This past weekend I was invited to CasinoRama in Orillia for a weekend with ten other people. We were invited to experience CasinoRama and to hear about what they are doing in the local community to really create an impact.
Pre-Suite
We arrived on Friday night with my mom and dad, my husband Steve and my daughter Willow. I don’t travel without Willow, since I’m still nursing, so it’s always nice when I can do a trip like this one and include her.
Since I was traveling originally with my mom and Willow, the hotel had booked a connecting suite for grandma, which they kept for me so we had a bit more room. My husband had decided to come with me after all and CasinoRama offered to keep the extra suite for us so I invited my parents to come along too! It’s been on my bucket list for a long time to treat my parents to a trip somewhere so I was SO excited when they told us, “The more the merrier!”
From the moment we arrived, the staff at CasinoRama was amazing. From the valet person to the bellman to the person checking us in, they were courteous, friendly and super amazing.
Even before we arrived though, CasinoRama tweeted me and asked if there was anything we needed for Willow and if they could do anything to make our stay with them easier and more comfortable. I was SUPER impressed with their level of service and with how in touch their social media people were. Those two things are really important to me as a consumer.
Our Parlour Suite
After check-in, we came upstairs to our suite. I wasn’t sure what to expect but holy moly I was blown away by the room! Our suite had a livingroom area with a big screen TV, comfy chairs everywhere you looked, a couch and a fireplace. Along the hallway was a dining area and off the hall was a bathroom with a tub and giant shower. At the end of the hall was the master suite with a separate livingroom, king-sized bed and another flatscreen TV. L-U-X-U-R-Y!
My parent’s suite was connected to ours and contained one room with a king-sized bed, couch, flatscreen TV and a beautiful big bathroom like ours. Willow LOVED running between the two rooms and when we came into the room yelled out, “HOME!” It was really cute.
Day 1 – Saturday
Since we went to bed at 9:30pm the night before (a lifetime record for me I am sure!), we all woke up at 7:30am. I brewed some coffee in the in-room Keurig machine and we put on some cartoons for Willow while she ate some berries and apple slices. My parents woke up not long after that so we all showered, dressed and headed downstairs to The Weirs restaurant for breakfast.
Breakfast was awesome! The food is SO AFFORDABLE, which is extremely rare to find in hotel restaurants. Normally you can expect to pay double the regular rates when you eat at a hotel but this breakfast was really inexpensive. The food was also delish and they had the best bacon of life. Not even kidding… it tasted like heaven.
After breakfast, we toured around a little bit, stopped at the convenience store / gift shop for some goodies and then we headed back up to our room to relax. After a short while I thought it’d be fun to head down to the casino with my parents so we went downstairs and played a few hands of a card game called Let It Ride and we did a few spins on the slot machines. After an hour in the casino, I was only down $10 so I called it a day. I know my limits and I gamble responsibly! (That and I’m really, really cheap! LOL)
I met the other members of the group, as well as Jenna and Jeff – CasinoRama VPs, in the lobby for 2pm. Joining us for the weekend was Dee Brun, Eric Alper, Alex Blom, Tamara MacPherson, Lucy Izon, Craig Silva and Kathy Buckworth.
We were taken on a tour of the facilities and we also were treated to a VIP casino experience! The facilities tour was really, really cool as I learned a lot of things about the casino that I didn’t know before. For example, did you know that CasinoRama was founded in 1996 and started as a casino only? It now has a hotel, restaurants, a spa, etc. which qualifies it in resort status. It is also the second largest employer of First Nations people in Canada, the first being the government.
I also learned that your odds on a slot machine never change – meaning that every spin is independent of the previous spin. So, if you ever get up from your chair and someone else sits down and wins big, that never would have been your spin… Crazy right?
We ate dinner at St. Germain’s Steakhouse, which was AMAZING! I had the parmesan chips and then a chicken dinner with asparagus and stuffing that was to DIE for! So delish.
Then we were in for a VERY special experience. We were able to attend the Roger Hodgson concert in the casino’s concert hall, which was AMAZING! CasinoRama has many artists that play here at the casino and their line-up is pretty impressive. Roger was playing here in celebration of his 10th annual appearance at the casino. Not only did we get to see his concert, we were also privileged enough to go backstage after the concert to meet Roger!
Day 2 – Sunday
Ahh… blissful spa day. We awoke to breakfast in bed, which is my FAVOURITE! We were then treated to spa services at the Balance in Life Spa and it was EXACTLY what I needed. I’ve been feeling so much stress and tension in my body that a massage was the perfect way to unwind and relax. The services were amazing and I could have stayed in there forever.
We ended the weekend with lunch to discuss what CasinoRama is doing for the community and how they are creating an impact.
Heading Home
What a fantastic weekend… Seriously. CasinoRama outdid themselves and it seemed like we all had a more than fabulous time. Thank you SO much to Duri & Leanne for organizing this alongside CasinoRama VPs Jenna & Jeff and thank you for inviting me along for the fun. It was seriously one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time and I really did feel like it was made special at every point.
