Here are, in no particular order, my thoughts of Canada (Niagara Falls) as I’ve experienced it:
Everything is significantly more expensive. I was worried when crossing the border because I had my laptop with me and I had these thoughts that “what if they hassled me on the way out about smuggling a laptop out of the country”. However, the simple fact that this laptop would cost a fortune here, I can’t imagine it’s problem.
Customer service is pretty poor. Every food place we’ve visited so far, the service has been sub-stellar. I can only assume that since the prices are so high that everyone makes a lot of money and doesn’t care about gratuities.
Crossing the border is very easy. They asked us if we had or owned firearms. No. They asked us where we were going. Over there,to that hotel. Then they let us cross.
Starbucks are just as prevalent here as they are in any big city in the states.
Everyone smokes. Every place is non-smoking. Everyone seems to hate this, because they have to smoke outside in the cold and the rain.
We’re staying at the Courtyard. It is next to a TGI Fridays and has a “Keg’s Steakhouse” in it. It’s across the street from a Denny’s. Our hotel has a shuttle which takes us to two casinos, a couple of shopping malls, and a few other hotels. One of the other hotels on the route is the “Mariott” (which, also owns the “Courtyard”). The Mariott, which is within comfortable walking distance of the Courtyard (where we are staying), has a TGI Fridays, a Keg’s Steakhouse and is across the street from a Denny’s. This completely baffles me.
We walked down to the end of the block, and the last place on the way was a “Tony Roma’s Steakhouse”, where we ate lunch. Later that day, we found out that there is another Tony Roma’s Steakhouse closer to our hotel.
A block or so from our hotel is a Baskin Robbins. Directly across the street from this is another Baskin Robbins. This completely baffles me.
If you ever wondered what happened to the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld - I’m fairly certain he defected to Canada an now owns a Burger King. Pics will follow to prove my point.
Conveniently, every place here takes both US and Canadian dollars. I don’t know if we’re getting a good exchange rate, but most of the time we’re using credit cards so we “supposedly” get the best rate possible.
When the neighbors fill up their jacuzzi tub, you can hear the water flowing in the pipes in our room quite well. When the tub drains or the shower is running, you can hear that water flowing very loudly as well. I assume that they’re trying to carry the Niagara Falls thing as far as possible.
Speaking of which, the falls are really big.
There are a lot of little touristy things to do here. Haunted Houses, fun houses, wax museums, etc. We’d do them if they didn’t cost 15 bucks or so a pop, per person. It’s like an amusement park that you have to pay for every ride, and every ride is expensive.
The casinos are both very impressive. They’re very reminiscent of Vegas except not quite as massive as any strip casino. The entry ways to them are a little strange - there’s a “guard” standing in front of a roped off room and you have to go up and he has to move the rope to let you in. From afar, it looks very much like a private club where they individually let people in one at a time.
About the entry ways: after you get past the ropes, you can walk right in, but it’s a little strange because you cannot see into the casino from where you are. It’s like they’ve strategically placed statues and frosted glass panels so you have to snake around them to get in. I assume there’s a law that says that people must not be able to see into the casino unless they are going to enter it. It’s hard to describe.
The first time I went into each casino, the guard asked me “How old are you?”. I replied, and he let me in. I thought this must be their sophisticated way to thwart kids from getting in, but later when Annie and I went together they carded both of us. The entry age is 19, and I’m fairly certain that I look older than 19.
The hotel shuttle comes about every 30 minutes. It’s only a 10 minute walk to either casino from our hotel.
The first night we ate at TGI Fridays (since it was the easiest place to eat at). This was my conversation with the server:
Her: Drinks?
Me: Yeah, I’ll have a Canadian beer.
Her: Good choice
Me: What do you recommend?
Her: Canadian
Me: No, what kind of Canadian beer to you recommend
Her: MOLSON CANADIAN!
Getting into Canada isn’t very hard. I handed the lady our passports, told her we were from the US and staying on vacation for a few days. She had great concern that we may be carrying firearms or possibly just owned firearms, but I told her we didn’t. Then she let us cross.