Tourist gouging
I haven’t updated for about a week. I was really busy at work and then took a few days to go up to Niagara Falls. It was nice to get away and relax a bit but it was also disappointing in many ways. The weather was beautiful and the falls were gorgeous as always. But the costs and rudeness of the people overtook a lot the goodness.
The Canadian border patrol agent was downright rude, asking not only the usually questions but also demanding to know where we worked and when we were expected back. She asked three times what we had packed. Many of the service workers we came in contact with were either uninterested or outright rude.
Perhaps these people have just had enough of tourists, but really, this early in the season? They better get used to it or find new jobs. We were good tourist too so that makes it even more annoying. We used Canadian money or credit cards most of the time and did our best to hide our incongruity at being given handfuls of change. Seriously, what do they have against a dollar bill? And the one time I needed to use US dollars I asked first to make sure it was okay.
The hotel, while very clean and very comfortable, had additional fees for so much stuff that is usually included that when my sister turned on the TV, she wondered out loud if there was a fee for that to.
I enjoyed the smoke-free casino but we both stopped playing before we even hit the limit of what we had planned on losing, just because we weren’t winning at all. Usually with slots you win some you lose some, but these were just lose lose lose. I think the best either of us did was $5 up.
I hope that someday the memories of lounging in the easy chair and relaxing with the spectacular view will replace the feeling of being ripped off. At the very least I can relive the euphoria of sharing a joke with the American border patrol agent and being allowed to return to my country tis of thee.
The Canadian border patrol agent was downright rude, asking not only the usually questions but also demanding to know where we worked and when we were expected back. She asked three times what we had packed. Many of the service workers we came in contact with were either uninterested or outright rude.
Perhaps these people have just had enough of tourists, but really, this early in the season? They better get used to it or find new jobs. We were good tourist too so that makes it even more annoying. We used Canadian money or credit cards most of the time and did our best to hide our incongruity at being given handfuls of change. Seriously, what do they have against a dollar bill? And the one time I needed to use US dollars I asked first to make sure it was okay.
The hotel, while very clean and very comfortable, had additional fees for so much stuff that is usually included that when my sister turned on the TV, she wondered out loud if there was a fee for that to.
I enjoyed the smoke-free casino but we both stopped playing before we even hit the limit of what we had planned on losing, just because we weren’t winning at all. Usually with slots you win some you lose some, but these were just lose lose lose. I think the best either of us did was $5 up.
I hope that someday the memories of lounging in the easy chair and relaxing with the spectacular view will replace the feeling of being ripped off. At the very least I can relive the euphoria of sharing a joke with the American border patrol agent and being allowed to return to my country tis of thee.