Have you always dreamed of getting up close and personal with Niagara Falls? Have an incredible story of the lengths you are travelling to see this natural world wonder? Then this Niagara Falls contest is for you!

 

Read on to see how your story could get you a FREE experience with Hornblower Niagara Cruises!

 

Win a Trip on a Voyage to the Falls Boat Tour!

Over the past three years, while operating in Niagara Falls, Canada, we’ve had the incredible pleasure of meeting many guests from all over the world. So many of the visitors to our attraction have incredible stories of having always wanted to visit the Falls and see them in person. These stories have moved us and became the foundation for this contest.

 

 

To help celebrate Canada’s sesquicentennial we want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to take our iconic Voyage to the Falls boat tour. So beginning January 2017 we are officially launching our Humans of Hornblower Contest!

 

How to Win This Online Contest

Post a video or written submission of why you want to visit Niagara Falls and Hornblower Niagara Cruises to social media.

• Must be posted to or tag a Hornblower Niagara Cruises social media platform
  • Facebook – Hornblower Niagara Cruises
  • Twitter – @CruiseNiagara
  • Instagram – @NiagaraCruises
  • Tumblr – Hornblower Niagara Cruises
• Entries must have #WinWithHNC hashtag to qualify.

It’s just that simple! Share your story and win tickets and a VIP experience aboard a Hornblower Voyage to the Falls Boat Tour of Niagara Falls!

There will be 34 prize packs given out. The prize pack will include a Hornblower selfie stick and 2 adult tickets for a Voyage to the Falls Boat Tour during the season of 2017.

 

Full contest rules and regulations can be found here.

 

 Carolyn’s Story

To help kick off the contest we wanted to showcase our first Human of Hornblower! Carolyn from South Wales. After her experience visiting us this past year she shared this story and left a lasting impression with all of us working here at Hornblower.

 

“Hi Hornblower,

I’ve wanted to visit Niagara Falls since the summer of 1969 as an 8-year-old. I remember looking at a postcard of Niagara Falls and playing with a toy camera which had pictures as you clicked through. These were my nana’s with whom I lived with in Cardiff, South Wales.

My nana, Emily, had recently had a visitor from Canada, Doris. I found out many, many years later that Doris was Emily’s cousin. Sadly my nana died 6 months later. My father never spoke about his family and the mystery of the Canadian visitor remained.

Ever since that day, it was a dream of mine to visit Canada and visit the Falls and be at the place where many of those postcard pictures and camera shots had been taken. I’ve loved watching films which feature the Falls and have been so jealous of friends and relatives who have visited.

 

 

Many years later I became interested in genealogy. I discovered that Emily had 3 siblings, one of whom William Samuel (Sam) had emigrated to Ontario, Canada in 1905. Doris was his eldest child born in Bristol, England the previous year. Sam left his young family including his 6-day old son to make a better life. His family followed in 1907, setting home in the Hamilton, Ontario area and eventually having 8 children.

After nearly 4 years of searching, in August of 2009 I found ‘living’ relatives after finding a letter from my aunt in a box in the garage from the early 1990s. It had the name of 2 of Sam’s daughters and their addresses. I Googled the names and an online obituary of one of Sam’s children, Minnie who died in May 2009 aged 101 came up.

I then googled one of the unusual names of the mourners and sent an e-mail. within 24 hours I found my 2nd cousin Mary. Mary and I have been communicating by e-mail, Facebook and phone ever since. Also with her 2 sisters Anne-Marie and Janice. They all live in Hamilton and Ancaster.

I told Mary all about my dream to visit Niagara Falls and how this dream had come about. Mary and her sisters knew there were relatives in the UK, but didn’t know who or how related.

I planned to visit Canada in the next couple of years and started saving. We struggled to send our daughter Victoria to University but were determined she had a good education. Money was tight, but now was the time to plan a trip of a lifetime and we started to save.

 

 

Mary sent me books and leaflets about Niagara Falls and my dream was getting closer. I researched all there was to know about hotels, boat trips and I saved up my 20p coins to take me and David on a helicopter trip. The sisters and I were chatting all the time on our ‘Countdown to Canada’ Facebook group and on the phone!

Finally, in May of 2016, I realised my dream of visiting Canada, meeting my relatives and seeing Niagara Falls for the first time. I had to wait a whole week before being driven to Niagara by cousin Anne-Marie and her husband Andy who treated us to a room at the Niagara Casino Resort as a present with awesome views.

I was so excited when we arrived that I cried. To see nature at it’s unpredictable best was wonderful. We treated Anne-Marie to the Hornblower Cruise as despite hundreds of visits she had never been on the cruise.

My dream was now coming to fruition! We didn’t have to queue, despite it being mid-morning. I had my tablet with me and was determined to take some fantastic photos and videos of the trip and the ferocity of the Falls.

The roar of the Horseshoe Falls was deafening, every drop of water was coming towards us. I thought I would be scared but the excitement had taken over. I hadn’t realised how close we would get! It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! David and Anne-Marie were in awe too, and David managed to get some good photos on his camera.

 

 

The whole experience was brilliant! It is something that will live with me forever.

It was hard to leave Niagara the following morning. If we had had time I would have loved to have gone back on the Hornblower to recapture what I had felt the previous day. I did get to fly over the Falls in a helicopter, though! Now I want to try the Zip Line!!!

One day I hope to return. I’m aiming for my 60th birthday in 2020 if finances and health allow. If I had the opportunity I would be there in a heartbeat.

My dream from 1969 has come true. I met my ‘new’ family and visited the Falls. My dream now is to visit again as no moment looking at the Falls from afar and up close is the same. Every day I am one day closer to fulfilling my new dream!”

 

Where is Niagara Falls, Canada?

Hornblower Niagara Cruises is the only boat tour operating out of Niagara Falls, Canada. So once you’ve won your tickets, you’ll have to get here!

Hornblower Niagara Cruises is in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Approximately one and a half hours away from Toronto, Ontario. It is also just across the border from Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls, Ontario sits between one international border crossing and two major international airports, one located in Buffalo, NY and another in Toronto, Ontario making it easy for guests from all over the world to enter and win!

 

 

Don’t miss your chance to visit this incredible Canadian attraction! It’s sure to be the trip of a lifetime!

Can’t wait? Buy your tickets online NOW!