Vaughan to Orillia and Casino Rama: the concert night and the town on two lakes

Orillia, and the casino beside it

Orillia sits on the narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, a town of thirty thousand with a waterfront park and beach, a main street, the summer home of the humourist Stephen Leacock preserved on the lake, and a folk festival that has run since 1961; ten minutes east on the Chippewas of Rama First Nation is Casino Rama, the province's largest First Nations casino resort, with a hotel, restaurants and an entertainment centre whose five-thousand-seat stage has brought every touring act of the last quarter century to a town that would otherwise never see them. For Vaughan the two are separate bookings — the casino night by Sprinter or party bus, the town by SUV — and this post covers both.

The Casino Rama night

The concert is the booking. A group of eight to fourteen from Woodbridge or Thornhill books an Executive Sprinter or a party bus for the evening: pickup at five, the 400 and 11 with the group together, dinner at one of the casino's restaurants at seven, the show at eight, an hour on the gaming floor after, and the drive home at midnight with nobody sober enough to have driven it and nobody needing to. The entertainment centre's drop is at the hotel's porte-cochère and the chauffeur waits in the coach lot; the hourly page explains how a seven-hour evening is priced as one number, and the casino's own shuttle is a scheduled bus from Toronto that does not leave from your driveway.

A couple books a Premium Sedan for the same night; the casino's hotel makes it an overnight with the sedan returning at noon.

The town's family day

Couchiching Beach Park is Orillia's waterfront — a sand beach on Lake Couchiching, the Port of Orillia's marina, a playground and a splash pad, the Champlain Monument and the boardwalk — and a family of five from Maple books the day in a Luxury SUV: pickup at nine, the beach by ten thirty with the chauffeur dropping at the park's edge, lunch on Mississaga Street, a boat cruise from the Port in the afternoon on the Island Princess through the narrows into Lake Simcoe, collection at four, home by five thirty. The Leacock Museum — the summer house Stephen Leacock built on Old Brewery Bay in 1928, preserved with his study and his boathouse — is the hour for the parents and the older children, and the Orillia Museum of Art and History downtown is the rainy-day alternative.

Mariposa

The Mariposa Folk Festival on the second weekend of July at Tudhope Park on the lake is the town's biggest weekend — three days of stages, workshops and the field, with camping beside it — and Vaughan books it two ways: a Sprinter of friends for the Saturday, dropped at the gate at noon and collected at eleven, or a family for the weekend with a hotel in town and the SUV staying. The festival's site sells the passes; the town's hotels sell out.

Rama beyond the casino

The Chippewas of Rama First Nation's community around the casino has the Rama Powwow in August and a cultural centre, and the casino's own calendar includes the summer's outdoor events; Lake Couchiching's east shore beyond it is cottage country that the Sprinter transfer serves the way the Muskoka route does.

The route

Highway 400 north to Barrie, Highway 11 north to Orillia's exits — Highway 12 for downtown and the waterfront, Rama Road for the casino — an hour and a quarter from the VMC on a clear evening and a full hour and a half from Kleinburg. The casino night's return at midnight is the emptiest the 400 ever is; the family day's Friday-afternoon version is the cottage exodus, and the chauffeur says so.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter or a party bus for the casino night — the party bus for a birthday or a stag with the lights and the music, the Sprinter for a group that wants tables and quiet; a Premium Sedan for a couple; an SUV for the family day with boosters at $25 each; a Sprinter for the Mariposa Saturday.

What the fare replaces

For the casino night, the designated driver — which is to say the person who did not enjoy the evening — and the 400 at midnight; for the family day, the beach lot and the drive; for Mariposa, the field parking and the drive home after a day in the sun. The fare is one number in the booking engine and for a Sprinter of ten split ten ways it is a modest number per person; for a couple it is the price of both drinking.

Seasons

The casino is year-round and its concert calendar is heaviest in summer and around the holidays; the beach is July and August; Mariposa is the second weekend of July; the Leacock Museum runs a summer season; winter is the Orillia Winter Carnival in February and the ice on the lake. The perch fishing on Simcoe and the Couchiching narrows is the spring booking from anglers who want the boat and not the drive.

Pairing it

Orillia is the turn for Gravenhurst and Muskoka on Highway 11, and the casino night pairs with a Barrie dinner on the way up or, for a weekend, with the Barrie waterfront the next day. A group doing the casino and Blue Mountain in one weekend books the Sprinter to stay.

A casino concert night, in order

A group of twelve from Woodbridge for a Saturday show: the Executive Sprinter at 5 p.m. from three addresses within ten minutes of each other — the sequence agreed at booking; Highway 400 from the Weston Road on-ramp with the group at the tables and a bottle open; Barrie at 5:50, Highway 11 to the Rama Road exit at 6:20; the porte-cochère at 6:30; dinner at seven in one of the casino's restaurants, reserved ahead; the entertainment centre's doors at 7:45, the show at eight; the gaming floor from ten to midnight; the Sprinter at the porte-cochère at midnight; Woodbridge by 1:20, the three addresses in reverse. Eight and a quarter hours of hourly hire, one number in the booking engine, split twelve ways.

The party bus version is the same night with the lights on and the music louder, booked for a fortieth birthday or a stag; the casino's coach lot takes it and the chauffeur knows where.

The casino, practically

Casino Rama's complex is a hotel tower, the gaming floor, ten restaurants from a food court to a steakhouse, and the entertainment centre, all under one roof off the porte-cochère; the concert calendar is on the casino's site and the big names sell out in the first week. The gaming floor is nineteen and over and photo identification is checked at the door; the hotel's rooms are the overnight for a couple whose sedan returns at noon. There is no reason for a group to spread out or for anyone to find the vehicle — the porte-cochère is the meeting point and the chauffeur is there at the time agreed.

The family day, in order

A family of five from Maple on a July Saturday: the Luxury SUV at 9 a.m. with boosters, the 400 and 11, Orillia by 10:15; Couchiching Beach Park's drop at the Port with the chairs and the cooler carried to the sand; the beach and the splash pad until one; lunch on Mississaga Street; the Island Princess's two o'clock cruise from the Port through the narrows into Lake Simcoe and back, ninety minutes; the Leacock Museum at four for the house and the boathouse; collection at five thirty, home by seven. Ten hours of hourly hire, and the SUV moved between the park, the street and the museum without anyone hunting a spot.

The Leacock Museum, for the parents

Stephen Leacock was the best-known humourist in the English-speaking world in the 1920s, and Orillia is the Mariposa of his Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town; the summer house he built on Old Brewery Bay in 1928 is preserved as the Leacock Museum, with his study, the boathouse where he wrote, the gardens on the lake and a programme of summer readings and the Leacock Medal for Humour's annual award. An hour, and the grounds are a picnic.

Pickup notes

Highway 400 for every Vaughan community, then Highway 11; a Thornhill pickup crosses on Highway 7 and a Kleinburg one joins at Major Mackenzie, and the fare, quoted from the exact address, reflects the difference. Give us the show and the restaurant reservation, the group size and the addresses in order, the beach kit and the seats for a family day, or the Mariposa pass; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

The Port of Orillia and the narrows

The Port of Orillia is the marina at the foot of the downtown where the Trent-Severn Waterway's boats tie up on their way between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, and the summer's cruise boat leaves from its dock for the narrows — the channel between the two lakes that the Chippewa fished with weirs for four thousand years, the Mnjikaning fish weirs beside the Atherley bridge being a National Historic Site — and out into Simcoe's open water. The boardwalk from the Port along Couchiching Beach Park to the Champlain Monument is the family's walk between the beach and the cruise; the Orillia tourism pages list the cruise's sailings.

Winter, and the Perch Festival

Orillia's winter is the ice: the Perch Festival's ice-fishing derby on Lake Simcoe and Couchiching in February, the winter carnival, and the snowmobile trails that reach the town along the lakes. A group of Vaughan anglers books a Sprinter to an ice-hut operator's launch on Couchiching for a day of perch with the huts heated and the chauffeur waiting — the version of the trip nobody expects a limousine company to sell, and one it sells every February.

Booking it

Book an hourly evening from your Vaughan address for the casino with the show time, an hourly day for the beach and the museum, or a Sprinter for the Mariposa Saturday; tell us the seats, the group size and the restaurant reservation, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Casino Rama night