CN Tower: Up In The Atmosphere!
Written: Sep 18 '02 (Updated Mar 07 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: great view when the sky is clear
Cons: can be scary if you are afraid of heights
The Bottom Line: This is a highly recommended attraction if you have no fear of heights.
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| jdhauer's Full Review: CN Tower |
The Canadian National Tower (CN Tower) is the tallest free-standing structure in the world at 1,815 feet tall that people can actually go inside. There are some radio towers that are a wee bit taller but they aren't visitor friendly as they have no observation decks.
To make things even more confusing, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the CN Tower isn't considered a building because it doesn't have "floors" going all the way up although it does have observation decks and restaurants. "Buildings" have floors and are used for more than just telecommunications: they are designed for "residential, business or manufacturing purposes".
Going by those guidelines, the tallest buildings in the world are Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 1,483 feet tall. As you can see, the CN Tower is 332 feet taller. At 10 feet per story, that would be an additional 33 stories and change.
In the United States, the tallest building is the Sears Tower at 1450 feet and the Empire State Building is a mere shrimp at 1250 feet. The CN Tower has 56 and a half stories on the Empire State Building.
Admission
Most people purchase one of a variety of ticket options. For $29.99 CDN you can go to the Lookout, check out the Glass Floor, continue up to the Skypod, see a film and go on two simulator rides. Tickets for just the Lookout and Glass Floor will set you back $15.99 CDN. There are a number of other packages in between these two extremes with various film, ride and Skypod admission options.
However, there is a little publicized way to get up to the Lookout level and see the Glass Floor for FREE. That's right. $0.
We took this option so our experience was a little different than most visitors to the CN Tower. How did we do this? We made dinner reservations for 360 The Restaurant which is the world's largest revolving restaurant.
What to Do and See
Because we had dinner reservations, we skipped all of the Mezzanine level attractions including a small restaurant, an arcade, some simulator rides and a film.
Actually, that's not quite true. When we exited the CN Tower, we stopped in at one of the gift shops on the Mezzanine level. My husband bought a Toronto snowglobe which featured a Canadian goose. I thought this was very funny because the snowglobe is filled with "snow". It was impressed upon us during a Harbourfront cruise we took that the Canadian Geese leave Canada whenever it snows. Why would there be a Canadian Goose standing in the snow?
Another thing we did on the Mezzanine level was examine in great detail a number of exhibits about the construction of the CN Tower. I particularly liked a photo of an Olga helicopter placing the final piece atop the Tower.
I consider the elevators to be an attraction in and of themselves! There are 6 of these glass-fronted beauties that will whisk you to the top in under 60 seconds at the speed of 15 miles per hour.
The elevator attendants are really nice. When we went up, we had the entire elevator to ourselves and the attendant offered to take our picture with all of Toronto in the background. We had the same attendant on the way back down. He was cracking a number of jokes but the only one I remember is the one about the elevator dropping at a rate that was faster than the value of the Canadian dollar.
There are two attraction at the Lookout level: the Outdoor Observation Deck and the Glass Floor. This level is 1,122 feet up in the air. When you go out to the observation deck, it doesn't matter what season it is. It's going to be very windy and quite cold. Don't worry about being blown over the side because the deck is extremely well protected with safety mesh.
The Glass Floor is a well known place to play, if you have the guts to step out onto it. I thought I had no fear of heights but I was a bit timid about exploring the Glass Floor. According to the CN Tower's website, 14 large hippos (versus 14 small ones?) can easily stand upon the Glass Floor safely and it is load tested yearly. I'm assuming it is tested with bags of lead shot and not 14 large hippos. The panels are also regularly replaced. This was the only part of the CN Tower that we found to be the least bit crowded.
One level up, you'll find an indoor observation deck, a photo shop and two restaurants: the Horizons Cafe and 260 The Restaurant.
This observation deck is probably where you'll spend most of your time. You'll have beautiful views of Lake Ontario and the city of Toronto. These are the same views you gets at the restaurants so we didn't hang out here. I'd try and be sure that I had enough film before going up the elevators. The Fuji film I bought was on the expensive side.
Finally, you have the opportunity to visit an even higher observation deck, the Sky Pod. At this level, you are 1465 feet up in the air. The swaying of the tower in the wind can easily be felt.
360 The Restaurant
Our reservation was for 6:00 pm and the view was breathtaking! We saw the city change from bathed in sunlight to twilight to dusky to darkened with electric lights illuminating the view. We saw planes taking off and landing on Centre Island where there is a very small airfield. We saw a blimp circling the CN Tower, which was interesting.
It is said that on clear days, the view extends all the way to Niagara Falls and Buffalo. It was very clear when we were there (end of May) but we didn't see Niagara Falls. Perhaps we just didn't know where to look.
The restaurant revolves slowly, but quickly enough for us to enjoy a full rotation and a half as we dined.
The quality of the service was impeccable, as was the meal itself. I hear this is an anomaly and that service is sometimes spotty, as can be the food. We had a wonderful experience with our meal and I wish others the same luck!
My husband had a hare dish which was a little on the skimpy side but he was happy to assist me in polishing off the prime rib with a Yukon Gold baked potato. We both enjoyed the apple pie with elderberry sorbet for dessert. It was a grand experience that we highly recommend to others.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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jdhauer
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Location: Virginia
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