Instead, it turned into a disaster-filled journey that saw their bus impounded in the US, leaving them to find their own way back across the Canada-US border. What Rob Blackburn wanted and expected for his first-time NFL experience was two days of excitement that included a tailgate party and watching the Bills take on the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 30. “I was really looking forward to going to the game. It’s $600 for hotel, bus and the game… let’s do it,” he says. “Everything was fine until the bus showed up.” Blackburn said he showed up at the IKEA parking lot in Ottawa Saturday morning at 10 a.m. waiting for a luxury bus. “What shows up is a 35-seater bus—I don’t know—a dance bus, I guess you want to call it. Everyone’s faces kind of dropped.” Brent Eckford was also there, along with dozens of others who paid between $525 and $699 to Ottawa Sports Tours. The package includes a bus ride from Ottawa, an overnight stay in Niagara Falls, Ont., and a ticket to an NFL game. “It was actually destroyed because of this situation we faced,” Eckford says. “Inside the bus, the TV screen is missing and the wires are exposed just dangling and the bathroom wasn’t working so it was quite a mess.” From there, the two men say the trip actually got worse. The group would travel six hours, non-stop without a bathroom or air conditioning, and with exhaust fumes filling the cabin, to Niagara Falls. Blackburn and Eckford say they have had no problems with the hotel. On Sunday, the team boarded the bus to the USA and headed to Buffalo, New York for the pre-game party, which many were also looking forward to. “That was something I was really looking forward to as you drive up to the stadium, it’s not something I’ve ever seen before, you just see everyone making food, drinking a beer and just having a good time,” Blackburn said. Bills fan. “We didn’t get a chance to do any of that.” As the bus pulled into the parking lot, US transportation officials noticed its condition and began an inspection. They found gas in a tire and no licenses were required to drive in America. Local authorities impounded the bus. “We were so worried,” Eckford said. “Where will our luggage be? Where is this, where is that? We haven’t even had a chance to tailgate,” Eckford said. Another tour bus operator, from Quebec, agreed to let the group store their bags on their bus during the game, but not everything would fit. “Needless to say, the drinks were all gone when we got back,” Eckford said. “My coolers were there, but some guys I was on the trip with lost a cooler and a football. “The game was good, the Bills won. But around halftime it started to sink in: okay how do we get home?” The group members contacted the owner of the tour company, who agreed to have a bus meet them at the Canadian border, but they had to return on their own. “We had to walk about two kilometers from the stadium to the Uber taxi,” says Blackburn. The group then waited more than three hours for taxis to arrive. “We waited until 3 in the morning and the taxis had to be paid for by the company.” Blackburn said Ottawa Sports Tours paid for some of the cabins, but not all. Eckford says one of his friends had to walk, luggage in hand, across the Peace Bridge back into Canada – and the waiting bus. “So yeah, it was a real bus, it had a working bathroom and it was kind of what we expected when we first did our trip,” says Blackburn. “But it’s in the wrong direction. We wanted to have fun going down.” In total, a group of 36 people paid about $23,000 for an experience that was far less than what they expected. The travel agent did not respond to requests for comment from CTV News. It’s unclear if they were able to get the bus back from the Buffalo impound lot. Disappointed football fans say they are not optimistic about getting their money back. “They [Ottawa Sports Tours] there’s another tour planned in January and I’m just worried about those booking a trip,” says Eckford. “I don’t blame Buffalo and it’s always a good time in the game when it works well.”