The Niagara Blog linked to a YouTube video of Dragon Mountain. Someone hung onto their camera and filmed the ride.
Tag Archive for 'Marineland'
Things have certainly slowed down now that Labour Day is past. I hope to be able to keep posting 4-6 things a day through September, but at some point it is definitely going to slow down. I think last year I was posting 1-3 a day through the winter. We’ll see what happens this year.
As for upcoming posts, I’ve still got some posts to get caught up on (I’ve had drafts saved for months), and I also have the following to come at some point over the next month or two:
- May - August stats report
- Trip to Brick City
- Trip to Bronto’s Adventure Playland
- Trip to Dinosaur Park
- Trip to Fun House
- Trips to Marineland
- Trips to various Niagara Parks Commission sites
- Niagara Falls Trading Cards
- Posts about a couple of books
- Updated blog theme
- Updates to the main part of the site (i hope for this every year, but never actually get to it)
As always, all I ask of you is that you keep visiting the site, and bring your friends 
As is usually the case, we got season passes to Marineland this year. So far we have been 3 times, and will probably end up going a couple more times before the close in October. I posted about the new baby belugas after one of the visits. During one of the other trips, I took some short video clips of all of the rides in the “Family Rides” section. This includes:
- Tivoli Wheel
- Lady Bug Coaster
- Space Avenger
- Boat Carousel
- Orca Screamer
- Bumble Bee
- Viking Adventure
I’m sure there are lots of anti-Marineland sites out there. I am certainly not going to post about every complaint, but I thought that this one was particularly interesting, because it mentions the “warehouse” that has caused some controversy for Marineland over the years.
Junior was captured from Iceland in 1984. He was then transported to Marineland Ontario. Junior spent the last four years of his short life in an awful tiny tank inside a windowless store cynically called the “warehouse” (because arriving dolphins were “stored” there before they were declared ready for the public pool). During this time he was without sunlight and outside air.
I have no inside information, but I think that the whales have much better conditions now than before. Also, with everyone having cell phone cameras, and with the public able to get so much information, it would be very hard these days for a company to operate questionable facilities.
Note: I understand there are those who are no matter what think that whales should not be kept in captivity. This posting is made to provide some information. If you want to debate the ethics of holding whales/dolphins/seals/walruses captive, please do it elsewhere. I will moderate comments.
This has been around for a while, but Orca Free has a form letter that you can fill out if you want to write a letter to John Holer / Marineland about keeping the Orcas in captivity:
We’ve made it easy for you to help by drafting a letter to John Holer of Marineland of Canada. The letter expresses concern about the orcas that remain captive at Marineland of Canada.
As best as I can tell, the page hasn’t changed since September 17, 2005 at 6:13 PM. I wonder how many people have used this template in the almost 3 years it has been up…
This past Monday we went to Marineland. While we were there, I picked up my season’s pass, and we will definitely be going back.
General Observations
- All of the water was a lot cleaner than previous visits. This includes the water in the aquarium, the Orca tanks, and the Beluga tanks
- The show in the aquarium are very short and are hardly worth doing. They had three pacific walruses (two females and one male). They were fed and did a couple of small tricks. The whole thing only lasted a couple of minutes. However, I did learn something. The announcer claimed that tusks are like wisdom teeth. Sometimes they are removed if they will cause a problem. Out of the three walruses, only one female had tusks
- There used to be a gift shop right next to aquarium in the same building. Obviously the space is still there, but it isn’t a gift shop anymore. That is now the place where you rent strollers and things
- We watched the 5:15 stadium show on a Monday. The crowd was very small, so there wasn’t much “electricity” in the air. It had rained a bit earlier in the day, so I’m sure the park cleared out.
- During the part of the show where the dolphin’s perform, there are normally four of them together. All four came out, but one of the dolphins wouldn’t do anything. The trainer was very patient and touched the dolphin a lot (obviously trying to coax it into performing), but it just wouldn’t do anything. It just didn’t seem interested at all
- There were 16 belugas in one tank, and only 6 in others. There was someone sitting there with a clipboard and you could see two smaller Belugas swimming. Apparently there was a baby born two weeks ago. The other baby is actually the one that was born last year.
Ride Observations
- I was technically within the height limit of the Orca Screamer, but realistically I was too big to go on. I didn’t fit well into the seat and hurt my back a bit. My 5-year-old son just loved the right, though
- We went on Orca Screamer, Viking Adventure, Lady Bug Coaster, and Space Avenger
- There were spider webs everywhere! I’m sure all of the heat, moisture, humidity makes it difficult to control. My sons kept pointing them out
- all sorts of languages, always one of the interesting things about Niagara Falls
- Pretty well everything seemed to be in working order. The only thing I noticed was that one of the “spaceships” on the Space Avenger wasn’t working
I didn’t take enough good pictures to put up a new gallery, so I’ve just posted a few below. You can click on the picture to see a larger version
The Viking Adventure
An Orca Whale
A Dolphin
A Beluga whale mother with its new baby (only 2 weeks old)
A Pacfic Walrus
I emailed Ann Marie Rondinelli at Marineland asking if there was anything new this year. I was disappointed to not hear back from Anne Marie directly. Someone else emailed me what seemed to be a stock reply (telling me some things I already knew):
Thank you for your email and interest in Marineland!
Marineland is open for operation on May 17, 2008. General Admission is as follows:Regular (Ages 10-59) $39.95 plus tax
Child/Senior (Ages 5-9 & 60 +) $32.95 plus tax
Ages 4 and under FREEThe newest attraction at the park is the new Topple Tower Ride. The new, dipping, swirling, head-spinning Topple Tower takes 40 passengers in a circular gondola close to 70 feet skyward and then tilts back and forth at 60 degrees while the vehicle rotates giving riders a feeling of toppling over. A large replica of a walrus sits atop the central tower section of the ride making for a ride that is 82 feet high.
I replied again confirming the season’s pass and got the following response:
we do still have the Season’s Pass for $5.00 plus tax additional per person.
So, the bottom line is that there was nothing changed over this winter, and the prices have remained the same.
Well, it’s about time I did a state of the blog address. The best way to determine how a web site is doing, is by looking at the stats. No matter how you look at it, Access Niagara and the Niagara Falls Blog are growing well.
First, here are the stats (as of the end of April 2008):
Traffic
- Jan 2007 - 3,410
- Jan 2008 - 9,595 (up 181%)
- Feb 2007 - 3,359
- Feb 2008 - 11,171 (up 232%)
- Mar 2007 - 3,772
- Mar 2008 - 13,618 (up 261%)
- Apr 2007 - 2,336
- Apr 2008 - 12,638 (up 441%)
- Total traffic (unique visitors) for Jan - Apr 2007 - 12,877
- Total traffic (unique visitors) for Jan - Apr 2008 - 47,022 (up 265%)
Total Posts
- Jan-07 - 37
- Jan-08 – 66
- Feb-07 - 49
- Feb-08 – 80
- Mar-07 - 69
- Mar-08 – 67
- Apr-07 - 58
- Apr-08 – 70
- Total posts for Jan - Apr 2007 - 213
- Total posts for Jan - Apr 2008 - 283
- Month with most postings ever - 87 in August 2007
Comments
- Total comments for Jan - Apr 2007 - 419 Comments
- Total comments for Jan - Apr 2008 - 1,017 Comments
- Total number of comments – 3,602
Top 5 commented posts
- No longer “Marvel”-ous? - 70 comments
- Fight at casino club - 45 comments
- 20 floors and counting at the Hilton - 42 comments
- Niagara Falls Question: What is the biggest eyesore next to the Falls? - 32 comments
- Holiday spirit on trial - 31 comments
Top 3 categories
- Niagara Falls News (849 posts)
- Niagara Falls Attractions (485 posts)
- Niagara Falls Hotels (337 posts)
Niagara Falls Image Gallery
- Total number of pictures in Niagara Falls Image Gallery - 2,320
Link Tracking (link visiting)
- Total number of tracked links (all time) – 1,399
- Total number of click-throughs (all time) – 92,548
Top 5 clicked links
- Another Fight On Clifton Hill Niagara Falls – 1,470 clicks
- Clifton Hill official web site - 878 clicks
- YouTube - Niagara Falls Fireworks for Pizza Pizza’s 40th Anniversary - 870 clicks
- Niagara SkyWheel official web site - 834 clicks
- Great Wolf Lodge Niagara falls - 817 clicks
YouTube Videos
- Total number of YouTube video views - 22 videos, 30,594 views
Top 5 YouTube Videos
- Marineland Canada Topple Tower – 8,466
- Great Wolf Lodge Niagara Falls Bear Track Landing Waterpark – 4,930
- Orca Whale Splash Show at Marineland Canada – 3,541
- Great Wolf Lodge Niagara Falls Bear Track Landing Wave Pool – 2,681
- Jay Cochrane’s Skywalk – 2,300
Now, what does all this mean?
The site is doing great. Obviously the site is drawing in more people than before. The publicity from the Niagara This Week article and the interview on 610 CKTB helped, but not as much as I’d hoped.
I guess I always come back to the question of where do I want this to go? I guess I don’t really know. I supposed ultimately if I could make hundreds of thousands of dollars from the site I’d quit my “day job” and do this full time, but that isn’t going to happen. All I can say is that I want the site to keep growing. I need to keep coming up with good content. I need to keep posting pictures and videos. I certainly need to get moving on the main part of the site (not just the blog).
I have things to do, but you have things to do as well. I need your help! I’m not a marketing guy. I’m having a hard time getting the word about the site. If you know anyone from radio, newspaper, or TV in your area, mention the site and suggest that they feature it. If you have a web site of your own, link to me. If you come to Niagara Falls, let the various operators know that you read about their attraction/hotel/restaurant on Access Niagara or the Niagara Falls Blog. If you’ve been lurking around but haven’t been leaving any comments, please join in! If you have things to say or have found something out, email me and I’ll post what I can.
Thank you all for your help. I look forward to more exciting times ahead!
Recent Comments