Saturday 28th October
While we always knew this trip was going to be a big one, it was turning out to be even more epic than we anticipated. Up in the north of the country, things are very far apart, and what looks like a good idea on Paper, can be pretty challenging in practice. With that said there is always one day that will stand out as particularly challenging, where the moving parts never really look like they fit together too well, a day of days, or a Queen stage in Cycling Parlance. Today was that day. This trip had already taken it out of us and today was really going to push the limits of our already tired and fatigued body and mind.
To start off we were going to cram as much Niagra-based fun as we could into as short a time frame as possible. Then we had a date with US Customs and Immigration, followed by an itsy Bitsy 5+ Hour drive, over 280 miles to Cedar Point in Ohio, where we had an Epic Night of Halloween scares awaiting us. We would start out at 8 am and still be going at nearly midnight, 300 miles away, in a different country and 3 different States away.
This is what we LIVE for!
Poor Weather and Pancakes
“What a Difference a Day Makes”
For the last few days, we had had a huge weight hanging over our heads. The forecast for Niagara had been pretty dower. A large band of rain had been threatening to basically wash out our time at the Falls. The Falls had been a big part of this trip and without them, we would probably have cut out a load of driving and just flown to our next stop in Chicago, but getting to the falls was a big part of the trip, so it would have been pretty upsetting if we had only got to see them through rain storms and dull cloudy skies. Luckily the forecast changed at the last minute with the rain delayed, and not showing up until the early hour of the morning.
As the daylight began to build the scene out of our window could not have been more different than yesterday. It was still pretty spectacular, but the stunning blue skies and fall colors were all replaced by a pretty dull and gray palette.
TO cheer us up, we decided to head for Pancakes. We like Ihop, we know it’s a huge chain-branded restaurant, but we don’t get it outside of the States and it’s just a fun cheap(ish) meal. So we like to grab one when it’s convenient, however, this location was pretty different. Not only was it in our Hotel…it was situated at the TOP of the hotel…with Views like this:
With Views like this and Great pancakes, what more could you want for breakfast? After a couple of Pancake Combos (Pancakes with a side of Breakfast) and a good few pours of coffee, we were ready to get the day going.
The weather was still pretty grey and overcast and the wet weather had brought a winter chill in, and the morning was a cooler 50°f (10°c).
Not the Maid of the Mist – Niagara Cruise
The first attraction we wanted to hit was the famous Maid of the Mist Cruise. However, there is one big problem with this, the Maid of the Mist sails from the other side of the river! and while we could have hiked across, it seemed pretty pointless when Hornblower ran a nearly identical cruise from the Canadian side.
We booked our tickets online (CA$33.5) directly from Hornblower/City Experiences and headed over to the first boat of the day. We were a little late to board and didn’t get a very good spot on the vessel with the crowds gathering at the bow, however, we have a top tip here: Don’t worry about it. You will be able to stand wherever you want…
The cruise got underway shortly after boarding. This is a very short cruise simply taking you up the river, to the base of the falls. You are only on the water for 10-15 mins, but these are all highlight minutes. The views are stunning and getting this close to the falls is seriously invigorating. The power of the water is stunning and can be felt in your chest as it pounds over the falls.
The boat heads right to the base of the falls, where the “mist” drenched the boat and its occupants. Almost the whole ride there is a steady drizzle but as you reach the base of the falls, into the horseshoe, the blast hits you. The direct spray from the falls really comes out of nowhere and hits the deck like a cold wet explosion. You go from peaceful and serene to stunning soggy startledness in a moment. And at this point, around half of the tourists packed onto the bow of the boat, run.
They did not count on a sudden blast of ice-cold spray being blasted in their faces and despite their complementary ponchos, the conditions were just too much. This leaves plenty of room up front if you are willing to brave the worst of the conditions.
After experiencing the power and majesty of the fall right up close the vessel does a U-turn and lets the current take it back down to the dock. It’s a really short trip but absolutely essential, but yeah you do get pretty wet, despite the poncho.
As we headed back up the cliff face to the promenade, we noticed something quite amazing, the Gray Cloudy weather seemed to be largely dissipating, leaving nothing but blue skies and sunshine. it was still really cool, but absolutely beautiful.
Journey Behind The Falls
The next attraction we planned was the Jurney Behind the Falls. This was at the far end of the Promenade so we made our way back slowly now taking in the glorious weather and stunning views. Due to the wind direction, the Spay was largely heading over the other side of the falls and no longer creating a perpetual downpour on the promenade.
We had also pre-booked tickets for the Journey and walked straight into the elevators down to the Tunnels. If you don’t know the Journey behind the falls takes you down to some subterranean tunnels that give you access to the base of the falls. There is a large viewing deck giving great vires of the falls and the valley bottom, and there are two viewing windows offering an incredible view of the “BACK SIDE OF WATER!” Disney Jokes apart these portals were a bit rubbish. You really could not see much, the brightness outside meant the contrast was so bright you could not see anything really and the overall effect didn’t feel in keeping with the real power of the falls.
The Outdoor deck was worth it alone and we were pretty happy we had paid to come down here.
Not Rainbow Bridge – Back In The USA (Peace Bridge)
Finally, at around lunchtime we had done all we planned and had a long drive ahead of us so decided to hit the road. Trusting Google Maps to navigate us safely we hopped into the car and headed back across the Rainbow Bridge, however for whatever reason Google calculated, the Rainbow Bridge would not be the quickest and instead kept us in Canada a little longer.
We left Niagara via the West and hopped onto the Queen Elizabeth Way for 20 or so miles of pleasant driving before hitting Peace Bridge just outside Buffalo where we would attempt the Border crossing. We already had our ESTA in place, filled in the Electronic I-94 form, and paid the request fee ($12).
The border crossing was pretty slow, however we had anticipated it would take a while. The annoying thing was the queues were not very long, it’s just there was a lengthy delay for each car. This naturally didn’t bode too well for us. However once at the booth, which took us around 45mins, the agent asked us very little. He checked the passports, which obviously showed Valid Esta and I-94 on his system and he just checked where we had been and what we were doing before waving us through. He actually looked a little confused at the extent of our trip and wanted us gone before we explained any more confusing elements of our travel plans.
Overall a process we were dreading went through like a breeze. Getting into Canada could not have been easier and we had no real issues at all getting back into the States. So We highly recommend heading to the Canadian Side to see the best of the falls!
Lakeshore Drive – 270+ Miles
After passing through Buffalo, we found ourselves on the shoreline of Lake Erie. We had two choices here, follow the I-90 all the way to Cleveland and the Sandusky, or follow the smaller and slower route 20/5 which follows the coast more closely. There were two main differences between these two routes. One, the I-90 was a lot faster, over 45 minutes quicker (at least) but it would be pretty dull and had Tolls. Route 5 was slower, but it was free and would show us a little more of the scenery and pass through a few nice towns and villages.
In the end, we thought we would try and get a Toll-Free day. We were hit with Tolls yesterday and would not be able to avoid them on the last leg to Chicago, so we Hugged the coastline on Route 5 and took the longer prettier route.
This worked really well as not only was it much more picturesque, but we also passed through the Seneca Nation Tribe lands and were able to make use of their Tax Exemption to get the Cheapest gas on the entire trip!
We also saw quite a lot of Wildlife on this leg of the trip. To be honest there had not been much in the way of wildlife this trip. It was quite a disappointment. But along this section of road, we saw quite a lot in the way of Wild Deer. Overall it was a very pretty drive, even if they could cover what had returned and progress felt very slow, especially when we joined the back of a very long line of cars stuck behind someone who had no intention of going over 40mph, a bit of an issue with still 150+miles to go!
At the Pennsylvanian border, the I-90 reverts back to Toll-Free, so at this point, we headed back to the Interstate and began making much better progress. It was less scenic but we were moving much faster. We passed through Cleveland and then on to the smaller city of Sandusky.
Cedar Point Express
This stop was about halfway to the final destination of Chicago, but we were not stopping randomly. Sandusky is the home of Cedar Point, possibly the best Theme Park in the country in terms of Thrill Rides. It was currently hosting the last of its Halloweekends and we were here to have some terrifying spooky fun!
We had booked to Stay in the Cedar Point Express Hotel, one of Cedar Point’s own properties which comes with a few perks over staying in a local Motel. It was not overly expensive anyway, only around $150 a night, and came with FREE parking and early entry into the park. We did not need Early entry today as the park opened hours ago, but we were hitting the park tomorrow so that would come in handy then.
As we were arriving at the Hotel, it dawned on us, that maybe we were not that into Early Entry Tomorrow. The trip had been pretty exhausting. Today had been a huge day to top it off, and not even close to over, and the thought of getting up early for a savage day in Cedar Point was not overly exciting us. At this point we decided to check tomorrow’s opening hours and were both DELIGHTED to read it was 11 am, meaning we could have a Lie-in AND hit the park early. Phew.
But before that, we had to check into the Cear Point Express. The Hotel is not on the Actual Point but is a mere 5-minute drive away and offers free parking at both the park and the Hotel. So it is still really convenient. The Breakers Hotel and CAbins all look amazing, and are within walking distance of the park, but are probably better suited to the summer months as it was pretty bleak out on Lake Erie this late in October.
Our room at the Cedar Point Express was pretty much as expected. This is your typical Roadside Chain Motel-type place. Comfy beds, neutral tones workman-like fixtures and furnishing, and just about everything you need, but very little else. There were splashes of Cedar Point throughout with imagery of the park and the rides and we have to be honest it was a lot LARGER than we expected. But overall it was pretty standard, just enough, and a nice spot to spend the next few days.
After settling in a while we headed to the park. However, we were a little low on options for dinner. Honestly, the food at Cedar Point is not great and the dining options at this end of town were pretty sparse we were going to be so busy with the Haunted Houses and Scare Zones, that we didn’t want to waste time getting overriced garbage Themepark food…With a McDonald’s across the road, we caved and went for the cheapest easiest fastest option.
Halloweekends – Cedar Point
The Whole area around the Hotel, which was pretty much the main route to the park was really quiet, with the thick grey skies, howling winds and near-deserted feel the whole area had a post-apocalyptic feel to it. However as we drove the short drive over the Causeway, we definitely found the people.
Even before getting near the entrance to the parking lot the traffic queues formed. And they were long and slow moving. 45 minutes later we were in visual range of the gates and it was a sea of cars. In the end, the agents simply opened the parking lots up and allowed people to flood in with no charge. We got directed to the overspill carpark and got a spot right at the back, quiet where all the cars behind us were planning on going we had no idea.
This meant a long hike in the cold windy night to the park entrance. We were hoping to get in a little early to get the lay of the land and maybe a couple of rides, but there was no chance.
As you would expect the park was absolutely rammed. This was the last FULL night of the Halloweekend this year and it seemed the whole of the Midwest had showed up. We do not do well with queues and every attraction seemed to have a +1hr queue attached.
We started our night at the very back of the park under the shadow of Steel Vengenge with the Blood Bath (Haunted Maze). We then headed through Cut Throat Cove (Scare Zone) to the Freak Show (Haunted Maze). These three gave us a good introduction to what to expect from the Event and overall it wasn’t that great.
The Haunted Mazes, of which there are 5, were well-themed but quite short and there was a real lack of Monsters inside. We got very few scares and there was no opportunity to let the Maze Reset. A near-constant flow of people meant the Monsters never really came out of nowhere which is where the real scares are to be found.
The Scare Zones we also a letdown. These were again well-themed and while there were a ton of monsters and they did a great of freaking you out, they were always in very specific and defined areas and there were so many people around it was just a walking procession with some creepy guys in costumes.
So our initial impressions were not great. Things didn’t improve when after just over an hour and a half we went to our 4th planned attraction, Corn Stalkers (Scare Zone), and found the queue Closed due to Capacity. It never re-opened and we didn’t get to visit what was reviewed as the best Attraction at this weekend.
Tombstone Territory (Scare Zone) was not really a Scare Zone, it was just a themed area with a few Monsters, Likewise, the Clownz Death Metal Tour (Scare Zone), although there was a cool band there. The Blood Of The Bayou (Scare Zone) was pretty terrible. It was essentially a huge queue that never really went anywhere. We spent nearly an hour getting in and out of it, found about 5 monsters in some creepy-themed areas, and then had to queue to leave!
The Queue for Midnight (Haunted Maze) was showing for well over an hour and we just couldn’t face it. We took the time to visit Slaughter House (Haunted Maze) which was fantastically themed but still lacking monsters and Jump Scares. The last Maze we tried was The Haunting: Eerie Estate (Haunted Maze) which again was lacking in the scare department.
Overall we found the layout, execution, and overall imagining of the event to be hugely lacking. Last Halloween we visited the West Coast and the likes of Knotts Scary Farm blew the Cedar Point Halloweekend right out of the water. It didn’t help this was the last night and it was crazy busy, but we don’t think it would have been much better on a much quieter evening. It just lacked the impact and spectacle of the West Coast Events.
You might have noticed we didn’t actually do any rides. This is not because we didn’t want to, but the focus was on The Halloweekend Event…Tomorrow would be all about Rides. So we headed back to the car, which was parked almost a mile from the gate, and then headed back to the comfort of the Hotel.
The Weather was pretty wild and even more cold and bad weather was forecast for tomorrow and it was even possible we would have a washout. Fingers crossed for some good weather, as we felt we had come a long way for Cedar Point, but the outlook was pretty grim.
Walking Total – 24,615 Steps – 12.7 Miles
We had spent over 6 hours of today sitting down in a car, but we clocked up one of our biggest days on our feet. nearly a half marathon! This was partly due to the large amount of walking we had done at Niagara (hard to believe that was even the same day!) and partly the huge stomp we had put out around Cedar Point. The fact it was 1km+ from the car to the gate did not help, but it seemed everything we did today required quite a bit of walking.
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