineland is being kept up these days....it had gotten run down when we still lived there. They had terribly annoying tv commercials too. If the groping spider had landed on INC she wouldn't have survived the ordeal. Brian would have died. It is good I was on the ferris wheel and not him. He does like spiders. I was really surprised by how nice the place was, the reviews were saying it was dirty, run down, etc. but we didn't see any of that. I am really glad we went. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Underwater viewing area for the belugas, you really couldn't appreciate their size above water. Some of them were total attention hogs and seemed to love getting close to the glass. Momma and a baby Interesting.. That's it for the belugas, the boys wanted to get one more ride in before we stopped for lunch. We ate lunch at the only restaurant they had (they had some burger stand at the way, way top of a hill too) food was pretty decent for theme park food. I was happy because they had a print out of all the ingredients and it was easy and helpful for me to find stuff for Adam. I'm also thankful for TCD mentioning about in Disney ordering something with out chips or fires and saving a few $$. I had rotisserie chicken and fries and the amount of fries they gave you was crazy, so I ordered Adam's without fries and saved $2. Him, Brian and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and my chicken and we were all full. They had picnic areas and you were able to bring in your own food and water which could be a huge money saver if you pack. Our 2 meals, plus a soda and a juice was $24, but considering it feed the 3 of us, it's not bad. They also had a large outside eating area with a band playing music. I ended up there sitting there later on while the boys rerode some rides and enjoyed the music. At 1:45 we saw the show they had, we got into the stadium around 1:30 and it was pretty crowded. The story line was hokey, but the show was cute. It had belugas, dolphins, sea lions and walruses. and this is where I'll end tonight, I'm starting to see cross eyes! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AC in A2......Aaron 693 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 The whale feeding looks like fun.Our kids loved feeding dolphins at Sea World.This looks very similar.I bet Adam had a blast. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 I haven't been to sea world in probably 20 years. Might need to change that. It's just too easy to stay in the Disney bubble and not leave. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Page 6 bragging rights! What a great, great report! Thank you for taking the time to share all of this. I've never been to Niagara Falls, but now I want to go. The only thing I won't like is paying those crazy prices for parking. Adam's Mohawk is awesome. Glad to hear the TCD chip trick works in places other than WDW. The beluga whale feeding looks great- the TCD twins love beluga whales. When we visit Sea World, we spend a lot of time in the Wild Arctic exhibit just watching the beluga whales there. But there is no whale feeding there. Ironically, I just had a conversation with Twin #2 about beluga whales- she told me she had recently heard that the dad from the Modern Family TV show, Ty Burrell, will be the voice of a beluga whale in the upcoming Pixar movie Finding Dory. I am looking forward to the rest of your report! TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PixieB 0 Posted August 13, 2013 Report Share Posted August 13, 2013 Congrats on the pregnancy! I too lived in WNY for a time, but it's been years since I've been to Niagara. Great report so far! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mommy rainbo.....Bo 41 Posted August 17, 2013 Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 What a great experience,feeding and petting the whales. That would be cool to see. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Duane 152 Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 WooHoo page 6 for me too! Been AWOL for awhile and have finally found some time to catch up with my reading... I have really enjoyed reading your report.... because, I too have been in the WNY area off and on for the last month. In fact, I am getting ready to go back on Wednesday for a week and a half.I did the locks last weekend when I was there and like you really enjoyed that. However, I didn't take the boat tour but did do the cave tours beside the locks. Saw the upside down train trestle and the did the museum. All in all a great way to spend a sunny afternoon...I have been to Niagara Falls on the US side several time, and thought about going over to the Canada side on my upcoming trip, but for what some of that costs, I may have to rethink my plans... It would be hard to justify me expensing all of those charges back to the company...Great trip report!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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