HOW TO SURVIVE NEW YEAR'S EVE IN NIAGARA FALLS



Murray Hill, Niagara Falls
New Year's Eve 2009

I have probably spent no less than 7 of the past ten New Year's Eves 'ringing it in' down by Niagara Falls.  It is the ideal 'ready made' New Year's Eve Party and apparently many others agree because Queen Victoria Park and the nearby streets are jammed with revellers. It is a family event with well known bands and fireworks going off at 9:00 a.m. and 12:00.  Although Niagara Falls sees its share of tourists during the summer months, I have never seen the area as busy as on December 31st.  Even inclement weather doesn't seem to scare off the party goers.  A crowd of this size converging into a relatively small areas has special considerations and over the years I have learned some of the tricks, tips and pitfalls of surviving New Year's Eve in Niagara Falls.

1. If you bring children, be prepared to carry them, piggyback them, or put them on your shoulders at some point in the night.  Or make sure that you have lots of goodies available to coax them into walking.
2. Your children will see other children with various types of glo-sticks and will wine and nag you to buy them one.  They are over priced and you are going to resent doing this!!  Get down to the dollar store sometime in the week before and pick up some glo-sticks for a buck a piece.  Or better yet, do what we did one year;  stock up  on glo-sticks and let the children cash in on the whole glo-stick hungry mob by using the cute factor to make a 300% profit on their own glo-sticks.

Niagara Wine Tasting For Dummies

Don't let the title 'leave a bad taste in your mouth'.  I am in no way implying that Niagara Wine Tasting is for dummies.  Rather,  that dummies  to the world of Wine Tasting (ie: me)  can intermingle with wine tasting snobs quite adequately with a few pointers.

Now this is how it's done!

As a tour guide I have been privy to a regular diet of wine tastings.  Truth told,  I still really don't get it.  So for risk of being labelled a witless wino or an imbibing imbecile, I have mastered the technique of wine snobbery.  Maybe 'mastery' is a bit of an embellishment but I'm still working on it.  Bluffing one's way through wine is an ongoing learning experience. 

Here is a short list of what I have learned from my Niagara wine tours:

1. When they say 'humour your wine' they are not suggesting that you make 'Jim Carrey' faces into your glass.
2. A bunch of guys didn't sit around a boardroom in France brainstorming snooty names for various wines.  Au contraire!  All the wines are named for the grapes they are made with.  I know, I know....I was beyond stunned too when I finally figured this out!

NIAGARA FALLS: I Remember When...........

If one thing's for certain, there sure have been a lot of changes down at The Falls since I was born.  My early year visits to Niagara Falls itself were relegated to the backseat of a car, surrounded my older relatives.  At the age of 8, as luck would have it we moved close enough to the falls to hear it's droning thunder.  A few years later I finally had the nerve to sneak down to the Falls and begin exploring by myself.  As a teen, our entire social lives hinged on the weekend 'action' on Clifton Hill and other tourist pockets.  As an adult I began to tour guide.  I love every minute of it!  When I pass by and talk about many of the sites, I secretly can't help but 'go back' to a time when THINGS WERE JUST DIFFERENT...That's all. 

I remember a time when.....................

The Skylon Tower- The entire upper floor was converted into a rollerskating rink.  It was the place to be!  I loved everything about it except for the rollerskating part.  I was horrible and being as short as I am, I often felt like I was dodging bullets as the cool kids whizzed past close enough to create the breeze necessary to re-feather my bangs.  They also had an indoor amusement park of sorts on the bottom floor.  The rink didn't last too long, as someone probably thought better about marketing solely to teenagers.  Now, every time I take my tour groups there I secretly want to start belting out "My Sharona" while swaying from side to side to mimic rollerskating. For more information on the Skylon Tower check out my article The Skylon Tower.

(From the Niagara Falls Public Library)
Maple Leaf Village on the site of the present Casino Niagara

Casino Niagara-What the tourists see is the first of our two casinos.  I still see Maple Leaf Village.  When 'The Village' as we called it, opened in Niagara Falls it revolutionized the whole teenage experience! The  outside of The Village was an amusement park with the largest ferris wheel in North America as the highlight.  Inside were arcades and concession shops and t-shirt shops (as silk screening was the new rage back then).  I thought it would be cool to get a few friends together to call ourselves 'The Maple Leaf Village Gang'.  We weren't a gang but I figured if people thought you were, they wouldn't mess with us.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE 'SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS' IN NIAGARA FALLS

Kristi and George
Our partners in crime

My sister and her beau just arrived home from a 5-star Carribean Cruise.  That reminded me how much I needed a vacation.  It also reminded me that I was not in a position to take a vacation at the moment.

The obligatory shot in front of the casino

WAIT!  Not so fast!  The great thing about living in the Niagara area is that you can be a Niagara Tourist anytime you need to recharge.  So-that is exactly what I did.  First I found an deal on a hotel room at the Niagara Fallsview Casino.  Well, actually I found a free room which doesn't happen everyday.  Then I found four free concert tickets to the Spirit of Christmas at the Avalon Ballroom in the Fallsview Casino. What I couldn't find was a free restaurant for the four of us so we decided to bring our own food to the hotel room and eat before the dinner.  In some circles that might sound 'downright cheap'.  In our circle, we refer to this as 'downright cheap'.  Everyone showed up at the room at 7:00 and the feast got underway.  The menu consisted of a roast and au jus in the crockpot, Kaiser rolls, lots of toppings for the roast and buns, potato salad and of course banana cake.  We liked the 'in room' dining as we could talk as loud as we wanted, had the best 'fallsview' seats in the house and drink and food refills were free free free!  I think the casino discourages this practice because they make sure that they put a bathroom scale in every hotel room. 

The show 'The Spirit of Christmas' was a musical review and it really did put us girls into the mood for Christmas.  The very scantily dressed chorus line put the men into the mood as well, however not the Christmas mood that we were feeling.