Hornblower resuming cruises
Boat tour to be back Tuesday with drastically reduced capacity
Hornblower Niagara Cruises will be back in business Tuesday, nearly a week after it was forced to shut down because of a provincial mandate.
But it will hardly be business as usual.
The company will accommodate the province’s pandemic conditions for Stage 2 of its reopening strategy, which limits the number of people on a boat tour — including employees — to 10.
Passengers can purchase a VIP charter cruise with a maximum of six guests per 20-minute ride.
Hornblower vice-president and general manager Mory DiMaurizio said it’s not great, but keeps employees working until Stage 3 of the reopening, which will presumably allow more passengers.
“It is not ideal, it’s actually ridiculous,” he said. “Our main point is, we’re Niagara’s No. 1 attraction — and I reiterate ‘attraction’ — but we’re not allowed to operate as an attraction with everyone else.
“We want to keep our employees engaged, we want to keep them at work.”
After a long delay, Hornblower opened for the season July 1 only to be shut down after just one day by a “technicality,” said DiMaurizio. Because the company is classified as a tour guide service rather than an attraction, it cannot exceed more than 10 people per ride.
For its first day, the company was limiting passengers to 100 people per boat — far from its capacity of 700.
DiMaurizio said the provincial restrictions are frustrating for visitors who see most everything else in Niagara Falls operating except the famous boat ride.
“Because somebody let the language of the provincial order fall through the crack, where everything is an attraction except us.”
Even so, he said, the VIP charter option offers a “once-in-alifetime” cruise for riders.
“You have the entire boat to yourself — you and five of your buddies.”
The cruise costs $69.95 a person, available within a sevenday booking window. Boats depart every 15 minutes between 10:30 a.m. and 6:45 p.m. All visitors are required to wear face coverings or masks and will undergo a temperature screening before boarding.
While Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates understands the company’s frustration in not being able to carry more passengers, he said the province’s top priority is safety.
“It’s not just Hornblower — I think it’s 1,000 tours similar to Hornblower in the province of Ontario, and they’re all abiding by the rule,” he said.
“I would think these businesses are putting pressure on the government, saying they’re following all safety protocols and they can open up safely.
“The No. 1 issue here should be safety and making sure this virus doesn’t have a second wave. That would be devastating for not only the tour operators but for our entire economy.”
Tickets for the VIP charter cruises can be purchased at niagaracruises.com.