Sounds like a pretty good outing! Simcoe has been good to me so far this year as well. To bad it's so warm, the ice is getting worse by the day. Hoping for colder weather!
That's strange, I've used the service in the states previously and they where very good at updating you and I think it only took a couple of days to fulfill the order. I haven't used the Barrie store option though, and it's doubtful I will due to location.
If you really want them to have a good time, I might consider an operator on cooks bay. I love fishing out of Beaverton, but when I took my kids it was always cooks bay. You may not hammer big fish, but I've never been skunked with the kids, and that is all that matter with the younger crowd!
You'll like the smitty sled in the snow. I built one two years ago. I'm not saying it doesn't take some effort in deeper snow, but it's a lot better than trying to drag the entire surface area of a toboggan! Nice fish, I fished Simcoe on Friday, had to sort through lots of small fish to come up with a decent meal. but the fishing was steady all day!
You could try lakeshore suites in North Bay. Excellent place to stay and close to good fishing! If you have your own gear you can just head out and set up on a likely spot!
I don't think you can have the same discussions on Facebook as you can on a message board. From what I see, most of the Facebook sites are full of filler and not much meat.