Niagara Falls in Canada just got its first major new attraction in three years.
The last – the Niagara Parks Power Station – brought new life to a disused hydroelectric plant, with nightly projections, great exhibits and access to one of the most unique views of the Falls by way of “The Tunnel”. Now, Niagara deliver a different sort of immersion with Niagara Takes Flight: A Soaring Adventure.
The new attraction sits in the Niagara Parks’ Table Rock Welcome Centre, taking over the footprint of the old pre-show for Journey Behind The Falls, one of the Falls’ oldest attractions. Taking guests into tunnels dug behind the falls, the experience dates back as far as 1818. Its pre-show was a 360 degree video experience that detailed the formation of the Falls, before guests took the elevator down to its tunnels.
For Niagara Takes Flight, there are two pre-shows that keep you engaged while you wait for your turn to ride. The first is “The Ancestors Room”, where guests are treated to Indigenous creation stories from their Elders, with beautiful animation and artwork from Sara General. If you attended the CNE in Toronto this year, it made me think of the “Sky Woman” story told as part of the similarly immersive “MYTHOS” experience. It’s well told, and a wonderful watch.
In the second room, “The Waterfall Room”, a digital waterfall is used to tell the story once told in the Journey Behind The Falls pre-show, that of the formation of the falls. But this time, they go further, detailing how it became a world renowned exhibition. Here, Director James Cameron does the narration.
And then we make our way into “The Transporter”, where guests “descend” in an industrial elevator, “using the power of virtual water to move into the sky for the main ride”. Now while this is all for show, it elicits some immediate memories to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland all the same. And we’ll talk more on the Disney connection shortly.
All up, the journey from The Ancestors Room to the ride takes just under 20 minutes. And it is very much a ride that you’re about to experience, sitting (nay, flying) in gondola-style seating in front of a giant domed screen larger than IMAX.
Its premise is simple – simulate flying over popular sights, giving guests a unique vantage point from the safety of a dark room. But it’s not just video. Wind, water and scent effects are all featured, providing an experience meant to go beyond simply eliciting the satisfaction of flying over the locations in real life. They want you to be truly immersed in it. And unlike the other ways to see the Falls from great heights – like with our friends at Niagara Helicopters – this will operate year round, without any consideration for the weather. And the views will always be perfect.
The mechanics are the same as the FlyOver attractions that you’ll find in three locations in North America, including Las Vegas and Vancouver, which we’ve previously covered on the site. Though the origins of the technology are found at Disney’s California Adventure, and the Soarin’ Over California attraction that first opened in Anaheim in 2001. And it’s quite timely to be mentioning this, as just this week they announced they are soon changing the experience over to a new film, Soarin’ Over America.
The pre-recorded announcer of the ride in Niagara also has a similar voice to Patrick Warburton, who features in the Soarin’ rides, which is either purely a coincidence, or a homage.
The journey takes under 10 minutes and shows off the whole Niagara region, using footage filmed over a six month period. The video they’ve captured is unsurprisingly stunning, with my only complaint that the star of the show doesn’t feature as heavily as you might expect. Though it’s fair to say that nothing beats the “real thing”, few have seen the Falls from the angle they close the ride with – I’ll say that much at least. And while I’ve been lucky enough to see much of the city from the sky thanks to Niagara Helicopters, this provides a clearer view, that also sits at a much lower price point for visitors.
I had a terrific time on this ride, as well as in the pre-shows. The theming has been prepared with a lot of care and detail, from start to finish. And the nine-minute-or-so experience of flying over Falls and the city that surrounds it, is a captivating and even exhilarating one. And best of all, it’s bringing a little bit of world class theme park magic into one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, which we always love to see.
If you’re heading to Niagara, don’t miss out on your chance to see the Falls from a new angle.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Niagara Takes Flight: A Soaring Adventure costs $29 for adults and $19 for children, with more details available HERE.
Niagara Parks also offer three types of passes that bundle a number of activities in the area, all of which include access to the new attraction. These passes start at $69 CAD and all three options (“Adventure Pass Plus”, “Adventure Pass Classic” and “Niagara Falls Pass”) also include activities like the “Journey Behind The Falls”, the “White Water Walk” and access to the WEGO Bus network. For more details on these passes, head HERE.
Photo by the author. The author visited as a guest of Niagara Parks. While in Niagara, we stayed at the Sheraton Fallsview.
