Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ripley's Museum - Niagara Falls

Where can you read about the tallest man ever recorded to have lived? Where can you see the biggest prehistoric shark teeth? Where can you spy a model of the chair a man flew threw the air in a la the movie Up!? A portrait made from dryer lint? Replicas of the strangest grave stones ever and the weird rhymes engraved on them? Why Ripley's __ Believe it or Not! Museum, of course, in Niagara Falls. Located right on the main strip of crazy spectacles dubbed Clifton Hill in the downtown Falls area, this museum can't be missed. The outside is an optical illusion of sorts, built to appear as if the building is tipped sideways (and tricky to photograph) and the inside is a history of the bizarre. For whatever reason, my children are obsessed with the crazy, bizarre, odd trivia contained in Guinness World Books and Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Some of it makes me sick to my stomach over breakfast, usually when they are reading and perusing the garish photographs in said books, but truly if you asked my child what was the name of the tallest person ever, well she would kind of freakishly regurgitate that information. (I think if TV trivia shows are around when she is older like Jeopardy, she may earn her keep yet.) Anyways as my faithful readers know we recently travelled to the Falls for a fun graduation/ end of school vacation weekend at Great Wolf Lodge and Waterpark. We had never been to the Ripley's Museum, and so we decided that we would pay it a visit too. Thanks to Lay's Chip Trips, which I have been blogging about here all summer, we got a discounted deal.


                                          

One free child's admission was good to save us about $7. It was a once, or twice, in a lifetime kind of visit, so it was a fun diversion one night. The place was packed and the line up was very large to get in, so if you visit I might be tempted to do so during the daylight hours on a weekday. The cashier was clearly overwhelmed. For more information on how to get chip trips discounts visit Lays.ca or http://tiny.cc/7hudO The prices of admission vary depending on your age and also the number of Ripley's features you visit. The more Ripley's landmarks that you tour, the lower the amount per entry per person. We only did the one museum, because it was all we had time for that day. The cost of admission per adult there was $13.99 and children were $6.99. Some ages were cheaper. Thriftymommas review $$$ out of $$$$$ (Fun and freakish. To see it, is to believe it. But a bit pricey. Thanks to Lay's Chip Trips for making this one affordable for us. Also note if you are staying at a nearby motel pick up some tourist information that gives you coupons for freebies. We had one with us good for one free wax hand souvenir.)



I am participating in the Lay's Chip Trips program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of Frito Lay Canada. I received Lays Chip Trip points and a gift card to off-set the costs incurred to facilitate this post. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Welcome Wednesday and Waterpark Love




I am bringing Welcome Wednesday here with hopes of introducing more readers to my well received travel blog. Follow http://www.takeitfrom-me.blogspot.com/  for more information about Welcome Wednesday. Also today I am including my water park roundup...As some of you know, I blog for Mom Central Canada and have been promoting Lay's Chip Trips. I posted my review of Great Wolf Lodge, Niagara Falls recently on main blog at http://www.thriftymommastips.blogspot.com/ There are many worthy family-friendly locations at the falls and this one was totally worth the drive. I am a big fan on family water park fun and we have visited a few of these excellent spots. Americana in Niagara Falls is a great one to start with and gets a solid 3-4 stars for price and cleanliness. (Excellent deals on now, also you can get park passes with Lay's Chip Trips. Great Wolf was a blast. I rated that one mostly four and five stars. Amazing catering to families. Storytime was excellent and the rooms adorable. This is a picture of the pool below. Lay's Chip Trips can be used here too. Last year we visited Fort Rapids in Columbus, Ohio and it was a solid 3-4 stars too. The water park was the highlight of that adventure. Rooms left a little to be desired in terms of cleanliness.
 
Kalahari remains on my list of not yet reviewed or visited...but I hear good things. Do you hear that Kalahari? PR welcome here.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Niagara Falls - Americana Review

Three years ago we decided to take our young family to the falls for a fun birthday/graduation celebration. Great Wolf Lodge was fairly new and we were novices at waterparks anyways. Truly, we weren't sure how a little girl with SPD (sensory processing disorder) and a variety of other diagnoses would manage all that input at three-years-old. So we opted for an affordable spot called the Americana Waterpark Resort. Well, we loved it. We stayed there for two nights under $250 a night and visited Marineland for the first time and just really truly created lovely memories. Americana sends thriftymommastips periodic notices of deals and events and one arrived this week so I thought I would share with you. I give this water park a solid 4 out of 5 for affordability and fun. It's not Kalahari or Great Wolf or Detroit or Ohio worthy excitement. But it sure is affordable and it's a really good place to start. I would definitely go back. Rooms are clean and spacious. Waterslides are fun, a bit smaller and maybe geared more to young children, not preteens or teens. There is a splash area and for tots who like water a very nice toddler waterslide assortment. Food was yummy and location is not bad. Central to everything. So here's the deal. Stay, play and eat for $259 a night. Breakfast, a pizza party and an all included family feast is included with the price. This is a very good deal! Call 1-866-707-0030 to reserve at Americana. Also Americana day passes are available with Lay's chip trips reward points.
For more information on that visit Lay's ca or http://tiny.cc/7hudO
Americana Conference Resort & Spa - 8444 Lundy's Lane Niagara Falls, ON L2H1H4