Rude personnel, extremely strict rules… inconsistent feedback from people working here regarding the resort rules.
Not worth the lift ticket prices and f**k vail resorts altogether
This place is an absolute nightmare! Do not come here unless you want to wait in line for a shuttle for over an hour minimum and wait to park your car for an hour as well. Just parking your car will make you wanna leave it’s so chaotic. Have fun looking at the backside when you arrive, there’s fresh powder everywhere, however they won’t open it and force feed everyone into lines once you hit the front side. It’s honestly the worst resort I’ve ever been to. Just a giant trap to take your money away from you. Oh and when it’s time to leave be prepared to wait in another hour line to get back to your car and then another hour to leave. Avoid at all costs
2 hours to download from village to parking lot. 100+ people line built up from 3:30 to 4 waiting on first bus. Supply trucks were dangerously pulling in and out through the queue of people. Cutting left and right with no direction. Total mess.
No lights in the pitch black parking lot at 6 pm to top it off. This resort needs a total overhaul on customer service and parking functionality. Frankly unacceptable from an upper level management perspective. They have the $$ to do it right.
Don’t come here unless you stay on site. 4x Epic Pass holder. Heavenly and Kirkwood are visitor friendly.
After paying for very EXPENSIVE ticket during Christmas, we were informed by staff that the mountain is closed for the day due to safety reason and extreme weather, after only less than 2 hours of total time spent at the resort. When asking about partial refund or credit, nothing was offered and staff told us that “this situation happens frequently at the resort”.
36″ fresh snow and they tweet the mountain is 100% open. On arrival, nothing could be further from the truth. One gondola open to access the mountain and a two hour wait. Only two lifts open at mid.mountain. Meanwhile, exasperated punters filling the Vail Resorts coffers buying food and drink in the village while they wait. Cynical BS by Northstar/Vail. Cash cow in the short term, but these people will not return & they will tell others. Terrible experience.
Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing. If you come on a Saturday-Sunday at least, that is all you will do. 2+ hour bumper to bumper traffic delay over 8 miles backed up from the resort on 1/21 (all entirely resort traffic) – they sell WAY more lift tickets and passes than people they can fit on the mountain or their infrastructure will allow. This was with an original departure time that should have had us to the parking lot over a half hour before opening. And good luck getting any customer service for all your wasted efforts and money – if they already have your money via Epic Pass or prepaid lift ticket, they couldn’t care less what experience you have from there. Many Tahoe resorts suffer capacity issues, but nowhere to the extremes of Northstar. If you do get in (we gave up today at least after 4 hours of trying) the skiing itself is average at best – better snow and better runs elsewhere.
Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible! We came up to ski for the day. We are family of 4 & have a 14 year old disabled son & a 17 year old snowboarder. The plan was that I would ski with the 17 year old & my husband would hang back with our disabled son. When we arrived to the resort my special needs son would not let me out of his site. My husband & I decided to switch places. He was going to ski with our older son & I was going to hang back. So as my husband was getting on the gondola they confiscated the past because his picture did not match. We had no idea that the passes were non-transferable. We figured we had two skiers and two passes. It is written in the smallest possible letters on the back of the card which why would you even think to look there? When we explained our situation to the resort they were not only rude but had zero compassion for our situation. We were treated awfully!!! I will stick with the small non corporate ski resorts where they tend to treat people with respect & don’t belittle them, especially during a difficult situation.
From the team: Yep, the whole Vail’s idea with “epic pass” is to sell as many passes as possible and cancel/revoke/suspend/etc as many passes as possible as well. The Vail & Northstar gestapo is making sure that stupid rule is enforced so their CEO gets her $6M+ bonus.
This was my family’s first and last time at Northstar. Nightmare of a cluster to get to and from parking in 10-ish degree weather. Took two hours just to get on a shuttle and to our car at the end of the day due to Northstar management’s dysfunction while we froze in one of the longest shuttle lines. Food was stupid expensive and served haphazardly . It’s too bad because the snowshoeing and Nordic trails are great, and Northstar could be a perfect match for groups with some downhill and some Nordic skiers. But my family will head to Palisades and deal with limited Nordic or split between Sugarbowl and Royal Gorge in the future.
We went up to Northstar for 4 days and could only ski for 1 day. 2 Of the 4 was simple conditions and being shut down for good reason (rain and unexpected amounts of snow). However, on the 4th day: New Years Day, the day AFTER 36 inches of fresh powder had been dumped on the mountain, we arrived early (lifts were to open at 9:am). We parked, we arrived at the Gondola, only to be informed that the Express Lift is Closed and would likely not open and then we were instructed to get on the gondola line, which was so long that it weaved down and around and back up to where we just were.
We have had the same problem with Northstar before: they are under staffed and this morning, the excuse was “our people can’t get here”. We need a skier’s Bill of Rights! They charge big money for blackout day tickets so that you can expect to get on the mountain during peak days. However, and once again, we felt like the customer doesn’t matter and the Vale group doesn’t take their responsibility seriously to get people on the mountain! That’s the business they are in!
I sat out two days waiting for this day and fought off the family who wanted to to go home rather than sit around saying “these will be the best conditions ever”. So why doesn’t the lifts open on the best day of skiing? I talked to a manager and said this: I said “You do realize that thousands of people have spent hundreds of dollars per person per day to enjoy skiing here today. It is Northstar’s business to provide safe and timely access to this beautiful day of perfect ski conditions. Do you realize that that’s the business you are in? The manager said – Do you know why we aren’t open? I said, because of lack of staff which happens here virtually all the time- he replied no, we have plenty of people, they just can’t get here. I said, with the money you are charging and all the costs for people to get here, you should have places for people to STAY HERE AND OPEN UP. He said- wait for it – ” We don’t have the resources to do that.” I said “I am done. We waited, got here, and now we are going to wait for two hours to wait for the gondola line to start which will be 2 hours minimum (that’s what they told us!) We Are out of here. This resort sucks. Our friends arrived in Palisades and jumped on the slopes. What a waste of time and money.
Vail resorts is the worst company running multiple ski resorts!! Absolutely horrible! They declined my request to cancel my auto renew and basically live to just steal money from people!!! I’m tempted to file a class action lawsuit but debating if it will be worth my time!! The lines are stupid long constantly… can be our skiing or snowboarding for a full day and only get max 2-3 actual runs in… it’s quicker to hike the mountain than actually ride the lifts!!! DONT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY WITH AN EPIC PASS THIS YEAR!!!!
I just compared what I used to pay a few years ago for a specific ski resort before Vail took it over in 2020. Wow – didn’t realize what these guys are doing. The group has great resorts that we like a lot but will definitely be more conscious choosing where we travel to next time.
Michael Livi via Facebook.com
I purchased tickets in advance to Paoli Peaks, to find out the day of that 12 of the 15 slopes were closed (only 3 open). I called over 10 times to speak with someone about canceling my tickets, but no human would answer a phone. I had to drive 2 hrs to speak with someone at the ski lodge. When arriving, even though I pre-purchased tickets that all claimed to “save time– don’t wait in line,” there were no signs explaining where to go; I still had to wait in the ticket line to speak with someone, who then sent me to guest services in a completely different part of the building. I used the restroom on the way to find it disgusting and out-of-date with no paper towels or driers working to dry my hands. The guest services manager said that a machine wasn’t working to blow fresh snow, so they had to close 80% of the slopes, while still charging people full price and not answering the phones because they were too busy. I’ll choose Perfect North from here on out.
Eric Bivens via Facebook.com
Tried vailresorts epicpass this year. Their level of transparency was abysmal. Be sure to read the fine print before buying (if you can find it). No transfers, no refunds. You can upgrade, but it will cost you 200% of what you paid originally. 20% off on food/beverages? Only if it is a non-alcoholic beverage. They overpromise and don’t deliver
Russell Huffman via Facebook.com
Nothing surprising from this company and it’s low rating when they hire lying, purple-haired pigs to work in dispatch. The way your employee treats people coupled with your low rating explains it all.
Olena Pearson via Facebook.com
Bought lift tickets through epic pass. Ski school for my daughter and ski rentals. Had to cancel because of winter storm Elliott and the southwest debacle. No flights out of Texas. 25,000 flights cancelled. Couldn’t make the trip. Spent over 1,200 on the trip. Zero refunds. Nada. Because my house wasn’t inhabitable I couldn’t get a refund. Unbelievable. No compassion. Zero common sense.
Donnie Elliott
Let’s get this straight. Vail Resorts does not care about its customers. All they care about is money. The internet is riddles with people talking about the many deceptive business practices Vail Resorts engages in. These policies are absolutely abhorrent and border on theft, if you and I were to do it. They show absolutely no empathy towards their loyal customers at all and as such do not care about retaining customers. They will simply cycle onto the next sucker and screw them next. That is their bottom line business, please stay clear if you can, there are other friendlier ski resorts to ski or snowboard at that actual care about you as a person.
Todd Chamberlin via Facebook
Worst customer support of all time. If you can actually get someone on the phone, good luck with them being able to resolve any issues or actually help.
I stayed at 4055 Coyote Fork condo unit and the unit is terrible. carpet and couch is very dirty. coffee maker is broken, bathroom ceiling is pealing, bedroom tv is so little like the size of the laptop. I stayed at Northstar resort in the past but, didn’t experience this horrible experience before. this is the worst unit I stayed at Northstar resort.
Northstar Resort cancelled our hotel reservation 6 days before ski week due to “overbooking”. They did not offer to compensate us for any future stays. The only thing they offered was to let us have a $1700/night room which was ridiculous and way out of our budget. Due to their ineptitude, we had to cancel our entire trip. They took no responsibility for their mistake and in to make matters worse, they charged us IN FULL the day before they cancelling our room. I had to chase them down for the refund. They are a terrible and unreliable business that has no consideration for its customers. Do not book a room here.
No early check in and service at front desk sucks. Did nothing to help us get into our room 20 minutes early even though it was obviously already cleaned. Front desk did absolutely nothing, just made my family waste their time sitting in our vehicle until precisely 4pm. After paying a considerable premium, I’m less likely to come back here after such poor service. Thanks for making my 6 month old wait in the car when they could have just been in the condo.
“overall the place did not live up to how much it charged”
When we checked in at our room, the smoke detector was beeping loudly due to low battery. You could hear it from outside the door. So we asked the front desk if they could change it. They said the maintenance guy just left and we needed to wait till next morning. We were a bit shocked that 1) there was already no emergency maintenance at 8pm; 2) they would suggest us to just wait a whole night in a room where it was impossible to sleep or even rest. So I told the front desk staff that we couldn’t stay there with this constant sharp beeping. Then she offered us ear plugs… hmm thank you but no. We politely demanded a better solution. Finally they switched us to another room, which was great and appreciated (and that’s why this is not a 1 star review). But why this was not the initial solution?
A few other notes. The balcony door in the new room couldn’t lock. The AC was quite ineffective. The room was 65F when we went in. We set the temperature to 72F. Three hours later it was 67F.
The environment was nice. Room was spacious. Location was convenient. But overall the place did not live up to how much it charged (400+$ per night for us). There are many Airbnb options nearby and quite a few hotels in Truckee less than 10miles away from the ski area. So I don’t recommend this place.
THIS IS NOT A 4 star PROPERTY. You have been warned, do not get scammed. A 4 star property should have bell available (not bell service), room service, laundry service, housekeeping without a fee, decent attitude, responsive reservation staff, etc — this property has NONE of the above. You will receive better service if you stayed at Best Western or better attitude at even a 2-star property! To top that off they scam you into not reading the fine lines and you cannot, for the first time in my life, even upgrade your reservation by paying the difference! They also have very dated appliance and their room DID NOT look like the picture advertised and I suspect the room size is much smaller than the advertised 400sqft, and nor is the bed a real King. Their kitchen in the studio is so small they kept the utensil and the KNIVES in an unlocked, GROUND LEVEL cabinet so BEWARE if you have kids. I will NEVER come back here again and nor will any of my family and friends if I can help it. What a rip off.
We were told at 10am, that they were only promising 4pm. At 3:30, they had no idea. At 4:00pm, they said 20 minutes. At 4:30, we called and got no answer. So, $800 per night gets you nothing…terrible.
Booked a trip for my 35th birthday. Front check-in girl was rude, acted like I was inconvienicing her by being their early. They gave us a key to the gym/pool/garage which didn’t work and had to go back and get reprogrammed, and she seemed more irritated like that was my fault. The room was nice and clean. We made breakfast in the kitchenette and put all the dishes In the dishwasher which immediately leaked all over the place saturating the kitchenette floor, so good thing there were lots of towels. We had a decent time skiing, crowded as usual at northstar. When we went to check out our folio change was $1,760 compared to the $1,160 reservation we had. When I questioned the front desk person ( a different yet still unhelpful person) told me I had to take it up with reservations, and she gave us their number. Called reservations and they tell me to take it up with the front desk. After 4 phone calls to people you can barley understand im still out $600, and this has pretty much ruined all the fun we had for the weekend. Hopefully my credit card company can sort it out.
The property is decently nice but buyer beware-not worth the headache!
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 