Niagara Majestic Tours, Niagara Falls

We took the Shared Wonder Combo Tour. Tim & Tammy were both tops. Tammy was full of local history. Tammy actually told us about ice wine from Canada and she was nice enough to stop so we could sample and I bought three bottles. Just a little something extra to make our anniversary trip special. We will definitely tell our friens and if we ever come out again we will definitely contact Shelby and the Majestic staff. Bette

Excellent tour! Our tour guide (Sam) was very knowledgeable and took us to all the local attractions (Maid of Mist, Cave of Winds, etc.) I higly recommend this tour if you don't have a passport. You can see the Canadian and American sides of the Falls. I do suggest comfortable walking shoes and clothing. My only complaint is there was not a discount for ordering tickets online versus in person.

We decided that on our first day in Niagara Falls, we would get a tour through Niagara Majestic Tours. There were a few things about it that appealed to us. First, they covered all of the popular sightseeing spots in Niagara Falls. The tour bus takes you to stops like the Horseshoe Falls, American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Maid of the Mist, and Cave of the Winds (pretty much what we wanted to see & experience). The seats were comfortable on the bus and our tour guide was helpful & friendly. The only complaint I have is the weather was kind of cool in early spring.

I can't stress enough -- don't spend your money for an the OVER THE FALLS tour. As one of the previous raters noted, we could have paid individually for all of the attractions we saw and not paid nearly the $60-70. the tour company charged. We took the All American tour with OVER THE FALLS TOUR company. There is no way that they can show you all of the things that are listed on the "tour includes" brochure in the 4 hours that they allow. Our tour guide rushed us through everything. I specifically asked the Welcome Center Desk personnel about whether the tour covered the Three Sisters Islands and was told yes. I find out from the tour driver that not only do they not normally stop there, if someone requests it - the whole bus has to agree and they have to walk about 1/4 mile to get from the parking area to the walkway. Then you have 10 minutes to walk across the bridges to 3 small islands. We were told that we would see the "ice bridge." At one point, our tour guide mentioned that there would be a photo array of the ice bridge along the way and then he NEVER mentioned it again. We didn't see it. The people we were with were fun. That's the only reason we enjoyed any part of the tour. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Welcome Desk people told us that our tour operator would pick us up at 1:15 p.m. The tour driver juggled people and counted people and we finally left the Welcome Center at 2:00 p.m., all the time sitting on a bus in 87 degree temps. The bus we had was a shuttle bus and had screen printing on all the windows - it was very difficult to see anything that the tour driver pointed out along the way and forget trying to take pictures!

It costs around $70 a head, and it was nothing more than hurrying through all the sights. For example, expect to spend 20 minutes going to the "Journey Behind the Falls" which really should take much longer! (consider that about 10 minutes is actual sight-seeing, and the other is transition time--walking, elevator, waiting in line, etc!) There's a big rush through the sights, and we couldn't even slow down to enjoy them. We took the Totally Canadian tour at twilight, and we couldn't even see the garden or the dam at the end, and when we arrived to the fireworks, we barely saw the finale. That's it. It was lame. Four hours is not enough. Know that in the 4 hours, you have to stop at customs, go through traffic on Rainbow Bridge, you'll stop at a cafeteria place to order your own dinner (pizza, hotdogs)(pay it yourself, not included in price). Then after the fireworks, they give you a number sticker to wear, and encourage you to go to Duty-Free shopping. Hmm... I smell commission. Other people on the tour complained. You're better off parking in Canada, or if you're capable of walking a distance, park right by Rainbow Bridge in the US, and walk over. Everything is relatively close-by! (We did this the next day on our own, and had a fabulous time.) Then if you really, really wanted to see the flower clock and the dams, whirlpool then take a car down there There was not much to look at there. It was just look for five minutes at those places and then pile on the bus. I thought we could go down to the dams and see up close. No, it's just from the road and it's far away. Not worth the money. The driver on the other hand was very nice. He did work hard trying to follow the itinerary, and did explain the sights. I blame the company, not the driver, for the ridiculous itinerary in the time-frame given.

The main gripe I have is that the tour is not worth even half the price. At 70$ per head, its a daylight robbery. The staff at one of the travel plazas on I-190 made a pitch for this and it sounded like we were seeing lots of places. I am wondering if there exists a nexus between the tour operator and this lady at the information center. I was travelling with my parents and thought this might be a better thing to do even though I had my own car. The two main attractioins we saw were the "Maid of the mist" and the "Cave of the winds". Apart from this we went to the observation tower, and one more scenic point on the park. For the record, one could get tickets for both (and other things like an aquarium which is not included in this tour) for 24$ all-inclusive. Add to it a parking fee of 10$ per car in the park. Coming back to the "tour", we only "viewed" the rest from the bus. The guide (and the driver) mumbled some stuff and no one in the bus even understood what was happening. Whether we were gonna stop at a place or not no one understood. To add insult to injury, we were not even dropped off at our hotel before the driver started picking more customers for the next trip. And his excuse was that he had to drive up and down twice (even though the place we had to be dropped off and the place where he picked up the next set was hardly a block away) It didnt matter to him that some of us were wet, and couldnt wait to get back to our hotels. Summary: not worth the price, cant get to spend enough time at the real attractions and instead forced to listen to some tour operator mumbling and cracking a few wisecracks. Spend your time and money elsewhere. Hope this helps. Ramesh.