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| - This review is for the newly renovated Panorama Lounge, which is now located near the Front Street entrance (up the ramp from where the gates are). Well, I say newly renovated, but it's probably been several years. The old lounge was on the same level as the gate entrances (down the ramp).
Union station and the VIA Train station are still undergoing renovations at the time of the writing of this review, so it's a bit if a mess there (not to mention all the previous dining options around there are all gone due to the renovations. I hope they return). However, once you step into the Panorama Lounge you no longer see all the construction chaos.
The lounge is fairly large and has a train station lounge feel to it, lol. There are staff at the entrance who check your tickets (you need to be traveling VIA 1 - aka Business Class for entrance). There are free newspapers and magazines, non-alcoholic drinks and apples. No cookies like they have at the lounge in Montreal though :(
They have cool magazines like The Walrus and Dine Magazine. For some reason all the English fashion magazines like Elle and Chatelaine are rarely there but their French counterparts are abundant. Actually, I think I know why: because they are probably mandated to carry equal numbers of English and French copies and let's face it, in Toronto, most people would be taking the English copy. This may be why I can always find the English versions in the Montreal lounge because most people there are taking the French copy. Anyway, I guess it's good to be bilingual, but I still prefer reading in English, less brain power expenditure on my part, haha.
For drinks, they have orange juice, apple juice and tomato cocktail. They have soft drinks (cans) too, as well as coffee, tea and hot chocolate.
The only food they have is apples.
I love the lounge because it's less crowded than the main waiting areas, the washrooms are really clean, the chairs are comfortable and it's relatively quiet in there.
One of the perks of travelling VIA 1 :)
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