MACKINAC ISLAND - For many guests staying at Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel, the first glimpse of the Old World luxury that awaits them rolls up on four wheels near the ferry docks.

The hotel's small fleet of Omnibuses are carriages pulled by a matched set of Percheron horses.

The draft horses are statuesque enough, but add in a carriage that looks like it belongs to another era, with its driver decked out in a top hat, vest and boots, and it's clear that an adventure is about to begin.

The last of the hotel's vintage three-carriage fleet was recently refurbished and brought back to the island for this season. It marks the end of extensive and painstakingly accurate renovation work on all the hotel's Omnibuses.

Keeping them in gorgeous shape is a high priority for the Grand Hotel, Stable Manager Ben Mosley explained. Guests step into them for the ride through town and up the long drive to the resort.

"It's important that they look good," Mosley said. "It's the opening act."

"We kind of overdress the horses and overdress the drivers a little bit because it's part of the show. It's the first contact and the last contact people have with the hotel."

A COMMITMENT TO CRAFTSMANSHIP

The renovation of the vintage Omnibuses is a perfect example of the Grand Hotel's commitment to its history. The luxury resort, now celebrating its 131st year, has had a decades-long relationship with a family of Amish craftsmen in Nappanee, Ind., who take great care in rejuvenating these long carriages that comfortably seat a dozen passengers.

"They are one of the top carriage restoration companies in the country," Mosley said of the Antique Carriage Restoration Company, now headed by Darryl Schwartz. While the hotel can handle the regular maintenance required on these vehicles that saw their heyday in the 1890s, a deep restoration for an Omnibus needs to be booked nearly a year in advance. And it has to be done during the hotel's off-season.

"Oftentimes, what they consider a rush job is to get this done in a six-month period," Mosley said.

The wooden parts have to be carefully cut, dried and placed. Once the new finish is added, it needs to sit and cure. Sometimes a restoration can end up replacing more than half the carriage, as was the case with the hotel's most recent Omnibus delivered to Amish country last fall.

"When they started taking it apart, they just kept taking it apart," Mosley said of the carriage, which had dry rot in the roof. "They used the same joinery that was in the original carriage, the same miter cuts. I have no question that this carriage is going to be ready for years of use."

YOU CAN'T GO INCOGNITO

Getting one of these carriages off the island and down to Indiana is the real adventure. Once it leaves the Grand Hotel Stables, horses bring it down to the ferry dock, where it's loaded onto a boat for the trip to the mainland. Then it's put on Mosley's flatbed trailer and hooked to his truck for the long haul south.

"It's the funniest thing in the world to drive down the highway and see people's reactions in the mirror," he said.

The Omnibus is a head-turner, especially when he drives it right through the heart of Grand Rapids. But he's got to be on the lookout for other motorists who get a bit too preoccupied by his cargo.

"You have to kind of have your wits about you and pay attention because people are looking up and they start veering into you."

Gas station stops draw crowds. It's when people flock around his truck with questions, phones in hand for photos. "It isn't like you can sneak through incognito."