Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours — Attraction in Niagara-on-the-Lake

Well, it is a version of an airboat ride in Florida except you have 54-40-32 other people cramed into a flat bottom hard side boat skimming upstream on the Canadian-United States Niagara River that connects the falls with Lake Ontario, Canada. Awesome open air boat ride in the flat waters... but....prepare for a mini-tsunami/ fire hose dousing of river water onto your head, neck, and upper body when you get turned in the class 5 rapids..... while your feet and shins get free flowing cold river water intermittent exposure. The only thing stopping you from standing up or getting thrown out of the boat is your arm strength on the metal bar in front of you and your legs wedged below you. No safety helmet, no safety eye wear, no ear plugs, no nose plugs, NO seat belt, no scuba googles or gear. Having a seat belt on could save you or hinder you in a life risk situation here.....but you are issued and do wear a Canadian DOT rated orange floatation device. Wear swim trunks and "water shoes". Depending on where you sit, you will get totally drenched or see someone get water hammered. If you can not hold your breath underwater, then know you will learn how to keep your mouth shut on this white water rapids trip. Ours was a 30-minute trip. It was invigorating, calming, fast, and adventurous for me. But it made other attendees white as a sheet after the first tsunami of river water hit their faces or sides of their heads. Do not wear a hat or sunglasses....the first mini-tsunami will knock them off your face/head, and you will never see them again. The boat pilot sets the stage for how much water you get "splashed" with. His second-hand mate talks to you on a voice mic about the river, hydro dams, and river shore people while attempting to motivate, educate, and entertain you "safely." It is expensive. The digital photo package is rather expensive as well....have not opened that up yet. The boat dock location is 20-25 minutes north of Fallsview Blvd. So arrive early, sign your rights away on the waiver, and then wait for the life jacket demo and fitting before boarding. We had a pre-booked 1200 pm reservation on our 35th wedding anniversary day, and we were back at the dock safely at 1240 hours. All in all, it was awesome! But....know your limits, know your white water skills, and sit in the very back of the open-air jet boat if you are not a good swimmer or feel uneasy as a first timer! And if you are a river biologist, you will like the swallows on the docked riverboat and wonder about the phosphate foams and overall ecological state of this natural phenomenon river and upstream falls. The Class 6 rapids are your turnaround point for this trip and wave to the overhead aero car tram cabling over your head at the whirlpool section. From the "jet boat", know you have a first-hand view/experience from the ground water surface, rather than the airborne tram car view. Both are outstanding views,...

We just went on the last tour of the night with Chris (guide) and Adam (our captain). Overall it was a really nice experience and we would absolutely do it again. They even informed us that if we came back within 24 hours we would get 50% off a return repeat trip. Had we been able to move the next days plans we would have. Let’s start with - everyone is going to get wet. We went with littler kids so we were in row 5 and still were plenty drenched! The only real drawback is I think our expectation didn’t necessarily align with the product. There was lots of talking and only a few actual loops or runs into the water… maybe a dozen or so in the 45 min trip. I think we expected it to be more consistently jet boat adventure - whereas it was probably 80% boating and Chris chatting and playing music and 20%adventure jet boating actually getting wet. We just expected more of the adventure part, but that’s clearly not the agenda. For those more curvy people, note that the ponchos provided are small, so if you are above an XL, bring your own - or just wear your bathing suit and embrace the drenching! I’m a 3x and was a little sausage in the poncho. You can buy a video of your experience for $50. If you had a big group it’s definitely a fun memory - we didn’t get it. There are bathrooms and changing rooms at check-in, along with a gift shop where you can buy any gear you might want or have forgotten. Don’t forget to bring your towel and change of clothes - as everyone is going to be wet. While my top stayed pretty dry from the poncho my bottoms were soaked as we were sitting in inches of water after the big waves. The first 4 rows will be heavily drenched, the remaining rows will all get wet but not weighty wet. We worn goggles and greatly enjoyed being able to see the rapids as we whirled through them. Glasses and hats would definitely be ripped off in the waves crashing in in the first few rows, so be prepared with a string for any glasses you have if you don’t take them off. Honestly - we’d do it again with adjusted reality vs expectations. All of the staff was lovely! The girl who checked us in, Shawnita, was super helpful and answered all our questions and found answers when she didn’t know. All the staff who handed out life vests or picked them up were personable and warm. We’ll definitely be back next time we’re nearby!! We did note that reservations are suggested. While we were able to buy tickets upon arrival (we’re terrible at keeping a schedule), the tour time we could have made on arrival was sold out to a group so we waited around for an hour. Wasn’t bad - and glad we didn’t buy them early because of our personal lack of keeping on time to things - but if there is a time you really want to go and are better at being on time to things, then definitely...

I have never left a review in my life before but feel it is my personal responsibility to warn others because of what happened today. My boyfriend and I saw videos on Tik Tok showing how fun the wet boat tours are, so we decided to travel up from Pennsylvania.

Like a couple other reviewers, we were part of the 1 pm Freedom boat tour ride. There are only 14 seats on the front of the boat that are the wet seats. The rest of the boat is covered.

During one of the very first dips into what is called Devil’s Hole rapids, the entire bow of the boat went underwater 5 or 6 times and any time we would try to catch our breath when it would come up, more water rushed in and filled our lungs with water. Finally, the boat did one last dip that landed the front of the boat underwater where water was up to our necks for what seemed like forever but was probably only a couple of minutes. I almost went overboard and the only reason I didn’t was because I was able to grab on to someone to pull me back in. One of the safety bars broke leaving us with nothing to hold onto. A girl behind me cut open her leg. I was standing in my seat in shock because the water was that high. We were all gasping for air and dead silent. Finally, the trip leader came out once the boat drained of water asking if everyone was ok and saying this has never happened before. We were all in shock and she seemed to be also. We were told the captain, Alex, was new and inexperienced. The trip leader apologized and acted like she didn’t know what to do next.

Once everyone was found to be ok, she joked that we should all put seatbelts on because we were about to really go off of our seats. I love jokes, but we did not find this to be very funny after almost drowning.

Thankfully, the ride came to the end. The “captain”, Alex, did not apologize nor even see us off the boat. Every boat tour is videoed and has photos taken, but we were told because of the incident that happened a general manager had to review the footage, and the footage that eventually was released does not show the incident taking place at all. We assume because this would be a huge liability.

I am a huge thrill seeker and was really looking forward to this but unfortunately, this was extremely unsafe and I wish I had researched more about this company before coming onboard. A similar incident happened in 2001 where two girls actually went overboard. Please research more into this company or better yet choose not to put yourself in danger like this. We never thought this would happen to us until it did....