Pearson Airport to Great Blue Heron Casino

How do I get from Pearson Airport to the Great Blue Heron Casino?

The alternatives are the casino's own coach programme from pickup points around Durham and the east of the city — scheduled and cheap, and not from the airport — and nothing else that reaches an island. The chauffeur is the version that runs from the arrivals curb to the porte-cochère at a fixed fare with the vehicle sized to the group; the Oshawa route page covers the first hour of the drive and the 407's timing.

The resort on the island

The Great Blue Heron Casino & Hotel sits on Island Road on Scugog Island, across the causeway from Port Perry's main street, with the gaming floor, the poker room, the restaurants and the hotel — a hundred-odd rooms that opened in 2019 and turned a day-trip casino into a weekend one — in one complex around a porte-cochère; the chauffeur stops there, and the return pickup is at the same door with the pickup point texted before you come out. The resort is on the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation and is the island's largest employer; Port Perry across the causeway is a Victorian lake town with a waterfront, a main street of shops and restaurants and the Piano Inn and the Port Perry hotels for overflow.

The poker room and the regulars

The Great Blue Heron's poker room is the reason players drive from across the province: the daily tournaments, the cash games and the larger events that fill the hotel for a weekend. A player flying into Pearson for a tournament books the arrival to the hotel and the departure timed to the flight, with the days between spent at the tables; a group of players from the city book the Sprinter for a tournament day, one fare split however they like, with the drive home the debrief. The corporate account serves the tournament organisers and the sponsors who move players and staff on a manifest.

Group nights, birthdays and the Sprinter

The group night is the resort's other traffic: a birthday party of eight from Markham or Pickering, a corporate team from a Whitby office, a family reunion at a Port Perry cottage. The Executive Sprinter collects from one or two addresses, delivers to the porte-cochère seventy-five minutes from the city, waits or returns at the booked hour, and the fare is one figure for the vehicle — lower per head than the coach when the coach's pickup point is not near anyone, and the only option that comes to the door. A group arriving at Pearson for a weekend is met at the group meeting point inside the terminal and driven on one manifest.

From the resort: Port Perry, Lake Scugog and the Kawarthas

The island is a lake destination as much as a casino: Port Perry's waterfront and Palmer Park across the causeway, the marinas and the fishing on Lake Scugog, the Kawartha villages of Lindsay and Bobcaygeon forty-five minutes north-east, and the Trent University and Peterborough area an hour north. A chauffeured day from the resort covers any of them; the Oshawa GO station is forty minutes south for a guest continuing to the city by train; and the Pickering Casino Resort is forty minutes south-west for a player working through the province's rooms.

Winter on the causeway

The 407 is plowed first, the 7A second and Island Road last, and the causeway across Lake Scugog is exposed to the wind off the lake. The chauffeur reads Ontario 511 before leaving, the vehicles run winter tyres, and a drive that cannot be made safely is rescheduled rather than attempted; the winter is the poker room's busy season and the drive is the reason to let someone else do it.

Responsible play and what the fare includes

The casino is nineteen and over with identification checked; the hotel and the restaurants take families, and the resort operates under Ontario's responsible-gaming programme. The fare from Pearson to the Great Blue Heron is fixed by vehicle class and includes the chauffeur, the vehicle, fuel, the 407 toll, taxes, curbside pickup at the pre-arranged area, a stop on the way and the included waiting with the flight tracked; meet and greet is the paid add-on; gratuity is never added; a cancellation before dispatch is free.

The seniors' outing and the accessible arrival

The Great Blue Heron's day-trip tradition — it was a day-trip casino for twenty years before the hotel opened — makes it the eastern room for the seniors' outing: a residence in Whitby or Markham with a monthly trip on the Sprinter, a couple in their eighties who have played there since it opened, a guest who uses a walker. The accessible page explains the vehicles and the pace: the chauffeur stops at the porte-cochère's accessible bay, brings the walker to the door, and waits inside the entrance if the guest wants a hand to the floor. A residence's outing is a standing booking with the same chauffeur and the same door, invoiced to the residence; a family's outing with a grandparent is a single fare with the extra time built in.

The hotel weekend: what changed in 2019

The hotel that opened in 2019 turned the Great Blue Heron from a room you drove to and from in a day into a room you stayed at, and the booking pattern changed with it: the Friday arrival from the city or from Pearson to the hotel, the Saturday at the tables and on the lake, the Sunday departure, on one confirmation, with the car holding in the hotel's lot rather than waiting at the porte-cochère. A player in for a tournament books the hotel for the series and the airport legs at each end; a couple splitting a weekend between the floor and Port Perry's waterfront books the standing car for the short runs across the causeway. When the hotel is full, the Port Perry inns and the Oshawa hotels forty minutes south are the overflow, and the transfer is a short fixed fare.

The corporate night and the Durham business parks

The Great Blue Heron is the casino for Durham's corporate nights — the team from an Oshawa or Whitby office, the dealer group from the automotive suppliers along the 401, the nuclear-industry contractors from Darlington — and the transport is the Sprinter from the office or the hotel, one fare for the vehicle, with the drive home on the corporate account invoiced monthly. A supplier's visitors from Detroit or Germany who fly into Pearson for a week at the Oshawa plant and want an evening out are seventy-five minutes from the room by the 407, or forty from the Durham hotels, and the Oshawa route page covers the corridor's hotels.

Fishing, the marinas and the summer weekend

Lake Scugog is a shallow, warm lake famous for its bass and muskie, and the summer weekend at the Great Blue Heron is as often a fishing weekend as a casino one: the boat rented at a Port Perry marina, the morning on the water, the afternoon at the tables, the evening on Port Perry's waterfront patios. A group of four anglers flying into Pearson from Winnipeg or Halifax for it books the SUV with the rods in the boot, the hotel for the weekend and the airport at each end; the chauffeur knows which marina is which and the Island Road stop for bait. The Scugog Island trails and the First Nation's cultural centre are a morning's walk from the hotel, and the Trent-Severn's Kawartha lakes are forty-five minutes north for a family that wants a bigger lake.

Book Pearson to the Great Blue Heron