While you won't find snorkeling, catamaran rides, and beach days on a Great Lakes itinerary, you will find a lot of interesting tours to visit local landmarks. Before the cruise, according to your cabin type, you will have access to book tours a certain number of days out from the cruise. There is at least one tour in each port that is "Included" but you still need to sign up for it so they have the right number of buses arranged. They will check your name off a list as you board the bus for each tour. Depending on the itinerary times, it may not be possible to book two tours in the same port but there is usually time to do a tour and explore before or later on your own if you desire.
In the next day's issue of Viking Daily that is delivered in the evenings to your cabin, you will find a page in the middle with a chart that looks like this:
Our first port stop was Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada but every tour included Niagara Falls. The two included tour options were called Niagara Discovery (labeled easy with a duration of four hours) and Niagara Up Close (labeled moderate with a duration of four hours). A good chunk of that time frame is having to ride the bus to and from Niagara Falls. The basic difference between the two is whether or not you want to ride on the boat that goes under the falls. Niagara Discovery is a scenic drive (a.k.a. the drive back and forth) and a walk along the top of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Up Close, the tour we chose, means you weave your way through a long line to a gondola system that carries you down to the dock. There you resume the long line wait until you eventually reach the area to get fitted for a poncho. Then it's a bit more of a less orderly wait until the next tour boat returns and lets off the current group of people. Pro Tip- everyone will crowd the top open layer of the boat. If you stay on the bottom level and find a spot along the open rail, you will get the same views and the same amount of wet. You just won't be stuck behind a brick wall of people all trying to get the same picture. Having been to Niagara Falls before, I had Dad pose for his picture with the falls behind him before we got underway. Great picture and I could safely tuck away my camera and phone in my bag worn in front of me under my poncho where it stayed completely dry. I didn't have to worry about any electronics getting wet or slipping out of my wet hands. It took all I had to hold onto the railing as we reached and went under the falls between the noise, pouring water, and amount of people who wandered down to try and force their way into a spot on the bottom railing. This is definitely not an excursion if you want to wear your finest clothes or avoid getting your hair wet. Anywhere that wasn't completely covered by poncho was soaked. The force of the wind and the water will blow off your poncho's hood so by the end of it my head, shoulders, calves, socks, and shoes were soaked. Those of you with glasses will look like you should have tiny windshield wipers. You are encouraged to wear sturdy shoes for the wet surface of the boat.
Downsides from our personal experience of this tour:
1) Long bus ride to Niagara Falls that eats up a good bit of time on site but unavoidable
2) We arrived on a day that a ton of tour groups were also visiting. Buses had to park several blocks away and we had to walk back to the Falls entrance with our guide since they couldn't pull over to unload us. Things were chaotic at the gondola entrance until park employees started pulling tour groups to go ahead of regular individual visitors. Then it was only mildly chaotic and a long wait in line.
3) We were left to stand around waiting to get in line for the gondola because our guide had to go buy/pick up the tickets. It was a good bit of confusion as this spot for waiting was also our one opportunity for a bathroom stop. Dad took the chance and got back moments before our guide led everyone away. I know there was no chance I'd make it through the women's restroom line before the guide was back.
4) Once on the tour boat and we got close to the set of falls you go directly under, two women who had brought several children mostly young toddlers and infants screamed and demanded almost to the point of using their children and strollers to push us that we move so they could be at the railing with their children. Their children soon added to the noise as they proceeded to scream and cry at being subjected to the deluge of water and thunderous sounds. By the time we emerged on the other side of the falls, the two women had moved back under cover to console their babies. What? Little babies and toddlers aren't fans of being drowned in water and subjected to loud sounds described by the tour boat's guide as "a thunderous roar? Hmm, who would have thought? For the record, I did step back and let in an elementary aged child to stand along with her mother by the rail moments before the two womens' attempted assault.
5) We had been told that our type of tour ticket would allow us to ride the gondola back up rather than have to walk the multiple steps and inclined ramps just to reach a packed elevator before more steps. We followed the crowd getting off the boat following this system of railed off ramps that left only one path to take. Once at the elevators we asked a nearby employee about how to get back to the gondolas but he insisted we had to keep following everyone else. By the time we reached the main level, we had to fight through the crowds in the gift shop and then find our way back the several blocks to the buses. While I'm glad Dad got to scratch another experience off his bucket list, I was disappointed that we had no time left to walk around or to browse the gift shop. Thankfully, my past life working in the classroom helped me last until we returned to our ship before I finally got the chance to visit the restroom.
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