Maid of the Mist opens for 2024

Apr. 4—NIAGARA FALLS — A milder than normal winter means the Maid of the Mist is open for business earlier than usual this year.

The attraction, which has now been operated for 139 years consecutively, carried its first passengers of the season out onto the waters of the lower Niagara River on Thursday.

The first trips of the year mark the beginning of a 2024 season that Maid of the Mist operators anticipate will run through Nov. 3. This is also the fifth season it has operated with two electric boats, the Nikola Tesla and the James V. Glynn.

Spokesman Kevin Keenan said the company was able to launch the season early since there was no ice on Lake Erie this winter. The boats normally start carrying passengers in mid- to late-April or early May.

"We've got a couple of days of spring break where people can come up here and enjoy it," Keenan said.

The Maid of the Mist also opened ahead of Monday's total solar eclipse and will operate on an extended schedule of hours that day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Boat rides will be first-come first-served, so it will be a luck of the draw regarding who's on a Maid of the Mist ride when totality occurs.

Keenan said they are expecting Niagara Falls State Park to be full, with tens of thousands of people coming to the area to view the eclipse.

"It'll be busy like it is during the Fourth of July," Keenan said, "and crews are used to handling those big crowds."