Melsea's Adventures on Boats,Trains & Planes Part 4

Anything about Cunard cruises
User avatar

Topic author
melsea
Senior Second Officer
Senior Second Officer
Posts: 576
Joined: February 2013

Melsea's Adventures on Boats,Trains & Planes Part 4

#1

Post by melsea »

A little late in getting this posted on here, oops.
Here it goes...

Day 10. New York to Niagara Falls, Canada.

28th November 2016.

Got up an ungodly hour again, 5am. Taxi to Penn Station.
Pre check Canadian boarder at Penn Station as per instructions by the man I spoke with yesterday. Then onto the queue behind a board for those going to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which said, "LINE FORMS HERE For Passengers on Train Number #63 After Completing Necessary Canadian Check-in for Travel to: Albany-Rensselaer, NY; Niagara Falls Grimsby; Oakville; Aldershot; St Catherine's; Toronto, Ontario. -No Others Please-. We were 6th in the queue and it was getting longer by the minute. There was one couple who had joined the queue and were not far behind us but unlucky for them they had not done the pre check-in and so had to go and join what was now a very long queue. A few minutes later we had started to be led up to the platform to board our train. Amtrak boarding was 06.45. The train was not as we expected, very mundane looking, all very tired looking too. Not much room for big pieces of luggage, but as we were one of the first on board we had first pickings of seats.
We chose seats immediately in front of the luggage area which we soon found out that unfortunately we could not set our seats back but there was plenty of room for our legs & hand luggage as well. As I remembered, we sat on the left, why you all ask, well, having watched Micheal Portillo's Great Railway Journeys on USA he did this very journey that we were about to embark on. One of the things he said was to sit on the left of the train for the views.
We had not left the station very far when we stopped and then started again and few minutes later we stopped for longer. Soon there was an announcement, it was maybe some kind of problem with the Axel? And if it was then we may have to abandon the journey. The train driver checked under the carriages. Fortunately there were no problems, so onwards we went on with our journey. The scenery was very good and since many of the trees had no leaves on them we were able to see more than if they were full of leaves. Our journey was to be 9 hours, yes you read that right. There were a few stops and at a couple we were able to get off and stretch your legs, I didn't but a few did to have a quick smoke as there was no smoking on board. One of the places we stopped briefly was Albany which is the State Capitol of New York.
Tea & coffee were 2$ each. Later they ran out of tea bags, they did take more supplies on later. I was so miffed about this that I spoke to one of the members of staff, Robert and they said they only catered for the small number of Brits on board as we were the only ones to drink it, guess what we used them all. Later I had a better chat with Robert the Conductor, which was nice of him to seek me out and clear the air. We had continued good weather all the way and we also saw where some parts had had snow a couple of days ago, there was evidence of it in some places but not in others. Spent time reading as well as looking out at the the wonderful scenery going pass.
We finally arrived at our destination of the Canadian Niagara Falls. We were first off to see the immigrations & customs, very quick indeed as we have arrived in the low season it seems. The train journey was in the end 10 hours! Got a taxi really quickly, a young Turkish lady took us to the hotel, The Courtyard, the Marriott.
Impressive hotel, we liked it immediately and even more so when we got to our room, it was huge. Great view from our room although we couldn't actually see it as it was dark. We showered and then went down to dinner, the Keg Restaurant. A very nice aspect for the hotel. Had a lovely meal. We were given a discount voucher of 40% which was rather nice. I think they were trying to get people into the restaurant. Have to say they serve excellent food and superb steak & desserts, not at the same time I must add.
We crashed out when we got back to the room after a very long day with an early start to the day we had. After we had a shower, we went to bed, slept very quickly.

Day 11. Niagara Falls, Canada.

29th November 2016.

Woke early, looked outside saw three police cars dealing with an incident that we could not make out what had happened. Lady pacing around with a large covering coat/blanket and a man who seemed agitated. This went on for an hour. We ended up watching the sun come up and the view was certainly a good one.
Had breakfast which was a buffet style. Afterwards we made our way out, the sun was shining but somewhat cold, not too cold though. We stopped off at a Tim Hortons diner where we both had a hot chocolate, I had the white one and although Bill ordered the same he got the regular type. The young girl who served us was very quietly spoken and was quite frankly fed up and we could barely hear her. Had a donut with it too. That was yummy.
Headed out towards the falls. First we saw the American Falls. We did the maids in the mist which was being served by another company called Hornblower tours. It was brilliant, wet but brilliant.
Afterwards Bill went back to the Hotel I continued towards the Canadian Falls at the top. As I approached and I was still a fair way away I was getting wet from the spray it felt like it was raining. Took lots of photos. Saw a rainbow in the falls which was nice. Later I visited the feature of going behind the falls which was equally impressive.
I started to make my way back just as it was getting dark by the time I got into the park to take photos of the lights that were around it was virtually dark. A strange suspicious man was around, he almost approached me but thought better of it. Later I saw him ahead of me and he was walking slowly, it made me feel quite uneasy so I caught up with 2 young ladies I saw and asked to walk with them, they were not going as far as me and were just going to their car, they offered me a lift which I said yes but had they not I would have gone back towards the hotels near the Casino and would have taken a taxi from there. The town is very empty and so not a lot of people around to be safety in numbers.
We had our meal in the hotel again. Again a lovely meal. Had a bottle of wine with it and again we had a voucher this one was for 30% this time.
During the evening my left shoulder blade was hurting a fair bit. Had shower before bed so as to get to sleep easier as we will have a longish day for our travel home tomorrow.

Day 12. Going home

30th November 2016.

I woke up a couple of times. The second time I took a couple of tablets as my shoulder blade was hurting quite a lot. Managed to sleep better but then woke up late and could not get back to sleep. Woke before Bill, had a shower. We didn't have breakfast as we were still full from the night before.
We repacked our case, well just rearrange it better. Weighed them and they were okay and not overweight.
At midday we went back to the Keg restaurant and had lunch. We ordered Halibut and chips along with the mini beef burger meal. We shared the two between us. Very nice it was too. Certainly set us up for the rest of the day.
Checked out but stayed in the hotel to wait for our pick up at 3.20pm.
We stayed in the lobby area where the tv was and to our left there is the lovely Christmas Tree, also to compliment the scene there is a real lovely fire going, a gas one it looks like. Its a nice touch.
At just after 3.20pm a lady arrived, looking like a chauffeur, she introduced herself and asked of our name, at which we said yes that is us. We were pleasantly surprised that she was the driver and it was a private car hire that was taking us to the airport, how cool was that. The journey to Toronto took 2 hours which was 30 mins over the time that she expected us to do the journey, traffic was a little slow towards the end of our destination. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and then it was time to search where our desk was to be. I had checked us in on line, it was just a matter of getting our boarding passes which was a little confusing as too was the issuing of the flight labels for our cases, it gave us 4 instead of 2, we only had 2 cases with us. I think what had happened and it was not clear on the website but it implied and said we had to pay for our cases to be in the hold as it was a Canadian budget airline or so I think. They were called Westjet. Anyway putting our cases through was also confusing, we so rarely fly these days, so much of it is DIY, fortunately there were staff around to help us. Eventually our cases were on their way. And so were we, making our way through to departures and being checked in security & passport control. They seem to be picking people at random to have their hands swabbed. There are two reasons for this that I know of, 1 is for explosives and the other is drugs. The queue went down very quickly and soon we were in the departure lounge. Went in search for something to eat and buy provisions for the flight. As our ticket did not provide in flight meals. We were then just waiting around until our flight was called on the board. We got something to eat there. There was not a lot there. We are so spoilt at our airports in the UK where we seem to have a city of services in our departure lounges.
The flight was good and we had plenty of tea or coffee to hand and we did have something to eat be it was small.
We landed on time and we didn't have to wait long for our luggage. Once through customs we were met by our taxi friend who was taking us home.
All in all it was a really great trip and I am pleased I have now seen the Niagara Falls.
Thank you for reading my reports and sorry this took so long to get on here.
Until next time happy Sailings to all.

Return to “Cunard”