Competition Prompts Changes in Antiquated Maid of the Mist Operation

James V. Glynn knows how to get a better deal for himself at taxpayer expense. How he does it is a mystery to many.

 

Competition is always a good thing.

For years, passengers wanting to ride a tour boat to the base of the mighty falls were at the mercy of the whims of a single man, Jimmy Glynn, who owned the Maid of the Mist franchise and thus controlled the excursion boat racket on both the U.S. and Canadian sides of the mighty Niagara.

Glynn and Glynn alone decided – often arbitrarily – when the season would begin and when it would end, what time of the day he would open for business and when he would close and what amenities he would provide for the passengers he packed like sardines onto the antiquated boats of his tiny fleet.

The boats had no seats and no restrooms. The hours of operation may have been convenient for him, but those wishing for an early morning or late evening cruise were out of luck. And the season often closed after he decided he’d raked in enough money for the year rather than any concern about the weather.

But recently, it was announced that things were changing for the Maid of the Mist.

The Maid of the Mist is extending its season for the first time into November.

“We are announcing this extension early to allow both our guests and tour operators to plan for the additional operational dates,” Maid of the Mist President Christopher M. Glynn, who is Jimmy’s son, said in a statement. “We are having another highly successful season, and this will allow even more tourists visiting Niagara Falls to enjoy the spectacular vista that is Niagara Falls.”

Earlier, the Glynns had announced that rides this season would begin at 9 a.m. rather than the 10 a.m. that had been written in stone since the family took over the franchise in the mid-1970s.

Why all the change?

In 2011, due in large part to a lengthy series of investigative articles in the Niagara Falls Reporter, the Canadian government launched a probe into the relationship between Jimmy Glynn and members of the Niagara Parks Commission. While no one was indicted, commission members resigned en masse under pressure, the Maid of the Mist contract was torn up and scattered to the four winds and the franchise was opened up to competitive bidding.

Hornblower Tours won the bid, offering to pay the Canadians $500 million over the lifetime of the 30 year lease compared to the $81 million Glynn had contracted to pay before they took his lease away from him.

In New York State, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was locked on the horns of a dilemma. For as long as Glynn had owned the Maid of the Mist franchise, the state’s position had been that whoever had the tour boat concession on the Ontario side must also have it on the New York side since the only docks in the falls basin were located in Canada.

Despite the fact that Hornblower said it would pay New York a minimum of $100 million more than Glynn to operate on the New York side, Cuomo reversed more than 40 years’ worth of state policy, authorized construction of new boat docks on New York Power Authority land at the base of the gorge and preserved Glynn’s operation as a historic treasure dating back all the way back to the 1970s.

This is the second season of competition for Glynn. As much as 70 percent of the Maid of the Mist’s business had come from the Canadian side to begin with, and the state of the art fleet of sleek catamarans operated by Hornblower, replete with comfortable seating, food and beverage service, restrooms and other amenities demanded by 21st century tourists are combining to blow the Maid of the Mist out of the water.

Make no mistake, Glynn was dragged kicking and screaming into offering an extra hour of service a day and tacking a week or two extension onto his scheduled season.

But he needs the money.

The man who did everything in his power to avoid competition now has it in spades.